Simple Pleasures: Chess Club...

We started a new year of Chess Club at the boys' school in early October. We had 28 students sign up. Every single student who came last year came back and then their friends joins. So exciting. It's a little intimidating managing all those kids but thankful that a teacher has volunteered to help me out in exchange that her daughter gets to play with us. I'll take it!

These kids love playing chess some much that it's a dream to be a part of their excitement in a game that's so good for not only their brains but for their social skills as well.

Also on a completely different note... I find random notes from Oliver a treat to find. This one he wrote a reminder to himself not to speak the following day. I think he was mad at us about something and was going to give us the silent treatment. The next day was the day he had huge behaviors and was suspended from school.

Mountain Biking...

Friday of MEA weekend was glorious weather. The boys and I decided we needed to spend the day outside. So we loaded up our bikes and took off for an adventure. I have to say, after almost 12 years as a one car family, it's been pretty nice to have a second car to go adventuring with the boys (and getting myself back and forth to all the school buildings I work in this year).

We headed to Theodore Wirth Park in Golden Valley because I did a little research the night before and found they had a singletrack (aka a mountain bike path). It was a little hard to find until I downloaded a map of it exact location (very helpful- thanks google). We decided to try the shortest loop this time since it was our first time ever offroading with our bikes.

The boys loved it! I thought it was pretty amazing too. I loved the wooden bridges and swooshing in between trees. I did not love all the rocks and obstacles though. Lucius was super brave and tried most of them. Oliver was smart and walked over/ down/ around them. I tried one downhill rock thing after Lucius successfully traversed it, I however was not successful and went over my handle bars. I landed without bleeding- but messed up my back a little. I decided I liked Oliver's plan on all future obstacles.

Besides a few falls, I think we managed just fine. I hope we can try it again sometime! We made it safely back to the car to have a picnic lunch.

Then it was off to a nearby obstacle course. Unfortunately, the place was PACKED. We tried a few of the obstacles but decided there were too many people to enjoy it.

So we drove home, only to stop at a local playground with some friends first. Then off to their house to play. After dinner the boys got invited to another neighbors house for a PJ movie night. Gosh I love our community!! I don't think we could have crammed more fun stuff into one day if we tried.

An Art Park adventure...

One Saturday we decided to go on a family adventure. A hike in the woods sounded amazing. We went to Capote Art Park and walked their trails, then went to the other side of the road to hike more into the woods. Everyone in our family is so much more focused, relaxed and energized when we spend time in nature. If only the boys could go to a school that spent 90% of their day in a forest life would be amazing.

Lucius' Fall Soccer...

Lucius loves soccer and wanted to play on a team this fall. He wanted to play real games on a real soccer field. Of course we missed ALL the try outs for all the U9 leagues he would be eligible to play on. They were all held in July but started in September. Thankfully we reached out to a team and they had one spot available for him. Whew. He practiced every Monday and Wednesday for 10 weeks. On the weekends he had one or two games. It was a LOT of soccer and he loved every minute of it.

True to most games we dragged Oliver to, he ignored the game completely. The last game Oliver and I went to watch I brought a friend of Oliver's with us. They spent the whole time on the playground or with their noses in their books.

Survival mode continued...

Lucius gets invited to just about every kids birthday party. Which is a bit sad for Oliver because he doesn't get invited to any really. I'm quite sad for him, its sad being left out and watching his brother go to so many different places. One party was at the Big Thrill Factory. Oliver and I dropped him off there and were going to go on a little outing of our own but the mom (a friend of mine) said she had an extra ticket for Oliver to stay if he wanted to. It was so super nice, I let him stay. Of course, that meant I had to stay to watch Oliver because the place was a sensory overload waiting to happen. He had a blast- with some minor setbacks that my friend helps avert. But then all at once it became too much. We left Lucius there to enjoy the rest of the party and I took Oliver home to relax.

We drove to Olivia, MN one Sunday to celebrate Grandma Great Gloria's 90th birthday.

We had ice cream and cookies one night because Oliver had a non-violent school day (from what I gathered), walked away from an argument, talked to a teacher about a problem, cooled off away from the crowd (even though he missed lunch), got through a whole STEAM project after school without behaviors and told the truth. He had lunch in the principal's office but I heard that was only because he missed his regular lunch time, not because he was in trouble.

Oliver and I occasional get the chance to go shopping together. I LOVE spending time with him while picking out clothes. Especially when he's helping me find clothes for myself. He could make anyone feel good about their outfit choices. And since he makes me happy about myself, I occasional end up buying him something nice. He loved this sweater... so I bought it for him. He's wore it almost non-stop since we got it.

Oliver with his neighborhood girl friends. I love our neighborhood of close friends.

The boys spent a long time raking the leaves in the front yard. Then spent a really long time one evening making a leaf fort with both neighbor boys and two neighbor girls while the parents ignored them to watch the fire I built in the backyard. While texting my neighbors to come over an ash fell on my foot and burned a whole in my shoe. It was just another bad thing in my list of bad things that happened that week. But a Friday night bonfire with friends was a lot cheaper way to cheer up than therapy. So I'll deal with it.

We went to STEAM one afternoon because it was egg drop day. We went last time and both boy's eggs broke in the fall. This time they both had improved egg drop carrier plans. I only helped blow up the balloons and tie the knots in the string as I was instructed. they built them all by themselves and both eggs survived the two story drop. Impressive. Oliver accidentally broke his egg after the drop but Lucius brought his home. While sitting around the dinner table I remembered to ask him where he put his egg. I'm glad I did because he told me he put it with all his trophies downstairs in his room. Apparently he wanted to keep it forever. That would have been a very smelly surprise to find one day.

I took Lucius to a grant proposal meeting the end of September. We are asking for some grant money to expand our growing chess club. He wore his chess club shirt and listened. Then they asked him one question: why do you like chess club? He thought for a long time, feeling rather shy, (I never expected he would actually answer them)... finally he quietly answers "Because it helps my brain". Wow, I love that kid! He is amazing.

And that just about fills in our Sept & October. At least the parts I will want to remember. The drama and emotional stress I'd rather not relive.