Whittling at KVI

E likes to whittle at the beach. He looks for driftwood sticks and turns them into driftwood spears. He is responsible for probably all the driftwood spears to be found scattered about at KVI. We like to throw rocks into the water, of course. And compete for the biggest splash. And dig rivers into which we transplant crabs. But nothing really compares to whittling.

Big

Day one of health class called for a current photo of D. Which, when I actually looked at it, blew me away. I know it wasn't overnight, but somehow looking at this particular picture startled me. D is big. He's big and yes there's kid in that picture and every picture shows a different person, but something about this one just looked so like the future, who he will be for the next little while.

blueish

licorice ice cream smeared all over the mouth is extremely cool. Apparently. Not to mention standing under the Señor Frog's sign. I don't know.

Pirate Party

Here's a bunch of Pirates bouncing safely on a friend's trampoline at a fun football party we attended recently. E is the kid in the bandanna jumping highest. D is off in the corner in orange trying to mess up little kids' bounces. The girls on the ground are steaming because the boys are hogging the whole thing.

13

On D's birthday, he and D battled for the title of "I can Beat You One on One" champion, a title still held, if lightly, by the father. Note height advantage.
More importantly, see those red markings on the garage, and see the way the garage door buckles and is missing chunks of paint? The latter come from years of basketball against flimsy wall. The red is duct tape, cleverly employed to hide the holes bashed through the wood by speeding lacrosse balls. Yeesh.

Another year, another movie party

Yeah, standing on the roof at the movie theater while you're waiting for all your friends to show up at the movie party is a decent way to celebrate your 11th birthday. Invited guests included the football team and then, of course, the posse. Like that. You can get up and change seats whenever you want, and go to the bathroom. All your friends can sing happy birthday to you at the end of the movie.

Break broke

First offensive play of the season, ping, E's pinky snaps just above the growth plate caught in a helmet or a jersey or who knows what. It blows up like a balloon by mid afternoon, so we're thinking it's not just a bruise. The doctor xrays it and tapes it up, splints it, wraps it, and so. It hurts. And it's blue.

Boy Love

These boys. They just adore each other. They act really crazy with each other and scrap around and call each other names and fight and laugh and tell me it's ok they're ok with it. This day D and P sit on E a lot, and E likes it.

Finally the hammock

After waiting for bloody ever for me to pull it off, E finally has his hammock hanging from here to there in his room, perfect for reading, playing video games, napping.

Can I Try?

Quiet moment with guitar. And P. Who wants a turn.

Star

It's a football thing. At this moment, he didn't know that his number would be, once again, 55. So he went with the star. Which, he was pretty horrified to see, was completely carved out rather than nice little lines (so much more subtle). Grew in mercifully fast.

U11 team

Meanwhile, summer league ball, first tournament in … Enumclaw. E at bat. Slam. But the really cool thing was that before and after the game, E would convene the team by hollering out in his husky, sandy, grinning tenor "Vashonites Assemble!" and they would all gather into a huddle and jump up and down with their hands together and chant "hoo! hoo! hoo! hoo! Vashon!" in a manner most heroic.

Feed Me

I am starving. I am so hungry. There's nothing to eat. What is there to eat? Can I eat that? I am so hungry.

Birthdays

P arrived with GN and GH in early August. His birthday comes first in the triple birthday month for the cousins. C made it to Vashon just in time for the festivities. P was pretty pleased with his haul, and really got into the challenges, little games D comes up with for the kids play between opening presents. Cousin K made it out for the day, bonded with the boys, and headed off into the sunset (always sunset). There was so much sugar the boys really couldn't keep up. But worked it. It's blackberry season, so there's great cobbler that tastes sweet and sour and smells lovely, and goes with piles of whipped cream. Just days away from entering his teen years, peer deprived on this family day and between protein and sporty activity fixes, D's enthusiasm wanes as the party rolls along.

Summertimes 2007

The big Strawberry Festival parade looks different when you're in it. This year, D and his baseball team marched along on the hot pavement, holding out hats for their league. D has the touch, and raked in a couple of hundred dollars on his own. That's what they tell me. I wouldn't know for sure, since Eand I were on the Vashon Pirate Youth Football (get used to that name, it's going to pop up everywhere: VPYF) float, a totally pimped out truck and flatbed with a pretty impressive field on the flatbed, and bleachers for the fans (me, other moms, Y rode with me, some cheering girls) were perched about 8' up on a heaping, shifting pile of gravel. Yes, the VPYF float was sponsored by the evil and most despised corporation to rumble its way onto Vashon, Glacier Northwest http://www.glaciernw.com/ which threatens to transform Maury Island into a gravel pit and oh lord it's just too irritating and depressing to go into here but you can read all about it in the paper. Anyway, so there we all were, sitting on gravel, representing the loved-or-loathed football program (on Vashon, football is a pretty controversial sport) and people lining the parade route were downright hostile at times. But the kids were having a great time and oblivious to the political twist. The truck, which I didn't really get a good look at before climbing aboard, was described by many as a menacing thing, a rolling Darth Vadar. Lah di dah. Lah di dah. I waved to my friends. E and his friends ran plays at the stops. Y sat mesmerized, enjoying the big girls and their cheering.