Dads and Doughnuts

This was the 2nd time I was able to go with my sons to "Dads and Doughnuts".  It's something the boys look forward to for weeks.  I know they love the doughnuts, but they also like to show me the school and introduce me to their friends.  Technically Dads and Doughnuts is just for Logan, but Landon comes too and he feels like he belongs as if he were a student.  

I enjoy seeing Logan's friends and his school. Logan is so social and loves to greet everyone he knows with a big happy hello.  

The other big event of the week was Logan's chess tournament.  This is his 2nd tournament and it is a pretty big deal.  There were schools from all across the valley that attended, including several private schools.  Riverton Elementary sent out an email to participants' parents to prepare their children because many of the other children have had "years of private chess lessons."  

Taylor Ludlow also participated, and it helped so one parent didn't have to be there the whole day. Parents were sequestered outside of the chess playing area so I'm not exactly sure how Jill shot this picture. 

While Shanel was watching the kids she overheard a parent yelling at his son, "YOU HAD BETTER WIN THIS NEXT ROUND!" I'm so glad I didn't hear that because knowing myself I would have gotten involved and told the father to cool down (my experience of telling volatile parents to cool down doesn't go over too well).  It's a game people!

Logan won his first round which bumped him into a tougher group.  From there he lost the next 3 rounds to some very good chess players.  Logan told me, "Dad I versed a kindergartner and he got me in check mate!" He went on to win the last game (finishing 2 of 5) which earned him an Outstanding Contributor trophy.  It appeared as if this was the 2nd level of awards given out. He sure made me proud considering his lack of private lessons.  He sure enjoys chess.

One other thing I had forgotten to post about happened two weeks ago.  Cousins and friends of our sons seem to enjoy Harry Potter.  Our boys have been asking for a while to watch the movie because their friends and cousins have seen it.  We finally decided that they were old enough for the first movie, but first they would need to read the book.  We started the book and were able to finish in under two weeks.  Both boys loved everything about the book.  Landon would sometimes fall asleep while we read, but Logan was always riveted and wanted to read more each night.

As we neared the end of the book it talks about the number of "house points" that each of the classes had earned.  Then, when extra house points were awarded to Gryffindor, it sent Logan through the roof.  I've never seen him so excited! It made me think that we may incorporate a reward system based on points for when the boys do their chores.

Of course after we finished the book, within a few days we let the boys watch the movie which they absolutely loved.  Jill and I hadn't seen the movie in such a long time it was fun to see the characters so young.  Now of course, the boys want to read book number two.  I'm still not sure exactly how far we are going to take this.