Quinzee update...

Meant to post this last week, but got busy...

Day 2 of quinzee construction and Luke really made some progress...

Luke got to the point that he was comfortable laying down inside...he still needed to work on the ceiling but he didn't get around to it...

I'm not exactly if Lex caught onto the idea...she went with the 'hermit crab' quinzee look...

But they both had fun and they were built entirely without my help...Lukie was especially proud of that...

Too bad they are basically gone now though...it got to the mid-40s last Friday and Lukie's quinzee sagged to the ground, only rabbits could use it now...he took it well, saying 'now I can build a better one...'.

Snow Day...

Lukie and Lex were released from school today at 12:00, meaning I left school early too...

We got a lot of snow and it's just now beginning to wrap up, but if you give kids some snow, they'll play outside for a long time...

Lukie's been wanting to build a quinzee for a while now, but we haven't had the snow...now we do...

The sun was almost down when I grabbed my phone for a picture, it's not a full-sized version, but he had fun making it...

His plan is to expand on it tomorrow, we'll see if he does...he can crawl all the way into now and curl up, he needs to work on making the ceiling higher...

This was all him, I had nothing to do with it (I was busy with the snow)...

So....

Busy morning today as Lukie was playing in a basketball tournament, then the Vikings had the NFC Championship game tonight...the tournament went as well as the Vikings games...

After the tournament we made a stop at Target and had some time to kill so Lukie thought he'd make a mask with the 'slime'...

He thought that the second one was the best...

Then the game started and although there was an encouraging start, we ultimately had to have the following discussion...

Yeah, we weren't on the beach, but the Vikings blew it again....it happens to us...

Central Booster's Air Plane Toss...

It's been a day in the gym for us today...started with two basketball games of Kieran's (at 8:00 and 10:00 am) and then two games for Lukie in the afternoon (basically 1:00 - 3:00).  There was talk of us heading to a hockey game this evening, Lex really wanted to go, but we decided not to because the drive was longer than a mile...

The Central Raider basketball teams (boys and girls) had a double header with Glencoe tonight, with the girls going first.  Lukie really wanted to go to the basketball game and that's what we ended up doing.  I didn't tell them until we were in the car that tonight was the 'air plane toss' fundraiser for the booster club at halftime of the boys game...

The girls won their game by nine or ten, they've been playing pretty well now, then attention turned to making airplanes... both Lukie and Lex were given five that they could make and throw...

It's pretty chaotic at halftime....Lukie and Lex were ready...

The targets are the paper plates, each represents a different prize...

When it starts, you get a minute or two to throw your airplanes and there are all sorts of planes getting thrown...

I should've taken a picture at the end...the gym was filled with paper planes, the girls basketball team had to go and find the planes that won...in the end, neither Lukie or Lex won a prize (and Luke had a hard time with that, we ended up leaving early in the second half because if it).

We have to be up early tomorrow for a basketball tournament for Lukie in Belle Plaine, so it looks like another day in the gym tomorrow...

Lukie's First Five-on-Five Basketball Game

Luke's been having practices every Tuesday night since late November and has been having a blast.  He's got a jersey (#4), shoes, kneepads and just loves going to practice.  The area was having trouble scheduling games for 3rd graders though, but finally a schedule came together and tonight was his first every true basketball game (remember that he played in a 3 on 3 league last summer)...

I didn't take a lot of pictures (I was talking some with the 3rd grade teachers...all of whom came to the game...good for them, the boys love it.  Same reason I go to a lot of Delano sporting events)...

I had a nice picture ready when Lukie was taking a shot, but the coach/ref got in the way as I went to snap it...

They were playing the Waconia Purple team, but in reality, it was the first practice game for all.  Every possession, there was a lot of traveling, double dribble, carrying, etc., that will improve as they go on...

This weekend should be fun.  Lukie has two basketball games Saturday afternoon (Kieran has two in the morning) and then has a tournament on Sunday in Belle Plaine.  That should be fun...the moment you have kids, you realize that life is not about you, it's about them...and being there for them and watching them is pretty damn cool...

Donkey Basketball...

The parent group behind the 2018 senior class at Delano was holding a fundraiser for the all-night graduation party this spring.  It was a Donkey Basketball game, pitting teachers against students and I was asked to play.  Lukie and Lex had been looking forward to it for over a month.  The game was Saturday....and it was a blast...

There were actually 3 games.  The first had a group of HS Senior boys taking on a group of HS Senior girls.  The girls won, moving them onto the championship game.  The second game had the elementary staff taking on the MS/HS staff.  Somehow I was announced to the starting team of our squad....and was pretty much scared to death...because I weigh over 200 pounds, I could only ride the largest donkey there.  Three senior males could also only ride this animal and all three had been tossed off it's back multiple times...and I'm smaller than them...

Good news is that I didn't fall off (that was Lukie's only wish, he really wanted me to fall off) and that we won, moving us onto the championship game...

I'll spare you all the details, but the MS/HS staff team won the championship (even though the Senior girls might disagree)...

Hopefully you can read the sign behind us...it was a sweaty, yet awesome night...

Lukie and Lex even got donkey rides at halftime of one of the games...

'Slime'

Lukie has been talking about making slime for a couple of months...he'll see the kits at Target and say that we could buy them.  I've always told him that my 8th grade students make it to model glaciers and that we'd go to school one day to make it (where I've got the supplies that I don't need to buy) and today we finally decided we'd go make slime...

We ran it just like I run it with my 8th graders...I put the 'recipe' on the big screen and we walked step-by-step through the process, with Lukie and Lex doing all the work, me just watching...

Step 1 - they had to measure out 175 mL of water using a graduated cylinder.  So we got to talk about what a graduated cylinder is, what a mL is and how to measure them.  (Side note --- I gave each of them a 100 mL graduated cylinder and marked two lines, one at 100 mL and the other at 75 mL and said fill it to there).  They did great!

Step 2 - pour 8 ounces of glue into the 175 mL of water...

When the glue is in the water, they had to mix it to a consistency of milk...

They were having fun...

Step 3 - they had to measure 115 mL of water (I marked the graduated cylinders again like I did in step 1) and measure 10 mL of Borax to add to the 115 mL of water and then mix.  To mix the two, I gave each a glass stir rod to which Lukie said "Yes! more science tools!"  Trust me, I've never had an 8th grade kid as excited to pick up a glass stir rod...no pictures of this step...

Step 4 - add the Borax/water solution to the glue/water solution and just start mixing the two...

And just like 8th grade kids, the giggles, shrieks and screams come roaring out...

After a couple of minutes of mixing, they get a mix that they can hold in their hands...

Once they've incorporated as much water as possible into their 'glacier model' (that's what we use it for in Earth Science) they can do all sorts of cool things...

This is going to be used for the next couple of weeks....

'Acceptance'

I originally posted this back on 12.23.17 --- both Lukie and Lex were recognized for their acceptance of other students during the month of December...

When I picked them both up at Spanish after school today, Lex was excited to show me the display...

Here's everyone was 'shows acceptance' for the month of December...

Zooming in a little we get to the interesting parts...

Christmas Morning...

Christmas morning started awfully early, now I'm awake earlier every day of the week to go to the gym, but I was kind of hoping to sleep some...

Notice the windows behind the tree...we are well before the sun comes up...

Luke and Lex were pretty organized...they decided they would open the one labeled 'Kieran, Luke and Lex' first and then alternate from there...

Of course, only two of the three were there to open this one...

We told Lex we'd have to find some games for her that we can rent before deciding on games that she'd like to play (even though she's excited to play Star Wars too)...

For Lex, it turned into a Wonder Woman kind of morning --- if you haven't been paying attention or know, she's a huge fan of Wonder Woman, most pictures she takes includes her crossing her arms in the Wonder Woman pose...

Like I said...a Wonder Woman day...a couple of action figures that she played with plenty this morning...

Luke got a couple of shirts from the Science Museum...if you know the Netflix show Stranger Things, you'll recognize it...it's become a huge fundraiser for educational programming for the museum because it was worn on the show.  Luke doesn't know that, he just likes it because it's got a dinosaur and the museum name (which we go to often)...

Lex saved the biggest present of hers for last...

Like I said...it was sort of a Wonder Woman type of morning...one of the first things she asked Luke to do was shoot at her with his nerf guns so she could block them with her shield just like Diana in the movie...she was laughing (and so was Lukie) as he repeatedly fired away at her...

The last present that Lukie opened was this one...

And immediately at that point he began construction...he took a break for breakfast, but got it done...

Lex enjoyed her Wonder Woman morning...and is already planning next Halloween because she said "I can be Diana again, but have a shield and sword too!"

Even Santa got involved on the Wonder Woman theme...over Lex's left shoulder is a Wonder Woman ornament...

Lukie predicted what Santa would bring pretty accurately.  Last night he said 'I think Santa will bring me a nerf gun, some Raider gear since he knows we go to Central, some movies and candy.'  Yeah...he got a nerf gun, both got a Raiders water bottle (Lex wanted one of those since football season), both got a movie and candy they like...Lukie's a non-believer in Santa most of the year, but turned it on as we got closer to Christmas...

Christmas Eve...

The day started out with Lex tracking Santa (he was in Indonesia at the time)...

Then we had to take a picture in front of the tree together (it's also the first time that one of them said 'Kieran should be here with us' or something to that effect.  And they're right, it'll be the last Christmas that all three aren't together)...

We took in a movie at 1:00, Lex hadn't seen Star Wars: The Last Jedi yet...Luke and I didn't have a problem with seeing it again...

After church, we went to Chaska to great-grandma's house for an hour or so, then stopped at the big tree on the way back...Lex was doing her Wonder Woman thing again...

Before they jumped into bed, they both had to check out where Santa was now (he was coming up the Caribbean)...

They're currently trying to fall asleep...wonder what time they'll be up tomorrow morning?