kids say the darndest things

Jackson: C'mere mommy. I give you big kiss. I hold your head.
He pulls me in close (by my head) and plants a good one right on my lips and doesn't let go for a solid 5 seconds. That's a long time to lock lips with a 3 year old!

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Me: Jackson, is mommy a girl?
Jackson: No, you no grill. You, jus mommy, mommy.

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Jackson comes in the house and pulls off his shoes he's been wearing ALL DAY LONG with NO SOCKS. The smell that wafted through the room was sickening.
Daddy: Jackson you have STINKY feet!
Jackson: (pulls his foot up to his nose, takes a big whiff and says...) No stink, daddy. They smell good!

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Mommy: (while carrying Jackson to bed)Whew, Jackson. You are heavy!
Jackson: No mommy, you have big muscles!

Trevor's D.I. Competition

Trevor also competed at the same Destination Imagination competition as Logan on March 13th, 2010. They were not in the same category or age group so they did not compete against each other (THANK HEAVENS!).

Trevor's team was made up of all his good buddies which made for a fun group of kids that already know each other really well. Trevor's coaches were his dad, uncle, and Caleb's dad - who is also our great friend.

Their challenge was different than Logan's team in that they had to include a structure that could bear weight. They had to construct a structure made of only newspaper and glue and use it during their skit by stacking weights on top of it to see how much it could hold. And when I say weight, I mean weights - like weight lifters use on the ends of their barbells. They got their structure to hold 375 POUNDS! Yeah, a little thing made of newspaper held 375 lbs! We were all amazed that it did so well. The other teams that competed didn't come close to that - the nearest team's structure held 125 lbs. LESS than ours!

They also performed a great 6 minute skit where they reported on newsworthy stories set in London (note the cool hats). Although... no one conjured up a great British accent... hmmm.... may have to work on that for next time.

The kids had great chemistry acting out their practiced segments, using their props, and incorporating more required elements. They were naturals up there on stage! Especially our Trevor, who had the most classic line of the whole thing, "I'm goin' commando!!" (Now, we may be bias on that point because he is our son after all... but even those judges thought it was superbly entertaining as they stifled their laughter.)

The judges were bowled over by their charm, smarts, and hilarious one-liners (of course, they completed all of the required elements and scored the most points too) - and granted them FIRST PLACE in their division!

With that win comes another step of the Destination Imagination journey - State Finals. These finals are happening on April 10th. So, until then, we will revel in that glorious moment... and KEEP PRACTICING!

Enjoy a short video of the pre-competition jitters... you can almost feel their anticipation before their turn came.

Not so Wimpy to me!

Our kids LOVE the Diary of a Wimpy Kid books by Jeff Kinney. They own every single one of these books and cannot wait for the next one that comes out later this year. We saw previews for this movie several months ago and knew it would be a hit with our crowd.

We took the kids for a date last Saturday night to see this movie and they LOVED it! We all had our favorite parts - be on the look out for a talking belly button, the Cheese Touch, a potty chair at the dinner table, the mother/son dance & dance routine, black socks with Birkenstocks, and an awesome scare scene in the bathroom.

Trevor and Logan assured us that there were several parts of the movie that followed the book, but there were so many things that were different. Isn't that always the case?

If you enjoy bathroom humor (swirlies, wedgies, and boogers), Jr. High school myths, great one-liners, have children that enjoy all of those things, and are possibly a Jr. High school teacher or administrator, then this movie is for you.

I have to say that Jeremy and I laughed our heads off several times. It was so funny!

After the movie you will ask yourself, "How do you spell the word diaper?"

We give it 4 "I love my mommy t-shirts" out of 5. We will even rent it from Netflix and watch it over and over when it comes out.


***DISCLAIMER*** For the record, Jeremy gave it 2 1/2 stars out of 5. He says he was not as impressed as I was. Although, I did hear him laugh out loud more than just a few times...

Logan's D.I. Competition

Logan joined the Destination Imagination (D.I.) team this year. All of the kids on his team are in 3rd grade just like him and they all go to the same school. His coach was his lovely Aunt Kari. He's been practicing with his team these last several months to prepare for this competition.

They faced 2 challenges when they got to the competition. The first was the "Main Challenge". Here is Team Superstars! just before entering the Main Challenge area.

They did research and much role playing to prepare for this event. All of the elements that were to be included in their skit we read to them by the judges before they began. They had to be rescuing an endangered species (the VHS tape), forming human props (a TV, VHS & DVD player), and incorporating a surprise superpower element at some point during their presentation. Watch the video below to see their performance:

Their second challenge was the "Instant Challenge". The kids are sworn to secrecy and are forbidden to share any details of any sort about the challenge they were given. We still have no idea what happened in there. They are all very tight lipped about that portion of the competition.

They did a great job with their Main Challenge skit. So great, in fact, that they won the prestigious Da Vinci/Renaissance award for their ingenuity and creativity.

Special thanks goes out to Kari for all the time she spent working with our boy. He had a blast imagining and acting for the first time. It was a fun ride. Go Team Superstars!!

Let's go Dodgers! Let's GO!

Logan's first ever season of baseball has begun!

His coach has the boys wear their full uniforms to all practices with the intent that they will play as a team if they look like a team all the time. And he also advised them that they didn't have to wash their uniforms between practices and games - only if they want to. This small factoid brings great relief to the laundress of our home (ME) and to Logan because he is in charge of knowing where all 10 pieces of his uniform are at all times. He can just pull off his dirty uni and throw it in his locker for next time. Awesome.

One of the 10 pieces of his uniform is a cup. Yes, a CUP. All kids (EVEN GIRLS) are required to wear a cup at all games and practices. It was quite a crack up to see all those boys walk onto the field at their first practice. Unsure. Timid. Knowing that for sure EVERYONE was staring right at the front of their pants! After the first 2 practices it finally became second nature and no big deal whatsoever. Oh, the joys of being a boy (or girl? what?).

He's playing for the Dodgers this year and has already played his first 2 games. He'll play 2 games a week until the end of the season. The most exciting play was at his last game. He hit a HOME RUN! But in the league he's playing in they are only allowed to advance 2 bases - so he didn't actually make it all the way home. It was really cool to see him actually hit the ball and run the bases. Pitter, patter, goes my heart for my little Logie Man.

That's all we have to report on Logan's baseball season thus far. I have Logan's game schedule ready to email out if you'd like to attend.

Service!

For the spring sports season Trevor was given the option to play baseball, volleyball, or track. He chose the only one he's never tried before - volleyball! He looks great out there in his green uniform. He's always on the ball (heh, heh... pun intended), paying attention, and in his ready stance. He has yet to get the ball over the net when he serves, but there is still time. Check out the intensity on his face when he's in server mode. He will do it!

He's played 2 games so far and has won both. Undefeated - that's how we roll (again with the ball puns). Trevor is also enjoying playing on the JV team. He gets out of school early to go to the game and then finishes before school is out - sweet! What a great set (pun pun pun).

Irish Feast

After looking over the last 2 posts, I realize this: our lives revolve around food! GREEN food for today anyway. We've documented breakfast and lunch. Now it's time for DINNER!!

We did our own version of the traditional Corned Beef and Cabbage meal - Corn. Beef. And Cabbage.

No, nobody ate that cabbage, it was just for show, naturally.

Of course there was also some GREEN mash (those are taters and gravy to us non-Irish folk),

Some GREEN drink,



GREEN Jello,



And a rainbow of fruit with a cloud of cool whip to dip.

It was a feast indeed. We had sooo much food! Only half of everything was eaten - the rest was tupperwar-ed (yes, that's a verb) for leftovers. It was wild and crazy meal with some cooky party guests. Mama's lookin' a little frazzled for some reason? and Daddy was diggin' his new GREEN shades.

After dinner Daddy whipped up some delicious GREEN shamrock shakes for dessert. It was a sweet treat to end a sweet and tasty day. We will all rest easy tonight (hopefully!) with nice full bellies. Bellies that jiggle. Like the Jello at dinner...

St. Patty's Day Lunch

And for lunch today we have GREEN eggs and ham, GREEN peas, and toast with homemade GREEN gage plum jam.

How many calories are in 3 drops of GREEN food coloring?

Top of the mornin' to ye

St. Patrick's Day is here and the leprechauns have come!


We woke to a table dressed with green this mornin' with a package of Skittles so we could "taste the rainbow".



They'd been in the fridge.



They even got to our German (ahem, IRISH) pancakes!



The leprechauns wanted us to see green all day long and even left GREEN sunglasses for everyone!

kids say the darndest things

We are all chewing bubble gum, having a bubble blowing contest. I blow a big one and Trevor leans over and pops it!
Mom: Trevor! You burst my bubble!
Trevor: pauses for 2 seconds and says, Hey! That's an idiom!
(FYI: An idiom is a phrase that doesn't actually mean what it says. ex: "kick the bucket". Can you guess what Trevor's been learning about in school?)

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Each morning Jackson gets himself dressed for the day. He pops out of his room and says, "I get my dress on!" Daddy loves it when he says that.

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We're driving back from the pet store with a bag full of feeder fish. Jackson got to hold the bag in the car as a reward for "being a good boy in the store". All of a sudden there is a spraying sound. I whip around and see a huge stream of water flowing from the bag onto the seat! AH! He'd poked a hole in the bag!
Mom: JACKSON!
Jackson: Dats an axdent, mom. A axdent.
Yeah, right. He'd tried in several places to poke a hole into the bag with his finger and finally succeeded. An "axdent"? I don't think so.

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Mom: Jackson, you're going to get at time out if you spit in mommy's face again.
Jackson: No, YOU get time out!

Percy Jackson is our hero

For a family date night on Valentine's weekend we took the kids to see the new Percy Jackson movie - The Lightning Thief. Jeremy has been reading this book to the kids at night before bedtime for about a month. They finally finished the first book the night before we headed to the theater to watch the movie.

The kids were so excited to see their new favorite characters come to life on the big screen. (Lizzie and Jackson both did not want to go - they were trying to get us to split up - "You boys go see Percy Jackson and the girls will go see something else." Yeah, that didn't work.) Let me tell you, this movie did not disappoint.

They were hooked from the get-go. ALL of them were hooked - even Lizzie and Jackson who didn't really want to be there in the first place! The movie was quick paced and the many action sequences kept the movie rolling right along. This movie poster shows my personal favorite scene of the movie. When Percy finally realizes the potential of his powers - it was so cool!!

So, in the end, we all really liked the movie. Jackson still asks for it, "Mommy, we see Percy Jackson?" It was great family fun entertainment. A must see. Big screen or rental - whatever. You should see it!

Now, after having given a great review of the movie, there has to be a comparison between the book and the movie. We tried to warn the boys beforehand that the movie is NEVER exactly like the book. They understood, somewhat. While walking back to the car from the movie, we always give everyone a chance to say what they liked the best about the show. They each took a brief moment to say their favorite part and then the book/movie comparison began. They talked almost all the way home about the differences and omissions from the book. They went on and on about how the story was totally different and how it actually happened. (I was surprised that they were actually listening to the reading!)

Overall, we give it 4 1/2 pairs of Hercules flying shoes out of 5. It was great. As they say, Percy Jackson is the new Harry Potter. So, if you liked Harry, you'll also love Percy.