Caine's Arcade

Caine's Arcade! What fun!! I am not sure if you all know the story behind Caine's Arcade, so I will briefly tell you about it. Caine was a little boy from South LA who everyday after school had to go to his dad's autoparts store. To entertain himself, he would make different arcade games out of all the cardboard boxes. He was so creative, that he decided to open up his own arcade and made tickets, prizes, etc. Everyday after school, he would open up his store front waiting for someone to play his game. Nobody ever did, until one day a film producer needed a part for his car. He saw the elaborate cardboard arcade, and bought a ticket to play. He was so impressed with his creativity, that he decided to make a documentary about it. He hit social media and had a surprise set up for Caine. He asked everyone in the area to come to his arcade on October 6th and play his games. Hundreds of people showed up. At one point, there was a 4 hour wait to play his games. It was such a hit, that Caine actually earned $400,000 in college scholarships. Now, every year on the day of his surprise, schools from all over the country participate in Caine's Arcade day. The rules are simple. Make an arcade game out of cardboard boxes. The kids have free reign to make anything their hearts desire. They work on it for several days, and then on Caine's Arcade Day, the preschool, lower school, and parents get to come and play their games. The creativity was so impressive! The first picture is of Thomas playing Jackson's game, Flicker Ball 2000.

 Each game received a star rating based on its difficulty. Jackson and Colton's game received 4 stars. There were army men placed as obstacles, and you had to flick a ping png into a box on the other side of the defensive players. It was certainly challenging! If you did it, you won some candy.

 The defense.

 The creators...Jackson and Colton.

 Here are some pics of the other games and all the parents playing them. When we walked in, we received a bag of tickets to play the games and a bag to put our prizes in. It was really cute.

 These kids worked so hard and I loved seeing their creativity! It's amazing what you can do with a cardboard box and some duct tape!

 Beckett is super excited that daddy turned in his electric car for a sport's car! This kid LOVES cars!

 We went to one of the last Brave's games at Turner Field. We had great seats and stayed to the end to see the final fireworks display. It was set to music and really incredible!

 To celebrate Kristin's 40th birthday, we headed to Mexico for an adult's weekend. We had the best time! Noni and Granddaddy held down the fort at home. The did such a great job! With birthday parties, sporting events, they did it all! Luckily, the kids had conferences, so they were off from school, but they were still quite busy! Thank you Noni and Granddaddy for taking such good care of our kids so we could have some R&R!

 Paradise

 Perfect trip away!

 While we were relaxing, Noni kept us up to date with all the shenanigans back home. They went to Office Depot, which inspired Jackson to want to organize his books and do a little decorating.

 Getting all his books organized.

 Trying to entertain Noni while she folded the laundry.

 Monkey See Monkey Do

 Ready for his best bud London' birthday party!

 Checking out Hulk on the dance floor.

 Dance party!

 Non and Granddaddy were supposed to go home when we got back, but Hurricane Mathew changed their plans. It was lucky that they were already in Atlanta because they would have had to evacuate. We also had the McDonald's evacuate to our house from Jacksonville. It was so nice to have them! Beckett and Lilly were 2 peas in a pod and Noah, Jude, and Jackson couldn't have had more fun together! We all went to dinner at my kids favorite spot...Hibachi and then had some ice cream. Both families fared well through the storm. Ben and Sherry had a small tree fall on their house, but it did not damage the roof and Noni and Grandaddy's house was fine.

 Everyone went to Jackson's football game on Saturday. While Jackson played, the kids played in a sand pile.

Jackson had another great game with 2 touchdowns!

He is super fast!

 On our way home from playing baseball, Beckett noticed all the dog hair in the McDonald's car from having to travel with a Labrador for 8 hours. Ben said he would give Beckett 2 dollars if he cleaned his car. He said he would. We thought he was joking, but as soon as we got home, he pulled out the vacuum and started working. Who knew he was such cheap labor?

Jackson had a Lacrosse game on Saturday and Sunday. Sunday he played goalie for the second half. He did great and stopped 3 balls! He was the only goalie on either side to make any stops.

 After the game, I asked him if he liked playing goalie and he said, "No. It's boring. You don't get to run around." He did so well, however, I'm thinking the coach is going to put him in that position again. We'll see!

Beckett hit the ball great at his tball game again! Off the pitch!!

Beckett has started flag football at the church and loves it! He scored a touchdown and got the flag off kids several times. Jackson decided he was going to try to teach Beckett some plays. You can see the play book in the right lower corner. Too cute!