4 year old

Ray had a 4 years banana muffin party at school and had a cup cake party at home. Ray got transformer, walking robot, volcano lab gifts. Now Ray is officially 4 years old.
Something to note down: an H1N1 case was confirmed in his class.
Ryan came to sleep over last night. Ray and Ryan are good play buddies now. Today it was Saturday. Dad took them to Olson Meadow park. Excited by great weather, dad ran back home to get soccer ball to start a little soccer training. But boys seemed not very interested. Dad really put a lot of effort into getting them involved.
After we got home, mom just told dad:"A mom told me something she eavesdropped in the park. Before you came back from getting soccer, Ray whispered to Ryan. He said: Don't play soccer. It is boring."
Oh, now dad got it.

Our little teacher

Ray was teaching Ray how to recognize things in cards, which used to be taught by mom to Ray.

"This is a cup. Say cup." Ray said.

"Cup." Tony followed.

"This is a caterpillar. Say caterpillar." Ray said.

"Caterpillar." Tony followed.

"Eh, ...." Ray picked a card which he didn't know what it was.

Instead, Ray said:"This card is too hard for Tony."

Then he skipped this card to the next.

Follow the water

That was how we started our hiking this Saterday. I rode my bike and explored brush creek bend side a little bit. A little accident about Tony shortened our hike. I still met a new friend Ryan, who showed me two head skeletons of deer he shot. And he gave one to me! How old is Ryan? 5 years. You believe it?

This is our Texas.

Frank analysis

Tony was playing in his high chair, while Ray was having his dinner. Ray was the last one still working at his dinner as usual. Dad moved broccoli plate a little closer to Ray to urge him eat faster.

Tony saw this and had a yell. Then Tony asked for broccoli. Certainly it was welcome. But while Tony was eating, and he was also yelling occasionally to Ray.

Ray started talking:"Tony doesn't want me to eat my dinner because he doesn't want me to grow big. He wants to eat more so he can grow big."

Kids do pretty down-to-the-earth analysis.

Also at dinner table, Ray talked something about his school day:"We had soccer class and everyone went to the class."

Dad pretended he didn't know it and asked:"Did you go?"

"I didn't go because you guys didn't pay it for me." Ray said with a frowned eyebrow.

Wow, Ray is fairly clear how things work now. And he also can exaggerate it a little bit with saying everyone went to the class except him. The fact is he is going to a dance class and most kids didn't enroll soccer class.

Ray was never interested in soccer though dad set up a nice soccer gate in back yard. Maybe it is different to play in a team. Well, maybe we should try it out.

One thing we need to mention is Ray made a huge progress in throwing and catching a football. Though he is far from as good as Jack next door (Jack is eight years old), dad can have fun with Ray now by throwing and receiving a ball back and forth. Right now we have to keep only six feet distance. Pretty sure the distance is gonna grow soon.

Our first rain flood experience

We got all missed water back in this fall. Today's rain even flooded Olson Meadow. It's quite an eye opener. A stonebridge nearby was completely under water so the road was closed. Weather forcast showed there's gonna be another rainy week coming.

What open house exactly means

Ray's school had an open house yesterday. This was the third time they did it. We attended the first time when the school just opened. It was just a tour of school, so we missed the second as we thought we did the tour already. It turned out it was more than just a tour the second time.

This open house was pretty much a show time. Every kid sat on their seat to show some projects. Ray's projects were 1).counting kindles, 2).bar maze creating, 3).two letters phonics. Mom and dad had a good time seeing what Ray had learned in school. Mrs. Betty told us Ray did well and even helped their Chinese teacher teach his class Chinese.

That is open house all about.