The Early Bird

At 7:00am Saturday morning we all awoke to the sound of Dallin figuring out a new song on the piano. 

From the video you can tell his brothers fully support his piano playing so early in the day.

Here’s to our early bird.

hitch hiker

I never thought I would see a hitch hiker in our little suburb, but to my surprise the other morning I did. 

It was my own son. He still has no idea I took this thanks to a telephoto lens. It might have helped that he was far too involved in his own world reading a book to know I even came out the door that day. Oh, how I would love to be alone reading a book waiting on someone else to get me where I needed to go.

I sent him out the door saying, “Go catch a ride to violin! Maybe if you wait long enough on the curb someone will pick you up”  Even 10-yr-olds have a sense of humor.

It was time to get in our car and go.

it only happens once in a lifetime.

they are firsts!

we have celebrated a hand full of them in the past few weeks.

alexander’s first soccer camp

he loved

every minute.

every hour.

every day.

can you tell?

the crazy came out of our little friend dc; jumping from his first bridge.

23 feet…not too shabby my boy.

new schools. new teachers. new friends.

it’s the first day of school for our first grader and fourth grader. 

also our first sidewalk of inspiration for all those who cared to enjoy it as much as we did making it.

dc scores his first goal. ever!

z-man wanted a taste of victory so he too scored his first goal. ever!

a visit to the new seattle wheel was a first for all of us!

enjoying it with grandparents and cousins made it all the sweeter.

 

i competed in my first official half marathon in 1:48 minutes.

reese enjoys her first chocolate beater.  it will definitely not be her last.

and here we have it, the first of many three stooges (or better known as stoogies) show!

be sure to request a show next time you stop by.

you can enjoy your first, and only.

you are really missing out until you do.

p-o-l-y-t-h-e-i-s-m

my son came home a little hesitant to get started on his homework.  I could understand why when he pulled out his 3rd grade spelling list for the week.

omnipotent, geometry, Acropolis, architecture, population, intangible, government, polytheism, polygon, alphabet, deity, republic

looks like the theme this week is derived from Latin and Greek roots.

he is required to write each word in a sentence. I stood by with a dictionary in hand so we could define the word first. (I couldn’t define half the words myself). it was a learning moment for both of us. 

tomorrow’s assignment is to write a story using all of the spelling words. that is going to be good.

he’s a bit of a baller

we’ve always volunteered to coach my oldest son in sports.  to be honest it is not because we are starving for more opportunities to serve, but really to just be there to absorb my son’s complaining and bad attitude about any and all sports.  we have a rule in our house, you either play a sport or get a job each season.  a job is out of the question right now so a sport is his only option. 

to our surprise, DC actually put effort into playing this season and he liked it.  further more Jon enjoyed coaching him and the rest of the team.  it only took until he was 9! so if you have a kid like ours, persevere for a few miserable years, and he may come around.

now I can’t lie,  he would still rather play the piano (which is fine by me) over playing ball, but if you ask him to go out and shoot with you he will say “sure!”

thanks for another great season coach Paul and coach Jon!

perform

it was a special event.

your first violin performance.

the lights, the people, the attention never gets to your nerves.

you gracefully pushed the bow over the strings with such confidence.

you played. you smiled. you loved every minute on stage.

we love your music.

your passion.

your smile.

congratulations on a wonderful performance.

we’re so proud of you.

bears, wolves, and webelos oh my!

I can never work for UPS because their uniform against my pale skin would be like death coming to your door. 

That was the image that flashed before my eyes when I was asked to be the cub master for my son’s pack.  Saying yes to serve was the easy part. Saying yes to wearing the uniform was another.

I tried to get out of wearing it, but no excuse was good enough for my husband. Besides after giving birth to our third boy he gave me my own scout shirt and told me I might as well break it in. The calling was going to come, it was inevitable. 

The only other thing that scares me more than the light tan uniform is the scout shop. It’s a culture of its own. The jargon and everything else about it. When visiting the scout shop it is like they want me to know that I really don’t belong there (which I don’t!). I thought I was gaining some ground with the employees, when I opened my mouth and blew all my scout cred out the window when asking what the Blue and Gold Banquet (that I am knee deep in planning) was for?  It was like swearing in church. Don’t let it happen again.

All well, we’re having a good time.  There is still so much to learn, so I give all credit to any success to the awesome den leaders that do all the work on a weekly basis.

This past weekend the boys had one of their huge events, the pinewood derby.  Each boy (and dad) showed off all their craftsmanship and artistry when they placed their cars on the track.

He ended up winning in the finals…that’s his dad celebrating in the background.

Photos by dion seneca photography

Technical/MC crew.

A scarf, jean skirt and cowboy boots make the shirt wearable.

DC finished first in his pack!  Looks like he will be heading to districts.

Good job!

top secret

Guts, intelligence and creativity are common character traits amongst all spies. These aren't skills you can acquire, you must possess these characteristics if you want to be a top notch spy. 

Some of the areas best spies were at our house this weekend.

The cake.

The agents power snacks.

Each agent made an alias passport before the mission. 

The mission, if they chose to accept it, was to find a missing agent at an undisclosed location.  Each team was given an envelop which included a map, a cipher and a code that only the most intelligent agent minds could crack.

Agents hard at work ciphering.

It was Friday night at the town center, so the place was hopping, which only added to the hype of being a secret spy.

“This is SO cool!” remarked agent 011 after finding a statue in a hotel that represented a number and using that number turned the cipher to crack the next code.

The missing agent…..

After an hour the mission was complete!

Back to headquarters for cake.

Mission complete.