The TCAP exams are over and we have three and a half weeks of school left. Teachers and students are anxiously counting the days until summer freedom. In the fields around us the corn is sprouting and farmers are preparing their tobacco ground for tobacco setting in a few weeks.
KIDS PICK UP FAR MORE THAN YOU THINK. I am constantly amazed at how much stuff our kids pick up. The other day the boys and I were cleaning the leaves out from under our back porch (I put this job off until springtime because I have to crawl under the porch to do this job which isn’t so fun on a cold, wet, fall day). We loaded all the leaves up in the truck and dumped them in the brush pile next to the chicken house. After unloading I was driving across the field to park the truck. Nate was sitting in the cab with me. Looking out the window he gave me this friendly warning: “Don’t hit those apple trees there Dad.” I was amazed that he even knew they were apple trees.
The other day Ben was with me when I stopped to buy gas. After starting to pump the gas Ben asks, “Dad, are you going to get the squeegee to clean all the bug guts off the windshield?” Obviously he knows what the tool is but I can’t recall talking about a squeegee in front of him. I certainly didn’t know the name of that thing when I was a kid.
Where Ben came up with this one I’ll never know but he commented to Vicki one day while riding down the road, “Man! They need to mow. Their grass is as tall as a can of beans.”
SOCCER SATURDAYS. I haven’t mentioned soccer as much this year as I have in the past but we are about half way through the season already. I really like Jenna’s coach. He seems to have a real passion for the game and wants kids to learn to love to play. But he’s not a “winning is everything” kind of coach. This is a good thing as Jenna’s team seems to have more than its share of inexperienced players. Yesterday’s game was about the most evenly matched game I’ve seen so far. I’m sure this is an exaggeration but I’d almost swear that Jenna’s team never played anything but defense a couple of weeks ago.
Ben’s team is a little better but at his age they still tend to play “herd ball” rather than sticking to assigned positions. They do have a couple of girls on his team who can really handle the ball. Ben is starting to get the hang of the game as he is learning to be at the right place at the right time. Now if we could just get him to quit falling down whenever he kicks the ball....
A DAY WITH GIRLFRIENDS. Jenna had a late birthday celebration with three of her friends on Saturday. She invited Vicki, Ben and me to go along as well. The outing began with lunch at Burdett’s Tea Room. (I told Ben that we were really outnumbered being the only two guys in the whole place. He agreed saying, “Yeah, and I counted 81 tea cups on the shelf along the wall.”) After lunch we walked to the movie theatre to see Curious George (see review below) and then went home to allow the girls to play and eat pizza. I think Jenna and her guests had a great afternoon.
CURIOUS GEORGE HITS THE BIG SCREEN. If you’ll put yourself in a child’s frame of mind and treat the kid in you you’ll enjoy this movie. The animation is well drawn and the dialogue is clean. There are several jokes in the script for the adults but nothing remotely crude (the people who wrote Shrek and Madagascar should take note that this can be done). If I thought Nate would sit still long enough I’d go back with him.
Joe
