Bryce Turns 6

Five has been a very good year for Bryce.  I admit I'm a little sorry to see it go, but I enjoy the boy he is turning into so much that I'm also excited to see how six treats us.  

Yesterday, Aubree made a "birthday tree" for us to put Bryce's presents under.  Clever idea.

Bryce had his 3-hour block class this morning and was excited to tell me that the kids all sang to him.  When he got home we worked on his cake.  He's been in the habit of drawing funny monsters lately, so he drew me a simple monster and we tried to recreate it in edible form.  When we finished, he commented, "you're not as good at decorating cakes as Evan and Greta's mom (who designed and decorated an elaborate castle cake for her twins' recent 6th birthday), but you're still pretty good!"  I consider that a high compliment.  Aubree was more effusive in her praise (and squeals) when she got home from school and saw the finished product.  

 Mark came home from work a little early and patient Bryce was finally able to open his presents.  Both Aubree and Thane, on their own initiatives, had gotten him a small gift.

This isn't the best picture, but I love that I captured Graham glaring/scowling

 Bryce's big gift from us was a Snap Circuits Jr. set.  He and Mark immediately pulled out the pieces and started working on projects.  I see many happy hours in their future.  

As is tradition, the birthday boy got to choose where we would eat his birthday dinner.  Despite spending significant time suggesting what I hoped were appealing options, Bryce would not be deterred from his choice of McDonald's.  When we pulled into the massive parking lot, and had to circle the lot to find a spot, I again tried to convince him to change his mind.  No dice.

We walked in the restaurant at 5:30 on the dot, right behind Ronald McDonald himself.  Apparently, a local elementary school was having a fundraising event there that evening.  The place was swarming with people.  Since my kids didn't even know who Ronald McDonald was, they were initially unfazed by the spectacle.  But, Ronny stopped by our table and talked to the kids for a full five minutes.  Turns out he was pretty funny.  He borrowed my camera and tried to take a selfie with Aubree, but she has no idea what a selfie is, and immediately pulled away.  Haha! Go Aubree.

 We tried out the playground for a few minutes, but the place was completely nuts.  I had to tell one kid to stop strangling his friend.  

 Graham wanted to jump into the fray, but he wouldn't have lasted 6 seconds.

 We didn't stay long, but that was okay because we went home and had a few neighbor friends over for cake and ice-cream, and the kids got plenty crazy all by themselves - no extra play equipment needed!

 Cake and ice-cream all around!

 In the end, Bryce said it was a, "really great" birthday.  Which is good, because he's a really great kid.

Sunny Day, Chasing the Clouds Away

One thing about living in the Pacific Northwest...when it's a sunny day, everyone drops what they're doing and heads out to play.  The boys and I took full advantage of today's unseasonably warm and wonderful weather.  And, in an unusual turn of events, they even asked me to take their pictures (instead of the typical run-away-screaming-and-put-a-hand-in-front-of-the-face response to my camera).

 Bryce decided he wanted exercise, so he ran laps around the big grassy area.

 Graham discovered he's a big fan of the slide (and, of course, the big boys taught him how to try to climb up the slide as well).

 I adore spring and summer (and these boys too!).

Frank(ly) Fun

It's been almost six months since we've gotten together with our friends, the Franks, which is just waaaay too long.  So, when they asked if they could meet up at the Pacific Science Center, we jumped at the opportunity.  Mark and Aubree ditched work and school, and we prepared for a day of fun with friends.

As always, the kids immediately jumped back into best buddy mode, and as always, the butterfly house was a favorite destination.  

They all stood as still as possible for as long as they could hoping a butterfly would mistake them for a tree or flower.  

Even Graham wanted in on the action.

We watched a fabulous 3-D IMAX movie about the South Pacific.  

Afterwards, Tyler treated them to a turn in the hurricane simulator.  

The bigger girls were enthralled with the gift shop, and over-anxious to spend any money that might be burning a hole in their pockets.  Thane wanted to touch and play with everything in sight...

...so, we steered him (and Bryce) to a nearby air and wind lab.  Bryce made a roto-copter, and they would have remained happily content to watch it fly all afternoon.  Unfortunately, though, it was time to brave rush hour traffic (aauuugghhh!) and head home.

Fortunately, the Franks came too, and the excitement continued unabated.

think the kids like Tyler much?

Saturday morning, Aubree had her first ever soccer game and wasn't at all pleased to leave her friends.  Thankfully, they were still here when we got back so she had a little more time to play.  

And what would a post about the Franks be without our traditional Bryce and Maggie picture?

Destination Imagination

Last Spring, a friend mentioned on Facebook that her son participated in a Destination Imagination tournament.  Intrigued, I did a quick internet search, was impressed with what I saw, and then promptly forgot about it.  

One October afternoon, Aubree came bounding home from school, "Mom! We learned about the coolest program at school and I really, really, really want to do it!"  And we'd come full circle.

In Destination Imagination, kids grades 3-12 organize into teams of up to 7 kids.  Then those teams choose a specific challenge to tackle in anticipation of a regional tournament where they compete against other teams.  The challenges are complex and detailed.  Here's the kicker - parents aren't allowed to help.  At. All.  Each team has a manager, who is allowed to ask general questions to encourage the kids to think deeply, explore options, and make plans.  But when it comes to completing tasks, making props or costumes, writing scripts, making decisions, even carrying items into the challenge, the kids have to do it all themselves.  

The only thing I helped with in this process was organizing the original team (which was a great mix of public and homeschooled 3rd/4th grade kids), and making sure Aubree had transportation to her weekly group meetings.  

They decided to call themselves "The Amazing Achievers," and chose a challenge that required them to:

- Research works of art created by artists who were born in a nation other than the team’s own.
- Theatrically present a comic strip that is based on a work of art created by the artist from the nation.
- Create three live comic strip panels.
- Create an ARTifact that is inspired by the work of art.
- Design and create a Caption Contraption for one of the comic strip panels.

In addition, they had to prepare to be presented with an Instant Challenge at the tournament. "Instant Challenges require teams to engage in quick, creative and critical thinking. At a tournament, a team will receive an Instant Challenge and the materials with which to solve it. The team members must think on their feet by applying appropriate skills to produce a solution in a period of just five to eight minutes."

Practicing an instant challenge

Admittedly, sitting back and watching the kids make their own (slow) decisions was incredibly painful at times and took tremendous amounts of self control.  We parents had serious doubts as to whether or not they'd be able to pull it all together in the end, but at the last moment, they did!

Working on their "caption contraption" (a mousetrap car)

The first Saturday in March found us at a local High School with hundreds of other young thinkers.  Aubree found her team and they went over last minute preparations.

Remember when I mentioned the kids had to do all the work themselves?  That included making their own costumes (no help with cutting or sewing or face painting).  I was impressed with what a few of them managed to accomplish.  

Heath was a bear in their skit

ZZ was a dog

Mark wisely brought books to keep Bryce and Thane occupied while we waited for Aubree's team's turn to compete.  

The skit the kids wrote was loosely based on Snow White, with the idea that later on she learns she has an older sister.  Aubree played the role of the older sister.  

Their entire skit was required to be under 8 minutes.  They finished at 7 minutes, 58 seconds!  They were a little hard to hear, but otherwise did great with their first year in the competition (they compete against other 3rd - 5th graders).

In the end they got 5th place out of 9 teams, which frankly was a bit better than we were expecting considering none of them had done it before.  Aubree is looking forward to doing it again next year, and I have to admit the experience seems to have really helped her be willing to take risks in her thinking and independently tackle challenges.  

Giddy Up, Partner!

Last week our ward had a western themed Chili Cook-off, with prizes promised for the best outfits.  The boys and I made a brief stop at Goodwill, and were rewarded with shirts, a hat, and even a stick horse!

 I spent a few minutes making the kids oversized belt buckles.  A little cardboard, aluminum foil, metallic pens, and glitter and, Viola! Instant cowboys.

I doubted Graham would want to wear a buckle, but as I tied them on to Bryce and Thane's belts, Graham stood next to me pulling on my arm until I tied one on his pants.  He wore it proudly all night long.

The buckles were an unexpected hit at the party.  Bryce and Thane tied for best boy costume and got extra large candy bars as their prizes.  

 Maybe next year Cowgirl Blue will let me make a buckle for her too.  

Destination Portland

Washington schools have a "mid-winter break," in addition to the traditional winter (Christmas) and Spring breaks.  Since we are now beholden to school schedules, we decided to take advantage of the time off and head to warmer climates.  Well, not really warmer, but we did head a few hours south.  

Our main purpose in heading to Portland was to visit the Oregon Museum of Science and Industry (OMSI).  We have year passes to the Pacific Science Center in Seattle, and the two have reciprocity agreements.  

We left on an extremely rainy Tuesday morning, and were not surprised to find Portland just as rainy as Seattle.  Our first stop was to VooDoo doughnuts in downtown Portland.  We brought along a friend on our trip - Flat Stanley (visiting from our kindergarten cousin, Kylee), and all that rain endangered his well being! We'd been warned to prepare for up to hour-long lines, but luckily for us and Stanley (who survived his dash through the downpour relatively unscathed), there were only a handful of people in the store!  We were in and out in five minutes, including the time it took the kids to choose their doughnuts.  

With no indoor seating available, we made another dash back to the van to eat the much heralded fare.

 

Even Flat Stanley had his share.  

After VooDoo, we stopped by Powell's Books, which is a monstrous bookstore with millions of new and used books.  We headed straight to the children's section, with visions of a couple hours of book hunting, reading, and enjoying.  What were we thinking?  Sometimes we forget we have 3 small, inclined-to-wild boys.  

By the time we were done with the bookstore, the kids were begging to get to the hotel, so we obliged. Within 10 seconds of entering our hotel room, Thane had stripped down to nothing ready to get on his swimsuit.  The other three weren't far behind him.  

They'd been wearing their rain boots around town, and that's what they had to wear to the pool as well. They weren't very happy that I made them wait to get in the water to take a picture first.

The hot tub was the favorite water spot.

Having all of us trying to sleep in one room often ends in fiasco, but this time around it went pretty smoothly.  Graham loved all the new spaces to explore.

The temperature controls were a particular favorite.

The following morning we arrived at the OMSI shortly after it opened.  We spent all morning in one wing of the museum, and could have stayed there all day.  Aubree and Bryce took the "biomimicry" challenge, where they tried to copy something in nature and make something that could fly.  Aubree made a quick creation, and flitted away to different stations.  Bryce worked steadily for 1/2 hour or more.

Meanwhile, Mark and Thane found a table of snap circuits.  Eventually, all the kids took time to sit with Mark and build neat little projects.  

Graham hung out with me and enjoyed making noise at the player piano-type type station.  

Our next main stop took us to a huge room full of blue balls, tubing, and air currents.  Balls were flying everywhere and the kids couldn't have been more pleased.

Flat Stanley wanted to see how well he could fly on an air current, but we advised against it since he's supposed to return to Kylee in one piece.

Graham's favorite part of the room were the three stairs.  He'd gather up a bunch of balls, throw them down to the lower level, then repeat the process.  

 I snapped this picture just as our arch came crashing down!

We always enjoy visiting the Pacific Science Center, but we have to admit, the OMSI is 10 times better!  There was soooo much to see and do.   And it's stunning location and views only add the the charm.  

They have a giant skateboarding exhibit.  The kids can learn about friction by running up and sliding down on different surfaces supposed to simulate snow, concrete, and dirt.  There were a number of other interesting things in that exhibit, but Thane chose that moment to have a meltdown, so I got to take him out.  

Thane recovered, and was able to enjoy many more awesome, hands-on experiences.

Graham took a short nap on my back in the Ergo, then was back raring to go.

What museum experience is complete without a stop in the water area?  Always a crowd favorite...

Our little mad scientist...

I HIGHLY recommend the OMSI to anyone who can make a stop in Portland.  I can't wait till we can go back!

When we were just five minutes from home, after a 3 hour drive from Portland, Thane informed us he wanted to go back.  We assured him we were super close to home, but he was adamant that he wanted to return.  Guess he had a good time.