Portland Children's Museum...

While we were in Vancouver last weekend we popped over the river to Portland and spent a few hours at the Portland Children's Museum.  We arranged  in advance to meet our Oregon family there so we could visit.  It was a pretty busy place being that it was a Saturday afternoon.

  The kids enjoyed seeing their cousins again. 

 Playing store was fun with a little shopping buddy.

Blossom loves the water table!  She would have crawled up and sat right down in it if I would have let her.

While my older two boys may feel "too" old to be silly.  I can always count on the Scientist to give me plenty of fun pictures.  (Ok - the tree picture is a little creepy.)

 There was a circus theme exhibit with fun little photo booths to take pictures.  The juggling one didn't really work, but the barbell one is fun.

 These two are so cute.  About two years apart, but nearly the same size.  Blossom just isn't sure of her pint sized chatty friend who wanted to hold hands and play. 

 

We finished our museum fun with a walk outside.  The weather was nice and so much quieter.

 A serious game of tic-tac-toe ensued.

We have to get together again soon before everyone grows up.  It happens so fast.

A Look Inside . . .

A SPEECH TOURNAMENT. (pictures are not the best)

Here it is, a behind the scenes look into the Vancouver, WA speech tournament.

We travel on a Wednesday.  Speech script check in is required Wednesday between 6-8pm.  Student orientation is mandatory at 8pm.

By 9pm we are back at our hotel and getting ready for bed, as well as our first early morning the next day.
 
The 6am alarm does comes early but we are all excited because it's the first day of the tournament.

By 7:30 am we are at the tournament venue and the students are sitting in the common area ready to start the day with worship songs and a devotional.

By 8am the debaters are off to find their rooms and start debating.  The Lincoln Douglas debaters (one on one) are battling about the resolution:  In the realm of economics, freedom ought to be valued above equity. They must know both the affirmative and the negative side and be able to debate which ever side they draw.
The Team Policy (two against two) teams are debating the resolution: The United States should significantly reform its policy toward one or more countries in the Middle East.

Here's what the final round of Team Policy looks like on Saturday evening. 

Two extremely polished teams going head to head in front of 8 judges in a room packed with peers, friends and family.  They are impressive teens and they have worked hard for this moment. 

But I'm getting ahead of myself.  Here's what Thursday and Friday look like for me.  I never see the Professor anymore.  He's busy and proven that he can be where he needs to be when he needs to be there so I stay out of the way.  I do get texts from his iPad that he's hungry and did I pack snacks.  This year he did a persuasive speech on foster care as well as limited prep speeches on current events called extemporaneous. 

My juniors do some reading while they wait for friends to show up.  They only do their speech on Saturday so Thursday and Friday are filled with a mixture of things.  

Mostly it's playing with friends.  Either outside or inside and it might be chess, football, air hockey, Foosball, pugil sticks.  Whatever is available.

I also take them out and explore the surrounding area.  This time is was to historical Fort Vancouver and the downtown library.  I took this picture there.

My days are filled with providing coffee to Josh and I and food for the kids as well as naps for Blossom.  It keeps me plenty busy and a big reason why I don't take great photos at these events.  

I did manage a few selfies with Blossom while she was eating yogurt.

And a cute one of Papa and Blossom.

On Saturday, the juniors (any sibling 7-12) gather for their Junior Tournament.  It lasts for 1.5 hours and includes gathering, games to warm up and hopefully get the jitters out, saying their speeches twice, and getting their cookie snack reward. 

 The architect is so fast getting out of his jacket when he finishes I can't even get a picture.

 They have to wait until 8pm that night to get their certificate award. 

Their are so many siblings!  It's wonderful that they can participate at their own level during the same tournament.  The organization and volunteer support is off the charts amazing at these events.  

Happy Valentine's Day

A little Valentine fun and some pictures I love.

The boys helped me make 42 Valentines for our friends in PE.  Each boy needed 14 to give to the other boys.  I liked that the genders didn't have to give to the opposite gender.  These are just friend Valentines, boys gave to boys and girls gave to girls.  No weirdness that way.

I saw a picture of Super Tootsie Pop Valentines in a magazine or Pintrest or somewhere.  I started working on them weeks before and worked a little bit on it each week.  The boys did a lot of the cutting which was a big help. 

Josh brought me home a very nice surprise.  I never expect anything but am pleased as punch if he's able to take the time to pick something out. 

 And these are pictures of Love. 

Happy Valentine's Day!

Trying Art Again...

I plan art projects now about 1-2 times a year and truly it seems to be plenty for the boys.  It takes me forever to have a project come to fruition.  For six months I've wanted the kids and I to paint on canvas to hang in their rooms.  I found a project that used painters tape to section off areas to paint.  Basically it looked like you could haphazardly place tape crisscrossed over the canvas, paint, remove tape and a masterpiece would emerge.  

I practiced on one canvas on my own first.  I can't even show you the result.  If you come over to the house I may show you but at the moment only immediate family has seen my painting.  It won't be hanging on any walls.  But I did learn a few things and I passed that knowledge onto the boys before they started their projects.

First, they painted a base coat with the color of their choice.

 The canvas sat for a few days to dry while they decided what design to make with the tape.

The Professor chose a yellow star on silver background.

 It turned out well but I missed getting a final picture of it.

 The Architect used a few different colors and was happy with the outcome.

 The Scientist made a green stick man on teal background by painting blue over the green base coat.

We all agreed that the green and blue combined made a great color combination.  

What I liked about this project is that they had to think about how to create the layers of colors they wanted.  They also learned what worked well and what did not.  Good stuff.