The Wilhelmi Family

Basketball

The two older boys are playing basketball this winter. This is J's first attempt. He wasn't much of a soccer fan once he discovered his love of art. He keeps telling me that he just wants to do art, but I keep telling him that we believe in well-rounded children who get in a little exercise. I have a feeling this is going to be a long battle...but one I'm willing to take on. Back to the real story...J is pretty athletic and coordinated. Things seem to come easily to him. The only trick is keeping him interested. He dribbled the ball some. He played defense like a mad man (on offense and on defense), and he passes like he's playing "Hot Potato." We'll have to work on those a little. These photos are from his first game.

K joined a team this year that is filled with some of his best friends from school. As we watched the first game, it was hard not to think back to his first game last year. Boy, has he come a long way! We definitely have plenty to learn, but he isn't so intimidated and seems to enjoy the game. We didn't get any good action shots at this game, but we did manage to get a few of the team.

Kindergarten Writing at It's Best

I've been learning about a different way to approach teaching writing...mostly for 3rd grade and higher. (There is a primary grade version, but I haven't had a chance to research it much.) It is all about studying a certain style or genre of writing and then producing a piece of writing that could fit within the group of texts that were studied. I haven't mentioned it at home. But I came across this picture in the playroom that J had done on his own.

One of his favorite books is Actual Size by Steve Jenkins. In this book the author includes different animals and shows the "actual size" of either the whole animal or a specific feature of that animal. It really is a pretty cool book. J decided to make a page of his own that might fit nicely in that type of text. He drew the "actual size" of a gingerbread man and labeled it accordingly.

In January, we decided it might be a good idea to get in a little extra writing practice at home. To choose the topic, J looked through a selection of pictures...events from his recent life. He chose to write about going to the Frio River last summer. As you will see, he enjoys illustrating much more than writing.

"I went to the river."

I tried to catch minnows."

Engine Works?

K announced one day in December that he had signed himself up for the Science Fair at school. We were both proud and shocked at this news. I definitely wasn't going to encourage a Science Fair entry in second grade, as I know it will be required in 4th and 5th grade. I didn't want him to get frustrated with the lengthy process and decide he was never going to do it again...when I know that isn't really an option.

His teacher is a science fanatic, which is absolutely the reason we love her. I think she encouraged her students to participate in the Science Fair. K loves everything science related, so it was beginning to look like we were "in" for the Science Fair. (His teacher did email to confirm that we were ok with his participation).

The next thing K needed to do was decide what area he was going to explore. Immediately he let us know that he was interested in the reason that some cars can go faster than others...what about the engine made one car faster than another? Luckily, we found an engine kit that would sort of help him to understand the workings of a basic engine in order to be able to understand his real question.

As predicted, we did experience moments of, "I'm NEVER going to do the Science Fair again." But...the good news is that we ended on a happy note. He did enjoy the learning and the process, but I think he could do without some of the details required along the way.

Christmas Vacation

We filled the remaining days of our Christmas vacation with family and lots of fun memories. Mer and Pop made it our way the day after Christmas, making us all very happy.

The cousins surprised us one day when they emerged from the playroom as superheroes. They were quite impressed with themselves and we found them to be quite entertaining.

Mer and Pop took us to see Alvin and the Chipmunks: The Squeakquel. This was Mighty's first movie at the movie theater. We were a little skeptical at first, but he was awesome! He sat in Pop's lap the entire time only moving to eat popcorn. Hopefully, we will now have more movies in our future.

Christmas 2009

The Christmas festivities at the Wilhelmi house began the same way they always do. We came home from our Christmas Eve gathering at Nan and Gran's house to prepare for the arrival of Santa and his reindeer.

First, we put on our Christmas jammies. Then we headed outside with 4 boys in tow. It was time to spread the reindeer food in the front yard. We don't want to take any chances that our house will be missed!

Everyone gets a handful of reindeer food...

This part always reminds me of airplanes getting ready to take off. The boys run in a circular flight pattern to ensure that the front yard is covered in shimmering reindeer treats.

H thinks this is all a bit strange, but he is willing to go along with it (from a distance, as he stays inside where it is warm and toasty).

K begins "the" letter to Santa. He always makes sure to ask everyone about their special request from the jolly guy. Just in case Santa gets confused, we want to make sure he knows exactly what we want in this house.

This year J decided to make his own card for Santa. It reads, "I hope. You. Like. Your. Cookies. Ho Ho Ho." As you can tell, he has been working on capitalization and punctuation at school. His teacher taught him to underline letters needing to be a capital. He took it to the extreme...each word needed a capital and each word was a sentence. Who knew?

All joking aside, I should definitely acknowledge that he drew the best cookie snowman Santa I've ever seen.

The next morning we awoke to many surprises under and around the tree. The boys began to mentally check things off the list...

Airsoft gun...check

Wagon/scooter....check

Star Wars Legos and tent....check

Red Scooter with matching helmet...check

Pokemon dragons...Palkia and Dialga...check

Airsoft gear...check

Looking back, we should have a taken a photo of all of the boys with giant smiles on their faces, but I don't think we could have torn them away from their individual goodies long enough to get it. Maybe next year...

Uncle Ben, Mighty, and Boppy steal a hug from one another.

Mighty learns that riding a scooter is hard work. He stops for a break every now and then on the curb.

Christmas Eve

We celebrated Christmas #3 on Christmas Eve at Nan and Gran's house. The boys were thrilled to know that the "real" Christmas was in sight. A few of our special moments are captured here.

The Bures Family Christmas

This year our Bures Family gathering was in our neck of the woods. The day was relaxing and nice. We enjoyed lunch, opened gifts, and then had some time to visit. The adults were able to catch up on family news and events, while the kiddos (and some adults) played Wii and enjoyed new toys outdoors.