Kendama Party

We received an invite to a Kendama Party at the Learning Express store at Northpoint Mall and headed over there immediately after the kids' Karate Pizza Party (because they each earned over a dozen Life Skills Stripes before the last belt testing).  The store was an absolute zoo with kids, kendamas and their parents everywhere.  It was hard to get into the room where the kendama party was being held.  Owen was a bit overwhelmed by the crowd, but Chloe had no problem pushing her way into the room and straight to the middle of the action to watch the Kendama Master (Dave) at work.  A store employee noticed me standing outside with Owen and offered to take us in through a backdoor.  She gave us a cool DVD, stickers and an extra string for free, which made Owen really happy.  These were all prizes being given away inside with a raffle, but Owen hadn't gotten a ticket for it.  At the end, the store had all the kids gather behind the Kendama Master Dave for pictures.  Dave is the Asian guy with dreadlocks down to his butt wearing a hat in the front row.  He was cool.  He had a California accent and was awesome with the kids.

See?  Chloe is always at the center of the action.  She was giving Dave some bunny ears.

That's it, kids.  Hold up your kendamas to show them off!

After photographs, Dave, the Kendama Master signed the kids' kendamas.  You can see Owen's head watching his kendama get signed.

He didn't even look up as he walked away.  Owensk was so mesmerized by the autograph on his kendama.  Pretty cool, dude.

Boosterthon Fun Run

The kids have been hyped up for this day for over two weeks.  Crazy excited over the prizes and the run itself.  This is Owen's third year running in and Chloe's first.  It was also Todd's first time in coming to watch and the kids were thrilled we could both come watch.  Owen's fun run was first.

The boy was intent on running.

But he remembered to stop and get a cup of water every five laps.

He ran with friends.

And he ran with even more friends.  It was fun watching Owen having so much fun with his buddies.

Owen ran a total of 39 laps, although the cap was at 35.  With all of the pledges he collected, Owen helped raise $145 for his school.  Go Owen!

Todd walked Owen back to school with his class.  The boy was very tired and hot.  It was another 10-15 minutes before Chloe walked out with her class.  She had her pants pulled up to her knees and came sprinting out of the blown up tunnel.

Chloe stood in line with her friend Rhana while all the other Kindergarten and First Grade classes were called out by team name to run through the tunnel.

The National Anthem was blasted over the loudspeakers before the run began.

The first lap around was a leisurely walk with a staggered start from one class to the next to help spread the kids out around the field.  We had to leave around Chloe's 22nd lap to get back to work and the child was so red in the face.  We reminded her to keep drinking lots of water and to slow down a bit.  She ended up running 32 laps and raised $139 for her school.  Woo hoo!

This was our first really warm day of the year.  Warm enough that we had the windows down and the air on as we drove home.   Not too shabby for mid-February!

Pro Hockey

We got discounted tickets to the Atlanta Thrashers hockey game through our Tae Kwon Do studio.  Many of the other karate families were there, too.

The kids (and I) had never been to a hockey game before.  Chloe couldn't stop looking around inside the arena.

She was also fascinated by the players moving around on ice skates.

The boy child was equally enchanted with the game.

It was amazing to see these guys moving so fast.  On ice.  Some backwards.

The kids thought the fire coming out of the Thrashers mouths above the rink was super cool.  There was fire when the Thrashers scored a goal and also during the half time break.

The Thrashers mascot had a drum he beat during half time.  It was incredibly loud.

We had an excellent time together.  Before we left, the kids were asking how soon we could come back to watch another game.  :)

Chuck E. Cheese

The kids had been good this week and earned a special trip to Chuck E. Cheese.

They were excited to each get $5 of tokens and quickly ran off to play different games.

They split up on me, so I was wandering back and forth between each kid to see what they were doing.

They both did well with the squirt gun.  It also helped not playing against an opponent.  :)

I also wanted to play wac-a-mole, but Chloe wouldn't stop playing it!

She also rode the half-ride ferris wheel.

Both kids earned a tremendous amount of tickets that they had fun showing off to me.

I think they had just as much fun feeding the tickets to the counting machines as they did earning the tickets from various games.

The part that took the longest was deciding on which toys or candy to 'purchase' with their tickets.

Afterwards, we went to the carwash.  Both kids had been begging to go.  They love the carwash.

And now I love it more than ever before.

In spite of being covered with soap and brushes, the carwash has THE absolute best lighting for taking pics!

I love laid back weekends with no agenda, other than to spend time with the kids having fun!

Remote Controls

Owen got a new remote control toy from Luke for Christmas and wanted to take it out for a spin.

He had fun with that, but found it drove faster on the street and not on the dried out grass.

Then he switched over to flying his new remote control airplane that he bought with his own Christmas money.

That was a fun toy to watch vroom down the street before it took off!

None of us have ever played with an airborne remote control toy before and it was almost magical to watch take off and fly through the air.

We were out for less than 30 minutes before the wheels had falled off the airplane (multiple times) and we decided between the wind and temps in the 40s that we really needed to go home and drink some hot chocolate.

Evening at Chuck E Cheese

Day two of school brought a call from Chloe's Kindergarten teacher before noon that she was screaming.  Non-stop.  Day two brought a note home advising there was also kicking.  Requesting a call to the teacher's cell phone that evening.  And a parent-teacher-Chloe conference at 7am on Wednesday.  Chloe had to be removed from the classroom so her teacher could teach.  She was removed kicking and screaming.  Sigh.

She did a good job testing the teacher's patience, finding out what the boundaries are and what consequences would follow.  The teacher and Chloe now have a secret code to use when the teacher wants her to hush and it is working well.  As did an all vegetable diet for the day, which encouraged her to behave better to go back to living the good life with all the foods she likes.  It was an effective tactic that earned her a smiley face for the day at school and an email from the teacher saying she had an excellent day and totally deserved to go to Chuck E. Cheese after school with Owen.

So off to Chuck E's we went.  Chloe thanked us multiple times for taking her to Chuck E. Cheese.  The kids had so much fun.

The boy is always caught yawning.  Ever since coming home from Minnesota, he yawns non-stop.  After three weeks home, one would think he would be caught up on sleep. 

Owen played a couple of rounds of soccer, kicking the balls past the moving goalie.

Chloe was joined at the water gun game by another little girl.  It was a cut throat game.  Too serious for sitting.

This is the first visit after many that Owen spent time enjoying his tokens and playing games, as opposed to popping them into the machines that spit out tickets.  He had fun playing Mario Kart.

Chloe took Owen's old role, hot on the pursuit to get as many tickets as quickly as she could.  She looked like a zombie at this machine, pumping in tokens as fast as possible and not even watching how many tickets were coming out. 

Meanwhile, Owen was playing basketball.  This boy is good at any sport he plays!

Owen used his last few tokens at a ball drop machine to get tickets.  His concentration was intense!

After we ate dinner, the kids played for awhile in the hamster maze hanging from the ceiling.  They looked so silly pushing their foreheads through the rope netting.