Boys as Knights

What better way to spend some time outside than beating your brother with an inflatable sword? 

Ready?

Not Ready!  Blowing up sword!

Alex - Seriously?  How long do we need to wait?

Kabuki Pose!

Block Pose!

Alex Wins!

The Sad Frog

Ever since Alex was born, Will has been around.  They have lived in the same bedroom, gone to the same school, and played with the same toys.  So, this year, as Will is 7, he had the option for some different camps.  One of these camps was a computer programming course based on the MIT developed "Scratch" object-oriented, event-driven, visual programming language.

http://scratch.mit.edu/

Here is one of the things Will created in Scratch:
http://scratch.mit.edu/projects/11626463/


While Will was becoming the programmer of tomorrow (today!), Alex was at a different camp.  Here is what he created during his camp week.

Sad Frog with Tears

When we asked Alex why all of the other frogs were happy...

Happy Frogs made by other Kids

Asked why his frog was sad, Alex explained that it was funny.  I think he might be starting to understand the concept of humor through irony.  So, we asked why the frog was sad.  It seems that he was sad because the 10 flowers bloomed. 

The motif continued throughout the week

Sad Spider with Tears

And, finally, one of the least sad bugs of all...

Sad Ladybug, complete with Tears

We shall see what occurs this coming week as Alex will be completely without Will.  Will gets to go to sleep away camp from Monday to Friday.  Alex will get to hang out at beach camp with a friend, but will be without Will the rest of the time. 

Beach within a Beach

It was a rough day at Laguna Beach.  The waves were intense and crushing.

Intense Wave

Oh Look, that Wave could Crush Us

Fortunately, a secondary beach was formed as the water hit the sand and got trapped.

This necessitated the creation of drainage which resulted in a pseudo water slide.

The Tri-Cation

The summer begins with... The Tri-Cation!

It's like a vacation, but with more exercising.  Bike!  Run! Kayak!
The kayaking occurred because it was too cold to swim.  The Lake Michigan water was about 50F. 

Bike on Mackinac Island

Running by the Sault St. Marie Locks

Kayak in Lake Charlevoix

Dan and I left the kids with Grandpa and Grandma to go camping.  They did their own version of the tri-cation which was:

Eat Ice Cream!  Fish!  Glowy Bracelets!
Ok, maybe not.  But they took some cute pictures.

The Meaning of Summer - Ice Cream

Watch Out!

Fishing Alex

What???  I was not expecting that.

Caught the Biggest Fish

Will not get lost in the dark woods

It wasn't all exercise.  We ate a lot of food (most calories consumed were Mackinac Island Fudge) and saw some cool scenery.

Sunset in Petoskey

Mackinaw Bridge

Arch Rock

Yes Michigan!  The Feeling Forever.
Great Lakes - Unsalted and Shark Free!

End of First Grade

Will has successfully completed the First Grade.  At the end of the year, he needed to compose a short essay about what he liked the most during the school year.  This is what he came up with...

From School to Summer

The school year is over!  Will successfully completed 1st grade and Alex finally finished preschool after about 2 1/2 years in the same class. 

Some hi-lights:

Shuttle Arrival

Alex rejected the plan to take pictures of the shuttle and, instead, took pictures of himself

There it is

Extra Curricular - Queen Mary Ice Sculptures and Skating - December

 

International (?) Studies Night - January

Alex and the Space Needle

Will as Benjamin Franklin

 

Will's Lego and Clay Animation Class - Fall and Winter

There is a story in each of these.  It's a little confusing.  Maybe I'll make Will blog about it for... clarity...

Extra Curricular - Tubing and Sledding in the Mountains

Children may have been harmed in the activity of sledding.  They made a full recovery.

Alex is big enough to carry the tube

Will Sits on The Tube

Science Fair

Will and the Potato Clock Presentation

Alex showing Grandma his Pluto Research

Art Gala

Look up!  It's a self portrait.

End of School Awards

Will - Most Creative Problem Solver

Tri-Ath-A-Dan

Early this morning, just in time for the 7:35am start time of the purple wave in the Redondo Beach Triathlon, we arrived at the beach to see a bunch of swimmers in the ocean. 

Dan, wearing a purple swim cap, somewhere in the ocean

The boys were oddly not having a problem leaving their Saturday morning cartoons to go watch a race.  They seemed to have accepted this routine.  Or, it might have something to do with the novelty of eating chocolate-chip oatmeal cookies for breakfast.  Because, as Alex likes to say, "They have oyt-meal in them!" So they are clearly made for breakfast.
 

Staying warm, eating cookies for breakfast

The boys were very good at staying out of the way of the racers.  In the picture above, they are a few feet away from the tracks of wet foot prints where the athletes were transitioning from the half mile ocean swim to the area where their bicycles were.  Here is Dan doing the transition.

 

Tri-Dan Saying "Hi" as he jogs by

 After the race to bike transition, the boys took to the park, doing their own version of a tri.  This one was climb-balance-spin.  The backyard merry-go-round training really helped them with the spinning part.

Climb

Balance - Team Section

'Not Quite Synchronized' Spinning

As I was responsibly supervising my children in the park, I didn't get to see any of the 6 mile biking part of the race.  However, I'm sure I will make up for that next weekend as I supervise Dan's tandem bike ability at Mackinaw Island while I pedal too, of course.

I did catch the transition phase of the race yet again.  This time between biking and running.  There goes Dan, he was a bit fast for me to catch a good shot.  Plus, I was busy eating a cookie and drinking 20oz of coffee.

Transition Dan

 
Dan finished the race in under an hour!  Here he is at the finish line.

 

He finished 20th in his age group of 57, pretty cool!  

Will beat Alex in the cookie eating, 5 to 3.