Today is a Good Day to Die... figurately of course

Almost three months to the day we were finally able to have Lance (and now Jared and Nathan's) birthday party! During the wait the boys had worked hard to beg wood and pallets off neighbors to build their first official airsoft "building" on the island.

The hoard arrived at the house at 9am and fighting began at 10am.  With small breaks in between the battles continued till 10pm at night. This fight was the first encounter in which role restrictions were enforced. In our contained jungle arena, there had been a history of over-shooting and "hosing" that limited movement and made strategy negligible, turning each fight into a full-auto standstill in past airsoft battle days. Everyone that came this time was a little skeptical about the restrictions at first (many of them had never turned their weapons to semi-auto before) but quickly warmed up to the hard fought battles it created. Cries of "MEDIC" and "HIT" rang out all day long with teammates struggling to drag their wounded comrades to safety. The height of the day was the customary "King of the Hill" turned to "King of the Fort," where each team in turn crawled around the tiny bunker trying to survive just a minute more to outperform the other team. The day ended with Lance alone blowing through 10,000 rounds as a machine gunner, with Jared and Titus going through 4,000-4,500 rounds each as riflemen. And Chris went through a woppin' 700 rounds as a designated marksman.*          

The party was a complete success, no one got hurt including my husband who join the fray as a gift to his sons.

*Written by Jared and Lance.

Back to NOUNS!

June has started with a renewal of activities and frankly life.  I like the meme that said "I miss people, places and things...basically I miss nouns!"

June 3rd was our first trip back to the YMCA pool.  We weren't sure it was going to open and then I wasn't sure if we'd want to go back if it was too restrictive.  Thankful the pool remains the oasis it was for me last year.  The kids are safe playing around and I can sit quietly in the shade reading my book.  Their only requirement is that people keep the chairs in the groups of two within the taped off areas six feet apart and that we wipe them down after we are done, I can live with those rules. Yay!  A glimpse of healthy normal.

Redline reopened this week for "Summer Camps" and Titus took over Lance's membership.  He did one session inside and one outside.  At the outdoor session Amber and I got some exercise as she scooted around the walking path and I walked, which was fun.  Playground was still roped off but we played some cards at a picnic table till he was done.  Titus is doing really well working and listening, this training is going to make him more of an athletic beast than he already is.

Lance on the other hand finally started Canes with Spring Training at "Ting" (two weeks later than planned) a field only minutes from our house, instead of hours, bonus.  He didn't get to meet any of his team members (they were at training in Virginia) but he was on a baseball field again and that made a happy boy.  As a bonus, I got to watch him play as well!  It was a bonus because parents weren't suppose to be in the stadium but when I was dropping him off I noticed a few parents sitting down.  So I crept in myself and so it continued, parents sitting far apart from each other but slowly creeping in to enjoy watching their boys play.  Who would have thought watching your kid play baseball would be a clandestine activity but then again who would believe any of this would have ever happened.

June 8th Jared started his week long class "Theater of War" online.  He learned a lot of fascinating things throughout the week and therefore so did we all, as Eugene shared with us each night the highlights.

June 8th Lance and Jared finally got to say their final good buys to their favorite Writing teacher as she came by to visit and drop off their final papers.  It will be weird not seeing Penny every week in the fall.  She is a marvelous teacher and an incredible Titus 2 friend.

Using the model from Redline of holding "Summer Camps" instead of lessons, TaeKwonDo opened in person as well.  What a relief, the kids just weren't getting much from the zoom lessons.  Though while we were gone the stuff animals got a little too comfy watching "Bear in the Big Blue House".  Chris gave Grizzly a stern talking too, then the kids curled up with them to relax a bit :-)  (Idea stemmed from the previous night's dream idea of "If you were a stuff animal that came to life when people weren't around....what would you do?)

Horseback Riding started up again too on Friday, for Amber and Titus.  So nice to see Polo, Henry and of course Britton too.