May 2019 – Family Highlights – Heidi, Tyson, Calan & Evan

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Highlights

Calan’s team wins the flag football championship!
Mama and Dada visit Evan at preschool

Calan

A sweet ending for Calan’s flag football team in Ventura this month. On Cinco de Mayo, his team played in an elimination playoff game and won. This advanced them to the championship game for 2nd-3rd grade players an hour later. The team did great, consistently scoring points and holding their own on defense. Calan did his usual QB position swap with the other quarterback Ben every other drive and played really well. Emotions were in check, and he executed the passing plays flawlessly. His team had a speedy runner, and when he got the ball it was usually a long TD score. On passing plays, Coach Feeney drew up mostly crossing routes, where receivers would run diagonal routes across the field in opposite directions. This would muddy up the defense allowing receives to run open and ready for the ball. Calan would then throw a short-to-medium pass to one of the crossing receivers. He would hit them perfectly in stride so they could continue to run without missing a step, turn up field and win the ensuing footrace. Playing so well was a bit of a surprise as the last couple weeks saw virtually no practices with coaches and players having conflicts. It was great to see them win though and carry around their trophies afterwards. Evan and Mama came separately and enjoyed watching the wins. Afterwards, Calan spent a bit of time again with his new buddy Kelly, throwing the ball and chatting. It was hard to see the season end. This was a league we tried at the last minute and for the first time since Calan usually plays spring basketball at the Y, but wasn’t ready to return to it this year. It wasn’t always easy trekking out to Ventura for practices and Sunday games but we made some new friends and captured some good memories together.

The confidence of the winning season helped Calan for sure. Along with watching the basketball playoffs, Calan was feeling upbeat about playing basketball again. After connecting with some parents from past seasons we were able to get him to join a few practices with a Y team at the end of their season. Going from the flag football season to those practices should help him be ready for summer basketball.

Calan continues to practice and study violin with Miss Dena. It’s still not always his favorite task on any given day, but he does it and continues to sound better and better. This month was his spring recital where he returned to his old preschool and played in the big Chapel auditorium. He played a solo with piano accompaniment and several pieces with various ensembles. Miss Dena is late in her pregnancy so this was the last time we will see her for awhile.

Our third grader is already looking forward to fourth grade coming up officially next month. The summer can never come to quick at that age!

Notable quotes this month:

“Toronto leads by minus seven“, said while watching a playoff basketball game. At that moment, the scoreboard showed Toronto was actually trailing by seven points.

Evan

Mama and Dada each got to make some everlasting memories this month as we visited Evan at school for a morning dedicated to the kids spending time and pampering their parents. Mama went one morning for Mother’s Day and Dada for Father’s Day. Mama got to do projects with Evan, eat some snacks and get little hand massages from her sweet little baby. Dada got to do some art projects such as decorate a small picture frame and make some slime from scratch. Lunch included ice cream and pizza (Evan had his pre-made gluten free variety coordinated with the director). It was just too sweet to see Evan away from home and in his school environment, still so young and small, yet so grown up at the same time.

Evan (and Calan) had fun celebrating a classmate’s birthday party this month too. It was held at his grandparent’s house in Santa Rosa Valley. They own some Jack-in-the-Box restaurants and have quite a house with a huge backyard pool. The kids loved swimming and playing games. Evan had his own pizza that we cooked in the kitchen especially for him. One highlight was a giant tortoise that came out and slowly walked around as the kids partied.

Notable quotes this month:

After running into the rocking horse that he moved into the family room, he wailed out in pain. Then, exclaimed “We should not have gotten that horsey for Christmas!”

“When you’re 300 and I’m 200 I’m going to turn into a spider and I will find you and spin a web on your heads.”

Looking at the tiny pieces of a really small flower, says: “These are so tiny, big eyes can’t see them.”

While Calan was dealing with a tummy virus, Evan would periodically check on him with his toy doctor’s kit. On one check he assessed: “Your heart is beating because you ate a lot. Your blood pressure is high because you yelled a lot.”

One day Mama needed to ask Evan something but didn’t know where he was at the moment. Apparently, Evan was engrossed in something serious:

Mama: “Evan?”
Evan: “What?!”, said with a loud, impatient tone.
Mama: “Evan, that’s not a nice way to respond to someone.”
Evan: “What? I’m playing right now. Nobody disturb me while I’m playing.”