39 for the first time

Happy Birthday to me!

Nerf Dart Loft Bed

Peekaboo!

Adam finally realized how dinky his room is compared to Laura's, and he asked if we could build a loft bed to give him more real estate. It sounded like a reasonable request and a fun project, so we spent about a week planning and building. He helped with some of every step, and I did a lot during the school days. I used some plans from the internet that looked great at the end, but had terrible step by step instructions. Jim got me through all the pickles I encountered throughout the process. 

No big surprise that he chose orange and blue paint - he's consistent! 

This thing is stout! "Big and Strong - Never Wrong" is the theme here. His room is too small to get a complete picture of the bed. I guess I could try 'panorama'?

There's a slight concern about how high it is. There's no mattress in the box in these pictures, which is why he can sit up straight. Now that there's a mattress, he bonks his head a lot. I guess I didn't think that through when I was planning - oops. I talked him into trying it for a few days. If he doesn't get the hang of it, it should be fairly easy to lower by cutting the legs off and lowering the wall support.

And the fan looks like it overlaps the bed much more than it really does. We moved the ladder over so he doesn't have to climb right next to the fan and now it doesn't seem to be a problem.

He had a successful night sleeping last night and loves his space underneath for his bean bag and various little boy paraphernalia.

Overall, a huge success!

Wall sits

Punishment for stepping out of your square during tornado kicks.

Who's Who?

We left the kids home for about 30 minutes and they decided to "Parent-Trap" us. 

Can you tell which is Laura and which is Adam in each picture?

Then we all got a little bit pirate-y

We let Laura drag us into her world

Never seen a tougher looking crew

Cookie

Uno

The First Mate

The Captain

Ahoy Matey

Laura and I watched Pirates of the Caribbean last weekend. My little pretender has taken it to heart.

Weekend of Tournaments

We had quite a weekend!!

Saturday was Adam's first chess tournament. He had a great time, won one match, tied 2 and lost 3. It also helped that in between matches they played dodgeball and basketball and they have lots of snacks and pizza for lunch! I'm so proud that he's brave enough to play this challenging game and hang out in a new place with new people all day (parents don't stay).

He earned a bronze medal and some experience.

Also, that evening, Grandma C. and Papa took him to play Pokemon at Level Up games and he won his first ever match! He's worked very hard and long to improve his deck and strategy and it paid off.

And Laura had her spring karate tournament the next day.

 She seriously blew them all away in form...again! Mr. Quinn proudly said he could hear her from across the crowded and very noisy gym. 

 Her first sparring match was textbook - so careful and well executed. No problem.

Then came this girl. Laura kept the calm for a long time, then tried some tiny-person zigging and zagging, but she just couldn't get enough to connect. Now she has her first 3rd place trophy!

It was a great, successful weekend and I'm happy to say that both kids worked hard and learned a lot. As for the adults, we learned that being a spectator is exhausting!

The old becomes new

As a karate kid herself, Laura is forever hearing references to the Karate Kid movie. She finally decided she needed to see it so she could understand. It was surprisingly meaningful to me to watch that with her. I guess it was deeper ingrained in my youth than I realized. I loved her comments about their big hair, funny clothes styles, and the music.

And Adam has finally caught the Harry Potter bug! I had tried to read it to him a couple years ago, but he just wasn't into it so I didn't push. But earlier this year he came home super excited to try again, this time reading it on his own. He has finished the first book and is almost done with the second. We both agree that he'll probably take a break after this one since the third book is darker and more complicated. But it has been so fun to get back into the characters and see his interest and excitement grow. And we watched the first movie after he finished the book. Laura and I were such willing co-watchers!

Tournament Sparring Prep

Try again...

See the tiny person in the background? That's my kid hanging with the big boys. No other girls or shorties showed up today, but she's doing fine.

Actually, this isn't an unusual sight in our house