Owen's Minor Games

Owen was called up to play in two minor league (3rd and 4th graders)

baseball games at the end of the season. When the kids are called up, they
can only play in the outfield and have to bat at the end of the order. He
wasn't crazy about that, but had fun at the games anyway. He played a
partial game with the Phillies and a whole game with the Cubs. The Cubs game
was so long it stretched over 2 nights and ended up with a 24-21 score! I
was a little worried about him playing with kids so much older and bigger,
but he fit right in. He got two walks and a steal. - N
In Minor you can steal and lead off, but Dad doesn't let me. Well, I did one
steal in Minor and a couple of lead offs but you have to go in the outfield.
In the outfield I got a couple of balls when we were playing the Giants but
only 5 or 4 points. It was a good game. My first time in Minor I was on the
Phillies to help them. The second time I was on the Cubs. At the game, the
Phillies lost 14-7 but we tried our hardest. We had 2 outs and then Bennett,
Bennett's one of my best friends, struck out. I was up next. I felt bad for
him. I only got one turn to bat. - Owen

Owen's on Two Wheels

His first try at bike riding wasn't bad, but it was very short. After a few tries he had enough.

Quote of the Day

Owen: Mud on your face. A big disgrace. Kicking your cat all over the place.
We will, we will rock you.
After listening to him sing this for quite a while, I finally tried to tell
him the correct words. Of course, he didn't believe me. I played him the
Queen version, but he claimed Queen had it wrong and Kidz Bop was right.
Finally, I had to play the Mommy trump card and tell him he wasn't allowed
to sing songs about hurting animals. He couldn't argue with that and
switched the lyrics.

Rion's Golf Lessons

Legoland Star Wars Weekend

I went to Legoland and it was Star Wars and we watched a fighting movie.
And, it was called the Spell movie. And, a person was fighting a bad guy who
had a circle ball and there was magic on it. And there was this little
dragon who held the ball and threw it down and this thing went down. All of
his power, he didn't have any more, and they scared him away. And, it was so
funny. That was the movie. And, we saw a Lego Star Wars movie. Boba Fett
went onto a ship and Darth Vader slipped. Jar Jar was just whistling when
Storm Troopers were fighting people. Darth Vader had to go to a hospital
room and then Boba Fett came in Darth Vader's room and he turned on the
thing and he said, "Do you want me to go get him?" And he said, "Sure, go
get him and kill him." Then, he got launched to Hoth. That's where the Wampa
lives. He runned up to the AT-AT Walkers and he just runned up the stairs.
Ain't that so funny? That's it. This was so funny! There was a whole in the
Lego church at Legoland and the droids were standing in the chimneys and
this is so funny. Obi was holding a flag up and he was on the hole. And, the
firefighters, there was a droid right next to the firestation. And, this is
so funny. And he just shot one of his own droids. And, his tongue was
sticking out. Droids do have tongues but they are golden. And, I saw
Grievous landed in the middle of Chicago's construction site. That's it. -
Rion

Owen's 1st Game with a Score

Tonight was the first game Owen played in with a real score! It's the

baseball playoffs for his farm league. Each team plays three other teams to
determine who goes to the World Series. His team was a little slow in the
beginning, getting down 7-0 but came back and tied it by the top of the 6th
inning. They ended up losing by one in the bottom of the inning, but played
a great game! Owen pitched an inning and had 2 hits. - N
Tonight was our first playoff game. We played against the Giants. The Giants
beat up 8-7. We came back in the 4th inning with 7 runs and we tied it. We
got some in the 4th and some in the 5th. IN the sixth inning when they were
up at bat when I was at short step, someone hit it far into left field.
Morley had it but waited to throw it in and they got a run. It was a really
good game. When I was a pitcher I had no strike outs but 5 full counts. When
I was 1st baseman, someone hit it right to me so I sent it to Owen, on my
team. The player on the Giants was out because I threw it to him before he
got to the base. That was a really good play. - Owen

Father's Day

I went to Father's Day and my dad and I gave him a super funny present. It

was a radio and this thing that looked like a donut but it wasn't. I made
him it at school. It was in a bag and first the card said Dad. It had a
picture of Elvis on it. And, I went to make it first and then I haded to be
a little slower because I haded to visit the Kindergarten again. That's why
I didn't do my father's day thing when they did. Mine haded to dry. I was
last at doing it cuz I always had to. That day was awesome cuz I loved it.
So, I got my dad to see Cars 2 and I took him to the gelato I had and he
had, but there's no more pumpkin anymore. And, there's no more marshmellow
anymore. And, I got cupcake. And, I got to have brownie because mom letted
me have hers but dad got to have mine. He's older so he gets more food. He
eated more than mom. Mom didn't even eat all of hers. So, that's pretty much
it for father's day. And, I took him to Noodles and Co. It was right next
store to the gelato store. And, it was between another store. So, that's
pretty much father's day. That's it. - Rion
Translation - Rion made his Dad a CD (i.e., a radio and this thing that
looked like a donut) with his picture on it. He was playing a guitar in the
picture. He finished later than the rest of his class because he was also
visiting the Kindergarten class that week. He decided to take Mike to both
Cars 2 and for gelato in Glenview. The last time he was there was in
November when they had pumpkin and S'mores gelato too. - N

On Father's Day we went to a gelato place because Rion picked it. I got Dad
an ICE CREAM MAKER! It takes like all day to make it but that's still OK.
It's a little ice cream maker. After the gelato we got to go to a car show
because Dad picked it. It was a really cool car show. I liked it a lot. It
was the best Father's Day ever. When we were going back home we went to
Matsuwa Marketplace to buy stuff. We bought some Power Ranger snacks we
wanted to have. I didn't have them yet. I think they are going to be really
good. And that's the day of Father's Day. - Owen

Summerfest 2011

I went to Summerfest because I had good days at the week I started field trips. And do you know why I loved it? Cuz it was awesome. We got to go to the zoo and the park and the miniature golf place. I went to Summerfest and I got to drive race cars. Number 8 won. I was Number 8 and I got a trophy. It was only golden. It was a real place trophy. I got a bloody lip and nose. I bumped into my brother on accident and cuz I was bouncing right by him and he bounced on me. I accidentally bited him. And then, I was bleeding super bad. Policemen were there because they wanted to see if people were following rules, that's why. I went on a trampoline thing and we could do stuff like, flips and bouncing. We could do any silly stuff. Or, we could jump, flip 8 times, and you could hit your head. I didn't get to. I could have gotten a bloody nose again. That's why I had a fun time at Summerfest. Goodbye. - RiSton

Yesterday was Summerfest. We had lots of fun. We got to go on all of these cool ride and we even got ice cream. My favorite part was when we got to go to the race against Rion in the obstacle course. It was SO fun. I won the first time and we tied the second because Dad kept on pulling me. And, I liked going on the bouncy. Rion bit me on the elbow but I hit him on the lip on accident. It hit his lip and he started bleeding. It was gross! I loved Summerfest. I liked the rock climbing too. I made it all of the way to the TOP!!!! Summerfest was awesome. I wish it was today. – Owen

Villa Park did a great job with Summerfest again this year. We had good food, heard good music, and the boys had fun with the bounce houses and games. Rion ended up with a bloody lip from hitting his brother. But, he was fine once we cleaned the blood off of him. I think the people walking by were more worried than he was. :) He's quite the bleeder. Owen did a great job making it to the top of the rock climbing wall for the first time and Rion tried the bungee trampoline. Rion even won a trophy for winning a remote control car race. Apparently the secret is – don't steer and the car will just go around the track by itself!

Rion's 1st Field Trip

My first field trip was mini golf and I loved it cuz mini golf is fun. I
love mini golf! Can we do mini golf, please? Please! But, we never get to
because we never have time. Sometimes we get to. So, they decided we were
going to go mini golfing. So, and it wasn't my first time going on the bus.
It was my 6th time and it has to be my 6th time going back and going there.
That's 12. That's pretty much it. - RiSt
It's so hard for me to believe that both boys are old enough for field
trips. Owen is enjoying being back with some of his old friends and meeting
new kids this summer. Rion has had great behavior and is loving the outings.
- N

Morton Arboretum

It was our annual trip to the Morton Arboretum Children's Garden. Every year

we say we should go more often but never seem to make it back. This year it
was just the boys and I while Mike was golfing. It was a beautiful day -
sunny and in the low 70's. - N

I went to the arboretum and it was so fun cuz we got to see tadpoles and we
got to play and we sawed the beaver house. My brother told me that. And, we
got to go high up in a tree house but it wasn't real. And we needed to find
lots of stuff: a nest, an owl, a raccoon, and that's it. - RiStuffleb

When we went to the arboretum it was spectacular. We got to see tadpoles
with legs and ones with no legs. At the tadpole pond I caught lots of
tadpoles, like 15 or 20. I had lots of them. Rion caught like 16 or 17.
After that we went to the tree climber. Rion got to go all over the woods.
There was a rope spider web that you got to climb on. I got a rug burn from
that. I put my knee down when I was trying to climb through. It fell and
skinned my knee on the rope. It hurt really, really bad. That's pretty much
how you get a rug rope burn. After that, we went to a tree house. We had to
find a spruce tree bark, a pinecone, a skunk, a cardinal, an owl, and a
squirrel, and a nest. We didn't find them all. The ones we didn't find were
the skunk and the spruce tree bark. That's the day at the arboretum. - Owen
Stufflebeam

You know you're a bad parent when...

Owen: Look, that's the same poster we saw at lunch!

You know you're a bad parent when you realize that, yes that Guinness poster
was on the wall at lunch. And, not only have you not cooked today, you took
your kids to bars for both lunch and dinner. - N

Zoo Camp

I went to zoo camp and we saw lots and lots of animals. We were going to go

see the okapis but it was closed so we didn't get to see the okapis. But, it
was OK because we got to see lots of animals. My favorite animals were the
giraffes because I saw the giraffe I was adopting. It's cool cuz I like lots
of giraffes. I like giraffes a lot. Giraffes are cool and they can walk
fast. I think they can jump. I know something about giraffes nobody does.
Giraffes can walk fast, they can jump fast, and they can walk and run at the
same time. I sawed a giraffe do that at the same time. I only touched two
animals. I got to pet some but they didn't mind cuz it liked it a lot. We
sawed a goat, it was in the kids zoo and we got to pet it to see if it was
soft or not. It was very soft. And the other animal I petted was soft. I had
a show on the last time I went to Brookfield zoo. Only the white shirts were
in it. And there were blue shirts, but we didn't do the blue shirt one, we
did the white shirt one. What do you think the show was, good or bad? Good,
because there were awesome animals. I had a giraffe, Billy had a giraffe,
and Declan had a zebra. Lots of people had zebras but we runned out of them.
We only had two. - RiStufflebeam

 

End of School Year

At the end of the school year party we had a picnic instead of a party. We

went to the Tot Lot over by our school and we got goody bags. It was the
best party ever. I loved the party so it was pretty fun doing it. The last
day of school was an awards ceremony. I got three awards - The Accelerated
Reader award, the fun run award when we ran one mile, and being out of
school two days or less. And, it was a really cool day at the end of the
school year but I still wanted to actually do something the last day of
school. I wanted to go to Florida. I don't know why, I just wanted to, but
we didn't get to. I just love the Tot Lot and the ending days of school. It
was so fun that now I wanted to have every day going to the Tot Lot. But, we
don't get to. I'm going to 2nd grade next year. I was promoted. I did 2nd
grade math this year, so I think I might get to go to 3rd grade math next
year. It was like the funnest thing on Earth. I'm promoted and I didn't know
I was going to get promoted. My mom asked me if I thought I was going to get
promoted but I didn't know. My report was the best of every year. I had all
4's and I only had E's and X's. It was the best day of my life, pretty much.
So, yeah, it was pretty fun. - Owen S.

Owen had a great 1st grade year! He finished out the year strong
academically and is excited about next year. Between the school work and the
sports, he's very well rounded. Now, if we could just get his attitude in
check things would go much smoother. :-) - N

Double Play

I had a double play against the Giants. I caught the ball and tagged a guy
out who was running home when I was the pitcher. It was a pop fly. I held up
my hand and I caught it. And now everybody got baseball cards when we played
against the Phillies. After I got the double play, when everybody got the
baseball cards. They started hugging me and it was so fun. I just can't
believe I got a double play. I LOVE baseball. Then end. - Owen Michael
Stufflebeam
The practice before, Owen's team worked on turning the 6-4-3 double play.
His coach promised the whole team baseball cards if they got one during a
game. Rather than that double play, Owen had an unassisted double play,
catching the pop up and then tagging the runner from third. He could have
had a triple play, if he'd stepped on third and tagged the runner from
second. He was VERY excited, I think more for the baseball cards than for
the outs. - N

Owen lost another tooth

Tooth #4!

Golf Lessons

Rion wanted to take golf lessons, so we signed him and Mike up for a
parent-child class. We're two classes in and he still enjoys it. After the
first class, they went to buy the golf visor. Rion always wants to dress the
part! - N
I went to golf lessons and we went to the putting green. And I hitted the
ball and it almost went in the flag but it went past it. It went over the
flag when I hitted it, it jumped over all the flags and it went in where
they were doing real golf. Then me and dad had to go get it. Then, before
that we did golf lessons to see how good I am at golf. I am very good at it.
And we swing the golf sticks. They go right or left or straight. Swing like
a baseball but the other way, on the bottom. - RiRi

Kung Fu Panda 2

Rion earned a trip to the movies to see Kung Fu Panda 2. Mike was very
excited that he finally earned it. - N
I went to Kung Fu Panda 2 cuz I wanted to and we were gonna to but I had a
bad day and we didn't get to. But when we watched it, it was cool. We saw
lots of warriors. We sawed lots of people. Kung Fu Panda was like chopping
bad guys with his fist. And, he got shot with fire but he threw fireballs
back at the boat, it's almost at the end, and he fired some balls and it was
so funny cuz he blew up lots of ships. And, one landed on his hand and he
put it in his mouth and it was, "Ah! Ah! This is so fiery hot!". And the
peacock was white and it was a bad guy. - RiStufflebe
Kung Fu Panda 2 was cool. There was wolf bandits and Po had this crazy dream
that he was reaching for his mother's arms and he asked his dad why was he,
and his dad said he was kind of adopted. Actually, PO's father and mother
didn't want to sell him, they were trying to keep him safe in a radish
basket. They were dropping it off to Po's dad, his bird dad, and there was a
bad guy named Shen and there were these other masters, Master Rhino, Master
Ox, and Master Crock. Master Ox and Master Rhino were practicing with their
kung fu skills then Shen came. My favorite part was when they killed Shen.
But, I really liked when they brought out the cannons and Mantis kept on
unlighting the cannons fuel and he did it until Viper untrapped Po, Tigress,
and herself. And Mankey. Mankey is a monkey that knows lots of stuff. They
went into a toy until a dragon, it was fake, and they kept on eating wolf
bandits, and the kids said EWW! It was my favorite movie. - Owen Michael
Stufflebeam