Class of 2021 Kindergarten Graduation

Lexy's graduation from Kindergarten was today. She was the cutest one there, again. All the parents and grandparents crowded into one class room around that chairs set up for the kids. The theme for graduation was red, white and blue. Lexy got a new plaid dress that was... red, white and blue.
All the kids from both kindergarten classed filed in and sat in the chairs that were set up for them. They were all beaming with giant smiles. The little boy behind Lexy in line is one of her swimming buddies that lives in our subdivision.After and introduction of the future high school graduation class of 2021 the Alum Creek principal read the poem about 'All I need to know in life, I learned in Kindergarten', it was fitting. The kids then took turns coming up when their names were called to get their certificate.Once they all had their papers they put on sunglasses and treated us all to "America the Beautiful". Then that was it. Nice little ceremony, not too much. She is excited to be a first grader.

Racing Video

Here is a quick video of Isaac racing this weekend. I set the video sound track to be louder because I love to hear Lexy screaming for Isaac, "go Isaac, go Isaac, go Isaac..."

Enjoy... Leave him a note if you can, he loves to hear from everyone.

More Racing...

We got out to the track again today. Luck was with us. The kids that have been faster Isaac were not there. And he was on fire..! The track was in great shape, not too wet and not to dry. He brought his own fans this time, Henrick and Helanea from church (they were with us all day cause their parents were out of town). Isaac was the fastest 50cc on the track tonight. He got 3 out of 4 holes shots and won all 4 50cc motos he was in. He's confidence grew and grew all night. He did well on the 65cc as well. I talked to him about following people that he is faster than. In his second 65cc moto he just ran past the kid he had followed before the turn and never looked back. It was great.

Well, here's some pics from today. I'm too tired to do much more today. Enjoy.

Hey That Rock Just Moved...?

After it rains here a bit things move around. We have seen some rocks in the middle of the road or flat rocks in the lanes. Ha. Not rocks. Those are turtles. If your driving on a road near a stream or river just as the rain is drying out, you can see the turtles moving around. We noticed them a few weeks ago, but we've always been moving too fast to get a good look. Until today. We were headed for a little drive after dinner and had just crossed the bridge over the creek near the gate to our subdivision when I saw one of those rocks... I mean turtles at the side of the road. A whipped around and parked by him. Isaac and I jumped out to take a look. The little guy was out and about trying to cross our road. It did take much of Isaac poking him to get him to suck up into his shell. Of course Isaac wanted to keep him as a pet. Like we need another one. I told him the turtle could go with us for our ride, which worked out because Lexy wanted to look at him and I was not about to let her out on that road.He rode along with us tucked tightly up in his shell. The kids passed him back a forth peeking in the little crack where his head used to be. Isaac even took him in a store with us. All the carrying him around got the turtle comfortable with Isaac and he started poking his head out. Isaac kept trying to get him to bite his finger. Then he set the little guy down and the turtle was quite a bit faster than we all thought he would be, trying to run away. Once the head, legs and tail were out Lexy didn't want anything to do with him. She didn't want to get scratched. So, that gave Isaac a reason to torment her, just a little.

The deal was we can't keep the turtle, after much begging... the big mean Daddy kept his word, "We Can't Keep the Turtle." Boooooo. So, we had to put him back.

We stopped close to where we found him. grabbed a few more pics and let the little guy go. Again, he was much quicker than we all expected. He directly headed for the wet, tall grass and on to the creek.

So, it was nice to have ourselves a pet turtle for an hour. And now he is back with his turtle friends.

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(No, turtles, grass, rocks or children were harmed in the making of this blog)

Flowers..?

Grandma Gloria... Look at the market we found....

I love you, Lexy

Pack Meeting

We went to Pack Meeting tonight for Isaac. They are always interesting. Some good stuff and some stuff that will make you want to pull your hair out. Anyway, Isaac got two awards.He got the Pledge of Allegiance patch and the Ice Skating belt loop. The belt loop was pretty much all done in the Hockey lessons, so Isaac is a little concerned that the skates in the picture are figure skates.

This is a pseudo-crafty bunch. They are trying to have the boys do crafty things. If you read between the lines, they are trying to make girls out of them. That is what ladies do with Cub Scouts. I hope we make it. Here are some of the things that Isaac made at Scouts.
Yeah, the dinosaur is pretty cool, Isaac picked great colors when he painted it.

The Pool is Open

THE POOL IS OPEN..!! The Pool is Open..!! the pool is open....!!!

Yeah, the pool has been open for about 3 weeks, but here are our first pictures from the pool. Amy and the kids have been going nearly everyday after school... If I hurry home I can catch them still at the pool but they try to time it right and be home... Like I can't smell the chlorine on them. Ha.

We are sooo lucky to have found a nice place to live, and it has this nice pool.

These pictures were from Monday the 25th, Memorial Day. We had cleaned dirt bikes all morning and ran down to the pool to cool down. Well, Mother Nature had the same idea, cool down. Dark, low, looming clouds set in as we drove to the pool (the kids rode bikes, we were trying to catch up). No sooner did we hit the water, when the clouds started flashing... Stink. It took some time to get the kids to understand that they can't swim in a lightning storm. This was one of those time when teasing them didn't pay off. I tell them all the time, "Sure you can go swimming, just don't get wet." or "It was raining at the pool, Oh no, you don't want to get wet while you're swimming." They thought I was teasing again.

Load your swimming suit and come on over to visit.

Come on in the water is fine.

HoleShot and More...

Well, racing goes on. After 3 weeks of Tyler Mountain Raceway being rained out, Isaac got to race on Saturday. It was warm. Warm enough that we waited until the last minute to get him geared up and had him undress back to short and a tank top between motos.

The track was slimy in practice. That's what wet clay is, slimy. Isaac spun out in one turn and went down on his 50. I was right there, jumped and then thought, "He's OK, let him be a man." And he did, jumped right back up, turned the bike, restarted it and was gone. He was much for cautious the next few times around. I looked up at one point to see him whip sideways slide up the hill and then stop. Again he turned the bike and drove on. That is way we go, that is what we like to see. Drive on when it isn't easy.

He ran in three classes. 50cc 7-8 year olds, 50cc Open, and 65cc 7-9 year olds. The two 50cc classes were race order 3 and 5. Only one group in between. He had to pull off the track and go straight back to the starting line. He got and 3rd and a 2nd in the first motos on his 50cc. He drove hard, gained confidence and kept a couple rides off in the first 65cc moto, they scored him 5th.

Amy hooked us up in between by bringing our tailgate grill and cooking us all a burger. Isaac changed to keep cool and we all had a good rest.

The second round came and Isaac headed down for the first class (race order 3), I strolled on down to the start line... Isaac was in the gate... What the heck... Well, race 2 had been canceled and they had race 3 lined up waiting for race 1 to end. I got there in time, we were fine. I got his goggles on, the bike warmed up and had time to spare. He did well, his lap times were faster, he had gain confidence from his wreck a few weeks ago and the slimy practice track. He got a 3rd place with a much smaller gap between him and the 2nd place rider. He was happy when he came off the track.

He quickly got back in line for race 5, the 50cc Open, if you remember he got 2nd in the first moto. Riding high on the solid 3rd place finish, he rocketed out of the gate and beat all the other rides to the first turn, HE GOT THE HOLESHOT...! (Holeshot = the first motocross rider to navigate the first turn of the track after the start.) He said the first thing he thought was, "Dad owes me 10 bucks." He and I have a standing deal, $10 for each holeshot. Well he held on to the lead from most of the first lap. Then kept all the other riders behind him for a solid 2nd place in the 50cc Open class.

Isaac was itching to go see if he got a trophy. But there was another race to ride and it take some time to tally the results. He rode well in the 65cc class, giving it one last push at the finish line to overtake a rider at the finish. On a sad note, one of our racing friends crash badly during this moto. Casey Wood (#311) from Beckley, WV crashed on the first lap on the upper end of the track and broke his hand. He had a bad night, he also got disqualified from the 85cc Beginner class for being too fast, jumping the doubles. I got an email confirmation from his parents that his hand was broken. Heal quickly Casey... We're thinking about you.

Lexy helped a ton in cleaning up the bike to be put away for the week. She had a lot of fun spraying the bikes, scrubbing them and drying them off. She was much more help than Isaac. But he got all this other gear cleaned and packed in his Ogio.

We'll keep you posted on the results from the next race.

Isaac and His Money...

Isaac is always on the hunt for money. He started a job chart when we still lived in Washington. It was jobs on top of his normal chores, like, vacuum, wash the dog, wash the car, etc. The prize... our quart change jar. He got through it on Monday and his mother took him to cash in the change... $70...!! That's a ton of money for an 8 year old kid. And I tell you what it was burning a hole. He wanted to spend it before he got home. Amy made him wait until after dinner. After much begging and "Mom promised you would take me", I took him to the Game Stop. He paced and fretted, picked games then put them back. A half hour later I was done, and I was mean because I wouldn't let him buy a used GameBoy (he already has one). The poor (Ha) kid had to go to bed with $70 in his possession.


Tuesday when I got home from work, Isaac was mad. He bought a 'slip and bleed'. Pretty much the same one he had before designed to skim board in your back yard. The trouble is, our yard isn't flat enough. He was soooo upset. I thought it was good. He has spent all of his money in a hurry and was feeling the pain. "Dad, $70 isn't a lot of money to you, but it's like a Million Dollars to me!" I was glad he got the chance to feel what it's like to waste a lot of money, and regret it. It's a little rich for my blood to waste $70 on the lesson.

Anyway, on Wednesday Amy loaded Isaac up with the 'slip and bleed', its package and the receipt and off they when to WallyWorld to take it back. He came home with a bike. (I know Jon, WalMart and bikes, crappy Chinese built bikes... Sorry). Anyway, he is happy. This is his 'freestyle' bike. Pegs both front and back, free spinning rear hub, and a bar spin hand brake set up on the head tube.

It's actually a cool set up.

So, that is the latest story of Isaac and his money.

Lexy's New Skates

Isaac gets everything... True he does... We have be making a conscious effort to get some balance to our buying the kids stuff.



Both kids have enjoyed ice skating lessons. In fact Tuesday night was the last of the 6 lesson series. We bought Lexy some figure skates. We had been looking and talking to folks about what to get. Shopped eBay, the bulletin board, and called people that know (Thanks Jean and Josh for the advice and help). Amy found a restocked pair of unsharpened, white skates that fit Lexy just right. I don't know if it is psychological for her or me, but I think she skates better with these. She LOVES them. I hope we can keep the drive alive. Ice skating is a great hobby.