Butt-kickin'

Joshua also takes Karate, but he is in the Teen/Adult class.  Yes, he is the smallest person in the class, and he works HARD.  The poor kid comes home drenched in sweat, hair plastered down, muscles sore.  I love it.  It is nice to know he is getting a work out at least twice a week.  I should probably take the class with him, then I too could be tossing kettle balls around and doing sets of 200 kicks at a time.  

With Halloween and all this week, they did something extra fun on Wednesday.  They used colored markers to practice knife fighting techniques. It was pretty exciting to watch and looked like a lot of fun.  Joshua said he had a great time.

He is the smallest one in the class and he was paired with this nice lady. 

I love her laughing at Joshua right here. 

And then she took him down!   

And she did it again!  And again, and again..... They were suppose to be walking through the technique, learning the movements, and she did it perfectly every time. She grabbed the wrist, twisted and dropped him. Consistently.

When it was his turn, well, he did a good job, but never managed to repay in kind. 

 But he tried, and he worked hard. The markers were used instead of fake knives so you could tell where you would have been stabbed, and some of the class was quite colorful.  But not Josh.

 Poor kid didn't do much marking either.

He just got whupped.  But it was fun!

 At the end of the evening, here he is, showing that he only got 3 marks.  He might have lost a lung, but he did great!

Karate

I hung out and took pictures at karate the other day.  They do sparring once a week.  Marian hates it because she's afraid of getting hurt, and all the kids know it.  So she gets whupped a lot, and for a kid as competitive as she is, it is not fun for her.  Fortunately, I got them on a great day. 

Callie, in the yellow shirt,  doing her quiet but sneaky thing. 

This right here is what Marian fears.  She got wacked pretty good once or twice and is afraid of getting her shins hurt again.  Callie is not afraid!

Marian taking on the kid in red. You can see her backing off.

And then..... THEN she busts out this awesome spinning back kick!  That's my girl!  Aparently she's discovered that  this particular kick is not going to get her hurt, and it scores points for her.  She won. 

See, more confident already!

Why the Primary Program Rocks

Some people's children spend the whole thing scowling and refusing to sing.  And some people's children are entertaining enough that their parents might buck the taboo and sneak pictures of their children.  Although I will confess that the best part of the program (for me!) was when Rylee gave me a big thumbs up after delivering her part beautifully.  Then she put the glower back on.

Squirrel!

Lately, when I let Levi out to potty during the day, I open the door, peer out carefully, and if there isn't anyone around, I'll let him go, no leash. Poor kid never gets to just run.  He's always on the leash and our backyard is so tiny, he can't run.  So I let him out untethered and let him chase the squirrel.  There is a little squirrel who runs around the front area and Levi is bound and determined to get it.  Sadly, he is not the sharpest knife in the drawer when it comes to squirrel catching.  There has been more than one occasion that Levi's nose is buried in the grass, sniffing for the little critter, and the squirrel will leap down from the tree and dash across the lawn to a bigger tree.  And Levi won't even notice!  

There are times that Levi does see the mad dash for a better tree and then, the race is on.  Mostly, there is no squirrel in sight when he goes out.  Mostly, Levi just gallops from tree to another, sniffing and searching.  But he sure has a good time!

Hey, I'm uh, lookin' for a squirrel.  Have you seen it?

 It might be up here!

Did he go this way?

Wait!  I think I heard something! 

Aaaah!  He saw it! Run, squirrel, run!

BYU vs Houston

Dan and Joshua took off Friday-Saturday to drive to Houston to watch the BYU game.  They left early enough to do the 7 hour drive and arrive in time to attend the fireside Friday night.  I didn't know that the BYU team puts on a fireside when they play away-games, and I think that is pretty cool. Dan said the fireside was great.   On Saturday afternoon, the boys watched the game and had a marvelous time.  Sadly, Dan and I have a difference of opinion on what the camera is for, and he was delighted to get picture of everything they did.... but no pictures of Joshua, and only one of himself.  Sigh.

Dan did get a picture of himself with Bronco Mendenhall, who is the coach of the BYU football team.  Dan went to the Temple Saturday morning and ran into Bronco (cuz they're on a first name basis now!) as he was leaving the Temple.  Dan was thrilled.

They enjoyed the game and I hear it was pretty exciting, with BYU pulling out the win at the last minute.  They drove home after the game, and fell into bed just before 2am on Sunday. 

At the fireside.  Dan said they sat next to someone cool, but I don't know who it was. 

Houston Temple 

Dan with Bronco Mendenhall. 

Heading into the stadium. 

Watching the game. 

Cosmo Cougar, the BYU mascot.  Dan said our cougar was way better than theirs, but he couldn't get a photo of it. 

Some very exciting play that happened.

Career Day

Today was Career Day in the First Grade.  Delaney spent the last 2 weeks agonizing over what she would be.  She couldn't think of anything.  Literally.  She told me her brain wasn't working and she could not think.  When I asked her what sorts of jobs she thought might like to do when she was grown up, she gave me the you-idiot look and said, "Duh, I can't THINK!"

Fortunately, it was fire safety day last week and she decided she might want to be a fireman.  Not for real, she said, but for now.  So I found her a fireman jacket at the thrift store and she wore the pink hat she got from the fire truck's visit to the school.  Apparently 5 of the 20 points came from the dressing up portion of the assignment, so it was really important she costumed up.  She also had a list of questions so she could research her desired career. I nagged her about it and she finally shouted at me that it was done.  I'm so sad I didn't get a picture of it before she turned it in.  I ultimately had to rework it with her, due to the utter lack of research.  The question "Do you need to attend College" was given a "No."  By far, my favorite question and response was the "How much money will you make?"  To which Delaney had written, "A tun."!  I ended up tasking Callie to help with the researching and Callie went above and beyond, writing a lovely speech for Delaney, that sadly lacked a lot of facts as well.  But it sure was cute!

Today I got to go over to the school with Rylee and watch 25 First Graders get up and talk about what they wanted to be.  Apparently, Firefighter was a popular one, with no less than 6 kids dressed up and ready to talk about it.  Delaney was adorable.  Like all the other kids, she spoke with her nose in her paper.  Most of the kids read the question and then their answers.  Delaney did that too.  Then she read her prepared speech.  She was so pleased with herself when she finished.  I love that kid!

And then, because it was 90 minutes till school was out, the teacher said we could take them home if we wanted, so I checked her out of school and we went to the base library.  Good times!

Going over it before her turn. 

Carefully reading her questions and answers. 

Rocking her speech! 

Mugging at the library.

Good Friends = Good Fun

Last Saturday, my delightful friend invited the girls and me to come over to play.  She'd heard that Dan and Joshua were out of town (fishing) and thought we might want to do something fun as well.  We did!  And it was a lot of fun.  I kept saying, gee, we really should go.  Gosh, I need to drag the kids out of the pool.  Of course, I didn't and a 2 hour visit became a 4 hour visit and the girls all got a wee bit of sunburn. But oh, they had such a good time!

Marian swimming. 

Rylee was in the water for a whole 2 minutes before she decided it was too cold. She didn't need to be wet to enjoy herself. 

Delaney paddled around and spent the entire time in the water.  She loves swimming. 

Rylee and her friend Maddie ditched the pool for the sandbox.  I loved that I could sit in the screened porch and watch the girls have fun while I chatted with my friend.  It was such a good day! 

Once the girls discovered the numerous (and easily captured) frogs and lizards, swimming became the secondary attraction. (I love that Marian and Emma have on the same swim shirt.)  

Did I mention my friend made brownies?!  That is one reason why she's my friend!  Notice that Rylee has a brownie in one hand and a Halloween Oreo in the other. 

Callie was in love with their cats.   

I love this kid!  What's on her shoulder?! 

Yeah, there was something about a lizard olympics...... I didn't want to know! 

This is how much fun they had!  Rylee totally conked out on the couch.  Good times.

Lovin' the Dairy Dip!

Every time I drive the girls home from Karate, they beg to go to the Dairy Dip.  Since I'm usually taking them home at 5pm, it isn't an unreasonable request, except I usually have dinner in the oven.  So I always say no, and they always tell me how mean I am.  And Dan isn't allowed to take them when he picks them up, because I screamed at him the last time he did it and then I went on strike.  Granted, he chose the day I had slaved over a specific and time-intensive meal because the girls had requested it, so I was extra mad when they came home late with lips stained a rainbow of colors from their snowballs.

Anyway, the boys went on a men-only fishing trip and it was just me and the girls.  So I said yes to the Dairy Dip and made them all very happy.  And I got to have a deep fried corn dog and delicious onion rings for dinner.  Win win!

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****  And on a totally unrelated note, the quote of the week goes to Delaney!  "My brain, it really IS invisible!!"

Who is having Lunch under my Porch?!