Tag Archives: Eric

Easter Eggs and BubbleBots

We hosted Billie Jo, Joel, Stone and Dakota for Easter Dinner: ham, scalloped potatoes and banana creme pie. Prior to dinner I hide 60 eggs with an assortment of candy, coins and small toys within. Eric had asked that the egg hunt be more challenging this year, so I used the pine trees and orchard area to hide the Easter eggs.

Below the perimeter of the area is described and kids start looking. Eric and Stone race to the next hiding spot.

Eric counts his eggs (they had to stop when they each got 20 eggs). Stone finds a colorful yellow egg under a pear tree.

The kids pose with their buckets of eggs. Cullen poses just because.

After lunch Kathryn and the kids had a rousing game of Bubble-Bots.

Eric’s Beethoven Pizza Box Biography

Eric had to do a biography of a famous person and he chose Ludwig Von Beethoven. The biography had to be presented as a pizza with each slice of the pizza describing a different aspect of Beethoven’s life.

Ludwig Von Beethoven born December 16, 1770 in Bonn Germany; died March 26, 1827 5:45pm

  • Childhood – His father was mean to him. His father was very strict about making him play music. His father had brutal teaching methods. At the age of 7 he appeared in public to play music. Before he was 12 he played as an organist in the King’s Court.
  • Education – He had limited schooling, he only learned about music. His first teachers were his father and Christian Gottlob. He later studied with Haydn for one year, another famous composer.
  • Adult Life – He was 17 when his mother died. After his mother died he had to take care of his two brothers and sister because his father was an alcoholic. His job was a music composer. When he was 31 he started to become deaf.
  • Accomplishments #1 – Before he became famous as a composer he was famous as a pianist. He was the first composer to work for whoever he wanted to, not just one person. He did nine symphonies. Symphonies are complicated stories in music played by a full orchestra.
  • Accomplishments #2 – He was a hard worker. Beethoven rose at day break, no matter what the season, and went to his work-table. Some of his most important works were composed during the last 10 years of his life.
  • Influence – He composed musical combinations in a new way. People got to enjoy his music. Many babies grew up listing to Baby Beethoven.
  • Fun Facts – No one knows the exact birth date but they do know when he was baptized in the church. He moved from home to home 52 times. He was 5’11”. He was moody, grumpy and didn’t mind how he looked. He died at age 57 alone in bed during a big thunderstorm.

His 3D clues included a stein (representing his birth in Germany), a composer’s wand, an old pencil for recording his compositions, a megaphone to assist his hearing, a song, a lego’s house indicating how often he moved, and a CD cover from Baby Beethoven.

3rd-4th Grade Basketball

Eric is playing on one of the two HP basketball teams in the Stan Evan’s Basketball League. Practices are on Tuesday and Thursday nights with games on Saturday mornings. There are eight kids on the team so everyone gets to play a lot. The games consist of 5 7 minute quarters and they are generally low scoring affairs with scores in the teens or low twenties.

Eric’s Birthday – 7 January & 9 Years Old

Our New Year Eve celebration was quiet. We had Crane and Bochniaks at our house for games. Since everyone had kids they left by 10pm.

The following weekend we celebrated Eric’s birthday with family. Below Eric opens a present as Kathryn, Steve, Joel, Stone and Dakota look on.

Jenifer, Mike Billie Jo, Barbara and Joe relaxed on the couch to watch.

A very cool fossil from Joel.

Eric ended up with a bow and arrows, fossils, build your own Monopoly game, legos, gift certificates to Walmart and Dunkin Donuts and a PlayStation 2 with Rock Band.

We latter went to Game Stop and bought used Playstation games including Madden NFL for minimal outlay and Eric has been playing a lot of Madden Football.

First Day of Third Grade

We shipped Eric off to school today. He took it well.

Yesterday his buddy Trevor was over in the afternoon while his mom, Ellen, took his younger sister to an kindergarten open house.  Kathryn said she heard this exchange: The cynical third-graders Eric and his friend Trevor, commenting on Trevor’s sister’s kindergarten orientation today:

“Those kids are so excited about going into kindergarten…”[a sad but wise shake of the head], they just don’t know!” “Yeah and then by the time you get to third grade it’s too much work!” [said most emphatically].