Culture

I am invited! Fancy invitation scroll.

 

When one of my students invited me to her Quinceañera, I thought it was a perfect opportunity to introduce James to more church and part of his culture. I had never been to one so I was pretty excited. I kinda knew what to expect, but then I didn't.

I didn't expect a hot pink, black, and animal print dress. It was quite beautiful and so very Sabrina.

 

The church ceremony was quite long. I was very proud of James for sitting still and respectfully for over an hour. He prayed for Sabrina and I was proud again.

 

 

We also went to the reception in Coon Rapids. There was a formal entry, a waltz, and then some paired dancing.

 

I grubbed on some Mexican food and Modelo beer. James didn't really enjoy the food (too spicy for him) but he loved the tortillas and ate some rice. We ended up sitting with some other former students (these girls were out of high school now!) and their parents. So we weren't alone. James even made a friend. One of the girls was even a Mario Bros fan so she and James watched videos on her phone and talked Mario. He was in heaven.

 

I was very happy to be part of my student's day! And very happy that James got to experience this with me. I'm sorry that the church ceremony was too long and he now thinks "church is too long". We'll have to find a fun, shorter service for him to enjoy some other time!

One day I hope he might even get asked to be in the court of honor! I'd love to see him do some traditional dancing..

 

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Surprise!

One summer day when James was busy watching a show or playing his Wii game, I half hid behind my chair and assembled Legos.

I surprised him with Mario.

 

I was inspired by this 8 bit art in Paris.

 

I think I did good!

#Momoftheyear

James loved it! It's still intact and displayed in his room.

 

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Winner winner chicken dinner

James competed in a Lego contest this summer. I won't tell you how he did until the end. Just know there is a happy ending :)

James and his display. He made a battle scene.

 

The competition--

 

 

 

James voted for himself. All the kids did. James said a few people told him that they would vote for him.

 

Oh look! Two voters :) Tia ChaCha and Tio Rich came to support James. Thank you :)

 

James had to present his display to the judges.

 

The prizes.

 

Oh! And he won! He won the random drawing. Not the votes. Or the judge's choice. But the random draw. Hey, we'll take it!

 

James told me in the car that he think he won because he prayed for it. Okay.

 

And we have a helicopter!

 

It was a great experience. Next year we'll spend lots of time on our display and get Judge's Choice!

 

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No more freebies

There was a time that we could present ourself the Victory Links clubhouse and ask to golf. They'd wave us in because they'd think it was so cute that a four, five year old wanted to golf. They didn't know he could do all 18 holes and keep his focus.

But now that he's six we don't get freebies. I had to PAY for this round of golf. Happily!

This was right about the time that James said he wanted to be pro. I told him that professionals like Tiger Woods make millions of dollars, when they win tournaments. But you need to practice a lot.

So off to practice...!

 

 

 

 

 

What fun. We haven't really practiced much since. I think he now wants to be Chuggaconroy.

 

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Local Fun

One of the ideas we've always tossed around is taking a spin in a paddle boat on our very local man-made lake. We aren't frequent visitors of the lake. We're close enough to walk, but it's a haul if you're carrying beach supplies. James isn't confident enough on his bike yet to make the journey, so we usually drive to the beach.

So we rented our paddleboat for the hour. I very quickly realized I'd be doing all the work on this venture. James could reach the pedals, but not easily. He also tires pretty quickly.

 

Jim was at home, working. But he decided to take a walk around the lake and captured the picture below from a bridge. Hi Dad!

We probably only paddled around for about half the hour. It was a lot of work!

 

We spent some time at the playground. It was a perfect weather day.

 

I was sitting on the ground and taking these pictures of James. It was pretty fun.

Different color effects.

 

 

Pretty cool picture for a cool kid!

 

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Fancy Golf & Lunch date

There is a golf course at the Minneapolis Sculpture garden. We'd been wanting to take James because he loves a good mini golf course. It was a beautiful day, I felt like summer was coming to an end, so we went.

There had to be a Cherry Spoon pic. I wanted to shoo those people away, but eh. Whatever.

 

This golf outing was pretty expensive. It really is a one-time only experience. The course was pretty creative and amazing though. Lots of thought went into it, lots of artist contribution. Some of it went over James' head. He just wanted to GOLF.

 

 

 

 

This hole was a play on perspective. Like an Alice in Wonderland little room.

 

 

Funny faces. Gotta love 'em.

 

 

 

Oh no! #gnomebomb!

 

 

A nice picture with my beautiful son!

 

After lunch we headed to Rye Deli in Uptown. I just bought a fabulous Groupon that morning and I was happy they took it soon. We feasted. Really. I said no to nothing. There is a giant cookie in the picture to prove that :)

 

On the way home we decided to make his Dad happy and vaccum out the car. Ha! I think James earned 50 cents for that.

 

Another great day with my James!

 

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