Thursday-Sunday

Put on your reading glasses, grab a drink, butter the popcorn, and get ready to spend at least 4½ minutes reading this...

Thursday:
On Thursday, Jaydon played in the All-Star game for baseball. There are 9 teams in the Shetland Division, and 2 children from each of the 9 teams were asked to play in the All-Star game. Jaydon & Ayden (our neighbor who was also in Jaydon's class) played. Jaydon did pretty well...considering the circumstances. Let me explain...
Jaydon woke up at 6:30 AM on Thursday, and then went to Aba's house since I had to work. While at Aba's, there were 3 older boys there aged 8, 10 & 12. So what did Jaydon do ALL day long? Play, play play! On the trampoline, with video games, running, jumping, wrestling. If Jaydon wakes up before about 7:30, he needs a nap - no if, ands, or buts about it. So Jaydon played all day long, didn't even think about napping, and when Jeremy went to pick him up to take him to the game, we knew we were in trouble. He was starving, but he was so tired that he didn't want to eat. He didn't say one word the entire way to the game. Then when we got there, he was literally sleeping while standing. He could hardly hold his bat up (no energy from being tired and hungry!) and he was running SO slowly. By the grace of God, he got a hit both times up to bat, and by some miracle from above, he also scored 2 runs and never got out. These kids out there were SERIOUSLY All-Stars. They were intense, concentrating, and making plays that even the Major League guys don't make! All of the children on our team were just finishing Kindergarten or First Grade, so like always, Jaydon & Ayden were the 2 youngest. Ayden did AWESOME though - he is truly an athlete. The games are 1 hour & 15 minutes and after almost an hour, we just left. We told the All-Star coach that Jaydon was beat, and he didn't say anything to us. It's not like Jaydon was doing anything while he was playing defense anyway. He did get a cute trophy to add to his collection that reads: "NAYA-All-Star 2008" (NAYA is the name of the league) so that was exciting. Hopefully, he just gets better throughout the years to come!

Friday:
I have promised myself that every Friday this Summer, I will take Jaydon to the library for story time. Well, I found out this week that they have story time at 11:15, or they have some "cool Summer activity" from 2-3. Friday's activity was a magic show. I asked Jaydon if he wanted to go to story time or to the magic show, and of course, he picked the latter.
Andrea dropped Ashleigh off over here after lunch, and we left to the magic show around 1:30. It was cute. I think the kids enjoyed it, but it wasn't overly exciting by any means. The guy that performed was a kids comedian/magician, and I think some of the stuff was corny and more for a 7-8 year old audience versus a 5-year old audience. Anyway, the kids watched and after that, we went through the library and I let them pick out books and DVD's. Jaydon LOVES to read books, and he is actually reading quite a bit on his own already, so I don't want him to lose that over the Summer.
We also did our 6 stations Friday morning. I set up 6 different activities at the dining room table and I have him do each of them with me supervising. It takes about an hour. Some of them are games to help with his speech, others are educational things, and then I always have a craft. I have to keep the brain cells of my intelligent boy moving. I also do this with him on Wednesdays - my other day off.
Jaydon's number & letter knowledge just amazes me. He is so smart! I am trying to teach him his address & phone number this Summer. I have a list of the things that are taught in Kindergarten in the Birdville school district, and once he learns those 2 things, how to tie his shoe, and all of the parts of a book, there isn't much that Kindergarten will teach him - education wise. So hopefully if he knows all of that, he can concentrate on social skills. I just hope that he isn't too bored, and doesn't start talking at the wrong times. According to his Pre-K teacher this year though, "Jaydon never talked." So we'll just see what Kindergarten brings...

Saturday:
Jeremy washed both of our cars on Saturday - they both DESPERATELY needed it - while I cleaned up inside. We had his company picnic from 4-9. We had decided that Jacoby was just too small to be at a function like that for 5 hours and in the 95º heat, so thank GOD for Aba to watch him. Our goal was to leave the house by 3:45 and we left at 4:10...let me just say that 25-minute delay is REALLY good for our family who lives by the golden rule: "It's okay to be fashionably late." (Let me clarify: I am NEVER late taking my son to school, for doctor appointments, or work.)
So we drop Jacoby off and then head to the picnic. We arrived at 5:00 and there were only about 12 cars there. There are about 150 employees at Jeremy's branch in Grapevine, so needless to say, we are not the only ones with the "it's okay to be late" thought process. They held the picnic at The Lonesome Dove Ranch off the shores of Lake Grapevine. They've had it there before, and it is our favorite place. They had 9-holes of miniature golf, a zip line, pony rides, a huge inflatable jumpy/slide thing, another jump house inside, ping-pong, and then the planned kids activities with a barbecue dinner & free drinks (alcoholic beverages included) and BINGO at the end of the night. Jaydon loved everything and even participated in the kids stuff. His team won the little relay race which was cool. He picked a jump rope out of the prize box for that win. They had a water balloon toss and I got soaked, but it was a nice way to cool off.
Then they had a horse derby where the branch voted on the top 6 "favorite" employees. Ameet was one of the 6, and they all had to race on these fake horses. The winner got a certain amount of points, and that was added to the points for however many people voted for you. Well, Ameet won the whole thing. He won 2 round-trip tickets on American Airlines anywhere in the 48-continental United States, Caribbean, or Mexico...WAY cool! Amanda was saying that she was nervous about going anywhere since she's pregnant, but I tried reassuring her since she's just 12 weeks along. The 2nd trimester is the BEST time to do stuff because the "worries" of the first trimester are over, and the worries of giving birth and being big that happen in the 3rd trimester aren't there yet. I told her to ask the doctor, but that a trip this summer would do them both good! I hope they go and don't let those tickets go to waste!
So after that was BINGO...oh sweet Bingo! Let me start by saying that 2 years ago, I won $1,000 playing BINGO. (They added it on to one of Jeremy's pay checks.) So when they announced that we'd be playing for a variety of $50 gift cards, I was VERY bummed. Well, we planned on staying to play, so we did... (Thank God we did...keep reading, keep reading!)
We played a few games for just gift cards. Then Jon, the district manager, upped the ante. Not only will you win a gift card, but you will also win $500 cash! So we played a few games like that and BINGO...JAYDON WINS A $50 NIKE GIFT CARD AND $500 CASH! A few more games go by and BINGO...JEREMY WINS A $50 GIFT CARD TO KOHLS, AND $500 CASH! WOW - WAY exciting! YOU DO THE MATH!!! Our table was on fire and REALLY lucky though, because Amanda & Ameet won the airline tickets, and all but 2 people won some sort of BINGO prize. Everybody thought that Jaydon was our lucky charm. :)
So then, the ante was upped YET AGAIN for the very last game - BLACKOUT. Jon says that the winner will get $3,000 cash! WOAH now...here we go. Jaydon has only 2 spots left on his board and Jon stands up and says, "Alright, make that $5,000 cash!" WOW - we are almost there, come on now, one more, one more....then we hear "BINGO". Nope, not us - not anyone at our table. Our luck had run out, the fire was out, all hope fizzled...it was officially over. :( Oh well, it was still a LOT of fun, and we are extremely glad that we won what we did! In fact, I'm glad we won the cash and not airline tickets (not that we were in that competition) because we wouldn't have been able to use those tickets because you still have to pay for hotel, transportation, etc. etc. and we could not afford that right now.
...now hopefully that luck will continue through next weekend for The 1st Annual Lazy Race. (Details next Saturday!)

That's that! An exciting 3-days at the Rogers house! I hope I haven't bored ya to tears. It's 9:15 on Sunday morning and time to start breakfast so we can go to Wal-Mart and spend $200+ on groceries for the week.

Have a great week and I will blog at least once - promise! Enjoy the pics below!
Helpful Tip: To enlarge any picture in my blog, just click on it!
Buh-Bye...

Climbing up....

WHEE...look at that face!

Hole-in-One...watch out Tiger Woods!

Jaydon's team after winning the relay race...SWEET!