Weekend Top Five

It was a weekend at home for the Wheelz Family. And a pretty good one as well. I think I have a top five, but I will be posting a separate post about one of them later this week.

5. Ouch
Friday afternoon about fifteen minutes before I got to school to pick up the boys my phone rang. It was Aaron's teacher wanting to know if I was in the parking lot yet and could I come in. Aaron had cut his finger with scissors during Buddy Time and she wanted me to see the cut. If it had been anywhere on his finger other than where it was, we would have been heading to the med center for stitches. But it was right in the crease of his finger. It was deep and bled a ton, but really nothing could be done. If he bent his finger, it would eventually stop bleeding but when he straightened it, it would start again. So we spent the entire evening on finger duty watching for blood and covering it. After awhile, I decided that it was never going to dry up if we kept covering it and by Saturday we were leaving the band aid off. It broke open a few more times over the weekend but this morning when Mrs. T asked him about it, he proudly showed his finger, ready for action. I really hope that is the extent of injuries for this year.

4. ArtPrize
This is the biggy. I will be posting more about the ArtPrize experience later. It is essentially an international art contest that completely takes over the city of Grand Rapids for 10 days. I was so excited to go check it out. The three boys were less than enthused, but they admitted afterward that they enjoyed it. They lasted four hours and were done. I came home and wanted more so I invited Deb to go back with me Saturday night. We visited a few of the venues that we missed in the afternoon. As a matter of fact, I still want to see more and am excited that I was invited to go again today again. I think we may have even gotten our Christmas card picture during this event. What do you think?

3. The Last Playdate
Our neighbors who have two kids, one of them almost the exact same age as Noah are moving away. They have been in the process for quite a long time now. Noah and the son, B, have been friends since they were born. We have so many pictures of them together through the years. So, during the last day of packing up the house, we had the two kids over all day on Sunday, both to help keep them out of the hair while they were packing, and also so the kids could have one last day to play together. And boy did they make the most of it. Inside, outside, upstairs, downstairs, all over the place for hours they played. And danced. And argued. And made plans for how to stay in touch after they move. Noah and B exchanged addresses and I really hope that they follow through on letter writing to each other. I think it would do them both a lot of good. They found a CD player downstairs with an old Halloween CD and danced off and on all day, especially Aaron and B's little sister, G.

2. Clearing Out the Junk
While the neighbors were packing, I noticed a pick up truck in their driveway advertising the free haul away of anything with metal on it. I mentioned it to Steve and he wondered if they had space in the truck for some of our stuff. We have had a broken dishwasher in our garage for well over a year now, taking up space so he went over and asked if they would take it. They chucked it clear on top of all of the neighbors' stuff. Then, they said, "Hey, if you're ever looking to get rid of a washer or dryer, let us know." We cracked up and then said, "Well, actually...." My parents got us an early Christmas present a few weeks ago and got us a used washer and dryer from some friends. Our washer had been broken for a very long time and it was taking a toll on our pocketbook (laundromat) and my health (my back from the non spun clothes). So a few weeks ago Steve and I went and picked up the new appliances and brought them into the basement. Meanwhile, we gave up before trying to move the old washer back up the stairs and it has been laying sideways on our basement floor for weeks. When we told them, they gladly came back a few hours later, brought it up themselves and took it away. They also took an old gas grill that someone gave to us that needed repairs that would have cost more than a new grill, and also a fan that Aaron broke. There is a huge satisfaction when I am cleaning and more and more old junk gets out of the house. I also packed up four bags of clothing to give away. No more saving for garage sales. I just want it out of my house.

1. Homework
When Noah was in first grade, I didn't even give spelling tests a second thought. He knew all the words, he knew all the letters, he was fine. But with Aaron, the reason I put him in this class was so that he could work on fine motor skills, namely his writing. Each day when he comes home, we sit at the table for a few minutes and re do the letters that they worked on in class. This weekend, he also had a project that was due today. He needed to cut out words that describe him and glue them onto a wrapping paper covered cereal box. We worked on it for quite awhile and then decided it was time to at least write a few times the spelling words he had this week. Last Sunday, it was a bit of a battle. He didn't want to do it and I was frustrated at how far behind he seemed. But this week, it was completely different. I think we just approached it a little differently and he did great. I picked several of the words that looked the weakest from his pre-test and had him re-write them a few times. I was truly blown away by how well he did. Hopefully he will do well on the real pre-test in school today.

So, it was a weekend full of getting stuff done. I have so much more to share about ArtPrize but I wanted to wait until I go again today, and probably at least once more. There is one venue outside of Grand Rapids that I am going to stop by after my rehearsal tonight since it is on the way home.