Tae Kwon Do

Brendan is going on 1 year in Tae Kwon Do and we've been happy with it. I think his confidence has grown and his motor skills have improved greatly. The sales pitch they hit you with makes you think they will build your kid into a combined Abraham Lincoln and Chuck Norris. We haven't seen that yet, but he has really taken an interest in Star Wars light sabers.

Above is Master Kim putting Brendan's latest belt on. Master Kim won the Olympic gold medal in Tae Kwon do in Barcelona in 1992. We have been very impressed with his patience and demeanor. But I still don't see the Lincoln/Norris connection.

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Blue Lake Runs

During the pre flu era (last week) I trained for a 15k run at Blue Lake in Gresham. The purpose was very selfish, I wanted to see how fast I could run.

Of course, I've dragged Lisa and the kids all over Portland to various races this summer. When I hit her up with this race, started off with, "Remember Blue Lake and the great play equipment they have there? They have a kids race! oh and did I mention a 15k!"

Natalie was at soccer so we took the other three and one of Brendan's friends.



At the start of the half mile run. I think the two boys were a little intimidated by #314.


This is Bren crossing the finish line. The funniest part was when anyone tried to pass him, he would speed up until they gave up. Then he would slow down to his little trot.

I didn't really like the pictures that came out for me, but I will say that I ran well. 7:13 average per mile and 11th place overall. That was good enough for 2nd in my age group. Not bad for my first attempt to be competitive.

And if anyone tries to tell you to carbo load by skipping all carbs for a few days and then piling on the pasta, don't do it. It is an evil trick to ruin your glory for a few days after the run.

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The Kids

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Tae Kwon Do

Brendan and Master Kim at Brendan's Tae Kwon Do rank advancement. I think Brendan's favorite part is the sparring where he gets to chase after one of the instructors to use his moves. I would hate to be on the receiving end of one of his attacks.

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Who has been playing with the camera?

We downloaded the pictures to the camera today. Lets see if we can guess who has been playing with it.

Upside down on the couch. Could someone have been standing on their head with a camera?

Lights must have been out. 23 perfectly black pictures.

I think we have a clue....


More feet?

Getting warmer...
Gotcha!

He used 143 pictures. Good thing we don't have to pay for film anymore.

BRENDAN!!!!

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Tae Kwon Do

When soccer finished we immediately started looking for another activity for Brendan because everyone seems so much happier when he has something to keep him busy. Luckily, his school had a Tae Kwon Do class for a few weeks that seemed to channel some of his energy.

At the end, they put on a show and had an official "Board Breaking" ceremony. If you are not a grandma or grandpa, you may not be interested...but we thought his little performance was quite cute. Especially as he tries to keep up with the other kids.



Let's just say he is quite pleased with his performance...

Oh, and we signed him up!

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A Typical Saturday Morning At Our House

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Lightning Brendan

Brendan played on the Purple Dragons soccer team. The kid is fast if you just can keep him moving in the right direction.

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Halloween

Two pioneer girls, one pumpkin, and one Boba Fett with a laser gun (that makes an awful noise). The funniest event of the evening was seeing this 8 year old pioneer girl run around with a laser gun...

Lisa made the pioneer costumes, don't they look great!


And AJ had a great time.

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Carving the Pumpkins

We originally planned to go the pumpkin patch, but after unending weeks of soccer, we were exhausted. On the way out of the last soccer party we saw a pile of pumpkins at a grocery store and offered root beer floats and one pumpkin each if we could just pick one out and go home...boy I'm sure glad the kids like root beer.

As can see, the kids designed them and then we helped cut them out. For the first time, Natalie scooped everything out by herself.

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Amy Yoder Begley - Olympian

Today we drove by a local shopping center and saw a big crowd of people all waiting in line to meet and get their picture with Amy Yoder Begley. She is running the 5000 meters (10k) at the Olympics in a few weeks. She was super nice and signed pictures for the kids. She runs about 70 miles a week and cross trains a ton. Even more impressive...her mile pace is about 6 minutes. Geez I feel like a slug.



Go Amy!!!

Does anyone else have their kids pumped up about the Olympics?

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Brendan Sleeping

Brendan insisted on sleeping with all of his stuffed animals (or at least those he could find). When we went in to check on him, he had made space for each of the animals and had no room left to sleep. He squeezed into the corner and zonked out. I think his leg is actually falling between the bed and wall.

I wonder what he'll look like at 2AM. I'll bet he climbs into the other bed....Can't disturb Dalmatian, Quacky, and the others.

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A Hit!

Can I just say the trampoline has been a hit with our kids. Nothing like telling them to go burn off some energy outside before dinner. I can't wait for summer!

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Dr. Pope Would be Proud

The Rock Score:

Natalie: 5 buckets
Brendan: 1 bucket

The kids raced outside this morning in the pouring rain and each filled a bucket. When the rain stopped, Natalie went back out with a vengeance and was still working when I came home. She even had another bucket that was almost full, but she was too tired and hungry to finish it.

Some interesting observations...

1) Brendan started fast and furious but petered out quickly. I don't think he really understands the value of a dollar yet. He doesn't really have a toy that he is drooling over (or should I say he just wants every toy?), so he really isn't yet motivated by a few extra green papers in his wallet.

2) Natalie was thinking about all the money she was earning the entire time. When I came home from work and asked her about what she was going to buy, she said a CD player, a Hanna Montana CD, and stuff for my room. So she must realize that with money you can buy cool stuff and that to get money all it takes is a little work. One of the neatest things to see was that Lisa didn't have to bug Natalie to do the work....she just went out and did it.

3) The kids quickly learned that if you used the rake, you could fill the bucket much faster. They apparently also learned that if extra leaves and dirt were put into the bucket, the bucket filled up even faster. We weren't sticklers on the amount of dirt and leaves in the bucket, but the kids found a flaw in the payment process and took advantage of it. Good for them! But next time I'm going to set a stricter rule.

Just so you know, we don't pay the kids for every job they do. They have a very long list of regular chores that have to be done or they can't do certain activities. We only pay for money jobs that are above and beyond the normal call of duty...or Lisa and I just don't want to do them.

Either way, I'm very proud of Natalie. She did a great job and worked very hard. Now if I can just find the right incentive for Brendan... Any suggestions about what works with boys?

BTW: Dr. Pope was my Econ 110 Professor...I loved that guy.

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Lava Rocks and the Value of a Buck

Much to our chagrin, the previous owners of our house filled the flower beds up with lava rocks. Of course the rocks are grenades, lawn mower missiles, and flower killers so they had to go. Unfortunately, quite a few still hide in the bushes and in the mud.

Anyone remember Econ 110? I loved it because I think all people are motivated by self interest--even irrational 5 and 7 year olds. So I ran an experiment (don't tell the social workers) using my ki..., I mean guinea pigs.

On Monday, I offered $2.50 per bucket of rocks that the kids found. It worked pretty well. Brendan was the first to fill a bucket and then Natalie persisted and filled two buckets. Of course, we heaped the praises on them and gave them the money as soon as possible.

Now I know for a fact that there are still quite a few rocks out there...so I offered them this.



It is supposed to rain tomorrow but Thursday and Friday we have other plans... I guess we'll see how much Natalie wants that Hanna Montana CD and how much Brendan wants another transformer.

I'll post their earnings tomorrow.

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Bowling with Brendan

Tonight was "Mommy-Son" date night. Brendan and I went bowling. This was his first time and it had been many, many years since I had bowled, so it was an adventure for us both.

Have any of you been bowling lately? Bowling has changed since the 1990s at the Wilk. They have AUTOMATIC bumpers. They popped up for Brendan and went down when it was my turn. They also have fancy animated balls and pins acting out strike/spare/gutter/etc. on the overhead screen. But the rental shoes still stink.

I wish I had a picture so you could see Brendan in his little size 11 bowling shoes, hugging his six-pound bowling ball. He loved that ball. As soon as it came out of the machine, he grabbed it and held it until it was his turn. First he tried bowling the regular way, with one arm. Too heavy. Then he switched to the "granny", setting the ball on the ground and giving it a big underhanded push. That worked better, but the ball still rolled so slowly down the lane that he got bored waiting to see if it would hit anything.

Once as I was starting my steps towards the lane, he yelled "Go Lisa!" Hearing him call me Lisa caught me completely off guard. My ball went straight into the gutter.

One other new thing is a little light and buzzer that go on when you "scratch" or step over the line. Brendan thought that was pretty fun. When he didn't set it off as he rolled the ball, he would stomp on the line to set it off. He later described it as a "buzzer that doesn't shock you".

I'm proud to be able to say that even though I did not get to use bumpers, I still won. By an amazing score of 69 to 67. I taught Bren the meaning of "gutter ball", since I was the only one who had one (or maybe a few more than one).

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Cocked and Loaded

Check out these two trigger happy little tykes.



So they were just paint ball guns, but the kids got pretty good at hitting something ...eventually.

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A Walk Turns Into A Wild Goose Chase

The hayseeds and I decided we would go out for a little fun while Ezra was gone on his "catch up with the guys/BYU football game/laser tag/eat really good food/get two nights of uninterrupted sleep" weekend. We went to Bethany Lake park to see what was there.























We were having a great time exploring the new (to us) park with its little lake . It was a gorgeous fall day.























Brendan said it was too hot to wear a shirt. (It was in the low-60s that day).























Some nice folks gave us some bread to feed the ducks and geese.


















Natalie and Brendan got scared by the geese. The geese were big--they came up past my waist. The kids started to run away, but they forgot to drop the bread. So the geese started honking loudly and chasing them. I managed to stop laughing long enough to yell at them to drop the bread. They did.



















Come back, Brendan! (that's him way off in the distance between the power poles) I'll stop taking pictures so I can protect you like a good mommy should!

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Mummies

As part of the Halloween party we also gave the kids a roll of toilet paper and had them make mummies out of themselves. Now we wonder how long it will be before the kids start doing it on their own...or even worse...to someone's house!

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Brendan's Four Foods

Today at lunch Brendan announced that he has four foods that he doesn't like:

Tacos in a shell
Tacos in a bowl
Lemons that aren't cooked
Dirt

Thank you, Brendan.

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