Beginning of 5th and 7th Grade

And they were off to 5th and 7th grade! I may have been feeling overly sentimental about Corban turning 10 and starting the last "first" day of elementary school. Neither of them was crazy about getting up and out the door so early (no one was really), but they both have had a great start to the year!

As a side note, I later realized that Gabriel picked out the same shirt to wear on the first day of 5th grade. Corban also has those shorts that Gabriel is wearing, and just today told me that they are too small:

 

Corban Turns 10!

It's so hard to believe that Corban is 10. His birthday, unfortunately, was on the first day of school. We made the most of that by celebrating and opening presents the night before and then going out as a family on Saturday.

So, on Wednesday evening we made pizza at home (Corban needed his usual favorite of ham and bacon) and Corban opened his presents. He got 10 presents from us since he turned 10 (not how we normally do presents). Some of the 10 were: Stitch stuffed animal, The Bad Guys movie, a Sonic Lego set, and some various candy. He got a whole bag of Starburst which he was really happy about. After we ate pizza we watched The Bad Guys movie that Corban had just received (it's one of his favorites) and he had plenty of Legos to build. 

Things that Corban likes: Lilo and Stitch, Legos, Ninjago, Avengers, piano, Scouts, milk, Wings of Fire books, The Penderwicks books, audio books, Taylor reading them Terry Pratchett books, macaroni stew, video games, Sunday evenings picking what to do while Gabriel is at youth group (and eating frozen pizza and edamame), time to play alone, drawing, taking his shirt off every chance he gets, cats, and complex board and card games. He also wants to try playing basketball at school this year (5th graders can join the middle school team) and he had his first workouts this past week. The "silent" indoor basketball that Grandma Cheryl got him for his birthday has been a big hit.

Corban thought for a while about what he wanted to do to celebrate. He pondered doing something with friends, but he really wanted to do something as a family. He bounced back and forth between going to the video game museum in Roanoke or going to a theater to see "The Bad Guys 2", but finally decided on the movie. In the morning he went on a long bike ride with Taylor and Gabriel, he picked Outback for lunch, and then we went to the movie later in the afternoon.

Corban bought a baking book at a book fair on a class field trip in the spring. He made Taylor's birthday cake and he wanted to pick one out and make his birthday cake as well. He choose a "milk and cookies" cake, which has toffee and walnut layers as well as cake.

(Corban is happiest when he's not wearing a shirt)

Ice cream after the first day of school (his actual birthday). He brought
mini Minecraft cupcakes to share with his class earlier in the day.

As a final thought, a couple weekends after his birthday Gabriel was at MS Modgnik. There was a "Lego Convention" in Roanoke. We weren't really sure what we were getting ourselves into, but it ended up being fun (though a bit too crowded for Corban's taste). He spent a long time looking at the creations there as well as at the many mini-figures and Lego sets for sale. He ended up finding a Lego Bionicle set, which he has wanted for a very long time. Corban could get rid of every other toy as long as he had his Legos.

Lego Land shirt at the Lego convention

 

Summer 2025

The summer really seemed to go by fast this year. It was the second summer where I was working Monday-Thursday, so it again created some challenges with finding the boys things to do during some of the day sometimes. Thankfully, in addition to some camps and trips, there were 4 young ladies that came on different days to hang out with them at home and do some fun things (Naomi, Brynnley, Kennedy, Sara).

Corban decided that he was ready to learn how to ride a bike so he did it.
We went afterwards and got him a bike that was the right size for him and
he has loved riding this summer when he gets a chance.

                                        On Memorial Day we went hiking at Natural Bridge. 

                                    It was a little rainy but that just helped it stay cool outside.

                                         

We ended up going to see quite a few movies at the end of the school year and into the summer.  There were actually several coming out that they wanted to see that appeared to be worth watching (and for the most part they were). Towards the end of the school year they went to see "The Minecraft Movie" and also to an anniversary showing of "Revenge of the Sith." In the summer we went with our home group to see an anniversary showing of "Indiana Jones and the Last Crusade," "How to Train Your Dragon" (Live Action), "Fantastic 4," "Lilo and Stitch" (Live Action), and "Elio." The boys and Taylor also took advantage of a couple of $1 movies on Wednesday mornings. 

Lilo and Stitch

How to Train Your Dragon

The first week of June the boys went to a "Boxing Camp" that they enjoyed last year.  The week after that we headed to the beach as a family. We have tended to go toward the end of July/early August, so it was weird to go when the summer was just getting started.

                                            

                                            

                                            

Mini Golf!

The week after getting back from the beach was Summer Bible Camp. Taylor led the teaching and Gabriel had so much fun helping with snacks (and the adult leaders told me that he stayed on task and was really helpful). It was sadly Corban's last year attending, but he seemed to be ok with that thought.

                                            

                                

We went to a lot of baseball games over the summer. Included it those were two Salem Red Sox games, one with Aiden and his dad, and another with church (where the boys hung out with our neighbors from across the street that sadly just moved over the summer).

                                

                                            

The boys spent a lot of time playing games this summer. They both enjoy learning and playing complex board and card games. Another weird thing was that we left them home alone for small amounts of time (about 30 minutes) if work schedules didn't line up or if I needed to run and grab one thing from the grocery store. It was an odd freedom.

                                

Towards the end of June I took the boys down to Georgia. We had a whirlwind of a weekend seeing family, and eventually they ended up with Taylor's parents for the week doing fun things. After the weekend I drove home to work and Taylor was off to YXL. In the weekend that I was there we saw the Bergerons, went to the Scout store, stayed at Grandma Cheryl's, went to the pool with the Spears, and went to a Braves game. There was a lot of rain during the game and we didn't end up staying until the end, but the boys worked hard dancing around in order to get on the "JumboTron" and it paid off! 

New knife from the scout store

                                    

                                                

By the evening of July 3rd everyone was back home. On July 4th we enjoyed a picnic and water balloons at church and then some fireworks.

                                                  

                                          

A lot of time was spent at the pool this summer as well. There were multiple Mondays that Aela's family picked the boys up before I got home from work and they all went to the pool (and then Dairy Queen. For whatever reason DQ is the favorite "after pool" treat). We also went to the frog pond pool a couple of times.

                                         

                                                     

The next week the boys both had camp. Corban went away to Bethel Bible Camp for almost a whole week. He was nervous about being away for that long, and even a couple days before he was saying that he wanted to remain at home, but he eventually decided that he wanted to give it a try and he had a great time.

Over the course of the summer Gabriel continued to have violin lessons and Corban had a few piano lessons when schedules aligned. The same week that Corban went away to camp Gabriel attended his second year of "Strings Camp" in Roanoke. He knew a couple of the kids from last year and again enjoyed the buffet lunch every day. He has really grown in his playing confidence and he really liked playing as a part of a large orchestra. I was impressed but how much music they mastered in only five days. 

                                                     

                                         

At the end of the summer it was discovered that Gabriel is now
 taller than I am. I don't know exactly what to do with that information

A couple weeks later the boys both went to a "Chess Camp" in the afternoons. There were also multiple trips to go bowling. Toward the end of summer the boys also earned quite a bit of money pet sitting for a couple of neighbors.

Church trip to pick blueberries. Corban made a cobbler!

Corban got a haircut from the woman who also cuts my hair. He did
not like the process of having to go somewhere to get his hair cut,
but he liked the end result (even if the picture doesn't show it!)

For Taylor's birthday Corban really enjoyed making a carrot cake from a baking cookbook that he bought on a school field trip towards the end of the school year. The boys also found it funny that Taylor's presents were wrapped in Bluey paper and insisted that he wear his matching Bluey PJ pants.

Steppin Out!

 

A couple weeks before school started we finally made it to the
Roanoke Video Game Museum, which had been on the boys'
 "to do" list all summer.

The weekend before school started we decided to have a little getaway. We took Amtrak to DC and stayed for two nights. When we arrived on Thursday we went to the Library of Congress. On Friday we went to the Air and Space Museum and a baseball game. Saturday morning we got back on the train and headed home. It was a quick trip but it was nice to get away and do something fun together.

Breakfast on the train

The hotel had free popsicles - a fun surprise

So, the Library of Congress. The boys were bummed out that we couldn't touch any of the books, but there were a lot of neat displays where they enjoyed looking and listening. Corban decided that he wanted to draw many of the designs and symbols that he saw in various places and took the job very seriously. He did the same things at the Air and Space Museum the next day so we got him a Star Wars notebook so he didn't have to keep trying to fit his drawings onto the visitor guides.

Our hotel had a pool and workout room and we made time both days for them to swim. They, however, thought the workout equipment was really fun, especially when they realized that they provided ear buds and access to some streaming content.

The second day we went to the Air and Space Museum and probably could have stayed there all day (but we all got tired after about 4 hours and they wanted to swim before the baseball game in the evening). We went to a Planetarium Show and wandered the exhibits. The picture below isn't the greatest but they are standing in front of a model that was used for filming in Star Trek. They also thought the life-size Tie Fighter from Star Wars was exciting.

We ended the trip with a Phillies/Nationals game. We really weren't sure who to cheer for in such a situation but we went with the home team. Unfortunately the game did not go well for the Nationals and we were surrounded by many Phillies fans (who were enjoying many drinks). It was an experience in being around drunk, cursing baseball fans for sure, but the boys had a good time and we got a team magnet to go in our collection.