Primary Pinewood Derby

Tonight, Ron and I took Ella and Emmett to the church to participate in our annual, primary Pinewood Derby activity.  Emmett had been looking so forward to this activity for weeks.  After Ron finished up their cars this past weekend, both of the kids were so excited to head out the door tonight.  Both Ella's and Emmett's cars raced in several heats and did really well.  After several rounds, Emmett's car came in third place and Ella's car came in fifth place out of a total of 20 cars.  It was a fun night of racing, cheering, and eating good food and both kids were happy with their car's outcome when we headed home tonight.

Ella and Emmett holding their cars before the race began.

All of the primary kids posing behind the "parking lot" of cars before the race.

Emmett eating treats with his friends, Evie and Isaac, by the side of the race track.

Ella doing the same with Etta and Madelyn.

Since I'm still serving in the primary presidency, I was the one who handed out the awards.  Here is Emmett receiving the third place trophy.

Ella won one of the certificates that we handed out for "Most Basic" design.

Emmett's Kindergarten Concert

Emmett was able to participate in the Kindergarten and 3rd Grade choir concert that was held this evening at his school.  All of the four Kindergarten classes sang two songs together, "Five Green and Speckled Frogs," and "This Little Light of Mine."  Ron was able to race over after a work meeting to join me right before the concert started.  As expected, this concert was a hilarious mix of cuteness and chaos.  Emmett did a great job singing very seriously while the boy to his right played with the stage curtain the entire time.  Regardless, we loved cheering on our darling boy who seems to enjoy everything that he gets the chance to do.  He is so enthusiastic and all-in with everything in his life right now!

Emmett singing from the right corner of the stage.

A close-up of Emmett with his friend, Raylan, after they finished singing.

Mercer Mile Track Meet

I signed up Logan with the South Hill Running Club last spring since his elementary school track team was only practicing once a week for most of the short season.  He then continued to run with this club in the fall for XC since our school district does not let boys participate in this sport for 7th and 8th grade.  However, since he would be able to run five days a week and compete in several track meets with his junior high school this spring, I didn't see the point in signing him up with his running club again this spring.  However, I ended up changing my mind when I realized that Emmett's once a week swim lesson would not be enough exercise and activity this spring for this very athletic boy of mine.  As a result, I got permission to register Emmett for the running club (although he is a year too young) from one of the head coaches and signed up both boys back in March.  This has turned out to be such a good decision as Emmett absolutely loves running with this club three times a week.  He looks forward to it all the time and constantly asks me if it is a track day when he wakes in the morning.  It really is the cutest thing.  And it has been so fun for these brothers who are seven years a part to share something together.  It reminds me of when Lia and Ella got to perform in Matilda together almost two years ago. 

After practicing three times a week since the second week in March, the boys finally participated in their first club track meet tonight on Mercer Island in Bellevue.  Since I just got injured from my car accident four days earlier, I stayed home and took some pictures of Lia and Jared before they left for prom while Ron attended the meet.  Unlike other track meets, this meet just held 16 heats of the mile and the boys were assigned to race in the heat that was closest to their projected running time instead of their age group.  Emmett ran first and did an amazing job for a little, 6-year who has never even ran the mile before.  He ran it in 7:32 which is a great time for kids running the mile in junior high school!  Logan also did a great job and broke through the 6-minute wall for the first time as he ran it in 5:57 which was super exciting.  Overall, it was a great first meet of the season and I am so proud of how well both of my boys did.

Cute Emmett flexing his muscles for Ron before running his race.

Emmett smiling at Ron while waiting at the starting line.

Emmett getting ready to go.

Emmett racing past Ron.

Logan waving to Ron as he headed out to the track to line up for his mile race.

Getting ready to go.

A blur of Logan racing past Ron.

Emmett's Last Basketball Game of the Season

After playing almost every Saturday in January and February, Emmett had his last basketball game today.  He has had an amazing first season playing this sport.  He picked up dribbling, passing, and shooting the ball really fast and made at least one or more baskets in every single game with the exception of the first one.  Emmett is just so coordinated, aggressive, and competitive.  It has been so fun to watch him excel in soccer and now in basketball.  He loved going to every Friday night practice and playing in every Saturday afternoon game.  He is just so enthusiastic about every new thing that he tries which has definitely been a change from some of his older siblings.  I am so glad that he had a positive, first experience playing basketball.  Although I had to miss his last game today in order to attend Ella's gymnastics meet in Kent, Logan and Ron went to cheer him on.  Here are a few pictures that Ron took for me to include in this post.

Emmett getting ready to shoot the ball.

An action shot of Emmett shooting into the basket while several players attempted to block his shot.

Emmett crouching down to shoot again!

The darling picture that I took of Emmett back at home while showing off his certificate and the participation trophy that he received from his coach after his final game.

 

Emmett's Second Time on the Slopes!

Ron took Emmett up to White Pass today along with Logan and a few other boys from our ward.  Since this was only Emmett's second time snowboarding, Ron spent the day with him on the magic carpet slope while Logan went snow boarding with a few of the boys.  Since it is more difficult to learn on a snow board than skis at this young age, Emmett struggled a bit in the morning.  However, after a lunch break, he perked up and moved up to the longer, magic carpet with Ron and had a better afternoon.  Although he still has a long way to go, I was just excited that he was able to spend a second day on the slopes trying to master the basics of this sport with Ron's help.

Emmett's Bluey Birthday Party

I hosted Emmett's first friend, birthday party today--a week after his birthday.  Since I was unable to host it last Saturday due to Ella's gymnastics meet, I chose to schedule this party over MLK weekend which I thought could be a problem with people going out of town.  Luckily, everyone who we invited were able to join us with the exception of two friends.  Since Emmett is still such a fan of the beloved TV show, Bluey, it made for an easy choice for the theme of his party.  Since I have hosted so many children's birthday parties over the past decade, I decided to keep it simple and just reuse a ton of my ideas for decorations and games, but with a Bluey twist.  Since it was all new to Emmett, he was happy with everything that I had planned and the party turned out to be quite a success.  Emmett had such a great time hosting so many of his friends from church, preschool, and Kindergarten for games, presents, and dessert.  In addition, since we were blessed with a beautiful, sunny Saturday, the children were able to go into our backyard to play at the end of the party since we finished up with everything twenty minutes early.  I'm so glad that Emmett's first friend party was a success and that our birthday boy felt loved and celebrated!

Emmett standing next to his welcome sign and balloons outside our front door before the party began.

The dining area in the kitchen all decked out and ready to go.

The fun decorations on the fireplace in the family room.

As Emmett's friends arrived, we started out with everyone coloring a Bluey picture of their choice.

Emmett coloring with his favorite twins at his side, Evie and Issac.

We next played several rounds of "Hot Potato" except with a stuffed, Bluey animal.

We then had the children try to throw a Bluey ball into a cut-out poster from three different distances from the room.  Emmett won this game.

We then played several rounds of "Keepy Uppy" which is a game played by Bluey and Bingo on the TV show that involves keeping a balloon in the air.  We just altered the game a bit by adding many balloons to the game.

We then played our own version of the game, drop the clothespin in a jar, except we used a miniature Bluey figure instead of a clothespin.  We played this game from three different heights, to increase the difficulty.

After finishing the games, Emmett opened up all of his gifts from his friends.  He received so many wonderful and generous presents.  Here is Ella helping Emmett read a card from Jordan, a friend from preschool.

Emmett opening up a Baby Yoda RC toy from Maisie, one of his friends from his Kindergarten class.

Emmett starting to open up a gift from Brooke, another friend from his Kindergarten class.

Emmett talking to Evie while opening up her present.

A group photo of all of the kids after gift opening was complete.

From left to right:

Raylan, Carter, Auggie, Jordan, Emmett, William

Issac, Evie, Brooke, Maisie, Layla

Emmett waiting for us to sing "Happy Birthday" to him.

The entire group enjoying their cupcakes and ice cream.

Emmett and Jordan making funny faces while eating their dessert.

Logan and Ella went outside with the children to play with them at the end of the party.  A group of boys decided that it would be fun to chase Logan around and attack him.  Here is a funny picture that I took of Logan fighting off the group of boys before their parents came to pick them up.

Emmett's First Basketball Game

After signing Emmett up for his first season of rec basketball earlier this fall, he began attending weekly practices in December.  Since he started a year before Logan did, I wasn't sure how he would do with dribbling and handling a basketball at such a young age.  But since he is so athletic and coordinated, it should have come as no surprise to me that he took to this sport like he did soccer.  Emmett has absolutely loved each practice and has asked over and over again when his first game was scheduled.  So, today, Ron, Logan, and I brought him to his first game to cheer him on and he did such a good job!  Emmett just gave it his all.  He dribbled, he shot, he passed, and he ran...over and over again.  I lost count of how many times Emmett attempted to make a basket, but sadly the ball never went in.  However, Emmett never gave up and just kept on going and his little face was so red and sweaty by the end of the game.  With this kind of effort, I know that Emmett will definitely make several baskets by the end of this first season.  I can't wait to see him in action again!

Emmett's coach helping him put on his color belt before going into the game.

Emmett holding the ball.

Emmett shooting.

Waiting to pass the ball back into the game.

Dribbling down the court.

A close-up of Emmett dribbling.

Emmett taking the ball back down the court again.

A picture of our hot and sweaty Emmett after the game was over.

Emmett's Character Award Assembly

Emmett has transitioned to Kindergarten this fall as smoothly as I could have imagined.  He absolutely loves his teacher, his class, and everything about his day from learning to playing at recess to eating the school's hot lunch (that is free this year).  He runs off to school every morning after I drop him off and never looks back.  After meeting with his teacher a few weeks ago for parent-teacher conferences, I learned Emmett is doing an amazing job in class.  He teacher said that he is an excellent listener, follows directions, works hard, and is an excellent example to the rest of his class.  In fact, his teacher even went on to say that Emmett is the class leader in everything they do, and that he can tell an immediate difference in the class' overall behavior when Emmett has to leave 15 minutes early once a week when I check him out of school to take Ella to gymnastics practice.  I was so proud of him after hearing all of this positive feedback from his teacher.  

As a result, it came as no surprise to learn a few days ago that Emmett had been selected by his teacher to receive one of the character awards at their first assembly of the year.  Ron and I made plans to meet at his school at 3 pm so that we could cheer him on as he received his award.  In addition, Logan and Ella were also able to join us since Logan was already out of school for the day and Ella had stayed home sick with a bad cold.  Emmett looked so happy and suprised when he saw the four of us sitting on the front row of the chairs at the back of the gym as he class entered the room.  He was so cute when he went up to receive his award for the character trait of responsiblity and just kept on flashing us the biggest grins until the assembly was over.  Way to go, Emmett!   We are all so proud of the amazing, little boy that you have become!

Emmett walking up to the front of the gym after hearing his name called.

Emmett standing at the front after receiving his award.

A close-up of my cutie.

All six children who received an award for responsibility posing for their families after the assembly was over. 

Emmett posing with Logan and Ella before heading back to class.

This is the message from his teacher found on the back of his certificate:

'Emmett is always quick to follow directions and always demonstrates responsibility by putting his best foot forward.  He is attentive and follows directions quickly and is a role model to his peers."