Happy 11th Birthday Ashe Pollard II

We had a lively dinner at Applebee's tonight for Ashe's birthday. He is having more of a "party"-party in a week or so, but tonight was his actual birthday, so he wanted to go to Applebee's. The Ealys joined us and so did Granny. We all had a very fun time actually. Totally entertaining.

The only thing that Ashe asked for was a Carmelo Anthony jersey. When he actually received it, he was astounded and shocked and so incredibly happy. I assume he knew he'd get it, since that's the only thing he really asked for, but his reaction was still one of shock. I loved his reaction.

He also loved the iPod he got from his Granny (Elaine) and Grandpa (Ole). He went to bed listening to it tonight. :) Cute, cute boy!!

Happy 11th Birthday Ashe Pollard

Ashe turns 11 on March 28, 2010 (at 8:21 p.m. to be exact). I love you, Ashe. Happy Birthday.

Finn's Van Gogh Night and Ashe's Science Fair

Finn, Ashe, Cade, Granny (l to r)

The boys had some big things going on in school for the last couple of months. Both have worked on them for quite some time before the actual presentation of each occurred. For Finn it was a cool thing called Van Gogh Night. His teacher, Ms. Martin, has done this for four years now. She teaches the kids an enormous amount about Vincent Van Gogh -- his life and works. She talks about his mental illness. She talks about him cutting off part of his ear and sending it to a woman. She laughs (but is serious) when she says that she's managed to teach it all these years without mentioning that the woman was a prostitute. It culminates in a presentation to kids' families at Science and Art Night at the school.

Finn's knowledge has impressed me. He knows things all the way from recognizing several of his paintings to his art dealer being his brother to his tragic death and the location of his residence during each of those significant events in his life. I'm so thankful for Ms. Martin's furthering Finn's love of art.

Finn in middle, blue shirt

The video is footage of the amazing recreations the 1^st graders did of Van Gogh’s pieces. Finn is at about 15 seconds giving his Van Gogh quote, which was quite difficult as the teacher acknowledges. :)

Ashe has been working for about six weeks on his science project. He was to design an experiment to test a hypothesis of his choosing. His interest is almost entirely in basketball, so he chose a basketball-related hypothesis: I will shoot more baskets when I am rested than when I have exercised for a half an hour. He proved himself right, but was hesitant to say he came to a conclusion. I thought the results were statistically significant – overall rest won three of the five trials. In addition, in total he made 52 baskets after rest and 46 after exercise. I think I computed that as a 13% difference. Ashe insists this is not statistically significant. :) Photos of Ashe's work below.

Ashe's Highlight Reel? (Lions game 2/27/2010)

Last Saturday, February 27, 2010, Ashe had a basketball game...he plays for the Lions (formerly the Chargers). He's been on this team since 2nd grade...there have been a few roster changes but not many. As with most kids, his goal for every game is to score as many points as possible. He's a good hustler, and he tends to get more rebounds than anything else. I love to watch it when he's on top of his defense (he has a near steal in the third play in the video below 0:19 seconds in). No matter how well he does defensively and helping in other ways on his team, he's disappointed with only two points a game. He had the best time scoring *eight* points :) in this game, so I put together some highlights. Ashe has #2 on his jersey - dark blue on white. Please excuse my poor camera skills!!

Finn the Bush Deer in "Anansi the Spider"

Thanks to Run for the Arts (where kids run laps for pledges per lap/or a flat amount), the boys have had some fun, art-related activities in the years at school. Most recently, Finn participated in a puppet show at school. It was on February 12, 2010. It included everything from casting, puppet-making, rehearsal, and, finally, presenting the play to family members during the school day. The video shows a clip of Finn's "part". He was a Bush Deer. There were several of each animal in the play, except for the main character Anansi the Spider (just one Anansi). The artist who helped them in the play is the voice talking throughout the clip. He thanked Run for the Arts for keeping artists like him at work.

It's sort of cute. I had a much longer clip, but truncated it a bit, just to give you a flavor. Finn is in the purple Lakers shirt, 2nd from the left.