Four

Halloween

I am so done with Halloween. How many times can our kids need to have candy thrust at them in one month? I mean really. I didn't even buy any candy this year because we had so much given to us at parties and activities that I had a huge bowl of it before Halloween ever dawned.
That said, we do love dressing up. Jake's costume kills me! He insisted on being Legolas (Lord of the Rings: for all you non-geeks out there) Ethan is a knight, and Emma is an elf princess. To round it all out, we'll say Lily is a hobbit.

Sunday

It's too bad I took this picture with such bad lighting but if I can get a picture of all four of them without any pouting, sneezing, or fingers in any sort of hole, I'm publishing it.

Warped

The kids and I often have fun with pictures on the computer. These had them in stitches and me clutching my painful ribcage.

Green Belt

Here is Ethan at Taekwondo camp this summer. He worked pretty hard and loves his classes. This picture is of his test for his high orange belt. He is now a green belt. His classes start up again next week. Ethan's wearing a high yellow belt in this picture, hence the black stripe. Colors progress like this (there are 3 or 4 sub-levels within each color):
white
yellow
orange
green
blue
brown
red
black
It gets tougher as the belts get higher to advance to the next belt, so even though he zoomed up to green in one year doesn't mean he'll have his black by next. He's excited and motivated to keep working at it.

E.T.

Ethan was invited to a birthday party with an extraterrestrial theme. I didn't have time to make him Spock ears or a ray gun but we did manage to work out the extra eyeballs.

Jack-O-Ethan

Ethan has recently developed lisp.



Five pearly whites and counting.

Ethan's New Bike

Around our house the boys in the neighborhood ride bikes at least 98% of their sunny free time hours of which a good percentage of that time is spent racing. The bike is an important piece of equipment in Kidworld. (Not unlike the prestige of your vacuum cleaner in Momworld.)
Last year Ethan had the fastest 16" bike among the 5 to 6 year old set. He would come through the door with his head held high laughing about all the poor schmucks still trying to make it around the block. "Ha! Ha! Ha!" he would laugh holding his puffed-up chest, "Those guys just aren't as fast as me!"
Yes, he was ripe for the fall.
So, along comes the sunny weather of 2008 and out come all these brand new 20" bikes and even one 24" 7-gear jobber on which his bestest buddy, Jackson, spent $350 of his own hard earned cash. (ahem) It didn't take long for Ethan's delusions of superior bike-riding strength, grit, and, skill to come crashing down around his itty bitty 16" tires.
He came in very upset day after day because he couldn't even keep up with the other boys and his knees were hitting the handle bars and the pedals are locking up when he goes too fast! He thought he needed a new bike. I told him that he should be happy with the bike he does have and that thousands of starving children all over the world would be so grateful if they had a bike like that.
After some deliberation I told Ethan that Dad and I had decided that we could go out and take a look at some bikes and see how much they cost. "What do you think about that?" He thought it was a great idea. "Mom, maybe you should bring a few dollars just in case we see one that we should buy." I told him that we needed some time to get the money allocated for this expense. "Alright," he resigned. Then after a moment, "I think I need a bike with a motor! Can I get one with a motor?"

A Day at our House

Here we are just after lunch. Ethan and Emma are working on their Math. Jacob is not doing his workbook yet because he has to finish eating the lettuce from his sandwich which was surreptitiously dropped on the floor throughout lunchtime. Lily is eating Playdough.

Mount Olympus

We finished studying Ancient Greece a little while ago. This is the Mount Olympus we created in our play room complete with the houses of Aphrodite, Hera, Hermes, Apollo, Athena, and Zeus, of course up at the top. And before you accuse me of teaching revised history, we are well aware that Ethan is in a ROMAN chariot. They just wanted it for the picture.

Bubbles

Halloween

Here is the next oldest picture. The chronology will soon get all screwy. My kids are terrific Halloweeners...or should that be Halloweenies?

Gingerbread Houses

I know it's almost June. Here are the gingerbread houses the kids made this past Christmas. Ethan's fell down and did not want a picture documenting his structural failure.

Karen's Birthday Video