French Horn goes to School

Today is the day - the French Horn goes to School for the first time today. Ryan was so excited to take it. He has been counting down the days until today so that he could take the horn to school. He has had a great time all weekend long playing around with the horn getting ready for class. Here's a picture of him all loaded up with his backpack, his lunch and his French Horn.

An old French Horn

After a very long week and a half, we have our repaired and cleaned French Horn back. This year Ryan is joining the school band to play French Horn. I'm very excited for him. I played the French Horn when I was younger. It's such a neat instrument. The thing I loved about it, it always played it's own part. If you are listening to a band or symphony play and you hear that one horn part that is off doing it's own thing - that's the French Horn. It's such a mellow sound. The other reason I am so excited for him to play this is because he is playing the actual horn that I played. But not only did I play this horn as a kid, so did two of my brothers - Warren & Kelly. And each of us have such fond memories of playing this instrument. We were trying to decide how old this horn is and I believe it to be just older than me. My brother Warren still had the horn after all these years and we brought it home from his house a couple weeks ago. After finally talking Ryan into playing it, we took it to a local music store to be sent out for repairs. And we got it back last night. Here are the before and after pictures I took of the our French Horn.

Resting in it's case:

At home after the repairs, it only looks darker in this photo because the picture was taken in a room with less lighting, it is still the same color:

The bell of the horn had quite a few creases in it before:
And after, much smoother:

The bottom of it was pretty dented up:

Look at how smooth they got it:

They even repaired the brace piece here:

Got to love this case! It's the original. When we opened it up in the store to look at the repairs, it smelled exactly as I remember it smelling all those years ago when I would open it up everyday to play and practice.

Of course, the dogs had to smell just about every inch of the horn. I had to take this picture of Sam with the horn. He is such a funny dog. Before we took it in for repairs, we got it out and blew on it a little. Sam just had to "sing" along with it. Sam does not have the best singing voice around. Ryan can't wait to play on it again because he wants to make Sam sing again. I'm sure the neighbors will just love that!

To Break or not to break? --NOT--

***Update - we finally heard from the dr. office - it is not broken!***

So, we made it through the first full week of school successfully. Unfortunately, not the second week - and it just started yesterday! I got a call from the nurse around 11:30 or so, Ryan had hit his wrist against a table when playing a game in PE. I talked with Ryan while he was in the nurses office and he said he thought he could go back to class and would be okay. So, off he went. Two hours later I get another call from the nurse again. He fell on the same wrist during recess and was really hurting now. So, Doug & I went to pick him up from school. We got him in to see the doctor in the afternoon. He splinted the wrist and sent us off to get an x-ray. We are still waiting to hear the results from the x-ray.

Ryan with wrist in splint:

Doug on the drive home from the x-ray:

Lego Battles

My nephew, Steve, came over for a couple days during his summer visit. Ryan and Steve had a great time playing Lego Battles and swimming, going to Big Surf, playing Halo and hanging out.

The Lego Battlefield:

Steve setting up his field:

Ryan getting ready for battle:

The battlefield during battle. We were finding little Lego pieces all over the kitchen floor:

Lego's again - From Ryan's perspective

Ryan started a new Lego project over the summer. He took these green flat sheets and covered them with built people. He organized the people on the green squares by their groups. All of the clone troopers from Star Wars together, all the pirates together, the Jedi together and so on. He had a lot of fun and it looked really neat when they were all standing there together in one large group. He then took them all off and decided to take some pictures of them. These are the only two pictures he ended up taking.

Getting ready to organize them:

Soldier pieces taken by Ryan:

Summer 2009 Revisited

Boy this summer really flew by. We had a great summer. Lots of fun. And yet, it was nothing official. No vacations this year, nothing really planned out. We kept very busy nonetheless. For a couple weeks of bowling league, our teammates were out of town, so Ryan invited friends to substitute for them. One week, we had a friend and a cousin come along. The three boys had a lot of fun bowing.

Getting the bowling balls:

The three boys waiting for their turns:
Steve, Ryan's cousin finishing up his turn:

First Day of School

Yesterday was Ryan's first day of school. I can't believe that he is starting 5th grade this year. I am so excited for him though. This was one of my favorite years when I was a kid. I'm hoping for the same for him. I thought we could take a look at some of his first day of school pictures. A walk down memory lane.

First day of Preschool:

Kindergarten:
For some reason I don't have first grade on my computer yet. I'm sure I took it with film and just haven't scanned yet. So, we will skip to second grade:

Third grade:

Fourth grade:

Fifth grade: