Max's Goal

Max made a sweet goal Saturday morning (1 of 3 goals). This is a photo of the beginning of his drive downfield. Click to enlarge the photo; zoom in and you can see his laser focus.

And here is the video (apologies for my annoying yell)! Click on the YouTube logo on the bottom right to view it larger on YouTube.

NoVa Visit 04Aug2018

Over the summer, Lola and Gramps executed a severe downsize from a 5 bedroom manse to a 2 bedroom high-rise apartment. Their new building is right next to a massive mall, so Lola is in heaven. Plus, there is a swimming pool on the roof, so we had to visit straight away! Highlights of the trip include many hours in the swimming pool (sometimes we even had it to ourselves!), Lola cooking up a storm, making friends while grilling on the roof deck, ube and pandan malasadas (Portuguese by way of Hawaii doughnuts) from the coffee shop in the lobby, Lola and Gramps took the kids to a play: "You're a Good Man, Charlie Brown," Adrian and I had a date night which included watching Blindspotting, then dinner at momofuku and dessert at milk bar (yum!), Veronica losing a tooth, and dinner with Lilong and Tita Marlyn (who had just got back from Manila). It was a short but sweet trip home.

Click here to see the photos and videos from our visit to NoVa.

Acera STEM Camp, Aug 2018

One of the new camps we tried out this past summer was Acera STEM camp. STEM stands for Science, Technology, Engineering, and Math; there's currently a big push for STEM in all things kid-related. They were there for the full day all week, which means a class in the morning, and a different class in the afternoon. Veronica took DIY Robotic Toys, and Fantastical Creations & Stop Motion Animation, and Max had Messy Science and Design & Making Challenges. They both had a great time at camp and learned and experienced a lot. I wish I could send them there for more of the summer, but it's not cheap! Veronica made a few robotic toys and she also made 3 short stop motion animation videos and they're adorable! One of them is Harry Potter themed! Check them out in the album linked below.

Click here to see more photos and videos from Acera STEM camp.

July 2018

Here are a few photos from the rest of July. The highlight for me was Jose's bachelor party in Toronto. It was nice to be back in Toronto and I got to experience the Soho House for the first time. We had dinner at a friend's house and Veronica built a Rube Goldberg machine with her girlfriend Ellie. Such clever girls! We also spent a day at Wingaersheek Beach. The photos at the end are from the kids' time at Kids' Corner. Enjoy!

Click here to see more photos and videos from July 2018.

Kidstock Theater Camp, July 2018

We decided to mix it up this summer with the kids' camps. Instead of going to just Kids' Corner for the entire summer, we added weeks at MIT Sports Camp, Kidstock theater camp, and Acera STEM camp. They spent two weeks at Kidstock theater camp. The first week was regular theater, the theme was magic. The second week was musical theater and they did an adaptation of Once On This Island. They really loved theater camp, but particularly enjoyed the musical theater week. Take a look at the photos, and watch the videos of their performances in the album linked below.

Click here to see the photos and videos from their two weeks at Kidstock.

East Hampton, July 4th Week 2018

We spent the week of July 4th in East Hampton, Long Island with Ninong and Tito Erik. The drive was nicely cut in half with a ferry ride from New London, CT to Orient, NY. You drive your car onto the bottom level of the ferry, then get out and enjoy the hour-ish ride. That made the trip easier since we crammed ourselves and our bags into Adrian's new toy, I mean car. It fit right in in the Hamptons. The first half of the week Scooby and Billy were there, and the second half Jenn trained in from the city. We drank lots of rose, grilled lots of meat, and swam many hours in the fantastic heated saltwater pool. The weather was so warm, we had to turn the pool's heat off. We ate at great restaurants (the kids had the most ridiculously over-the-top make-your-own sundaes) and went to two of Jose and Erik's friends' houses for lunch/dinner and more swimming. We even had a celebrity sighting! The actor that plays Will Byers on Stranger Things sat behind me at a restaurant. Thanks for having us, Ninong and Tito Erik, we had a great time!

Click here to see the photos and videos from East Hampton.

Late June 2018

Last June was so packed with activity, I had to break it up into two photo albums. The end of June brought the end of the school year activities. This included end-of-the-year parties in both of their classes. Veronica's class studied their countries of origin at the end of the year so she got to present all of the work she's done researching the Philippines. She partnered with Loius, who is also half Filipino. Max's teacher put together a video from the school year, check it out in the photo album linked below. Max makes an appearance at 0:15, 0:37, 1:00, 1:52, 2:51, 3:15, 4:09, 4:33, 7:27 (video!), 8:46). It was great to get together with the other parents and the kids' teachers to celebrate the kids' growth. Mrs. Flaherty and Ms. Shanklin will be remember fondly. Veronica also had a Modern & Hip Hop mini-session at her dance school. At the end there was a mini-performance in both classes. It was fun to see how much she picked up in 3 hour-long classes. The end of June also brought the end of the T-ball season for Max and Veronica went to a henna tattoo birthday party. I picked her up early in hopes of getting one myself, and my plan worked! They were serving butter beer and it was delicious. There are a few photos of Max with one of the bunnies that lives in our yard. The photos at the end of the album are from Kids' Corner. Enjoy the album, the link is below.

This photos is from the last day of school. They are having a treat next to our two resident swans.

Click here to see the photos and videos from late June 2018.

Kids' Corner Newsletter: Summer Aug 13-17 2018

This week's them was Science!  There are a few photos of Veronica and Max in this newsletter. I copied and pasted them below the newsletter. Enjoy!

---------- Forwarded message ---------
From: Kids' Corner
Date: Fri, Aug 17, 2018 at 5:00 PM
Subject: 2018 News Letter Week 7

Kids Corner Summer Program 2018 Weekly Theme: Science Next Week Theme: Safari Week Enrichments: Art with Becky KCK-K Karate KCK-K Sports with Jeremy 1-2 Top Secret Science 1-2 Daily Excursions: Monday: Swimming Tuesday: Splash Parks Wednesday:KCK-K Davis Farmland. 1-5 Crane Beach Thursday: Tennis Friday: Swimming Special Events: Thursday: Animal Adventures This Week... Science! Lots of cool experiments with Todd and the Museum of Science wowed us with some Super Cold Science! The Kona Ice Truck came on Friday so we also experimented with ice flavors! Yum! Enrichments Gymnastics The kids have had a tumbling good time in gymnastics! They learned cartwheels and forward tumbles and some of them are already pros at it.  The Parachute game was also played and was a definite favorite. Mini spring boards gave the kids a chance to "fly" and go into a roll. The big doughnut mat was also used as they got to roll inside the mat. Safety was always taught first. They were shown the proper way for all techniques. Do we have future gymnastic Olympians? Only time will tell but for now they are all tumbling champs!! Todd's Wacky Science Lab This week we put on our lab coats and visited Todd's loony laboratory!We learned some really cool things about H2O and air pressure as we made we made our own simple "diving bells" We then talked about light and optics as we created eye popping optical illusions like the "mystery ladder" and the "stairway to nowhere". We then rolled up our sleeves and put on some safety goggles as created our own creepy creatures! We finished the week by creating our very own "labs" made from paper collage complete with us as the mad scientists! It was a marvelous mixture of creativity and science which resulted in pure fun! Guard Up This week the 3-5ers were transported to a realm of wicked beasts and magical monsters. Together we formed a squad of hers, fighting with one goal in mind; to find, catch, and bind the powerful wolf they call Fenrir. Based on the prominent Norse myth " the binding of Fenrir" the kids got the full mythological experience, complete with haunted forests, raging rivers, dark caves and plenty of sword fights! As we acted out this ancient narrative, we quickly discovered that we are far stronger together than divided. Field Trip Castle Island The kids had a blast at Castle Island. There is a huge playground, a great little beach and of course the fort and low flying planes! It was awesome! Group Update K The Ks were blinded by science this week! We had such a fun time doing science-based projects this week. Some highlights were make your own foamy paint, designing straw rockets, playing with magnets & mazes and constructing lego and block buildings. Our enrichments were a blast! The Ks defied gravity doing all sorts of fun gymnastics obstacles this week with Jennifer. They also learned a ton of different science concepts doing hands on projects in Todd's Laboratory of Madness! We finished our week with a performance from the Museum of Science called Super Cold Science and a delightfully chill visit from the Kona Ice Truck on Friday! Overall, it was a week filled with curiousity and wonder! ‌ 1-2 The 1-2ers had an awesome science week! Their eyes light up during Science with Todd and they flipped and twirled during gymnastics. In the classroom, some of our favorite KC classics like silent seat ball, 20 questions and trivia were played. The fog didn't keep our little scientists down this week. During free play the geniuses got to work on board games and building block creations. Everyone loved the special performer and the 1-2ers would like to give a shout out to the wig that Todd wore all week. It sure made us giggle!  3-5 We played a wide variety of group games including dodgeball, gaga, and volleyball. During free play students built large LEGO structures, had small group magic tournaments, and played a wonderful selection of board games. Students enjoyed some light arts and crafts, and a large program wide game of Hide and Seek. On Wednesday we got a small taste of local Bostonian history when we went to Castle Island for our field trip. On Thursday, in the spirit of science week, Kids Corner hosted the Museum of Science with a show called "Super Cold Science". Summer is flying by here in the 3-5 room, and we look forward to more fun next week The Museum of Science Presents Supe-Cold Science We chilled out on this hot Thursday afternoon with some Super COLD Science! The Museum of Science brought along some really cool experiments for the kids to learn all about temperature and how it affects the things around us.