Pokemon Nationals

Jason and Kyle went to Pokémon Nationals in Indianapolis, Indiana from July 4-7.  Max and I went to Ma and Pa's for a few days while they were away (more on that in another post).  It was the longest we've ever been apart.  About 20 fellow pokemon enthusiasts along with Jason and Kyle traveled by charter bus for about 9 hours to their destination.  Kyle has been super excited for weeks and the look on his face at 5:30am when they left was priceless!  They had a fun bus ride where they played pokemon cards, pokemon on the ds, watched pokemon movies, and had pokemon door prizes.  They registered Thursday night and then Kyle spent Friday and Saturday playing.  He ended up having 4 wins and 4 losses over the course of two days.  Not bad for his first national tournament.  He finished in the top 50%.  He was hoping to do a bit better, but overall it was a fun experience for him.  It helped that they were there with lots of friends!  Jason ended up being asked to be the assistant stage manager for the junior division that Kyle competed in.  So he worked very hard and will get lots of pokemon prizes as payment for all his help (which he'll share with Kyle).  He was also voted the favorite of all the volunteers so he'll get a special monetary stipend for that as well.  All in all they had a wonderful time and are already talking about next year!

Walt Disney World pictures

Max has been pretty obsessed with Disney World since our trip.  He recently decided to draw each park.  Here are his pictures.

Kyle swimming lessons

Kyle completed 2 weeks of Beginner B swimming lessons at our community pool.  He had a great time and is becoming more confident in the water.  He passed almost all of the skills of an advanced beginning swim student.  He is able to streamline and kick 5M, back float and kick 5M, swim 5 meters basic freestyle, and do a deep water jump and recovery.  He still needs to work on rhythmic breathing which is basically taking a breath as you are swimming so you can go even further.  He tends to stop swimming completely and stand up when he needs to take a breath and then keeps going.  He had a great time jumping off the diving board and learning to tread water.  He is able to tread for about 10 seconds.  I'm hoping to sign him up for the August session so he can master that last skill.  And after two weeks of watching Kyle Max has decided that he might want to try Beginner A in August so if there are spots left I'm planning to sign them both up.

Kyle's last day of 2nd grade

Today was Kyle's last day of 2nd grade.  Max and I went to the end of year party in his classroom at school.  A few of the other parents and I got together and planned something fun for the last day.  It was also his teacher's last day at Lake Seneca (she'll be moving on to teach middle school next year) so we did something nice for her as well.  Kyle had a great year and really seems to be a leader in his class.  I loved watching how take charge he is and had a lot of fun dancing with his friends. They also had McDonald's for lunch.  Max loved being a part of it all! 

Bike riding

Max has been having lots of fun learning to ride a bike.  This is the first year he's really tried it so he still has training wheels but he's finally getting the hang of pedaling and breaking on his own.  We've been doing lots of bike riding around the neighborhood these last few weeks that Kyle is still in school and he has off. 

Max's last soccer class

Max really enjoyed soccer this spring.  He had a great time with his friends Ben and Lucas and maybe even learned a little bit about soccer. :)  Mostly I think he had fun running around with his friends!  You can tell from the picture that he always worked up quite a sweat after each session.  He was very proud of his medal!

Happy Birthday Ben!

On Saturday Max was invited to his friend Ben's birthday party.  It was at his house and a horse theme.  Each child got a horse and a cowboy hat.  They had craft time where they each made a ribbon for their horse and gave him/her a name.  Max named his horse "Eyeball."  Then they went outside to the horse corral and had horse races.  They also played horseshoe toss and pin the tail on the horse.  Then we came inside for food . . . hot dogs, watermelon, and popcorn as requested by the birthday boy.  There was lots of other food as well.  Then we headed back outside for a horse piñata where Max got quite a collection of candy to bring home.  It was a very creative party and Max had a great time!