macgowan field day 2009

this year, instead of having a "spring fling" for the end of the school year, macgowan elementary decided to have a field day for their kindergarten and first grade classes.
the kids started out with their typical morning routine in the classroom and were then given field day shirts to wear before heading outside. there were 13 stations that the classes got to visit, although hayden's class didn't get to the last two...tether ball and volleyball...as it was time to leave for the day.
the weather was beautiful and all of the kids seemed to have a great time. probably the most popular station of the day was the blow up obstacle course. unfortunately, hayden only got to go through once since they were hurrying us along so they could get to as many stations as possible.
hayden/hayden's team ended up winning almost everything he did even though the teachers kept telling them "this isn't a race." whatever. it was totally a race and hayden knew it.
after participating in the last station, the sack RACE, the kids headed back into class to get ready to go. mrs. arnett then handed out gold medals to each of the kids. hayden looked SO proud when he got his. he kept talking about his "gold medal" and the little girl next to him kept saying..."it's not metal, it's plastic." and he, of course, fought back..."YES IT IS!!! it's a gold medal!"
we had a great time and can hardly believe that kindergarten is almost over.

tug of war. hayden's team won just about every time. even when they switched the teams up:

balloon toss. this game turned into who could reach the furthest. except for hayden. he tossed it the second time. and then it broke:

spoon race. the teachers told them if they dropped it they could just pick it up and keep running. hayden did drop it, but not too often. he dropped it right when he was crossing the finish line (he came in first) and was then told by the teacher that he lost because he dropped it. even though some of the other kids were holding theirs the entire time. hayden didn't mind, he was ready to move to the next station:

the three legged race. this one cause a few tears amongst some of the participants. hayden did NOT come in first for this one, but after awhile they ended up getting the hang of it. for the most part.:


hayden and aiden:
crab soccer. again, hayden's team won all but 1 round of this one. most of the kids would jump up and run over to the ball and then get back in the crab position if the ball was too far away. they seemed to love this one and only 2 or 3 kids got hurt.:


kickball. nobody was ever tagged out when hayden's team was kicking. not because their kicks were that great, but because nobody had a clue what to do. when their kicking turns were over, hayden ended up getting about 3 people out. eventually he tried getting them out by simply tagging them, even if he didn't have the ball.:


the wet sponge. the kids had to soak a sponge, run back and fill up a bucket. the other team beat hayden's team by literally 1/2 a second.:

the obstacle course. the kids had to jump through squares, crawl through a tunnel, ride the bike around the cones, walk on stilts, jump over hurdles and then jump on a ball. most of the kids, along with hayden, decided it was easier to ride the bike straight and forget the cones.:
blacktop. the kids moved to the blacktop where they got their snack (a popsicle) and then could play with jump ropes, balls, chalk, clay, or make bubbles.:
the blow up obstacle course. hayden totally killed on this one. and then had his first and only breakdown of the day because he didn't get a second turn.:

sack race. yet another race in which hayden won. he didn't even fall a single time.:



the award ceremony. hayden was so excited that his medal said "#1" and "winner" on it and kept asking what everyone else's said. i don't think he wanted to believe that they all said "#1 winner.":

green light day

hayden's class has a "light" chart for their behavior. at the beginning of the day they all start on green. they then get a warning and then the lights begin to change. yellow, double yellow, then red. the day before school started, during the class orientation, the teacher let us know that on a red light day, the students would have a note sent home regarding what they did. she then followed it up with a "but there really aren't very many of those." i laughed inside and thought....oh this year is going to change her life.
hayden has had a pretty difficult time getting green lights. but the red light days have come quite easy to him. awhile ago we made a policy at home. if he got a green light he would get a quarter. if he got a green light all week he would get a total of $2.00 for the week. dave would also give him a "squish, zerbert, tickle" which seemed to work even more then the quarter. if he got a yellow light, nothing would happen to him but he wouldn't get the quarter. a double yellow meant he had to take a short nap/rest and would lose video games. and a red light day meant he had to take a longer nap/rest and would lose video games, shows and movies. at one point we had so many red days we then took away desserts and treats for the day.
last week jessica and justin were in town. that thursday jessica texted me and said that if i wanted to bribe him, i could tell hayden that if he got a green light jessica would take him swimming at a friends house. i didn't mention the swimming part because i knew i wasn't going to go swimming and i just didn't know what would happen so i left it as "we'll do something super fun if you get a green light."
jessica and justin came over a bit before hayden got home from school. i figured he wouldn't be coming home with a green light since bribes usually don't work with him and, let's face it, i'm just a glass half empty kind of person.
a little after 12 he comes jumping off of the bus and informs us he did, in fact, get a green light that day. we all had decided we didn't want to go swimming so we had to come up with something to do. i thought about putt putt or ice cream and then thought....why not chuck e. cheese. we've never taken hayden and he's always talked about it from commercials.
so we all packed up and headed to chuck e. cheese for lunch and video games. the whole ride there, hayden was telling me about how cool this place is and how parents can "relax." more commercial talk.
the boys both loved it. talan fell in love with a little car ride where he sat next to chuck e. cheese and it would snap his picture. i put him on a barney ride that was more or less exactly like it, but he jumped off before the ride was even over and asked for the mouse ride again.
we ate pizza, watched the chuck e. cheese stage show...which both of the boys LOVED, played video games, rode roller coaster rides and ended the day with some cotton candy.
we talked all about how when you are good, you get to do fun things. after the long weekend, he went back to school and got a yellow yesterday. not too bad, i guess.
only 2 more weeks so we'll try to get as many green lights as possible so he can go and buy something with all of his quarters.

riding a roller coaster:
talan's favorite ride:

who's this guy?!:





riding the gemini:


the virtual roller coaster. talan LOVED it and would just lay on jessica (but he wouldn't lay on me). hayden then went on it 3 or 4 times:
it took a lot to keep talan off of the stage: