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!

Oh, The Colors of Christmas...

What a Christmas day. With all of the cooking and running around we forgot to take many pictures. But Nate and Lauren came over for dinner, and the kids had been planning a performance for them for the last week. They particularly love to perform for Lauren.

They even made a program up for the event. And t-shirts. So we figured it was worth a post.

Here is the performance edited down to the highlights (yes landscape would have been a lot more effective)...

The Program

The Performance

Christmas Eve...the real questions is

Christmas Eve is here. We had a nice dinner and all curled up on the couch to watch Rudolph and Frosty's Christmas in July, a movie that both David and I watched as children. In the end Rudolph gets his bright nose back and frosty comes back to life after melting - thanks to jack frost. And Santa and Mrs Claus ride off into the sunset with their reindeer. Max and Olin crawled into bed after setting out a plate of mini cupcakes and cookies for santa and a cup full of salad and carrots for his reindeer. Olin wouldn't go to sleep because he was afraid of Santa coming into our house. I had to reassure him that Santa wouldn't go into his room. I say reassure because he has been worrying about this for sometime. That and the fact that our fireplace is sealed off and Santa wouldn't be able to get in. I told him we'd leave the door unlocked for him, to which he replied with "how about we just get a new house with a chim-a-ney that works?"

FINALLY asleep... and we got to enjoy one of my favorite parts of being a parent, playing Santa. I just LOVE it. We set out Max's new bike and Olin's bouncie trampoline in the office covered in bows, brought out all the presents and arranged them under the tree and overstuffed the stockings. And the best part, I got to eat Santa's cookies and cupcakes. I want my kids to believe in Santa forever, however now that Max is in school with 39 little boys, many of whom have older siblings, I figure we have maybe one more year. I hope this isn't our last. Leading up to Christmas he really believed that Santa was watching him (it worked wonders for his behavior -- Olin? not so much). Every time I told Olin that Santa was watching, he would say "Mom, Santa lives in the North Pole, there's no way he can see that far."

We kissed the boys goodnight, went through our best and worst and as I was walking out the door, Max said "Mommy the real question is....Is Santa Real?" Sh**T, I thought, we really have to step up our Santa game tonight. I hope they feel the magic when they wake up.

Darth and, uh... Baseball!

Perhaps we overdid it on these pictures... but what can you do.

This year Olin decided early on he wanted to be Darth Vader ("Dark Invader"), of course without ever having seen the movie.

Mr. Dark


Watch out for my Light Saver, Luke!

Meanwhile, Max had decided that he wanted to be a baseball. So, a baseball costume was constructed.

Nice socks.

But when Max saw the great Darth Vader, with its shiny store-bought mask, there was a little bit of jealousy. So we went back to Target. And he joined the clone army.

People called him Captain Cody?

But he was a sport and wore the baseball for his school parade and trick-or-treating. With a smile.

Max and his big brother

And then, before the actual night, we thought we'd let them see Star Wars, with my dad who was in town:

Then we went out with our good friends, Megan and Sheelyn

For just One Day

Putting the kids to bed tonight, I was reading Leuck's "for just One Day," about imagining being all kinds of different animals.

Afterwards, I showed them the final page, and asked what animal they think it would be fun to be for a day.

Olin: A Crocodile.
Me: Why?
Olin. So a bird would brush my teeth and I didn't have to.

Olin: And also a bumblebee.
Me: Why?
Olin: So I could sting.
Me: Sting who?
Olin: People that annoyed me.

Olin: And a ladybug.
Me: A ladybug?
Olin: Yeah.
Me: Why?
Olin: So I could climb all over people.

And there, in a nutshell, is Olin.

Max's first lost tooth!

And perhaps the last of his friends, Max finally loses his first tooth!

It has only been loose for a day, but here it is:

Today's going rate? Two bucks. And that's on the cheap side!

The 4th Olin Soccer Party Trophy Bonanza

And it begins with the cake construction. Olin places every figure (well he lets Max help too)...

Olin keeps staring at the cake in the hours leading up to the party...

And then it begins! Coach Tim gathers the kids for the soccer play...

And finally: cake time.

And every friend gets a trophy!