Look who's two!

More birthday posts to follow, but I wanted to get something up in case tomorrow gets away from me. My giant baby boy! What would I do without you! You are pure heaven . . .except when you're not. You're like a big loveable tornado! You're a bulldozer. You like to "cheers" everything, you like to "nuggle" with mommy and you never go anywhere without your puppies! And you are already quite the expert on Mickey Mouse and Thomas the Tank Engine. Happy Birthday, Justin Gregory Ponesse!

Purple Belt!

March?

Shirtless with popsicles in March? Scary. But the kids are loving it.

Spring at SYC

You know it's spring when this happens at the preschool:

 So much mud, deliberately made by Michael's class, but enjoyed equally by their little sibs. The only problem with the wonderful mud lake is that it leads to this:

A filthy, wet and tantruming toddler who has to be stripped down and carried kicking and screaming from his beloved mud pit.

St. Patrick's Day

St. Patrick's Day was the Day of 3 Parties. All three boys went to a birthday party at a bounce house in the morning. Then we came home and rested a bit. Then Luke and Michael went to a party at Koguryo and Justin went to another birthday party. I should have taken pictures there as it was a "littles" party for the 3 and under crowd. And Matt didn't get any pics at the martial arts party because he dumped the kids and went to Lowe's, which is his second home these days.

shamelessly stolen

From Alyssa's blog. Aren't they just so darn adorable?

Great Wolf Lodge

Whenever I go anywhere these days, my camera dies first thing, so forgive the crappy phone pics.

After we repainted, laid the paver path and gave midterms and after mommy and daddy got sick with a stomach bug, but before we graded the midterms and pulled up the carpet, we took the family to Great Wolf Lodge. It's an indoor water park resort in Mason, right next to Kings Island. It was our "rookie" trip. We had so much fun and now we know how to have even more fun next time.

 

 Wolf ears were the hit of the trip. They are still wearing them two days later.

 After swimming and dinner, Luke and Michael started playing Magiquest, a live action Harry Potter-style game. We had to buy a wand and a game, and then you get sent on quests throughout the hotel and you wave the wand and it activates things. It was pretty cool, but kind of expensive, but Luke got totally hooked and wants to go back just to play the game again. It's impossible to finish, it just keeps going. Michael got a compass, which we didn't even use this visit because it's for a later part of the game.

Then it was storytime. There's this giant tree with old-school animotronic animals and people that tells a bedtime story. It was pretty lame, but definitely necessary for the rookie trip.

Oh yeah, the water park, I almost forgot. Michael loved the hot tub. Luke loved the wave pool. Justin loved the yellow slide.

Next time, we will bring breakfast stuff and our sound machine. But we've found a new tradition.

23 Months

Justin is 23 months of TERROR! But he is also 23 months of cuteness. Today we played on the preschool playground after Michael's class and he lined up these three chairs. Then he took turns sitting on them, calling GREEN CHAIR! YELLOW CHAIR! He doesn't know the color red, but I still thought it was pretty cool.

I also got this video of him. I was trying to get him to sing his favorite song "Toby"  from Thomas the Tank Engine, but he wouldn't cooperate. I did, however, get his very Scooby-Doo-like "I ruv you too!"

Yet another martial arts post

 Okay, so let me preface this by saying that I was supposed to be attending the Catholic Women's Conference today. I really wanted to go. But with us getting the house ready for the market, Matt asked if I could keep the kids out of the house, so he could do some work. So no conference for me this year. Turns out Koguryo was having one of its Warrior Challenges. This is the little tournament where they bring partners. Some Saturdays we do violin lessons with Malcolm and Quinn, but since Matt was working on the house, he couldn't teach violin today. So we dragged invited Malcolm to be Luke's partner. Quinn and Michael were just supposed to tag along since Michael's not a registered student right now. But then Quinn showed up in her karate uniform and I felt like she and Michael were going to lose their minds if they had to just hang out while Luke and Malcolm had fun. So I asked Master Circle if Michael could participate (I had thrown his uniform in a bag and brought it with me) in the Little Dragons division with Quinn as his partner and he said sure.

 

All geared up and ready to go. Although he's a fixture around the studio because of Luke, Michael hasn't actually done anything martial-arts related in several months. He tried a few weeks last summer, but just wasn't ready. The last few weeks though, I've been noticing that the Little Dragons are getting, well, littler and that's had me thinking that it might be time to start Michael again since he's almost 5 now.  But, I didn't have high hopes for him today, we were just trying to keep him busy. 

Then Michael got called up to spar. At this point, Karla (Malcolm and Quinn's mom) and I pretty much forgot about Luke and Malcolm and got totally into the Michael/Quinn experience. Quinn got pulled aside to play games against the other partners and those of you that know Quinn will not be surprised to hear that she totally rocked the games and earned Michael some extra points. And Michael just loves to spar and he and this boy had a great match, neither one could stop smiling, and Michael won (handily, I might add, he didn't even need Quinn's extra point). Then Michael sparred again and won again. 

 And again. This boy is about a year older and has been at this a while, but he was totally mesmerized by his sparring pads and seemed to like how it felt to get hit in them, so Michael won. Look how happy Michael is!

 

Literally jumping for joy!

 But all good things must come to an end. He went to the finals and had to spar this girl who is clearly on her way out of being a Little Dragon. He spent most of the match whining "she's hitting too hard. She's hurting me!" And so he was eliminated. This girl sparred another girl her size for first place. The match was awesome!

 But Michael ended up in third place! Holy Moly! He wasn't even supposed to be doing anything! He got a medal and a private lesson with Master Circle.

 Oh yeah, Luke. I almost forgot. It was supposed to be HIS sparring tournament. Luke has been down this road before. He's done three of these tournaments and he has never gotten a medal. Well, today he was in luck as only three kids were in his division, so we knew he would get something. Malcolm earned him an extra point or two. This boy, Tristan, was a good match for Luke size-wise. They sparred twice and each won once. But the third boy was a giant and basically wiped the floor with both Luke and Tristan. Luke still cried when he lost, but he regained his composure quicker and was better about congratulating the winners. There's still plenty of room for improvement in that regard, though.

 So somehow Luke ended up in second place. It's his first medal at this event and he was very proud. He also earned a private lesson. And he earned Malcolm a free 2-week membership which, since he already does Karate, he won't use. So Master Circle transferred it over to Michael. So I guess Michael is starting Tang Soo Do again. Tomorrow after church we need to have a family meeting as there cannot be two kids in martial arts and tee ball this spring while we are also putting this house up. We need to make some choices.

Two exhausted kids with their medals. We all came back to the house and had lunch and all four kids were hot messes the rest of the afternoon. Oh, where was Justin, you might ask? He was at Lowes with Daddy buying bricks for a retaining wall.

Hello out there--A Lenten Post

So, I'm anticipating that there might be someone new visiting my blog over the next few weeks. I'm participating in a Lenten prayer exchange with another Catholic mom. I love the idea behind the exchange, I am praying for her intentions and she is praying for mine. I think I can pray for someone else's intentions in a much more genuine way than my own. I signed up through a blog and they paired me randomly with someone, the only way they sorted was to match bloggers with bloggers and non-bloggers with non-bloggers. I submitted a link to my blog when I submitted my request. We're not supposed to actually contact each other until after Easter, but I can go to her blog and she can go to mine.

I don't really think of myself as a mommy-blogger as this blog is really only for my family and close friends. And I don't blog much about our Catholicism as almost all of the people who follow it aren't Catholic. It doesn't really do anything but record the escapades of my children who are not homeschooled, eat junk food, watch hideous amounts of television and play video games. Yikes.  But here we are: the Anderson-Ponesse Family. My husband Matt is an Associate Professor of History at a Catholic University in Ohio. I'm Katie, a part-time history professor and rest-of-the-time SAHM to our three sons Luke (6), Michael (4) and Justin (22 months).

As for Lent, Luke has given up cookies (the dessert staple at our house). His first test was at hot lunch today when cookies were served. I was impressed that he didn't eat them. It helped that the little girl sitting next to him didn't eat hers either because she has given up ALL sweets for Lent. And it was with horror that he told me that his friend Ben had given up video games. Made me feel like I should have pushed him for more, but we'll start with cookies. Michael says he's giving up ice cream--which is convenient since we only have ice cream on Sundays which aren't counted in the 40 days of Lent anyway! Matt's giving up alcohol. I'm giving up following a couple of blogs/websites that were a bit of an addiction and not adding anything productive to my life. Hoping I can keep away from them even after Lent.

So, welcome fellow Catholic mom, I look forward to "meeting" you at the end of Lent!

Valentine's Day

Ever since they saw the movie Real Steel a few weeks ago, the boys have been obsessed with boxing. Although not expensive, they seemed too big a purchase to make for nothing, hence the Valentine's Day boxing gloves and punching bag.  I didn't get any for Justin, so he made do with mittens.

Then the boys stripped down and started a real boxing match:

Flat Stanley

Flat Stanley arrived in our mailbox a couple of weeks ago. He originated at an elementary school in North Dakota and is spending the winter and spring traveling from family to family. He was sent to us from Minnesota by the Sperle Family.  We had hoped to take him to the Columbus Zoo, seeing as it's the best zoo in the country and all, but it rained every weekend he was here and then, I admit, I sort of forgot about him. Yesterday, I realized Flat Stanley was STILL HERE and so I just took some pictures around the house with him and the boys. Today, I am sending him off to my cousin Rachel and her boys who live on base in Ft. Belvoir, VA.

Nan's visit

Nan came to visit this week and we definitely kept her busy! She watched Michael while I had his parent-teacher conference and she watched Luke while we attended his the next day. She went to martial arts twice. She and Justin played with markers during Michael's art class. But the main event was Luke's "Grand Event" at school in honor of the Book Fair and Catholic Schools Week. First Graders invited their grandparents to come and spend the morning with them creating their very own book. Luke and Nan wrote "What is Around a Ghost Crab" in anticipation of our trip to North Carolina with Poppy and Nan in June. It meant so much to Luke (and me) that he was able to have a grandparent attend and all of the other Clintonville grannies were very impressed with how far Nan had traveled. The boys each scored new shoes. Michael got a wii game. Luke got a robot action figure. Justin added Goofy and Donald to his Disney collection. And ridiculous amounts of Nan's money went to the IC Book Fair. Thanks to a blizzard in Denver, Nan's return flight was canceled, so she got to spend an extra morning with us, but I just dropped her off and, with any luck, she is checking in right now and will be headed home in a couple of hours because I know she misses Poppy. We miss Poppy, too! Thanks for lending us Nan! We loved having her and miss her already.

Sunny Day

 Tuesday was such a nice warm and sunny day. It did NOT seem like the last day of January. Justin woke up early from his car nap, so we hit the playground. He had so much fun and doesn't need any help on the slide anymore. He also enjoys repeatedly jumping off this manhole cover. He's so pleased with himself when he lands, you'd think it was ten feet off the ground!

Art class

Michael started a new art class today: Dozers, Trains, Monster Trucks and Racecars! The teacher is the same woman that taught his pottery class in the fall and she is awesome. All of the other kids in the class also have a toddler sibling tagging along, but Justin is the only boy. He really participated in class today, so essentially I'm getting two for one. Much easier than chasing Justin around the ceramics room.

 Today's project was a kind of collage that Michael covered with paint and then drove on to make tracks. I think it will look pretty cool once it's dry.

Justin also made a picture with tracks. His first real artwork! The class is 4 weeks long, so I can't wait to see what other projects they will do!

A gift for Jesus

Luke just brought this home. I think it must have been hanging in the classroom for a couple of weeks as it looks Epiphany related. That's Luke in his "old-fashioned" clothes, giving a shiny crown to baby Jesus because "it would be beter then the crown of thorns."

Dining with friends

 Justin has a waffle with syrup (DIP! DIP!) every morning. Often, he dines with his friends: puppies, babul (bulldog) and na-nas (mickeys). Sometimes, one of the puppies gets up close and personal with the syrup. Then, mommy has to sneak it into the laundry.

Winter Hike

Yesterday, we went for a hike at Blendon Woods. It snowed for the first time on Friday and Saturday and will be gone by tomorrow, so we wanted to enjoy it while we could.

My kids are so hodgepodge--boots, coats, hats, mitts and snow pants (which they aren't wearing) --nothing matches. I think I tried at one point to have coordinating sets for winter, but then one kid grows too much, one doesn't grow enough, some items wear out and don't pass down, new items appear from who-knows-where and you end up with hodgepodge kids.

What the . . .?

How did Justin get the bag of M&Ms? How did he proceed to empty it so carefully into the bowl? How did I miss him doing this since I was standing in the kitchen at the same time?

A map of the study

Luke made a map of the new study in school today. It's probably my favorite thing he's ever drawn! I just love that he has Mom's Phd, Dad's Phd, mom's masrs dugry and Dad's mastrs dugry all hanging in a row. I guess I didn't expect that Luke would notice that mommy has degrees, too, especially considering that I forget myself that I have a PhD half the time!