The boys are playing t-ball in July and August on a parks and rec team. Coach Nick is a math teacher at a nearby high school and I've known him for at least ten years. His son Cameron is a couple weeks older than the boys and I was excited when I found out he would be coaching t-ball this summer. I coordinated with him to make sure they were on his team. They have practices on Thursday evenings and are using gloves Grandpa Brusven picked out for them for their birthday.
July 2, 2015 Practice:
The first practice.
Eric helped out with drills.
Go, Orioles!
July 9, 2015 Practice:
Thumbs up from Aiden:
Thumbs up from Reid:
The field (Jason Jennings Adaptive Field) where their practices and most of their games are being held is 100% handicap accessible and is made from synthetic turf.
July 11, 2015
The Orioles' first game was this morning. Here Aiden is the 3rd baseman (left) and Reid is the pitcher (right). They both did a great job fielding the balls that were hit their way.
Reid on the pitching mound:
Aiden on 3rd:
Reid up to bat:
Aiden up to bat:
Since there's a slim chance that a team will get an out, the teams just batted through the entire lineup each inning. Each batter only advances one base each time. We made it through three innings in the allotted hour.
I sent some texts to Eric to keep him updated on the action. He was flying when I sent these, so his phone went crazy when he finally turned it on in Billings.
May 28th was the last day the boys went to Pre-K. I sent Eric a text after I arrived at school to see if he could take a picture of the boys on their last day. He took a good one!
I picked the boys up from school and we took one last picture in front of the school's sign.
That evening we attended Pre-K graduation. There were 40 students between the two classes. It will be interesting to see how many of those students will attend the same elementary school or will even be in the same class.
Reid - 4th from the right. Aiden - 3rd from the right.
Aiden's mortar board needed some adjusting.
Aiden receiving his graduation certificate and award: "Mr. Polite" from teachers, Ms. Jen and Ms. Morgan:
Reid receiving his graduation certificate and award: "Most Friendly".
We enjoyed watching a slide show with pictures from throughout the year.
Our two graduates:
With their teacher, Ms. Jen:
They're growing up too fast:
Glad Grandma was able to attend:
With their awards:
Each student also received a new book:
The students all had "When I Grow Up..." artwork on display.
Reid wants to be a dad:
Aiden wants to be a policeman:
The boys had a great time at Goddard and we feel they're very prepared for Kindergarten.
The boys have really enjoyed their new school this year. In January, the owner approached me about switching the boys from the Starfish Pre-K classroom to the Orca Pre-K classroom. A nearby Montessori school had closed and new kids were going to be in the boys' class. To make room for the new students, they decided re-evaluate the placement of all of the students in relation to ability. Since the boys had been doing very well, the director and teachers thought the Orca class would be a better fit and a better challenge. While the boys were a little reluctant to leave Ms. Jenny, Mr. Alex, and their Starfish friends, the have transitioned well into the Orca class with Ms. Jen. They did know some of their new classmates, because all of the Pre-K students have recess together and they are combined together as students are picked up in the afternoon and evening.
Eric and I have noticed that the boys have been working on more writing and today we found out about their new reading project. Ms. Jen sent home with each of them a plastic envelope with two books. The boys are supposed to read the books to us and we sign off on their checklist. Once they have read 20 books, they get a prize. Once they fill out the whole sheet (70 books), they get to pick out a brand new book to take home and keep.
I arrived home from school a little after six and the boys met me at the garage door to tell me about their reading project. Reid wanted to sit down right away and read his two books to me. I resisted the temptation to record the moment with pictures or videos during the first readings. It was really awesome to have him read to me. Aiden was a little more reluctant and said he didn't want to read to me because he already read to Eric and he was too tired.
(A related story- The boys were assigned the task of writing their names on their Valentine's cards. Eric split up the task and had the boys do a few cards each day. Aiden was too tired, or his legs hurt, or he had already signed his name enough times, etc. You get the picture. On the other hand, Eric said Reid would have finished signing his Valentine's in one day. He ended up signing all of them that came in the box, which was way more than he needed to do. We later joked that this is probably what we're going to see with homework. Aiden will be able to figure out a way to get Reid to do his homework for him and Reid will be happy to help.)
After the first readings of Reid's two books, I asked if I could video him and he was every excited about that.
"At Work":
"What am I?":
Reid wanted to read his books for me again at bedtime. Usually, we let both Aiden and Reid pick out a couple of books for us to read to them. After almost five years, the roles are reversing.
"At Work" (Take 2):
We were almost done with book time, when Aiden decided he wanted a chance to read on video too. (I figured that was coming. He makes us work for our requests.) I can tell he was relying a little more on memory and figuring out the words based on the pictures, but he still did a great job. Both videos cut out early because I was running out of space on my phone. Perhaps I should delete some of my 7,000 photos.
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