Pioneer Basketball Finals

 That's David getting some air while blocking the shot.  The kid can jump!

 That's David in the front.  Running like a wild man to get to the ball.  Love that run!

 Here's the team trying to look like Paul with their arms crossed.

 Paul sharing some basketball wisdom with David.

 Great Pioneer Basketball season!  Lots of fun with two great coaches and 10 great kids.

Preschool

 I volunteered in Ryan's classroom this morning.  I was assigned to a center activity of finding Nicaragua on a map, coloring it and then writing their name.  I did this with 14 preschoolers.  The activity itself is not so hard.  The difficulty is their attention span.  None of them had a lot of interest in finding Nicaragua.  So I mostly heard stories about fun things going on at home - new pets, zombie hunting, and legos.

 I stayed around after they were done with their centers to observe Ryan.  He's working on understanding that not everyone in his classroom is interested in "physical play".   He did pretty well while I was in the classroom.  There was a moment when I thought he might through a castle across the room, but it didn't happen.  

 I headed out when they all lined up to board a flight to Nicaragua.  They'll be spending about a month in Nicaragua.  I'll miss Ryan while he's away.  :-)

Cub Scouts Blue and Gold Banquet

 We went to the Blue and Gold banquet at Park Forest Middle School on Wednesday night with David's Cub Scout Pack.  They displayed all of the pinewood derby cars made by the Tiger Clubs and gave out awards.  David got a certificate for placing third in his Den.

 Happy Cub Scouts

Swimmers

 Ryan started swim lessons again at the YMCA in January.  He's been doing really well and having fun.  We go on Monday and Wednesday nights from 5:00 - 5:30.  David swims laps in the big pool while Ryan has lessons in the warm therapy pool.

 Two happy swimmers!

Basement Sports

 Someday we may finish the basement, but right now we are enjoying winter sports room.

 Ryan is using the one side for "cement hockey" and the other side is for basketball and air hockey.  We have been burning lots of energy down there!  

Valentine's Day Celebration Continues

 Ryan celebrated Valentine's day with his classmates on Friday.  He found another red shirt to wear to school.  Ryan was very into wearing red to celebrate this holiday.

 We got to school early and dropped off the Phineas and Ferb valentine's into his classmate's bags.

 Ryan made a special Valentine for Mrs. Wylie and wrote her a poem - "You send my Heart off the Chart!"  He was very proud of himself.  He loves Mrs. Wylie.

 Ryan was excited to sort out his Valentine's from his classmates.  Lots of candy and erasers.

 Nana Sharon and Pappy Dave stopped by to deliver Valentine's treat for the boys.

Happy Valentine's Day

 We started Valentine's Day with some surprises.  The boys each got bags with candy.  They got a special lego package in the mail.  They both picked out red t-shirts to wear for the day.  Ryan found his red sweatpants too.  David had his valentine's prepared for school - pink horses with tattoos for the girls and star wars with glow in the dark light sabers for the boys.

 Ryan picked out a special bag of chocolate to give to his speech therapist since he would be seeing her on Valentine's day.  He was very excited to give it to her.  He wrote her name out on his Phineas and Ferb Valentine and even put an extra Perry the Platapus eraser in her valentine.  The whole drive to speech has asked me if I thought she would like the chocolates and told me he thought they smelled bad, but tasted good.
We arrived to speech, walked into the office and Ryan threw the bag of chocolates and valentine across the room and turned around and stood behind me!  I took this picture of him during his speech conference through the mirror.  He wouldn't let me take one with Abi that day.  Later that week,  Abi's friends told me she was really happy to get the chocolates and touched that he wrote her name on the valentine.   I guess he kind of knows how to wooo the women. . . . just in his own way. . . . ?

 David was happy to share his valentine collection from school with Ryan.

Duplo Playdate

 Ryan had his BFF, Luke, over this afternoon to play.  They disappeared into the playroom for a while and then came running for me to take pictures of their Duplo creations.  They built a zoo with a train station and fire house.  They were very proud!

Pinewood Derby

We headed to our first Pinewood Derby race on Saturday morning after weeks of preparation.  Paul and David sanded, painted and prepared his car for the race.  The cub scouts in our Pack picked a them of Famous TV or Movie Cars for the race.  David picked Bumblebee from Transformers for his car.  He painted the whole thing himself and worked with Paul on the sander to shape it.  

The boys sat in the front row to watch their cars race.

 David's car was weighed as soon as we got there to make sure if was not above the 5 ounce maximum.  It came in at exactly 5 ounces.  (Thank you Paul.)

 The racetrack is enormous!  It took over the whole room.  There are two Packs of cub scouts in State College that use this track, so they set it up once a year and have all the races on the same day.

 There was David's Bumblebee car on the far left side.  He came in 2nd in his Tiger Den.  He was very happy.

 Lots of cars made it to the finals!