More Black Tigers Videos

Luke had Demo at a festival in Sunbury today. I'm so frustrated with the uniform situation. Luke is the only kid who still doesn't have one and I'm not sure why. Master Circle keeps back-ordering it because the size is wrong, but I told him I'd just alter it if it was too big. I understand that he knows we spent $ on the uniform and, so he thinks the company should do it right, but I just want to see Luke in some kind of uniform! REALLY hoping it comes in soon. The first video is the "rolling sequence." Luke loves being on the top of the pyramid.



This next sequence is brand new and this is I think the second time they've performed it. These are the "New Tigers." Luke is the youngest. The boy next to him is 8 and the girls are 9-11, I think.

First Day of First Grade!

Oh my goodness, how can it be that Luke started First Grade yesterday? I don't have as many pictures as I'd like because it was thunderstorming in the morning. I had hoped to have the whole family take Luke to school, but with the storm, I figured they'd line up in the gym and it would be too crowded for all of us. By the time I realized the rain was letting up, it was too late to get Michael and Justin ready. It was still drippy and yucky when Matt and Luke left, so none of the pictures outside the house look any good. Luckily, Matt took a couple at school with his phone. Here he is about to go in with his Spongebob Squarepants backpack and lunchbox.

 He has the new teacher, Mrs. Hansberry. Matt met her first and said she makes Mrs. Liu, Luke's 26-yr-old, K teacher look "old." I didn't believe him until I met her after school. Yep. Very young, but very enthusiastic and very sweet. He sits at a big table. He was very excited that his friend Max sits across from him. There were 2 K's last year and there are 2 First Grades, so Luke is in class with about half the kids from last year and he knows most of the others from Sunday School .

Luke came home happy and more cooperative than he's been in weeks. He said "I love First Grade! It's amazing!" He really needed to get back into the routine and away from mom and dad. And as long as we are talking about First Grade . . .

Here I am in First Grade with Sister Denise at Holy Trinity. This is probably the end of First Grade, not the beginning because we moved to Colorado halfway through the year and I went to the public school for a few weeks before my mom found Holy Trinity. That was such a hard year for me, I went to three different schools and I was so terribly shy, but my mom always said that I settled in really well once I got to Holy Trinity and that I loved Sister Denise. I hope Luke loves his teacher and has a great year!

Kidspace Graduate

Luke has been going to COSI's Little Kidspace since before he could walk. When he was a toddler, we'd go once a week, at least. We didn't go as much once he started preschool, but we've picked back up again recently. Luke did Dino camp at COSI and Michael and Justin are loving Kidspace right now. But now that Luke is entering first grade, he'll longer be allowed in Kidspace. Instead, he'll go to the Big Kid Hangout Room (although we'll probably go when he's in school). COSI put on a little graduation ceremony yesterday for all entering first graders. Luke got to wear a cap and gown, get a picture and got a pretty cool loot bag. The funniest part was that all morning before we went, Luke kept mixing up congratulations and graduation and was saying "I'm going to a congraduation ceremony." I was actually pretty choked up while I was telling him about the event. For some reason, this hit me big time. But it was pretty chaotic once we got there, so I didn't cry.

Manistee, MI

On our second full day, we drove a bit further up the coast to Manistee. Manistee is a little Victorian village where the Manistee River meets Lake Michigan. Tons of boats and tons of fishing.

These guys were just unloading their catch and they let Luke and Michael come touch their fish. Two salmon and some lake trout.  Then we went to Orchard Beach State Park. It cost us $8 to get in and there were equally nice beaches in town, but at the State Park we were able to shower, which is very important by your third day of rustic camping. Especially after you've been doing this . . .

There were amazing rocks at this beach, which was at the bottom of the bluffs. The water, again, was absolutely frigid. After showers, we packed up and headed back to camp. 

That evening, we drove back into Baldwin for homemade local ice cream. The next morning we packed up headed home. It was a LONG drive back. But it was a great trip! I think we've officially squeezed every last morsel of fun out of the summer and are ready to get back to school next week.

Ludington, MI

We stayed in Baldwin because it was only 30 minutes from the west coast of Michigan. On our first full day, we drove to Ludington. It had an amazing white sand beach and a cute little lighthouse.

 How was the water, you might ask? Luke's face says it all. It was freaking freezing!!!!! But the sand play was awesome.

 Check out our cute little portable canopy. We were expecting it to be hotter, but actually it was a bit chilly in the shade, so we didn't use it much. It was nice to have, though, and I'm sure we'll use it in the future.

We walked to the lighthouse, which was further away than it looked and we had left the stroller at the campsite. That was a long walk for Matt.

Trip to Michigan--the campsite

We drove almost 7 hours to Baldwin, MI to camp along the Pere Marquette River. We camped at Gleason's Landing, a small Natl. Forest campground. It had only six rustic sites. "Rustic" means a vault toilet and a water pump on site, but not much else. The individual sites were nicely spaced and the fire pits were good and our particular site had two picnic tables which was quite handy. There was only one other family camping there, too, which was a big plus.

 Justin kept wanting to help chop wood. You can't cut down any trees, of course, but you can use downed wood and some of the branches had to be broken down smaller. We were very glad that we remembered the camp stove this time, so that we didn't have to cook over an open fire even though Matt is getting very good at starting fires quickly.

The evenings were cool enough that we could put long pants and sleeves on the kids, which was good because there were tons of mosquitoes (no black flies, though). And the nights and mornings were downright cold. We had to buy extra blankets and a long-sleeved shirt for Matt.

The river was beautiful. We saw canoes and fly fishermen. The crappy fishing rods we bought the kids broke as were trying to set them up, but we didn't have any bait anyway. Fishing is a skill we will have to acquire over time. But the kids were just as happy throwing rocks.

Luke and Matt saw a crane one morning, but didn't have the camera. Otherwise, we saw deer, racoons and some kind of little forest mouse that sort of jumped like a bunny. I feel like I hit my stride with the cooking/cleaning routine on the third day--but the third day was our last day! So, just as I got used to things, it was time to go.  But we were tired of chasing Justin and trying to get him to sleep and me, Michael and Justin were covered in bug bites (the DEET apparently just made us more tasty), so it was time to go home. It was a really nice camping experience, though. We're hoping to get in one more trip closer to home this fall.

Swim Lessons 2011

We just completed Luke's third year of swimming lessons at Highlands Pool in Westerville.  Luke has always had a hard time in the water. He was terrified of putting his face in for years and has always struggled with the lessons. This year, though, something clicked and he suddenly was super excited about learning how to swim. It was hard juggling Luke, Michael and Justin at the pool each day, so I didn't get to watch much. I was shocked earlier this week when I looked over and saw Luke swimming unassisted. I was even more shocked today when Luke got a certificate saying that he'd passed Level 2 and could move on to Level 3 next year! He looks mad in this picture, but he just wanted to get back in the water.

Michael didn't pass Level 1 again this year, but he made progress. As soon as he'll put his entire head under water, then he'll be able to move on. Luke did this when he was 5, so I imagine we may have another year before Michael will do it. But he loved his lessons and his teachers. Here he is going down the slide today. The new Highlands Pool is really nice, btw.

We love Nan!

Nan was here this week. She was so brave to travel all this way by herself even though she's recovering from shoulder surgery. I hope we didn't wear her out too much. We had so much fun at swimming lessons and going to visit friends and eating out and showing off our martial arts. We missed Poppy, though. It sure would be nice if they lived closer. Just sayin'  . . .

Fair 2011

Another year at the Ohio State Fair. This year was special because Nan came with us. It's been so hot, we took advantage of an overcast evening, but that meant we got rained on a bit. So we ate, watched some horses and then explored the fair once it had cleared. At least the shower cooled things off. It was a beautiful night for the usual fair fun . . .

 Sand castles.

Coasters.

 Bumper boats.

Butter cows.

Jailtime.