The Best Party Ever

Monday August 12th was my first day at school. He asked me why I had to go to school. I told him to learn massage and ways to make people feel better. He said, "But you already know massage! You do it here at home!"  I love that he wants us to be home together.

Tuesday evening Grandma arrived and we all attended an open house at Andrew's school to meet his new teacher and everything. On the way to dinner, Andrew asked if he could recite his talk to Grandma - and he did. (I was not happy to hear that, as I have been discouraging him from reciting it since he wouldn't know if he was saying anything wrong - Andrew needed to focus on READing it.) But Ted was pleased and impressed.

Wednesday: Finally time to give his talk on stage in front of the audience. He was excited. Several people tied in by phone just to listen to him, and some family and friends came to our meeting for it also.  He did a great job for a three year old, but he read much much better on all of his practice sessions. He got distracted by his hand sticking to the bible page, he kept looking out at the audience and grinning. He lost his place at one point near the end and ended up skipping a couple of lines.  Most people were not following along anyway, they were all beaming with joy watching him read with great enthusiasm and energy.  The conductor told us later that he followed along for the first three verses and then just closed the bible to watch. A lot of the young ones crowded around him after the meeting, some of them saying, "He reads just as well as we do!" and they are in fifth grade!
We went to Sonic with a couple of friends afterward and he got to play on their playground and eat an ice cream sundae.  When we got home, daddy gave him a wrapped present: his own Optimus Prime transformer!

Thursday Grandma and daddy got to experience his violin lesson where he learned robot arms and robot wrist for using his bow.  We went to Mellow Mushroom for pizza after that and they had live music on the square. After dinner we stayed and listened and Andrew did some fancy footwork dancing to the music. 

Saturday was our big summer splash party! We rented an inflatable bounce castle with a water slide, and also an inflatable slip and slide with a pool on the end. They were a HUGE hit! Andrew got to play for a while all by himself before lunch and a nap, and when he woke up our friends started arriving.  The only thing that didn't show up was summer. It was a high of 69 and there was a light breeze sometimes... Andrew turned blue twice! But that didn't stop any of the kids from having so much fun. There was sheer joy on all their faces. There was a lot of colliding and crashing - but no fighting or hurt feelings. Everyone played so well. When it got dark, Ted gave each of the kids sparklers to play with, and then he shot off some fireworks - also a huge hit!  More than one child, even some of the older ones, said, "This is the best party ever!!" 
Sunday August 18th, it was the most mellow all the kids in the hall have ever been.