Tough Guy

Luke decided that he wanted to put on his BMX racing chest protector, some elbow pads, football gloves and a biking helmet to play catch with Josh.  For some reason he was doing sit ups in the grass. I asked him what he was up to and I think he muttered something about Beast Mode.  Unconfirmed, but likely. 

Etch a Sketch

Our friend had her 4-year old's birthday party at a brewery (where they know the owner...) and we couldn't help but invite ourselves!  This was a fun party!  The kids LOVED playing with the stick on mustaches.  

The place had a kiddie corner, complete with an Etch-A-Sketch.  The kids loved that thing,  who knew?  This is Luke giving Josh bunny ears and Josh posing for the camera. Super great picture, I know.

We are dog-sitting for Emily, who was at the party. She bought the boys each a Etch-A-Sketch for their own, how thoughtful!  The kids didn't stop drawing all night.  Luke is working on a Black Out.

Josh's presentation

Josh did his presentation on Sloths because "they are so cool"  And actually, he's right!  I love the details that he put into this. 

The third grade hall was full of presentations. 

This week at the do jo

See, Josh really is in karate. I love his real smile. 

Luke's bow at the end of class is awesome.  Bending at the hips, limp arms...

Retitle the Blog?

Should I retitle the blog to Luke's Blog?  We have so few pictures of Josh...it's kinda sad. 

Luke got a belated birthday gift the other day and it was a total home run. It's a make your own car creation kit, and he built this monster right away!  That's a five wheeled canon, in case you can't tell. 

The best part of this toy is that Josh likes it too!  So fun to see them playing together on something constructive! 

Friday mornings I go to Luke's room for a little one on one reading.  The kids do their lunch charts during that time...so the teacher knows how many hot lunches to order for her class.  Luke's picture is always, every single time, upside down. He's our little nonconformist for sure.  

Nothing exceptional to report here, he's not reading at 3rd grade level or anything, he's doing exactly what a kindergartener should do, which is learn to read. According to me, he's great -- sweet and confident and proud when he gets a hard one right.  I love it.  

Luke's New Room -- sorta

Luke wanted a new bedroom -- his old one was all soccer and he wanted one of "all sports" so we decided to give it a facelift. 

Since I found a lot of things Luke wanted online (read cheap), we let Luke decide all the decor choices - what goes where, and what to buy.  We'll change it again soon, no doubt, so this is not a risky proposal we're talking about. :) 

This was my favorite choice.  Why NOT put the vinyl of the dunkin' guy under the basketball hoop?  

Things are off center and wonky, and Luke loves it so we do too. 

Pinewood Derby, take three

This was Josh's third pinewood derby! Josh's car was shaped like a block of cheese this year.  This was the racing trials before the Official Races.  

The official line up of checked in cars.  They had some cool ones this year.  Two had lego man drivers.  Who would have thought of that? 

Josh was pretty pleased with his results. He got 3 second place finishes and 1 fourth place.  

It's three hours of chaos. The kids all are supposed to read the projector view to see who's on deck and who's racing, but really it's just a long time.  This was before races, buy you get the picture.

Mr. Smiley...after the races, ready to go home. 

Randoms

Luke got an awesome Lego set with a  Guardians of the Galaxy theme -- since Josh got a GoPro we had to get Luke something extra too.  He was SO excited when this came in the mail. He ran from the front door screaming "i'm so excited i'm so excited i'm so excited" all the way to the kitchen. 

We're on a kick around here to do our own chores.  Luke asked me when he would be old enough to do his own laundry. Today!  He loves pushing the buttons and loading all the clothes in there, so he did his laundry one day and mine the next. It's so cute that he's not even as tall as the door yet!

Kar-ah-tay

Karate continues to fully entertain me. Luke's lesson last week was all about agility drills.  He rocked it, as you would expect.  

His pushup form needs a bit of work, but not bad for a 6 year old?  

He was racing a kid on the other side...he was really hustling. 

Luke gets really bored when Josh is doing his lesson.  Luke's lesson is 45 minutes long, and during that Josh does his homework and takes pictures of Luke.  Josh's lesson is also 45 minutes long, but during that time Luke repeatedly asks me how much more time we have, begs to use my phone and of course takes selfies. 

He thinks he's pretty funny. I think he's right. 

Snow Fort!

Sunday after ski lessons Luke and his parents built a snow fort.  It was all his design and direction. He was very proud. 

Love those rosy cheeks. 

Putting the final touches on the second wall -- the first line of defense. 

Testing the fort by throwing the snowballs from behind the double wall safety. 

Good aim!

Ruby was not a huge help for this endeavor.  She stepped over it and knocked a few blocks down more than once, but then she found her raw hide bone and all was happy again. 

The week in review

Josh got a GoPro (long story short we bought him a Gear Pro knock off for Christmas and it was terrible, so we retuned it and bought the big daddy).  It arrived at 8:00 on Tuesday night, after showers and right at bedtime.  But how could we possibly not open it and check it out? 

We heard that there were Seahawks jerseys on half-off sale in town, so now Josh has TWO jerseys!

Wednesday was Luke's first day of karate. He loved it.  I could not stand how cute it was.

Somehow Josh got this bloody scratch on his nose. Luke threw something at him, and who knows what all happened. I do know that Josh said he looked like Rudolph for school the next day. Poor kid. 

Happy New Year!

We spent New Year's Eve in Bozeman with friends.  This is the kids blowing their noise makers for the last 10 minutes (long, long 10 minutes) of 2014. 

And this is my little trooper dog running partner.  She and I traipsed through many inches of fresh snow for our first run of 2015.  She is tough! 

FUN ZONE

It was so cold one day, we decided to stay inside and visit the Fun Zone.  We were there for over 3 hours, and we had lots of fun on video games, bounce houses, laser tag, bumper cars, and on and on.  This was everyone's favorite video game.

We couldn't resist a lively air hockey battle. 

No one can turn down that kind of fun! 

We had a blast at Bumper Cars.  One time we had all four cars full of family members -- the boys, me and my dad. So fun!  And so warm!

Uncle John's Cabin

John's house was a winter wonderland! We spent a whole day up at his house. We did a lot of sledding down his driveway and standing by the fire in the front yard.  

Luke got a late birthday present of a 10-22 gun, and we knew we could shoot it at John's house.  This was a sweet father-son moment. 

Luke's face just racks me up!  He kept missing (by a long shot sometimes) and Mike would say "getting close" and "little high" every time. What a good daddy!

Those cheeks!

We rallied for a night sledding run -- it was very very cold (-3) and they had been setting records all day long, so we had to do a night run to see if the snow was faster later.  Ruby was very concerned about all of this. 

Baby Rylan

Josh is a little baby whisperer.  He loved holding Rylan. He kept saying "he's just awesome" over and over.  

Luke wanted none of this baby business until the very last day.  He takes his job seriously. 

Rylan is a super cute baby, and a nice mellow one too.  There are several pictures of him that look like Josh -- you can sure tell they're Wright babies. 

It was very fun to watch my brother be a dad. His big hands on Rylan's tiny belly melted my heart.