Our plans today didn't originally include cake, but we knew the kids would be disappointed. So, Becky got herself a chocolate cake, you know, for the kids. Happy Birthday Sweetie!
This year they started an alternating pattern of Donuts with Dad (before school continental breakfast) in the fall and Mom's Day this winter. (Next year will be Muffins with Mom and Dad's Day.) Becky got to spend the entire day with Alex, following him, and participating with him at time with his 2nd grade activities. Aaron doesn't have school on Fridays this year, but next year, I'll have to divide my time between both kids. Here they were working together on a math activity that uses small blocks to represent ones, sticks (made of 10 blocks) to represent tens and squares (made of 10 sticks) for the hundreds. They had a great time together and amde me look forward to next year, split time and all.
We just sent in the donation that we compiled by selling the memory bands honoring Melinda that Becky designed and ordered. We still have a few left over that we weren't able to sell, but all told, we were able to send $390 to Komen for a Cure in honor of Melinda Marie Evans. We have to find a cure. We have some other ideas for fundraising for 2008, but we are still working our the details. For now you get a hint - Pink Tag Sale.
As P-3 Grade Parent, Becky was in charge of helping Aaron's class plan and execute holiday parties. The first one was today's Halloween party. She got a lot of help from other parents which helped her divide the classroom up into game, craft, and snack stations. She developed a few fun games for this age group, including tossing "pumpkin" beanbags into a cauldron and bowling over some ghosts built from a toy bowling set. They ended with a long parade through the school showing off their costumes.
She then came over to help with Alex's Primary class party. It has become a tradition for her to set up a "touchy-feely" station where the kids stick their hands into decorated pumpkins that contain an icky item for them to feel and guess what's in there. This year she had them feel Vampire Bat Wing Bones (dry Ramen noodles), Hairy Werewolf Noses (unpeeled lychee nuts), Giant Ogre Ears (cactus leaves, needles removed), Zombie Veins laced with Maggots (cold cooked penne and rotini), and Evil Troll Eyeballs (peeled lychee nuts). Another big hit, but all this success comes with a price. After 4 years, she's running out of things to put in there. We trust her creativity and can't wait until next year.
Becky has tried to stay active in the parent association at the boys' school. In addition to being the Grade Parent for Aaron's class, she volunteered to chair this year's "Donuts with Dad" event. We got up early and I took the boys to the preschool gym where we got to have milk and donuts. There was Starbucks coffee and hot chocolate to warm us up.
Before the party even started, Becky and I got up early to fetch the donuts from Kroger's. She had previously placed her order and they had spent all night making 30 dozen attractively decorated donuts - frankly the best looking batch of donuts we had ever seen.
To decorate the gym, the kids were asked to color pictures of their dad. Aaron drew a picture of me in his favorite setting - a playground.
This year's Susan G. Komen Race for the Cure in downtown Toledo was an especially important and moving one for us. Last year we ran in support of Melinda's life and to celebrate her as a survivor. This year we mourned her passing and honored her memory. Becky's mom, Susan, came up from Texas to do the Race with us. Several people from my office staff came out to support us, as well as several of the families from the kids' school.
While Becky, the kids, and most of our supporters walked on the 1 mile Fun Walk, I ran the full 5K again this year. It started out cool but I was overdressed. I wore running shorts and sweatpants on bottom and a thin long-sleeved Susan G. Komen shirt, my Scott E. Vest Performance T-shirt (with a pocket for my iPod), and a team T-shirt that my staff had ironed Melinda's picture onto. The sun came out and warmed up the streets. I had the forethought to remove my sweats, but got too warm in the 3 shirt layer I had put together. The run itself was very uplifting - I think I expected it to be sad. I finished the race about 6 minutes faster than last year - in 40:34 officially. My office nurse, BJ, and my office manager, Judy, were at the finish line to get this picture and cheer me on. I was trying to wave at them but the lady near me in the picture thought I was trying to give her a high-five, so I obliged her. I placed 80th out of 82 timed runners in the 35-39 age group and 1,571st out of 1667 timed runners overall.
After the main Race, we made our way into Fifth Third Field stadium for the Survivor's ceremony and Kids Fun Run. The ceremony was tough on us. While it was great to see all of the survivors out there, it was awful knowing that Melinda should have been in that company. Alex ran around the entire perimeter of the field. A girl designed the Fun Run shirt this year. When we asked Alex how he felt about the butterfly pattern, he told us, "It's OK - I'm running for Aunt Melinda."
Becky made this pink ribbon from some, oddly enough, pink ribbon. She used bead letters to add the names of those of our family who have lost this battle - our sister-in-law, Melinda; my aunt, Carolyn; my grandmother, Reba; my great-grandmother Maude; and two of my great-aunts, Barbara and Wanda. We hope that they are the last of our family to be taken out by this disease. To that end, we raised over $1700 for breast cancer research and education through leading up to this day. Overall, over $135,000 was raised for the NW Ohio Race this year.
Aaron's class got to go to MacQueen's Apple Orchard today for their first field trip. They had a tour of the orchard and processing facilities and a chance to pick their own apples.
Becky has volunteered to be the Grade Parent for Aaron's class which means that she helps organize volunteers for class events and parties and she kicked of the year by chaperoning this field trip. In a few weeks we'll all come back for the Annual Apple Butter Festival.
We really like the kind of vacation where nothing is rushed or highly scheduled - especially with kids. We slept in and went to a late (for us) breakfast in the hotel. It was raining this morning so we started looking for alternatives to the beach. No one was too disappointed as we had a great day at the beach yesterday. I was looking around on the Grand Haven, MI website at area attractions and found Craig's Cruisers just down the road from yesterday's beach. We packed a lunch and spent the afternoon there. Just to warm up I modeled good batting posture for Alex and smashed a few 50 mph pitches in the batting cages. I was mildly affronted when Becky suggested I used to show off for her as a teenager by doing that, until she added that it really impressed her at the time. Then we all got in a round of minigolf on one of the best designed outdoor courses we had ever played on. It spiraled around a Island Mountain in the middle of a pond and spiraled down again without crossing your path. Our favorite feature was that most of the holes were shaped in a gentle cone which drew your ball in if you hit it close by. Subsequently, Alex beat us and got the Hole-In-One award with 4 total. Aaron got frustrated at the skill level minigolf requires, but amused himself by hopping all over the course's rock gardens and near the waterfalls.
Next we tried the bumper boats, and Alex and I got in trouble for bumping Becky and Aaron into the spraying water from the nearby bridge. We made up after racing on the go-karts - our favorite event of the day. Someone else bumped Becky and Aaron (a big no-no on the track) and we got to be indignant at him instead.
After pizza, Alex raced on the kiddie track by himself. He was hesitant to go fast at first, but that reluctance soon disappeared. We finished up with a rather successful run in the game room, racking up almost 300 tickets to spend at the toy & candy counter.
From there we drove to the Boardwalk at Grand Haven - much less crowded today now that the Coast Guard celebration was over. We strode along the public marina admiring the sailboats, yachts and quacking at the female mallards. We hoped there would be cute shops and sights along the beachfront when we decided for a little stroll downtown. There were quite a few – and most of them were closed on a Sunday evening. There was a cute little Italian boutique (in Western Michgan - go figure) that served gelato, of which we all took advantage. 
We went back down to the river and attended a performance of the Worship on the Water, featuring a full band (including an amazing horn section) and a large choir belting out modern and classic church songs. The clouds that had been threatening us all day started to spit on us, which was a little risky for the musicians playing electrical instruments, so they ended a little early. 
Finally at 10 pm the rain let up enough for us to witness the performance that we can to the marina for in the first place. Across the channel on the hillside, Grand Haven has a wide fountain that has articulated nozzles that are lit and choreographed along with a musical tract. The Grand Haven Musical Fountain was a big hit, and unlike anything we’d seen before.
After the disappointing, mucky beaches of Saginaw Bay, we decided that we wanted to check out the nicer beaches on the west side of the state. We booked a hotel at Grand Rapids, about 50 minutes from Grand Haven State Park. Grand Haven, MI is a popular summer resort town, so we expected it to be busy. What we didn’t expect was that this town, that calls itself Coast Guard City, USA, was holding a festival celebrating the 217th anniversary of the Coast Guard this weekend. It was fun driving through this quaint resort town and seeing the festivities, until it became obvious that we were going to have to park MILES away from the beach and walk with our gear. No thanks. We were in luck however, because western Michigan is dotted with public beaches, and 10 miles north lay P.J. Hoffmaster State Park. The beach was everything that we had hoped for.
The only downside was that the water was a little cold for this overcast day. After being in it for a while, you got 
As a matter of fact, this beach was on the other side of a fabulous set of dunes that boys and I explored like we were climbing a mountain. 
Alex wanted me to bury him up to his face, and then let Aaron dig him up like buried treasure, knocking some into his face accidently. We reluctantly packed up just as the sun broke through so we could scrounge up some dinner and get back to the hotel to wash of the sand.
Today I awoke to breakfast in bed made by Becky and the kids – ham and cheese omelet and toast – garnished by my favorite sections of the paper and a photo framed of me and the boys at the Mudhens Stadium from my birthday weekend. We went to Alex’s final soccer game. They won 4-2 after their best display of teamwork all season, and Alex got a trophy for playing. We had an end-of-season picnic on the grounds of the soccer field. Then I wanted to go out and just play at a park with the kids. We went to Swan Creek Preserve Metropark where they had a “Window on the World” – a building with a large window facing a small pond and bird feeders. We had a special chance tonight to see a special visitor – a groundhog!
We picnicked and played on the playground. We took a cool break when an ice cream truck trolled the parking lot. 
Alex tried his bike again, fell hard, and got back on. I told him later that night that watching him getting back on that bike was my favorite moment of Father’s Day.
Today Alex's school hosted an event that has been a year in the making. Traditionally, the MV Parent's Association has hosted an end of year event. The last couple of years it has been a Carnival on the campus gounds. It was difficult to coordinate and manage so they decided to try something different this year. Becky has been volunteering heavily with the MVPA since Day 1 and wanted to do more. She was convinced that it would be a breeze to chair a new MVPA event that no one had ever done before. She stepped up and showed them what she could do. She may someday write about the trials and tribulations she endured to make this go smoothly, but I've been focusing on the results, because the Maumee Valley Campus Rally was a resounding success.
The event centered around the presentation of Jim "Basketball" Jones, a local performer who intersperses backetball tricks with inspirational messages. He was dyslexic and was put in "special" education classes. His mother read him his textbooks and he ended up as one of the top business students in the country. Along the way, he learned to fit in by spinning basketballs and did basketball halftime shows before realizing that he had a message to share with kids. He taught them "I am important", "I can...I will", and "Never give up!". He got all of the kids involved with ball spins and brought several up for group tricks (Alex is in the white shirt in the middle). He taught kids listening skills with a game of "Simon Says" and ended up the show by spinning eight basketballs at once.
Everyone told Becky what a great job she did coordinating the space, getting Jim to come, providing refreshments, and coordinating several helpful volunteers for this event. She's earned a great weekend off to comtemplate next year's MVPA events.:) She showed her kids what Jim was talking about - that even when things didn't go the way she expected, she never gave up. I'm so proud of her.
We woke Becky up this AM with breakfast in bed that the boys helped me make. It was garnished by a rose we cut from her Mother's Day bouquet that she got yesterday. We had a lazy morning and just played with the kids. For lunch, I sauteed salmon filets with spices, steamed some asparagus and baked a foccacia beer bread that Becky had bought from a mix. We called and wished Nana Evans and Grammy Hardage a Happy Mother's Day each.
As we've been doing for several Sunday afternoons, we went to Alex's soccer game. Alex had a good game, blocking several shots and passing the ball to his teammates. Whenever the opposing players gets the ball near our half of the field, Alex has been running to a position just in front of the goal to block shots.
We went from there straight to El Camino Real for a Mexican Dia de las Madres celebration.
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