Monthly Archives: September 2018

Legos, Ohio State, Swimming, Video

Best Saturday Ever

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Today’s excitement included swimming lessons during the day and putting together Legos at night.

Alan had one-on-one attention at the pool this afternoon due to some absences in his swim class.  He swam back-and-forth and back-and-forth, compiling quite a few practice laps.

In the evening, Alan put his entire Coast Guard Lego set together!  The set, which he got at his family birthday party, came in 8 separate bags.  Alan just kept going and going and assembled the entire set while we watched the Ohio State football game.  Not only did Alan enjoy his Legos, but he also got to see Ohio State rally to make up a 12-point deficit in the 4th quarter at Penn State to win 27-26!

The first OSU game that Alan watched portions of was against Penn State in 2015.  This game was the first that Alan watched the majority of the game.  We were both ecstatic by the end of the night.  🙂

2nd Grade, Blue House

House Competition Winners!

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Today Alan was proud to announce that Blue House (a.ka. Team “Wajibu,” or “House of Responsibility”) was this week’s winner in the school-wide competition for kindness and unity points!  It was the first time that Blue won, and the news came on the same day that Alan picked up his team shirt.  The second graders on Blue, plus Mrs. Harris, made sure to pose for a photo in their new shirts.  🙂

2nd Grade, Activities & Interests, Baseball, Indians, Legos, Top 10

Alan’s Favorite Activities

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Second grade – Part I – edition of the Top 10:

-Attending Indians games at Progressive Field!

-Batting practice at the Mayfield Community Park and racing Daddy around the bases on every 5th hit.

-The Cleveland National Air Show!

-2nd grade birthday parties at Sky Zone (Noah is up next in October after Grady and Alan!)

-Making Lego and train cities.

-Playing with Tyler and Carleigh Saturday nights at Grandma Debbie’s!

-Following Indians games on Gamecast. 🙂

-Setting mini bat “matchups” of MLB teams every Monday and Friday nights during baseball season.

-Playing cards and “Sorry!”

-Playing badminton and tennis with our new rackets.

Baseball, Birthdays, Indians, Video

Tribe Game No. 7 of 2018

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Alan kept his birthday celebration going late into the night at the Indians game!

We arrived during the 5th inning, around the time of Josh Donaldson’s 2nd homerun of the night.  Alan headed straight for Little League Park and hit everything in sight.  He legged out a triple in this at bat.

Inside the Kids Clubhouse, we took selfies.  Alan had to have an orange popsicle too.

   

At the team shop, Alan got a ASG mini bat and some AL Central Champs souvenir baseballs and pins.  On our way out of the ballpark, Alan lamented that he’ll “miss this place” during the offseason.

Alan wrapped up another winning season at Progressive Field with a 4-3 record.  He’s 24-10 overall in his Indians career.

2nd Grade, Birthdays, Video

Sky Zone Party

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Tonight Alan invited his closest friends to help him celebrate his birthday at Sky Zone — the hottest place going for 2nd grade birthday parties right now!  The invitees included Brady, Noah, Xavier, Cassidy, Grady, Colin, De’Onta, and Kilian.

   

The kids jumped from 5:45pm to 7:15pm.  Some jumped on the partitioned course, some jumped into the ball pit, and some jumped on the dodgeball court.  As Alan predicted earlier in the night, they jumped until they tired themselves out.  At 7:13pm, Alan’s birth minute, the announcement of his birthday was shared over the loudspeakers.  The kids were then called into the party room for pizza and cake.

For the second year in a row, Alan had a baseball-themed, white marble cake from Giant Eagle.  But this time we went all-out on the Indians theme.  🙂

Silliness ensued when Alan’s friends sang to him and he blew out his candles.  After enjoying the cake, Alan requested my phone in order to follow the Indians-Red Sox game on Gamecast with Noah and Xavier.  He also started a boo Red Sox chant in the room.

After the party, Alan handed out the treat bags we put together with prizes bought from Target and Browns/Buckeyes pencils.  Kilian took home the “bonus bag” that Alan filled with extra cool prizes and a Cavaliers pencil.

But the fun didn’t stop there.  When the party ended at 8pm, Alan and I drove up to Cleveland and traded in Gamecast for live action baseball at Progressive Field!  During our drive, we listened on the radio as Josh Donaldson hit his first homerun as an Indian.

2nd Grade, Birthdays, Browns, Video

Happy 8th Birthday Alan!!

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My best buddy turned 8 today!

Alan passed out Justice League pencils (featuring Green Lantern, Flash, Superman, and Batman) to his classmates at school today.  He came home wearing a birthday sticker and slap bracelet (the same could easily have been said for me back in 1991).  I surprised him at the bus stop, after leaving work early, and he was pretty shocked.  Then we hung out for the afternoon during the lead up to his Sky Zone party!

Alan commented to me how his bus driver, teacher, and librarian were all celebrating the Browns’ big win and Baker Mayfield’s successful debut last night!  This Browns fan didn’t need to wait to hear it from me — Cleveland was on fire!

Birthdays, Browns, Cousins, Legos, Video, Violin

Birthday Party for Alan & Tyler

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Alan and Tyler celebrated their 8th and 7th birthdays at a family party today at Grandma Debbie’s house!  The party was at the same time as the Browns’ season opener, so Alan and I were dressed accordingly.

Alan was in charge of setting up the candles on the boys’ vanilla cake.  When the boys blew out the candles, Alan took the top row and Tyler took the bottom row.

Alan got a lot of great gifts, including the one he really wanted!  It’s almost as if people knew he really likes Legos.

As always, Alan was so glad to have his cousins there!  He was also very proud to show off his new violin, after having his very first lesson yesterday.  He showed it off to the whole family.

2nd Grade

Millridge Movie Night

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Tonight Alan and I attended the 2nd Annual Millridge Movie Night for a showing of Peter Rabbit.  Alan met up with Brady, Xavier, and De’Onta to watch the movie on the grass next to the Millridge playground.  We did not attend last year’s showing of Boss Baby, so this was our first time attending movie night.

Alan's First, Baseball, Captains, Video

Captains Game No. 1 of 2018

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Alan and I attended our first Lake County Captains game today at Classic Park!  It was a scorcher, but it was nice to spend time outdoors over Labor Day weekend.

Just like Sundays at Progressive field, Sundays at Classic Park are focused on the kids.  Captains Kids Days feature inflatable games (including hitting), Catch on the Field before the game, and Kids Run the Bases after the game.

  

Alan of course loved playing on all the inflatable games, but he especially enjoyed the playground shaped like a big ship!

We loved how much space there was to move around at Classic Park, especially beyond center field where there are open spaces for fans to play catch.  We also enjoyed sitting underneath a covered pavilion in right field where we could watch the game from our own table.  We played cards in the shade together there while cooling off.

When it was time to run the bases, Alan took advantage of a less congested diamond and showed off his speed around the bases before touching home.

Other highlights of the afternoon for Alan included a very large ice cream cone and buying three mini Captains baseball bats and a foam “Skipper” (Captains’ mascot) from the team shop.  Today happened to be a “Bark at the Park” day as well, so Alan got to see dogs throughout the ballpark!

I think we’ll definitely be heading back to Classic Park next summer.