Saturday, June 26, 2010

Silly fun

The first day of summer and we decided to just let the kids have some fun. This is what it looked like 3 bottles of silly string and a huge mess later.

Friday, June 25, 2010

Fully Animated

Tristan has always been rather animated. He's loud and outgoing and a rather personable character. That was never more true than in the final week of school, when his class presented their "Wax Museum" of historical characters.

Tristan chose to be Napoleon Bonaparte. He did the whole thing on his own - researched and read books then wrote a whole long paper about Napoleon. He made a big display board for the event (see it in the background?). He even convinced me to attempt to make him a Napoleon hat... which was only marginally successful. But by the day of the wax museum he was ready!

If you look at the photo below you'll see a little sticker on his hand. That was his "on" button. Whenever someone pushed the button he gave a speech to inform them about his character. Well he got quite into it and gathered quite a following of kids! He spoke with such conviction and was so animated that they all loved him. And Brian and I couldn't help but notice that he always drew quite a crowd. The kids would push his button over and over just to hear him talk and he was quite happy to entertain them all.
Of course, it doesn't hurt if you're brandishing a sword too! LOL I only wish that I had our video camera that day to capture his spiel. I was truly impressed with him and his entire project.

Thursday, June 24, 2010

Schools Out!

School is out and I wanted to share these pics of Carissa at field day at her school. She was having such a great time and really enjoyed the last of her time at Warren school. Next year, it's on to the brand new intermediate school!

Wednesday, June 23, 2010

A New Stripe

Chase and Carissa started taking Taekwondo about 4 months ago and last month they both tested for their white belt with a black stripe (or, as they like to call it, their black belt with 2 white stripes. LOL). Testing went well and they both walked away victorious. Here's a few pics from the testing.

Here they are with their new belts and their teacher, Master Maye. They're supposed to be giving their "tough" faces... Chase breaking boards,
sparring,
showing his self-defense,
doing his form,
and receiving his new belt.
Carissa doing forms,
sparring
discussing strategy with her coach,

breaking boards,

and showing self-defense.

All in all a great first testing for both of them. Up next month: it's Tristan's turn. This time he'll be testing for his green with a black stripe. Wish him luck!

Tuesday, June 22, 2010

Meet Mrs. Earth Day

For Earth Day this year Carissa's class was tasked with making a creation out of recycled items. This project was right up her alley and for days and days it was all she could talk about. When the day finally came for us to make Carissa was ecstatic. She kept finding tidbits to use, things to add, ways to make it bigger and better. I'm not sure she could have made it much bigger or better because she turned out fabulous! She was huge (nearly as tall as Carissa!) and stylish in her recyled fashions. She had plastic bottles for arms and legs, a box for a body, pop bottle lids as dots, painted newspaper head, milk jug caps eyes and strips of bottle labels as hair. She even included a stomach that opened to reveal a room inside, complete with battery chairs and tables and two swinging chandeleers. She was a pretty amazing project and Carissa was rewarded with the top prize for most creative project. Way to go Carissa!



Thursday, June 17, 2010

How I Know It's Summer...

Summer is finally here, though you could never tell it by the weather. It thinks it's still spring or something, as the rain and gray skies have been hanging about. Despite the weather, it surely is summer. Here's the sure signs in our house:
  • The kids are all "camping" together in one of their bedrooms.
  • The board games have seen the light of day once again.
  • Books are everywhere and the kids are keeping track of their hours read for the library and bookstore reading programs.
  • My toenails are brightly painted and waiting for sandal weather.
  • The refrigerator smells of cherry jello jigglers, made today by Carissa.
  • The heat is off, though the A/C isn't running just yet.
  • I'm staying up until late at night again, happy to have some quiet, creative "me" time.
  • Mornings are lazy and quiet, with kids waking up to read for a while before slowly traipsing out of bed in search of breakfast.
  • The kids are hanging out together and talking over one another as they act out some imaginary scene that they've devised.
  • S'mores ingredients are sitting on the counter waiting for a campfire.
  • The street outside is filled with the noise of kids playing.

Tuesday, June 01, 2010

Book Club


Living in Scappoose for so long has finally meant we've put down roots. We've met a lot of people and are involved in the community. I've made friends, mainly through work and scouts. But what's most precious to me here, besides my own family, is the book club girls. Book club was started about 2 1/2 years ago and started out with a group of scout moms and a few of their friends. Our numbers are up to 7 now and we meet monthly, rotating houses so everyone hosts. I really love how book club makes me go out of my way to read something I otherwise wouldn't or to see life in a different way. I truly love my book club and look forward to our meetings, which involved food, book talk and idle chit chat. The book club girls are my friends and I'm so lucky to have them.