Sam's Star Wars Bedroom

Last week we painted and decorated Sam's bedroom.  There hadn't been many changes to it since he was two years old, so he was fairly excited to be able to pick most things that went in there.  He wanted a loft like Maria, to have more space to play underneath, and he also wanted light gray walls with one dark blue wall.  And of course, the main theme would be Star Wars.  I've included pictures so that if you are starting in his doorway and work your way clockwise around the room, this is what you would see.


This is his new dresser - better than his old, but we will still miss the added storage he had in the drawers in his old bed.



The top of his loft - that's a TIE fighter on the bedspread, in case you can't tell.






And the cozy spot under  his loft - his beanbag chair makes a nice spot for reading or okaying video games.










He was very excited to have his own desk - notice the Star Troopers poster above the desk.















The window would be between the last two pictures.  The drawers are new - to hold toys and desk stuff - but the bookcase was old.  Sam would only allow Star Wars toys on the bookshelf - everything else had to go in the basement.






And of course, we can't forget the poster that is above the bookshelf - including ALL Star Wars characters ever.



He seems to really love his new room, and I love how uncluttered it is.  We'll see how long that lasts!

Father's Day

We spent a pretty quiet Father's Day at home.  We woke up in MacCracken Hall at Miami University, after we spent all day and night Saturday at Alumni weekend.  And after our busy day on Saturday, and the two hour drive home, we were all pretty tired.  The kids made Ben a card and gave him his gift (a "Fear No Distance" banner where he can hang all of his racing medals), but then we just hung around the house the rest of the day.  Ben was able to nap and watch the US Open, so I'm pretty sure he had a happy Father's day.

2011 Baseball Season

This is Sam's second year in coach pitch baseball, and next summer he will move on to kid pitch ball.  We've seen a lot of improvement this year, from both Sam and many of his teammates as well.  The team is doing pretty good, with a record of 4-3 halfway through the season.  Sam seems to always like to go to games, although he does get a little depressed when he strikes out, as do all of the boys.  At this age, the main idea is to have fun, and so we're happy with how it's going.  And it gives Sam something to do a few days each week, which is important now that school is out!

The pictures are from Saturday's game, which was Sam's best performance yet.  He hit the ball each time he batted, had two RBI's and scored one run.  He is in the middle of the batting order, so many times once he's on base, the kids who bat after him strike out, and he doesn't have much opportunity to score runs himself.  We have explained to him how batting runner in is still very important, which he gets, but there is something thrilling about crossing home plate that makes it a lot more fun.

Lisa's PR at Powell 5k!

Official time was 31'12".

Piano Recital

Today was the kids' piano recital. 

Sam just completed his second year of piano and performed "Green Frog Hop."

Maria just completed her sixth year of piano and performed "Minuet in G" by Bach.

Check back for video of their performances!

Maria Turns 12 Years Old!

One more year until we are the parents of a teenager.  I always say this, but the time sure flies by, and I just can't believe my little girl is this old.  But since I can't stop time, the best I can do is enjoy every second and be very proud of the young lady that my daughter is turning out to be.

This year, the celebrations began with a family birthday party that was actually a week early, so that we could celebrate while both sets of grandparents were already here for her dance recitals.  Her main gifts this year were a cell phone (her first), and a Nook (electronic reader).  We had a dinner of shish kabobs (her choice), and topped it off with an ice cream cake before we dashed off to the recital.

This past Friday night, six of Maria's friends joined us at Skate Zone 71 to roller skate and play Laser Tag. This went well, even though many of the girls had not roller skated before.  Then we brought the girls back here for a slumber party, which didn't go too late - the last noise Ben heard was around 1:00 a.m. 

Today, Maria's actual birthday, was pretty low-key.  Maria got two more gifts - a new baseball glove (which she had been asking for), and a new mirror for the back of her door.  And we had the kids' piano recital this afternoon.  Maria's birthday dinner of choice was last night at Red Lobster, where the staff brought her a piece of cake and sang to her.

It seems we did a lot for her birthday, although its the same as every year, it just seems longer since it was dragged out over eight days.  I'm sure she's a little disappointed its all over, but with only eight more days of school left, she has summer vacation to look forward to!

Dance Recitals 2011

Annual dance recitals for Maria were last weekend on Friday and Saturday nights.  Ben actually did too, since he danced with Maria in the Father/Daughter dance.  Maria has been taking some type of dance class for the last seven years.  This year, she was involved in three classes, Jazz Dance III (she was placed in Jazz III even though it was only her second year of jazz, and did great), Extreme Motion (a show choir type class in which students sing and dance), and Gymnastics.  Her performances were the same each night - a total of seven performances including individual class and larger group numbers, but require many costume changes as she goes back and forth between the three classes she's involved in.  Ben and I went on both nights, but Sam and the grandparents only attended Saturday night's show since it was three hours long!  Including the dress rehearsals for the shows and weekly practices and classes, Maria invests a large amount of her free time into these activities and not only enjoys it, but does very well.  I don't have video to post yet - we had to purchase the DVD from the company filming it - so you'll just have to take my word for it - she did a great job.  But, as with everything this time of year, we are relieved its over and ready for a break over the summer.

Last Soccer Game

Yesterday was Sam's last soccer game of the season, and it was a fairly successful experience.  Sam has had ups and downs, scored one goal all season but most of the time, he got in there and went after the ball.  Except when he sometimes didn't feel like it, and then he didn't.  It is an awful lot of running, and most kids had to play three out of four quarters, which was tiring.  I also have some doubts as to how motivating the coaches were, but since I'm not willing to coach, I guess I can't criticize.  They ended up with a 4-3 record, but two of the losses came form the same team, who went undefeated.  He seemed to enjoy himself most of the time, and will probably play again in the fall. 

Maria's Induction into NJHS

Yesterday Maria was inducted into Fairbanks Middle School National Junior Honor Society.  Out of the 81 kids in her school that qualified academically, 53 applied, and only 18 were selected.  Of those, 10 were 6th graders, out of a class of around 75 kids.  Needless to say, we're very proud of her, and so glad all of her hard work and pleasant, helpful personality shines through to the staff at school.  Three of her closest friends were inducted also, which reinforces the fact that she has chosen good friends as well.  The NJHS is very active, with many service projects throughout the year - she has to get in 5 service hours in the next two weeks already.  But I think it's a worthwhile activity, and it will be fun for her and a good experience to do some service projects and give back to the community.  The induction, paired with her dance recitals this weekend and her family birthday party today, is making this quite a weekend for my almost 12-year-old.

Mother's Day

This year for Mother's Day we finally came through with a promise we've been making to the kids for a few years.  Each summer since Sam has learned to ride his bike without training wheels, we've promised the kids that we would buy a bike rack for the van so that we could take our bikes to local parks to ride.  But each year we never got around to it.  Then when Ben started to do serious research on bike racks last year, he determined that my current bike would not ride on most racks that could sit on the back of the van.  So I would need to get a new bike - which I wanted anyway - but it did make the original promise harder to keep as now it would be much more expensive than we had originally thought.  So yesterday we went to a bike shop and I got to pick out a new bike for my Mother's Day gift.  It's actually pretty similar to the bike Maria got for her birthday last year (we are the same size, after all) and after trading the seat for a more cushioned variety, its very comfortable to ride. 


So my request for Mother's Day was that we take our bikes to Glacier Ridge park for a long bike ride this afternoon.  And we were all shocked when the weather actually cooperated.  I got my run in and house cleaning done this morning, then took a nap after lunch, and by the time we left around 3:00, it was partly sunny and 68 degrees - by far the nicest day we've seen in weeks.  So Ben got the bikes ready to go and we headed to the park.  In all, we rode 7 miles, and stopped in the middle for a restroom break and quick snack.  The trail had some puddles, and Sam's back got covered in mud toward the end of the trip, and that combined with an uphill ride meant he was pretty grouchy for the last mile.  But it was a long ride for him, and he was hungry and ready for dinner too.  So loaded up the van, headed to Chipotle for dinner (Ben's choice - my meal out was last night while we were in Columbus shopping) and then were home by 6:00.

It was a wonderful Mother's Day, and it felt kind of like an entire weekend was devoted to me since we did the shopping and meal out yesterday.  Ben also helped with the house cleaning this morning, and both he and the kids gave me cards and a new coffee mug this afternoon.  I am truly blessed and so appreciative of this wonderful family.