Big day for Reggie

Reggie qualified for the one mile challenge at Rancho again and the race was this morning!  It was perfect weather, not too hot and not too cold.  He seemed a bit nervous this year, probably because he was running with the big kids.  They have 2 heats, Kinder, 1st and 2nd grade and his heat, 3rd, 4th and 5th grade.  They took off sprinting and the strong runners didn't stop running fast!  After about 1/2 lap, kids started falling by the way side and Reggie was passing quite a few.  He was really pushing himself.  There were some amazing 5th grade girls who I think ran less than a 6 minute mile!  Reggie was about 15 feet behind the fastest 3rd grader and with a half lap to go, he made his move and as soon as he caught Gabe, the little guy kicked it into high gear and Reggie gassed.  There was an older boy ahead of both of them, so he ended up finishing in 3rd place.  It was a really exciting race and his time was 6:24, so he beat his time from last year by 18 seconds!  Way to go Reggie!!!  I think he was a bit disappointed because he beat Gabe the day before, but I was so happy that he left it all out there and gave it all he had.  I made sure he knew that we were so proud of him for doing his best :o).
It is always fun to watch the little ones push themselves because they run a lot at school, but not as fast as they can.  The look on their faces said, "I'm in some serious pain and I don't know why this is such a cool thing!".  One of Reggie's buddies was in tears because he couldn't breath.  Reggie said he felt like he was going to die!  It was all better when dad popped in at lunch and surprised him with a Subway sandwich.  Don't worry, Ainsley got one too :o).

Then tonight, Reggie had a cub scout pack meeting and he moved up to a Webelo.  He is going to camp this year for 5 nights in August!  I'm very glad his den leader is going...she will do a great job watching over them.

Reggie also had a field trip this week that I got to chaperone.  We took a walking tour of downtown Livermore and learned a lot about its history and saw many of the old buildings.  The oldest building was built in 1865 and is still occupied and being used.  It was really interesting to learn that there were a lot of wineries and breweries in the early/mid 1900's and thanks to the Catholic church, the big wineries made it through prohibition.  Who knew?  I was really glad I got to go and learn about things I drive by all the time and never give them a second thought  :o).

Open House

This is a yearly event at Rancho where the kids get to showcase what they've been working on for the year.  They were very proud of their work and couldn't wait to show me all of their art projects and reports.  We also visited the science rooms which had all kinds of experiments and activities for the kids to do.  Reggie and Ainsley were very bummed that Ryan was out of town, but Ainsley woke up at 5:30 in the morning, excited to show him all of her creations.  Between the 3 of them, we have stacks of school treasures.
Ainsley, with her teacher, Mrs. Givens:

 Reggie, with his teacher, Ms. Kasman (she used to be the science teacher, so he loves her!):

K has his day!!

K's last day of preschool was Thursday and they had a nice brunch and provided some entertainment for us

 :o).  This is the first time I have seen the preschool do songs like these with just a few students at a time and it was a lot more fun to watch.  He was the crocodile getting the monkeys out of the tree (absolutely perfect for him!):

They kept his best artwork and put it together in a nice bound book.  The biggest difference was the drawing of himself at the beginning of the year, which wasn't even a shape, which at the end of the year was a circle with eyes and legs.  It was quite an improvement!  His teachers are still amazed how far he has come this year.  Remember, the fall was when he was having all of his transition issues, so when they met him, his behavior was at its worst.  They (and we) are very happy that he has mellowed out!

Triathlon and more.....

Today was a first for Livermore and for the kids.  It was the 1st Triathlon they've put on and it was great.  They had a good turnout, about 70 kids, ranging from 5-13.  Reggie was in the 9-10 year age group and he rocked it.  He was the first one out of the water, but got beat in the transition by a very experienced racer and then was trying to play catch up the rest of the time.  It was so fun to see his competitiveness really come out and he ended up finishing just seconds behind the other racer.  The other boy came up and shook Reggie's hand afterward :o).  He did tell me tonight that his legs felt really funny when he tried to run after biking.  I said, "Yeah, kinda like your legs are bricks!".
Here's Reggie swimming fast:

Ainsley hasn't had nearly as much swim experience, so it was a bit more challenging.  We also probably
should have put her on her small bike because she said she was tired.  She booked it on the run though!

They were both happy to be done!  We took them out for a nice frozen yogurt treat after lunch :o).

These kinds of activities are really important for Reggie because he is so closed minded about trying new things.  He didn't really put up a fight this time and we talked about track and field next February and he seemed open to it, even thinking he might like to try high jump!  

His teacher has done a good job of getting him out of his comfort zone.  They had a play last week and he was the mechanic and had a few lines in the play.  He did great and I'm not sure which was more entertaining, watching Reggie or watching Ainsley.  She was so proud of him and got all excited when he said his lines correctly and did his robot moves and sang his songs.

They also had a dance assembly on Friday that we went to and it was pretty fun to watch.  Reggie was easy to spot....just standing still as everyone was moving around him.  Ainsley was watching and trying to learn the movements :o).  It was also Rancho's 40th birthday party, so they had a BBQ and special ceremony and more dancing!

The weather here has been really mild, mid to high 70's with a few scorcher days in there, but we've been enjoying the outdoors a lot.  We went to a new park where the kids got to ride their scooters, but they decided to roll down the hills.  We discovered about an hour later that Reggie and Ainsley have a pretty severe reaction to grass and they had red marks and were itchy all night.  The drama girl freaked out and didn't want to take a shower, but she did and it wasn't too bad.  K didn't really seem affected by the grass, lucky boy!

Gymnastics

Last week Ainsley was invited to do team.  We are kinda split on this....I'm not so sure, but Ryan wants to see what she can do and Ainsley wants to move up because all her friends are moving up.  So, we are going to give it a try for the month of May.  M/W/F/S for 2 hours.  It is quite a commitment and also rather expensive, so we'll see how this goes.  She is loving it more and more, but we will wait and see what she thinks at the end of the month.
She had a fall on the trampoline the other night that was really scary and I thought that might be the end of gymnastics, but she seems to be fine.  Here's a fun little video: