When will I ever use this?

I think we got Austin saying his first "When will I ever use this?" in school this year. For third grade English, Austin spends time daily diagramming sentences. He is doing a great job in English and we can all understand why he would ask this question in regards to diagramming.

Austin's Birthday

Austin really wanted to go to the North Carolina Zoo for his birthday so that is where we took him with his good friend, Caleb. The kids had a wonderful time and it was the perfect "birthday gift" for

Chemical Reactions

In Chemistry, recently, we did experiments with lemon juice, vinegar, milk, baking soda, and water. We had fun discovering that vinegar and lemon juice are similar kinds of molecules and that milk and baking soda are not similar. Also, even though lemon juice and vinegar are not identical, they behave in similar ways because they are similar kinds of molecules. As you can imagine, History and Science are some of our favorite subjects around here.

Durham Bulls

Austin and I finally went to a Bulls game--the second to last game of the season and I recorded the final out. This time, on a camera that records video AND sound!

Gone Fishin'

Several weeks ago, Austin got a chance to go to Lake Jordan on a boat with Mr. Canavan and try to catch his first fish. He succeeded!

Austin's 8th Birthday

One of Austin's recent math assignments was to bake a cake. I think it had something to do with learning measurements, or a practical approach to dividing the cake into fractions, I don't know, but he sure did enjoy it. So when it came time for his birthday, he announced that he wanted to make his own birthday cake so he did. Here are some pictures from that event.

Sense of Humor

Where do we learn a sense of humor? How does it develop? Austin's visual attempt seen here is pretty funny. In case it's not abundantly clear, this is the sun, complete with shades, cooling himself with a fan.

Good stuff. 

Austin and Soccer

TODAY was Austin's last soccer game. It's hard to say how much he enjoyed it. He had about ten games or so and I think he did actually begin to learn how the game was played a little. He has not shown a great deal of aggression in the game, as the video shows, he'll get to the ball eventually. Reece, on the other hand can't wait to play. He loves to kick the ball and doesn't want anyone else to get to the ball before he does when it's kicked in his general vicinity.

Another great attraction during game time (besides kicking the ball with Reece and Janet) was the ladybug found under Lindsey's chair, which provided several minutes of quality entertainment.

Austin Singing

A couple of weeks ago, Austin participated in a kids musical. First the kindergarteners sang, then the first graders (Austin's group), then the 2nd-6th graders gave they musical presentation, which was really quite good.

The rules were fairly simple. We weren't allowed to take any flash photography during the singing, as it might distract the kids. Yeah. Plus they did have a crew in videotaping the whole thing, which actually seemed like a more legit reason not to have flash photography. Anyway, Austin's group sang their two songs, at which point we as parents were permitted to take pictures. I got this one of Austin just before they started filing off. The arrow may help.

"A Story About Me"

As part of his on-going history lessons, Austin had to write (dictate) his own story. The "History of Austin," as it were. It frightens me how much his whole world relies on various video game markers.

"Once upon a time it was my first time playing with Nintendo. I liked playing Mario. I loved it, I loved it, I loved it. Then Logan got me into Mario Kart and I also liked Tigger's Huney Hunt. Stankiewicz's gave me Mario Kart for Christmas. I also like Ms. Pac Man.
I did Phonics for a while then I got Toy Story 2.
When we moved we learned that milk made me feel bad at night. [not really true]
Then with Toy Story 2 I got bored with that. I watched ho Jesse got over to the slime time. Indeed he did.
Logan is my Nintendo buddy.
Then I was still sick at night and I didn't know why. My mommy and daddy didn't either.
We moved into a townhouse. I got Donkey Kong. It was kind of hard to move and I made friends even though I didn't want to. I miss Logan most of all. But I made friends with Benjamin and Jameson.
I wanted Mario Party 7 but Daddy said it was on GameCube.
Grandmom and Granddad came and gave me a game boy. I play Nemo and Mario Kart.
The I got Donkey Kong. I didn't like school and now I like school. I also learned how to do a digital camera. The end.