spring break 2009!

hayden is just finishing up with his spring break week which was a VERY busy week indeed. no trips filled with sunshine and beaches, but we did visit the dr. office several times (never for him), he went to a gifted school in livonia to have some testing done (he was testing to see if he can get in to that school for next year...results to come probably this coming week), had a sleepover at grandma and grandpa's house, went to see monsters vs. aliens 3d with his pal ellanore and went to see a fireflight show.
i'll post some fireflight pictures on the main blog, but here are a couple of pictures from the movie:




hayden and ella dancing at the end of the movie:

hayden's first big house experience

on saturday, dave and hayden went to ann arbor with chadd and ashton to watch the spring something-or-other u of m football game. it was free which meant it was the perfect game to take hayden to for the first time to see how he liked it.
apparently hayden was so excited that he hardly stopped to take a breathe while talking the ENTIRE time in the car. then when dave and hayden got out of the car to run into a store real quick, hayden was literally bouncing while standing next to dave. the lady ringing them up looked at him and said "excited are you?" and hayden said "yes! this is going to be the biggest day EVER!"
from conversations i've had with hayden, he seems to have really enjoyed himself. although dave did tell me that he really just wanted to run up and down the stands. which comes as no shock to anyone that knows him. he also really loved the popcorn.
i asked hayden who won the game and he told me "both the blue and the white did. it was 28 to 28." i had no idea why in the world a game would end in a tie so i decided in order to write this blog i would need to ask dave if that was correct. and i'd also need to ask him who michigan played against.
it turns out it did end in a tie. and u of m played against u of m. really?!
so i guess they enjoyed themselves and are already planning on going back next year when they will go way too early to take a tour of the locker rooms and some other football related stuff. who knows, maybe talan will even go.

i guess these are brand new press boxes. exciting, huh?!:

kindergarten photo

apparently having your picture taken once per school year isn't enough, so lifetime photos came and took a "spring" round of photos. i just ignored the letter and didn't even think about it again until hayden came home with his photos that were available to purchase. he was standing with his arms crossed and actually a very nice smile in front of a spring backdrop. hayden asked "i wonder where i was?"
included in the package was a picture of his whole class. instead of buying it for $12, i had dave scan it. so here it is:

bingo for books

march was reading month which meant we did a lot of reading and reading activities around the house. one of the activities was bingo for books at hayden's school on march 20th.
dave stayed home with talan while hayden and i went to his school to play. neither one of us had very good luck, but in the end, all of the kids were able to turn in their 2 tickets (and their parents 2 tickets) to pick out some new books.
hayden also entered another webkinz raffle but this time he wasn't so lucky with that either. he started to have a bit of a meltdown telling me it wasn't fair, but he very quickly stopped and then happily read me one of his new books on the way home.
he seemed to have a good time even though he never really was able to shout "bingo!" and he got 4 great new books out of the deal.

ready to win some books:
we eventually started playing on 3 boards instead of 2 and we still couldn't win:
doing his best impression of the cover of one of his new books:

fuel '09

northridge church had a glow in he dark event called "fuel" for the k/1 and their families. dave had already made plans with a group of people to go see the watchmen movie so i was on my own with the two boys.
we got to the church where they had a pizza dinner and then the kids were able to make little "puppets" where they would color them, put stickers and glue other things on them that would glow in the dark for the main event. hayden did an ok job eating his pizza...only so he could eat his brownie. and talan only ate the pepperoni, carrots and brownie.
we ran into our friend leon and his daughter noelle, so that was nice to be able to hang with someone we actually knew.
after the kids made their puppets, we headed upstairs for glow in the dark tattoos and then we were seated for the glow in the dark puppet show.
i was told at the beginning of the evening that they wanted me to park my stroller upstairs as it was so crowded. that only lasted through dinner and then i finally had to go get it. talan is just not a kid that will stick near you. and i could never be a single parent to these two!!!
the puppet show was a little long and hayden was getting kind of restless, but we made it through and then headed home. i asked hayden what his favorite part of the evening was and he said "the brownie!"
i guess the past several years about 60-70 families have gone to this event. this year, there were over 150. they said there were over 600 people there! we had a good time and it's nice to be getting a little more involved at the church. hayden seems to really enjoy it and was even stopped by several of his teachers whom he gave hugs to.
on our way home, i stopped off at 7-11 to pick up some slurpees as we were all really thirsty. hayden had fallen asleep in the car but quickly woke up to drink his "frozen drink." then unfortunately, hayden ended up getting sick early saturday morning and he's been down and out ever since. poor kid!
here are a few pictures of our evening. not too many as i had my hands a bit full with tray's of food and a busy talan!

making their glow in the dark stick puppets:

the finished products:

noelle and hayden:
leon, noelle, hayden and talan waiting for the puppet show:
maybe i should have realized earlier that he was getting sick...:

talan loved my slurpee:

first attempt at a 2-wheeler

the other week we loaded up the car with the hummer and hayden's bike so that they could ride around dave's shop after church. we let hayden ride his bike for a little bit before we took the training wheels off and had him attempt to ride a 2-wheeler.
he was not happy about it and used the words "i can't" more than i thought was possible.
hayden has always been really smart and things have just always come to him without much work on his part. so if he comes across something that he can't do immediately, he tends to give up right away.
i do think he had it for about a split second, but that was about it for attempt number one. hopefully we'll start getting some nicer weather so he can practice and be up and running by late spring!





dave showing how not frustrating it is to work with hayden:


i think this is around the time dave let go for a split second:

cold day

today hayden had a cold day from school. not a snow day. a cold day. when i woke up it was -12 and that was without the windchill. apparently most places around here were between -25 and -30 with the windchill. monroe was at -38! so that equals no school for over 100 school districts.
hayden has not been to school on a friday since before christmas break. he had a snow day on the friday that was to be his last day of school before break and his streak has continued. i realized he won't go to school on a friday at all this month as next friday he has off for teacher records day and the next friday he will be going back to the dentist to have a tooth pulled and some cavities filled. friday is his library and show and tell day but he hasn't seemed to mind having those days off.
yesterday we went out to a few stores and when we went to target i stopped by the toy aisle to see if they had marked anything down further. mainly this magnext icoaster that hayden had asked for for christmas. it was the one thing that he commented on on christmas. "santa didn't get me the magnet roller coaster!" no, santa did not, because said magnet roller coaster was $90.
i had noticed target marked it down the other week but it was still $66. so yesterday i saw it and it was down to $22. so hayden used some of his birthday and christmas money to buy it.
when dave got home and after we all ate dinner last nite, we all headed to hayden's bedroom so that we could set it up. he was able to play with it for a bit before bed. and when he went to bed, we took out the power supply to ensure he would not be playing with it when he should be sleeping.
so this morning at 7am he comes into our room saying "mom, it's 7 o'clock. so i can play with my roller coaster now, right?" so off he went to his room to set it all up.
i got up around 7:20 to find that he was dressed, but had not eaten. so he headed into the kitchen for some breakfast asking me "do i have school today?" and at that time i thought he did. so he says "ahhhh. but i want to stay home and play with my roller coaster!"
i head downstairs and check my email and find that he, in fact, does not have school. when i told him this, his face lit up and he said " i told you i didn't have school! no wait. no i didn't. but now i can play with my roller coaster!!!" it was the perfect day for him to have an unexpected day off.
at noon, he was still in his room and i called him out for lunch. he told me he was setting up a new one and he would eat when he was done. at 12:40, he finally came out.
this is the greatest toy EVER!!!!!