Archive for June, 2011
May 2010
by Martin Family Admin on Jun.12, 2011, under All, Brenna, May 2010, Nicklas
- We all had a great long weekend back in Detroit for Memorial Day weekend!
- Brenna has discovered the cakes at Gondolier! For those of you who aren’t familiar with them, these multi layer, multi flavored cakes are no less than six inches tall – and usually taller. Ask Brenna about them the next chance you get!
- Brenna has made a new friend! The little girl is the sister of one of Nick’s teammates. Ironically enough her name is Michaela. The two girls play together during all the practice sessions and the games. Brenna looks forward to going to see ‘her friend’ on baseball nights!
- Nicklas’ baseball team isn’t winning a lot of games, but the kids are all having fun
- Nicklas’ school year ended on May 5th. He has officially been moved on to the 5th Grade. Congrats little man!!
- Saturday, May 8 was the annual Open House at the Tellico Village Fire Department. While Grumpa and Sitay were in town everyone went to the fire house to enjoy the fun. Pictures from the event are currently posted in the Photo Gallery and will be there for about a week.
- Saturday May 8 was picture day for Nicklas and his baseball team. When the photos come in we will be sure to share them with all of you.
- Friday May 7th was Grandparents Day at Steekee School. Nicklas invited Grumpa and Sitay down for the event. Everyone went to school for a good ol’ fashioned country breakfast, pictures, the Steekee School Chorus, and the the Scholastic Book Fair! A great time was had by all….including Brenna who is already calling Steekee ‘her school’!
April 2010
by Martin Family Admin on Jun.12, 2011, under April 2010, Brenna, Nicklas
- Brenna spent a part of Friday April 30th at Steekee School. She was invited to spend a part of the day there as a part of the Pre-K roundup. The school gets an idea of the size of the incoming class and the kids get a taste of what is coming in the fall.
- Nicklas’ baseball team won their first game of the season – the third game on their schedule – 13 to 1 Thursday night. As a reminder, Nick plays for the Red Sox. They beat the Yankees. For any baseball fan there’s something poetic about that, eh?
- Nicklas’ school science fair project won second place this past Monday – April 26th – and is eligible to take his project to the county science fair Monday, May 3rd. Details of how his project does at the Loudon County science fair coming soon!
- Nick played his first baseball game of the season Thursday, April 22, 2010. His team lost. Their next game is Tuesday, April 27, 2010….at 7:45 PM!
- Nicklas was invited to join the local Boy Scout Troop on their annual spring hike Sunday the 18th. They invite the Webelos from the Cub Scout Pack to join them to aid in the transition from Cub Scouts to Boy Scouts. This years trip is to Lookout Mountain down in Chattanooga. The boys will hike up the mountain, spend an hour at the top for lunch, and hike back down the mountain all in four hours. As an added bonus Troop 215’s Committee Chairman, Active Duty Army Colonel John Cardwell, will be joining them for the trip up the mountain. Col. Cardwell is a world renowned Civil War historian who’s narratives of the battles in the area ought to make this hike one Nicklas won’t soon forget!
- Brenna made a new friend at Nicklas’ baseball proactive Saturday the 17th. The two of them played together nearly the entire practice time….climbing, crawling, rolling, in, on, or through nearly every available pile of red dirt they could find together. She was covered from heard to toe. So much so that she turned the bath water that night into a murky orange soup! Her new friends name you ask? Michaela. It’s a small world……
- Brenna’s has gotten two books from the Imagination Library since getting her March book. Her new books are “The Ladybug Girl” and “Otis”.
- Brenna and Mimi had girl’s day out on Tuesday the 13th. A trip to the library for the story telling and crafts, lunch with Mimi, and running a few errands filled her day…and wore her out!
- Nicklas will play his first baseball game of this season with his team, the Red Sox, Thursday the 22nd. For now they are still practicing on Tuesdays and Saturdays.
- Easter Sunday the three members of the family remaining in New Haven went to Sitay & Grumpa’s for Easter dinner and the traditional egg hunt. Both kids did well in the egg hunt. A great time was had by all!
- Easter Sunday Paul left to return to Knoxville. He started his new job with EnerNex on Monday the 5th. The kids stayed behind to spend break week with Mumma
- Friday the 2nd, we all went to Pump It Up in Macomb Township with our New Haven neighbors and their kids. The kids got to play for a few hours on inflatable castles, slides, and other HUGE blow up playscapes. They also got to take part in a pizza party for lunch, an Easter egg hunt, and pictures with the Easter Bunny. We’d never heard of the place before…but the kids had a BLAST!
- Spring Break began for Nicklas at the end of the school day April 1st. Nick was picked up at school and the three of us returned to Detroit for the Easter holiday and spring break week.
March 2010
by Martin Family Admin on Jun.12, 2011, under All, Brenna, March 2011, Nicklas
- Nicklas had his first practice with this year’s Lenoir City baseball team on 3/27. He is a member of the Red Sox this season. He’s been a member of the Blue Jays, Mariners, and Mets in his past seasons with New Haven Little League.
- Nicklas raced his Pinewood Derby Car on Saturday, March 27, 2010. He and his car took Third Place and earned the right to compete in the District competition in a few weeks.
- Nicklas did very well at his baseball tryout on the 18th. He hit and threw / caught well and hopes to have a good year. Teams should be drafted by the 24th and games start in early April.
- Brenna received another book from Dolly Parton’s Imagination Library. This is the second book this month. ‘The Legend of the Indian Paintbrush’ she received early this month must actually be the February book making the latest arrival, “Ladybug Girl and Bumblebee Boy”, the book for March.
- Nicklas is excited for the annual Cub Scout Pinewood Derby. This year’s event is on Saturday 3/27. He wants to run last year’s car rather than make a new one. Under the rules, he can run last years car
as long as he modifies it in some way…so he changed the paint scheme of the car.
We shall see if the car does as well for him this year as it did last. - Nicklas has signed up to play little league baseball in Lenoir City’s league with a friend of his. He has tryouts on March 18th.
- Paul was given more tickets to the Knoxville Ice Bears. He and Nicklas went to the game Friday night 3/12 unaware that the tickets waiting at Will Call were for an ice level box! We sat just left of the goal the Ice Bears shoot at for two periods – the Zamboni end. Nicklas was able to interact with the team during player introductions, fist bumpd the three blind mice – a.k.a. the referees – as they left the ice after all three periods, and all the other game related activities that take place at the Zamboni end of the ice during a game – all while being glued to the glass to watch the game! He left the arena with pucks from the pre-game skate, the puck that scored the 3-3 tying goal for the Ice Bears with 0:01 left in the first – handed to him by the linesman that dropped the puck at center to kill the first period clock, and a third puck that cleared the glass with 6:00 minutes to go in the third. He got the puck from the third period signed by the winning goalie #82 Andrew Gallant and the player with the first assist
on the game winning goal, forward #15 Mike Bulawka. This was a night Nicklas will not soon – if ever – forget. - Brenna received another birthday present this past week from Grumpa and Sitay.
- Nicklas spent the night Friday 3/5 at his friend’s (Tyler) house. The boys seem to becoming quite good friends.
- Brenna’s latest book from the Imagination Library arrived – “The Legend of the Indian Paintbrush”.
February 2010
by Martin Family Admin on Jun.12, 2011, under All, Brenna, February 2010, Nicklas
- Brenna enjoyed her birthday on the 24th.
- Brenna spent another Tuesday morning at the library. The book of the day was “Curious George in the Big City” followed by a craft of making paper monkeys.
- Thursday 2/18 – Brenna spent a bit of a beautiful spring day playing at the Loudon Municipal Park. She took a real shine to the climbing wall. She would climb it to the top to get to the top platform and ride the “hugh-giant slide”…..
- With a dusting of snow on the ground – literally – the Loudon County Schools closed today, 2/16/10. Nicklas spent the day playing Guitar Hero clearing level after level on his way up through the game.
- Even though a Winter Storm Warning shortened the weekend, we all had a great Valentine’s Weekend in Cincinnati. The highlight of the weekend was our time at the Newport Aquarium at Newport on the Levee in Northern Kentucky. Nicklas got an up close look at several species of sharks and was even able to touch a shark! Brenna got up the nerve to touch a seastar and seemed to enjoy the entire experience…except the room with the gaboon viper, cottonmouth, and reticulated python. She couldn’t get out of that room fast enough!
- More Kudos to Nicklas! His Writers Fair paper earned him FIRST PLACE in the fourth grade division.
- Brenna spent another Tuesday, 2/9/10, at the library for the child reading program.
- All Nick would admit to about his dance Friday night, 2/5/10, was that it was ‘fun’……
- Brenna spent Groundhog Day at the Library. She participated in the child reading program where two different books – one about Groundhog Day and another about a rainy day – were read to the children. She also participated in the craft time by making a groundhog. She spent the rest of the day with Mimi celebrating a ‘Ladies Day Out’ by going to lunch, the bank – where they gave her two suckers, and finally the cleaners – where they gave her a third sucker!
- Kudos to Nicklas! He earned a fourth place finish with his 4H speech given in class on February 2nd!
- Nick’s first dance, originally scheduled for January 29th but cancelled by last week’s winter storm, has been rescheduled for Friday, February 5th.
January 2010
by Martin Family Admin on Jun.12, 2011, under All, Brenna, January 2010, Nicklas
- Nicklas and his friend Tyler were treated to see Pinocchio – a travelling youth company play – on Saturday the 30th. Afterwards, Tyler came to our house for dinner and to spend the night. A great time was had by all!
- 1/29/2010 – A winter storm is coming, complete with a Winter Storm Warning issued at 3:07 PM Thursday 1/28/2010, with as much as four inches of snow in the valley and eight inches up in the mountains. The storm is expected to start midday Friday the 29th. Loudon County closed school for the Friday the 29th at 9:30 pm Thursday night. Nick’s first dance, originally scheduled for the 29th, will be rescheduled.
- Nicklas will attend his first school dance on the 29th.
- Nicklas will join some of his friends for dinner at Chuck E. Cheese on the 22nd.
- Brenna attended her first hockey game January 16th. Knoxville lost to Pensacola 5-4. Watch for photos from the game to appear soon in the Photo Gallery.
- Brenna got her second Imagination Library book: “The House That Jack Built” on the 13th…and promptly had Mimi read it to her!
- Nicklas got his third six week report card just after returning from the holiday break. He is still doing quite well!
- Nicklas wants it to ‘be summer’ so he can ride his skateboard.
- Nicklas and his pack will be working the remainder of this year on advancement and preparing for the spring campout. The square knot and taut-line hitch are the first knots the pack is working on in preparation for this campout.
- Loudon got an inch of snow the first week of January. Loudon County closed the schools early one day and the entire next day. Brenna wanted to make a snowman out in the snow but without enough snow she settled to go outside and play in the snow with her brother.
December 2009
by Martin Family Admin on Jun.12, 2011, under All, Brenna, December 2009, Nicklas
- Nicklas went with his Cub Scout Pack to the local homeless shelter to assemble toiletry kits for the homeless and to tour the facility. The tour was to get them to understand and appreciate what they have as well as understanding there are those less fortunate who need help.
- Brenna had a blast making Christmas ornaments for some of the neighbors.
- Nicklas and his Cub Scout pack participated in the ‘Christmas in Olde Loudon’ parade. He carried the pack banner for most of the three mile route.
- Brenna enjoyed grabbing the candy tossed to the crowd from the ‘Christmas in Olde Loudon’ participants while watching the parade.
- Nicklas played the tone chimes with his class during the school holiday program just before the holidays.
- Nicklas and Brenna were taken to see <em>”Alvin and the Chipmunks – The Squeakqeul”</em> during the holidays – and they LOVED it!
- Brenna got her first book from Dolly Parton’s Imagination Library (Imagination Library is a program being implemented across the state of Tennessee that is open to all children under the age of 5 years and residing in a county that is part of the Imagination Library program. Imagination Library provides free books to children until their 5th birthday.). She got a nice hardcover copy of the
“Little Engine That Could”.
November 2009
by Martin Family Admin on Jun.12, 2011, under All, Nicklas, November 2009
- Nicklas got his second six week report card and his grades are coming up again!
- Nicklas went to the local animal shelter with Cub Scouts. Each boy chose a dog to walk while there. A great dane chose to take Nick for a walk – through the puddles and mud from the precipitation the night before!