Taken at the last summer sleepover at Grandma Debbie’s before first grade!
Monthly Archives: July 2017
Twins Photo
Today was ‘twins day’ at Alan’s request. 🙂
Fun ‘N’ Stuff Round 2
I promised Alan a return trip to Fun ‘N’ Stuff before the summer ended, and today Alan cashed in. With Alan slated for trips the next two weekends to Chicago and Orlando (actually a Disney Cruise), this is actually his last weekend of summer vacation in Mayfield.
At Fun ‘N’ Stuff, Alan started at mini golf and continued with air hockey, skee-ball, and other arcade games. Before the afternoon was out, we played four games of air hockey and three rounds of mini golf – Alan’s top two favorites!
He cashed in his tickets earned for the day on twizzlers (for Daddy), lollipops (for himself), and three cars. That’s my Alan!
Tribe Game No. 4 of 2017
Today was a hot one at the ballpark, and it was quite crowded. “Alan the blur” ran a great time in his race and hit the first pitch he saw in Little League Park. He played a new game he made up in the Kids Clubhouse where he ran and jumped on the oversized glove over and over again. There I was a able to snap a nice photo of Alan showing off that “missing tooth smile.” 🙂
Alan also asked to sit in the upper deck above the family zone – with a box of popcorn – and watch some of the game. Alan’s starting to enjoy doing that more and more. Before long, it was time to run the bases!
Alan’s New Look
Today Alan lost his front tooth while eating dinner! Now he really looks like a first grader!
Tinker Toy Creations
All “Alan originals.” He loves to create trucks using his imagination.
Library Tradition
Alan and I declared a new weekly tradition today: Sunday afternoon trips to the Mayfield Library. Today was our second straight Sunday visit, and we have decided to make it a weekly occurrence.
Alan of course has a long history with libraries already. His Mom also takes him to the Mayfield Library to read and check out toys. In the years before he started Kindergarten, Alan went to the Solon Library weekly with Grandma Debbie. And before that Alan and I would go to the old Mayfield Library on Saturday mornings when he was 1 and 2 years old.
Last weekend Alan checked out Troto and the Trucks. Today Alan checked out Truck Stop. Ever since he was little, he’s loved books about cars, trucks, trains and all other forms of transportation. And now he’s able to read most of the words by himself.
We saw Noah at the library today too!
7/22/17 update: After we bumped into Noah at the library, we arranged for a play date at Noah’s house. Alan went over today for a couple hours and stayed by himself. He said they mainly played baseball (inside) and played with Noah’s hot wheels car launcher — no surprise that’s what Alan wanted to try out. The boys were pretty riled up when I arrived. They seemed to have a great time together!
Tribe Game No. 3 of 2017
With the Indians on Sunday night baseball this weekend, Alan and I opted to head to the ballpark for a Saturday night ballgame – Alan’s 1st night game of the season.
Alan had a blast staying out late and made it all the way to the 9th inning of the game (he’d ultimately be up past midnight for the first time). Among the highlights of the evening were the following:
-Alan recorded a career-best sprint time: 7.08 seconds. Alan loved the “human blur” picture below. 🙂
-Alan hit his first career home run at Little League Park!! Really, he did. He wacked the whiffle ball just above the yellow line in left field. It was awesome to see the HR, which came with a man on. That was definitely the moment of the night.
-We bought “Mick,” a rally monkey named by Alan, at the team shop. Alan loved the long arms and had to have it. Mick’s hands have Velcro on them so Alan could wear Mick while we watched some of the game from the Kids Clubhouse.
Note: before we left the Kids Clubhouse, Alan wanted to take a “serious catcher” photo. 😉
-Alan was more interested in watching the game than he has been previously. He wanted to check out the view from different seats in the ballpark, and asked if we could sit in the RF upper deck. I said yes, and while we were up there, we watched Jose Ramirez hit. Alan has been taking an interest in Jose, who became an All-Star this year for the first time after meeting Alan on April 30th. Alan roots for him, even if he isn’t quite sure why “Jose” doesn’t sound like it looks.
Reading Prize; New Apartment
Alan wrapped up the Summer Reading Program today and got to pick out a free book at the Mayfield Library as a prize. Alan chose The Berenstain Bears’ Moving Day, which was fitting since we moved to a new apartment this weekend!
Alan has been a huge help this weekend — he even helped assemble the bedroom drawers. We christened our new place by playing games of Go Fish, throwing [soft] balls down the apartment’s long corridor, and shooting hoops on our mini-hoop above the bedroom door all weekend long. I think we’re going to like the new place very much.
Summer Sleepover & Cars 3
Last night Alan’s summer fun continued with a sleepover with Tyler at Grandma Debbie’s. The highlight of the night for the duo was seeing the movie Cars 3 at the Aurora movie theater. It was Alan’s first trip to the theater at night and Tyler’s first trip overall. Alan’s always been a fan of the Cars series, and he enjoyed the new character, Jackson Storm, too.
Today the kids went to an elementary school playground and McDonald’s. They also played some computer games together. Alan usually doesn’t like to go more than two weeks without seeing Tyler, and they’d play together all day if it was up to Alan.
7/15/17 Update: Alan picked out a new Cars 3 backpack to use in first grade! Both Lightning McQueen and Jackson Storm are featured on it.
