Procession of the Species

Saturday afternoon brought us Procession of the Species fun.  We got downtown two hours early and still struggled to find a parking spot!  Navigating horrendous parking situations is usually Jason's job so I was really missing him at that point.  Finally, seven blocks away, we found parking and hightailed it down to the procession route to claim a spot on the side of the road.  Once we set up the chairs, we chilled for a little bit waiting for our friends to come.  

After they arrived, the dad was kind enough to watch all our gear so my friend and I could take the boys out and about.  First, we hit up the instrument petting zoo.  We're hoping to have Michael play the clarinet next year, so I thought he might like a chance to make some noise on one.  I am no expert, but I think he did pretty well for a beginner.  Of course, me trying to explain embouchure was like the blind leading the blind.

The boys were also interested in the strings.

And then a very nice lady tried to coach Ben into getting some noise out of the flute.  Harder than it looks!

Then he also gave the clarinet a go.

Next, and right outside, was a magician who blew Michael's mind.

It was getting close to time, so we went back to make sure our seats were secure.  It is a bit of a hassle, but definitely worth getting to sit to watch and not have anyone blocking our view.  Like last year, I took a TON of pictures, but I figured I would stick to posting the new stuff rather than fill the blog up with the same pictures year after year.

I love the culture of our new home.  And my friend and I are now making plans to have our families participate next year (we'll see if that happens).

Dragonboat Race

Saturday was a crazy busy day for us.  It started with the Dragonboat Race and ended with the Procession of the Species (yes, on the same day this year!) and in the middle was Ben's soccer game.

Whew.

This year Jason's office put together a dragonboat team.  Jason, Rachel and Josh signed up.  Then Jason trashed his back the day before.  

Bummer.

But Rachel and Josh still got to race.

The dragon heads.

The blessing of the boats.

The team voted on a name and chose Strokes of Genius with Einstein as their theme.

Hence the white mustaches.

These two pretty much rocked the 'staches.

They did three races and called it a day in 6th place (our of 16).  

Footspurt

Sometimes, Michael cracks me up.  I think he often lives in another world in his head and every once in a while we get a glimpse inside.

Michael and his classmates spend a lot of time comparing statistics about their lives.  What they own, where they've eaten, how tall they are, what they watch on TV, etc.

The latest discussion was about foot size.  After doing some comparisons, it came to light that Michael had some of the smallest feet in the class even though he is the fourth tallest.

Michael found this rather distressing and he only brought it up about 50 times this week.

This happened to coincide with him needing new shoes.  So Thursday, on our way home from Take Your Child to Work Day, we stopped at Target to get some shoes.

He went up TWO AND A HALF shoe sizes, from a 3 1/2 to a 6.

What this told me: his feet have been crammed in his shoes for a while.

What this told him: wishes really DO come true.

It turns out that the day before at 11:11am he made a wish (I didn't know this was a thing) that his feet would grow.  From his perspective, his feet grew two and a half sizes between the moment that he made that wish and when we bought the shoes.

He'd had an amazing FOOTSPURT.

This kid cracks me up.

Arrow of Light

Tuesday was a big day in Cub Scouts for us.  Michael earned his Arrow of Light and Ben started his cub scout journey with his Bobcat.  It was a particularly stressful day for me because I was running the pack meeting.  I don't mind the prep, but running the show usually requires a full day to recover afterwards.  

Anyway, enough whining.

Jason was in the building, but he had Isaac so he still didn't get to see anything.  Luckily, the other cubmaster took pictures so we have some of Michael's AofL ceremony. 

First the boys were blindfolded.  

Then each had a parent lead him to the front.

Their den leader removed the handkerchiefs; tested their knowledge of the cub scout oath and motto, etc; and talked them through the symbolism of the arrow of light.

Then the boys pinned their respective parent and were given their gift.  An actual arrow is traditional, but they are a bit expensive and more involved than I like (covered in rows of tape representing everything they have earned), so I came up with these framed scrapbook pages instead. I think they turned out okay.

And then, finally, FOOD.  These gluten-free, dairy-free cupcakes turned out pretty tasty (one of the scouts is GF, DF), and I think the presentation is fun.

I am so proud of Michael and all of our scouts who earned their Arrow of Light!  It takes a lot of work and dedication.

And we're also proud of Ben and his Bobcat.  We just don't have any pictures.  :(  But it was kind of fun to celebrate the end of Michael's cub scout journey at the same time that Ben is starting his.

Two cub scouts done, two to go!

Let them eat Strawberries!

Well, that's the dream anyway.  Our transplanted strawberries didn't produce much last year, so we let them go wild over the Fall and Winter and below is what we have.  We also had slugs last year so this time we planted some marigolds and surrounded the plot with crushed egg shells.  I may be being overzealous this early in the season, but gosh darn it my boys are going to be devastated if they aren't able to pop sun-ripened berries is their little mouths this summer.

We also planted the wildly popular (no, seriously) snap peas.  Also, even though I can't remember which row is which in our other plot, but I also planted watermelons, broccoli, and jalapenos.  Then I left a little bit of space for some tomatoes.  Not all of those plants thrive in this climate, so we'll see how it all goes.

Overreactive

This is what your back looks like when you are allergic to nuts, peanuts, milk and the state of Washington.  

On a positive note, no fish allergies (upper left).

He Shoots! He Scores!

I know it is his third season, but it is always exciting when Ben scores a goal.  Even more exciting when he scores TWO goals in one game.  Luckily, another parent had a camera and was documenting such milestones.  Even more luckily (is that proper English?), he got a great shot of Ben just as Ben was about to score his second goal.  

Ben is super happy with his new team.  It's a great bunch of kids with a great coach.

And after the game it was off to Wendy's for a Frosty to celebrate!

Clear As Mud

Isaac has a speech delay.  We assume this is partly the cause of his horrific tantrums and all around cranky personality.

Isaac has a speech therapist.  She comes twice a month.  She is very nice and he does seem to be making some progress.

Isaac speaks in sentences.  It's just that we don't know what most of the words are.  His therapist asked me how much of what he says I understand.  I was caught off guard and said 25%.

Now that I have been paying attention, I would definitely have to bring that number down.

Apparently 50-75% is typical for his age.

We're not quite there.

Having said that, there are somethings that he says that are crystal clear:

"PUT ME DOWN!"

"DADDY, I'M DONE!" (when he wakes up from a nap or in the middle of the night)

"MINE!"

"NOOOooooOOOOOoooooOO!"

"TEEEVEEEE!"

Notice a trend?

Ben's Baptism (and chocolate cake)

Last month, Ben had a very important birthday.  He turned EIGHT, which means it is time to get baptized!  All of his Virginia grandparents flew out (some had better experiences than others) this weekend to be with us at this important milestone.  In our stake, all COR born in the same month get baptized on the same day, so the date was chosen for us (April 8th) and we shared the day with 6 other families.

Yes, 6 other families.  And we were last.  You can imagine how well Baby Rage took that.  Because he is so good at sitting quietly for extended periods of time.  

Or not.  

In any case, Ben asked me to give the talk on the Holy Ghost and Jason did the baptizing and confirming.  Jason had to take Isaac out of the room while I spoke and I had to comfort Isaac when he realized that there was a plexiglass wall preventing him from jumping into the water to join Jason and Ben.

But back to Ben.  Not everything is about Isaac.  

A pic before the baptism.  Ben was not a fan of the jumper.

Dad, Bishop Tolman, and Tim Kloft assisted in the confirmation.  He got a HUMONGOUS KitKat after he got baptized so that figured prominently in several of the pictures we took afterwards.

Ben, grandparents, and the KitKat.

Family picture (without the KitKat).

Rachel hadn't been doing anything physical for a couple of hours, so she decided to mix it up with a fireman's carry.

The star of the post-baptism festivities was the 4-layer chocolate cake.  Ben has been talking about this cake for ages.  He and Nana have this on-going understanding about multi-layer cakes that have ranged between 4 to 6 layers.  So 4 layers of chocolate goodness covered in eyeballs (so it could watch him eat it) was waiting for us.

It was a very happy day for a pretty great little guy.

Fort Worden

Yesterday we were on a mission to cross something off of our Washington State Bucket List.  Our initial plans were to visit the Ape Caves, but a report of 1-2 feet of snow on the mile hike from the parking lot was a deal-breaker.  We'll try again later.

On to Plan B: Fort Worden.  This was a recommendation from more than one person.  And one of those people was kind enough to recommend bringing flashlights.  That would be crucial later. 

We had a lovely drive up 101.  It ended up being a 2 hour drive, so according to the Miller Rule of Travel, we had to spend at least 4 hours there.  That, it turns out, was not problem.  

I have absolutely no idea why Fort Worden was built (missed out on Washington State history in school - who were we fighting up that way?).  All I know is that my kids and their friends had a BLAST running around on top of and inside the dark bowels of the concrete bunkers.  We had to almost physically drag them away to check out the beach and lighthouse.  Yes, Fort Worden has it all.  

Below are the best of the 150+ pictures I took (I have a problem).  We had a wonderful day and three out of the four boys conked out in the car on the way home.