Double Dress Uniform!

This year our boys are finally at the same school!  For years Olin has been dressing up in Max's old uniforms, looking forward to this day.  Here are a few shots of them.

Posing in the backyard

Zip a dee doo dah

Max's friend went ziplining, and wanted to try it too.  It turned out he was tall enough to clip into the 5'6" line (the "monkey") and so we did the adult course.


Max dons a helmet

After the warm up, he take the big zip

And next a nice follow up, where he needed to ride some webbing across a gap

So proud of him!

Rafting down the Truckee

In Tahoe we thought it would be fun to get in the Truckee.  Anna and I both rafted a bunch in our prior lives, so we thought we'd show them some very light white water.  It's a start!

First, we get a boat.

Olin's Wonderful Wizarding Play

For Olin's Harry-Potter themed party, we got the kids together at Young Performers Theater and a brave young woman helped them invent a play.  After an hour of practice, here is the brilliant performance:

Daddy, I want a sorting hat cake.

We love making cakes for our boys.  This year, we've started reading Harry Potter, and, now on book 4, Olin is all about Hogwarts.  So, he decided he wanted a Sorting Hat cake.

After doing a bit of research on the web, we realized that millions of people have dedicated their lives to building the perfect sorting hat cake.  Undaunted, we bought some supplies, and then went to work.

First, make a lot of cakes.

Max writes a story

Max and Olin were going to the circus. They were excited and happy. It was along ride. When they got there they saw the elephants. Then they saw the giraffes. It was fun. Then they saw the tigers. And then the circus was over. It was time to go home after along circus. Then they went home in there car. And went into there house and ate dinner. And they went to bed.

The next morning Max and Olin woke up it was 7 o'clock a.m. we played hockey. Olin had three points. Max had four points. Max won. But Max is six and Olin is three so it is unfair. But Olin was still sad. Max was very happy. Max went bowling with his dad. Olin stayed at his his house with his mom. Olin played with his toys. He was happy. And he had very very fun at his house.

THE END

5 boys in matching pajamas: Max's Slumber Party!

Last week Max's dream came true: for his 7th birthday, some of his friends spent the night his first actual slumber party. Theme: Star Wars.

So first we made the cake. Yes, the Millenium Falcon.

Then the boys arrive. They eat some burgers and then sing Happy Birthday.



Then we go outside. We bought a lot of glow sticks, LED balloons, finger lasers, and painted the kids names to glow on rocks. And then we made them run around in the cold. Here is a short outtake:



Then the kids get in matching pajamas, and we show them how we set up the "Office" -- wall to wall air mattresses.



And Anna unleashes 75 feet of bubble wrap. We remembered to video this after they had already been running down the hall for about 10 minutes.



Then they go to the room, and watch Star Wars. In pajamas. With popcorn. All the other kids kept coming out of the room after whispering to each other that "Max's Mom will give you more ice cream." But Max and Olin were just excited to be up late.

At 10pm, about an hour after everyone "went to bed," I snuck into their room with my phone camera. Here is what I found:




Then for the morning: Anna had thought ahead, and bought all of the kids Legos. So that kept them quiet for about 30 minutes as we struggled out of bed.



Finally, at 9:30am, the kids were picked up. And we realized we had a whole day still ahead of us. But we did it, and actually loved every minute of it!