Yellow Belt

Last night was the big night Michael has been waiting for: promotion night!  He has been working really hard at TKD for several months to learn his form to earn his Yellow Belt.  

Congrats, Michael!

Ben's HP Birthday Party

Today was Ben's birthday party with a Harry Potter theme.  Let me start off by stating that while I did drink the Pinterest kool-aid on this one, I did not drink long nor deeply.  There are some freakishly creative and dedicated people out there.  And none of them are me.  I took an idea here and an idea there, passed on the decorating, and called it good.  1.5 hours of quick activities and sugar.  And since that is all Ben needs to be happy, I am happy.

We started off making wands with wooden dowels, hot glue, and paint.

Messy but effective.

Then we played a guessing game where each person had a word loosely based on Harry Potter (not everyone has had the pleasure of reading the books) on his back and then could ask only yes/no questions of other boys to figure out who/what he was.  Jason told them that when they had figured that out, they had to put the paper on their forehead.

And idea that was wildly popular.

Next up was pin the scar on Harry's forehead.  Jason did some impressive artwork (again).

He also did the spinning.  His is a man of many talents.

Then they played HP pictionary while I got the dessert ready.

Into the dining room they gathered for cupcakes with snitches on top and butterbeer.  I've never had butterbeer, but I found a recipe online that looked easy enough.  Jason tasted it and proclaimed it to be "Sweet, but not like awesome sweet.  Just sweet."  The boys seemed to think it was both awesome and sweet.  As far as I can tell, when you are 7 or 8 years old, anything with sugar in it tastes good.

Then back to the front room for presents.  This is Ben's happy pose.

He got a pretty cool haul (mostly legos and geology stuff) and so was/is a happy boy.

Isaac and His Men

Isaac has his "men".  Some of them are Lego men and some of them are superhero men and some are miscellaneous men who come from who knows where.  What they have in common is that they are little and many are choking hazards for his age.  AND when he gets his little hands on them, he holds them with a death grip in the fear that someone will forcibly remove them from his itty, bitty hands.

I gave up on that a while back.  I do take anything (read: lego man helmets) if I catch them in his mouth.  Otherwise, I let it go.  There was pretty much a 0% chance that as the fourth child he was going to play with age appropriate toys anyway.

Giving into the inevitable, I figured I'd better join 'em and try to encourage him to play with the safer ones.  I lined some of them up facing the room and he decided to make some changes.

Much more fun if they stand in line.  He spent quite a bit of time getting it all just right.

He really seemed to enjoy the process.

Right up until he crawled through the line and they all went flying.  And he just started chucking them when he made it to the end of the line.  Just in case I was concerned that he had somehow given up on his days of destruction and mayhem.

Happy Spring Celebration!

Below are some pictures from our Spring Celebration yesterday.  I know it's a day early, but weekdays get pretty crazy around here lately.  Also, the sun was scheduled to make an appearance and we couldn't let that sort of day pass us by.  After Isaac's nap, we packed up our four square balls and some kites and went to the park.  Interestingly enough, all of Olympia had the exact same idea.  Okay, not about kites, but all the rest.  These people are serious about getting outside when there is the slightest promise of sunshine.

That's okay.  We found parking on the far end of the park by a sizable field to fly kites.  And Isaac had enough space so he could walk around with a death grip on his ball.

We brought two kites with us: Michael's superman kite, which went up and flew easily.

And a dragon kite, which really seemed to want to fly, but instead kept dive bombing.  We spent much of our time coaxing this flying lizard into the air.

Our resident (almost) teenager really just wanted to be over the basketball courts.  Family activities are no longer his favorite kind.

While Michael happily flew his kite, Jason and Ben took on the dragon kite.

Ben was convinced that this was going to work.

And, eventually, it did.  With the modification of the kite poles and a running start, it flew!

Look!

Hooray!  At which point, the other kids at the park wanted in on the cool kite action and we got to see a lot of really happy kids get this kite in the air.

Time was running down for evening stuff, so we headed home for the Spring baskets.  Everyone had to close their eyes while Jason brought them in the room.

This year Ben got a geode kit, Girl Scout cookies, peeps, and a certificate to take a friend to play laser tag.

Isaac got a ridiculous amount of cars/trucks (thank you, thrift store!), dinosaurs, books, and blueberry yogurt snacks.

Michael got the watch for which he has been begging for months, Girl Scout cookies, peeps, and a certificate to take a friend to play laser tag.

Josh got a military sighting compass, Girl Scout cookies, peeps, and a certificate to take a friend to play laser tag.

It is always gratifying when everyone loves the gifts I have spent time thinking about and selecting, and this year was great!  Probably the only drawback is that Josh will have to wait for Aunt Rachel to come home before he can understand everything his compass can do.  Michael, in the meantime, discovered just about everything his watch can do.

Ben and Jason decided to crack open the geode right away.

It didn't disappoint.

Our budding geologist was thrilled.

And Isaac, well, Isaac of course enjoyed playing with the bucket just as much as he enjoyed playing with his toys.

It was a very fun day.

A Completely Different Child

Ever make a decision that you regret almost immediately?  Ever look your spouse in the eyes and think, "We made a mistake."?  

Well, Jason and I did something tonight that we both regret and think was probably a mistake.

We chopped Isaac's curls.  

It is a little bit difficult to recognize him without his mop of signature curls.  

At first he was one with the clippers.

And gave it kisses (totally safe, I promise).

So fun!

He even tried to do it himself.

But, he became less certain once the curls began to fall.

"All the boo-boos!"

And then reality came crashing down on him.  Or he didn't like the feeling of the clippers on his head.  Or having hair all over his skin really wigged him out.

Regardless, a lollipop and bath later, he recovered and happily danced around the house.  And Jason and I were just a little bit sad.  Luckily, it's a renewable resource.

Number 93

We're about halfway through Josh's basketball season so I thought I should blog about it before it is over!  Because of when the games are and how crazy it is to take Isaac in public, we hadn't made it to any of his games until this week.  Which is sad, because we missed the game when he scored for the first time.  This week we worked it out so that Jason and I could each make it to one of the games.  Josh is on one of the C teams and this is really his first time playing basketball...pretty much ever.  I truly admire Josh for being willing to try new things and sticking it out to the end.  His team hasn't won at all this season, but the boys definitely gave it all.  Even at the end when it was clear they weren't going to win.  We are pretty proud of #93.