Straight "aye"s, Captain

Do I want to be that mom who brags about her kids on her blog? Yes, right now I do. We got report cards last week, and of course there are areas for improvement, but overall both boys are doing awesome. Timothy is a year ahead in reading and Liam is two years above his grade level. It is such a blessing that this comes easily to them.

When I was a kid, I remember going to the Captain's Steak Joynt to celebrate good report cards. My sister and I would order dinghy dogs, which were hot dogs in a little plastic boat, with a pirate flag on a toothpick. You had to save the boat to use later in the bathtub swimming pool. The house specialty was cheese fondue with little round crostini crackers. (It turns out lots of people search Google for that fondue recipe these days, but it does not seem to exist on the internet. Let me know if you can find it.) Still, when I imagine a really classy special occasion dinner, I can't help picturing a campy nautical theme and some oozing cheese.

Last night, TJ and I were looking at some simple stories that he could read all by himself, three or four sentences with very repetitive vocabulary. "I am Sam. I'm a cat. See me? See me? I'm Sam." It was the cutest thing, seeing the realization dawn on him that he was actually reading. He was grinning from ear to ear. I had been thinking about ways to celebrate the report cards and the kids progress in school, like we used to do at the Captain's, but this reminded me - learning is its own reward.