Day 169: En Garde

The kids and I have basically been watching the Olympics nonstop since it started. They're still really into it, love all the random sports, learning about the different countries and have colored a dozen more country flags since opening day. 

Today fencing (of all damn things) was on TV right as Camden walked into the room, and he suddenly drops his jaw and goes "OOOOOOH.....SWORD FIGHTING?!?!"

And later this afternoon, I found them poised and ready to compete in their garage fencing competition. 

I love the Olympics. 

Day 168: Class 06-16

After 8 months of teaching, drama, troubleshooting, more drama, and more teaching, Brad's first IT A school class (at least, the first class that he headed) graduated today. Since it was his first, and he was the master of ceremonies, and since over the course of this year I've gotten to know a couple of the students, the kids and I dressed up and attended the graduation ceremony this morning. It was really neat to see "the kids" (as we call them), complete their school, advance in rank and move on to bigger and better things. 

I'm truly proud of the work that Brad gets to do here at this training center. It's unique, intense and rewarding for both of us. 

Congratulations IT class 06-16!

Waiting for the ceremony to start!

My 3 favorites!

Day 167: Swim With The Fishes

It was pool day, and there isn't much else to report than that. You know the drill. Water, swimming, chlorine, that sort of thing. 

Here's the pic of the day. 

Calen and I in the deep end. 

Day 166: Getting Our Hick On

Summer is almost over and that means the Sonoma County Fair is rolling through. Not to be confused with the Marin-Sonoma Fair in Petaluma that we attended in June. Why does everything have to be named the same around here?

The main reason we went to this fair today was to go to the monster truck show with our next door neighbors and their monster truck loving 3 year old. So we got our total hick on and surrounded ourselves by other hicks and watched loud trucks scream over the dirt and fly over squashed sedans and econovans. 

I mean really, what could be better?

After, we wandered around the fairgrounds and looked at the livestock and other animal barns until it was time to go home. Great family day with great people. 

Day 165: Carnivale

Yesterday was the Opening Day for the 2016 Summer Olympics in Rio De Janeiro, Brazil, and our family friends and us wanted to watch the opening ceremonies and celebrate. 

Yesterday was also Coast Guard Day, and by the time we got home we were gassed, and who wants to stay up until 1am to watch the opening ceremonies?

This is where technology is superior.

Like a good American citizen, we DVR'd the opening ceremonies and went to bed. Then this afternoon our friends came over and we watched the not-so-live opening ceremony, all while eating pretty much authentic Brazillian food. 

First of all, this was the first time the Olympics have rolled around where the kids are old enough to grasp it (they were 3 and 1 last Summer go-round). This morning we explained to them the symbolism of the Olympic rings, which I didn't even know until now that they actually mean something, thanks Google (ie: blue represents Europe, black represents Africa, red represents Americas, yellow represents Asia, and green represents Oceania. There see, now you know). So we cut out paper rings and strung them above the island in the dining room. Then we moved the huge world map that was upstairs down into the same area so the kids could check back and understand where countries were and more importantly how far away they are from California. They were completely absorbed in the Opening ceremony theatrics/show/whatever, and I even found a website to print out coloring pages of the flags of countries they saw during the Parade of Nations. I was shocked at how involved they were and how long their interest lasted. 

And since we don't have a best friend from Brazil to steal recipe's from their grandma's kitchen, we resorted to Pinterest to find some tasty Brazilian recipes to snack on during the ceremony. I made a Brazilian braised pork shoulder in the slow cooker soaked in passion fruit/mango juice, and Brazilian rice (white rice with onion, garlic and tomato). Our friends made beef empanadas and Pao de Quejio, a type of cheese roll. And for extra fun we experimented with limes and condensed milk and made Brazilian coconut limeade, which has no coconuts and was very tropical but a little too limey for me. But the food left us all wondering why on earth we don't eat Brazilian food at least five times a week. 

The kids even enjoyed the Pao de Quejio, rice and the empanadas (the pork was too spicy), and Camden loved the coconut limeade (Calen hated it, which is shocking because he ate an entire lime whole). 

Once the ceremonies were over we turned on live Olympics and watched various swimming and soccer matches. I have a few more recipes stowed away to try the next week or two and endless flags for the kids to color. It's so fun seeing the world for the first time again through their eyes. 

Ready to party in our little Olympic Village (the dining room)

Today's flags. They learned about Japan, Australia, Brazil, The United States, Canada and Germany

Our point of reference for the Olympics

Cam liked Canada because "it's red and has a leaf"

A plate of Brazil! Braised passion fruit pork, rice, empanadas, pao de quejio, and Hawaiian chips (because that makes sense)

Lime-head

They're trying to do gymnastics. I think. 

Day 164: Semper Paratus

It's Coast Guard Day!

Actually, it's not. YESTERDAY was Coast Guard Day. But today is "Celebrate the Fact that Yesterday Was Coast Guard Day-Day". 

I will say, Training Center (TRACEN) Petaluma takes the delicious orange and blue cake when it comes to celebrating Coast Guard Day. The entire helicopter pad is filled with outsourced food trucks (like Cousins Maine Lobster for crying out loud) and picnic tables, much better than TRACEN Cape May's galley burgers and shriveled hot dogs. Below the helicopter pad is the huge field with the softball fields in two corners (emphasis on BIG). That was filled with inflatable bounce houses and games for the kids, climbing walls, cornhole tournaments and volleyball. And if that wasn't enough for everyone, they had a video game trailer in the parking lot, and laser tag across the street (which my kids have talked about non stop since they played it a year ago). Not to mention the free ice cream, balloon animals, face painting and coolers of water all over the place. I mean really, they pulled out all the stops.

Pictures speak louder than words!

Colors. Brad is holding the US flag

Calen and his friend Mario saluting during the national anthem

Video game trailer. The kids are playing Mario Kart

I've been hearing about Coast Guard Day laser tag for a year. Last year, tiny little 4 year old Camden was so unassuming during his match (6 on 6 usually) that all the big kids forgot about him on the course, and he stomped through Rambo-style and beat everyone on the course. He may or may not have cheated a little by not returning to base once he was shot but who's keeping track. This year, he did well at following the rules and still beat a few kids a couple of times. They would have abandoned the entire rest of CG Day festivities to just do laser tag all day long. 

Laser tag! Calen and Mario

The reigning champ 

Let's talk about the unique inflatable games they had this year. There was an inflatable Hungry Hungry Hippos in which kids were strapped to a bungee cord and had to run and leap to the middle bowl and try to grab a ball and return to it's bag. Funniest thing ever especially since Cam was too small for the straps so he was allowed to just launch himself into the bowl strap-free. 

Calen is the yellow hippo

Hungry Hippos! Calen in yellow, Cam in red, their friends Mario and Zeth in orange and blue

They also had these mini hamster balls that you crawl into, put straps over your shoulders and have your legs sticking out, then run at each other full force and inso doing end up rolling upside down or doing barrel rolls or something equally ridiculous. It's like bumper cars meets a slingshot. I got inside one and threw myself at the kids a few times (and got knocked off my feet multiple times by other adults) and I seriously couldn't stop laughing. Funniest thing I've ever done. 

Hamster balls! Calen on the left

Camden spent most of it upside down since his feet couldn't touch the ground. But he just laughed and laughed.

Calen's friend Mario's grandma offered to take our kids with them to see The Secret Life of Pets on base immediately following the festivities, so Brad and I scooted away into town for a quick little date at the bookstore and a street burrito from our favorite food truck in town. Such a fun family day. Coast Guard Day is turning into one of our favorite days of the year. 

Our annual CG day picture!

Day 163: Batman Versus Superman CRUNCH

We went grocery shopping today and cereal was on sale. And not just cereal, superhero cereal. And thus started an epic battle in the house of "Which cereal wins the battle of best tasting cereal??" Batman cereal...or Superman cereal?? This was a serious matter. Complete with taste test and comparison of super hero cereal skills. 

The answer is Batman cereal. Because it tastes better. And it was shaped like little Batmans. And because Batman always wins. 

Day 162: The Things You Say

We weren't that interesting today, so here's a little quote from Camden.

Cam: "Mom, remember very very yesterday when I wore my clothes to bed?? It was SO FUNNY that I wore my clothes to BED!! Hahahahaha!! I so funny. I'm on fire right now!"

Very very yesterday is his way of saying "the other day". Sometimes he even says "very very tomorrow" and is still talking about the past. The kid's vocabulary cracks me up. 

Day 161: Judge Me By My Size, Do You

We're nerds around here. Star Wars loving, Harry Potter Reading, Video game playing nerds. 

The kids are already talking about Halloween (for crying out loud) and since we now have a little dog that follows us everywhere, I decided that the dogs needed costumes this year too. 

NOT that I'm interested in getting Halloween costumes in AUGUST. Until....

I needed to order a new crate for Sonic the HedgeDog and right on the front page of the Petco website was a BB8 (the droid from the new Star Wars movie) dog sweater. And right next to that was dog Yoda ears, and I said done and DONE and added that shit to cart right away. 

They finally came today and I seriously can't stop laughing. 

To hell with Halloween, they are wearing these every day for the next three months for my own personal amusement. 

Day 160: Fit For a King

Once upon a time when Calen was 5 and about to enter Kindergarten, we did the Hooked on Phonics program with him, hoping to give him a little bit of an edge up heading into school (so he could focus on more pressing issues, like learning to sit still and stop talking for five seconds so he could listen to his teacher). Calen was a natural, and flew through the lessons, reading at a mid-first grade level by the time school started. 

Fast forward two years, and it's the summer before Camden enters Kindergarten. We saved all the Hooked on Phonics volumes so I figured I'd do the same thing over again, after all it was so easy with Calen, this should be a breeze, right?

Wrong. 

Teaching Cam to read this summer has been the most hair pulling, eyeball gouging, excuse to drink at 10am shitshow I have ever experienced. Where Calen figured it out right away, Cam just didn't. It didn't click, and when it did, it was at a snails pace. What he mastered yesterday, he suddenly forgot the next day. We had to review the workbook from the beginning maybe twelve times before we'd finally make a two page progress. It was terrible and I hated it. 

I don't know how homeschoolers do it. Teaching one kid ONE subject was enough to make me want to jump off a cliff. 

I didn't push the issue, but did give an incentive of "if you complete this, like actually learn and complete it, I'll buy you the new Lego Star Wars: Force Awakens game" that he wanted so badly. It seemed a big enough reward was a big enough incentive for Cam, and he'd push to do more and more lessons. 

And finally, finally, today he completed Hooked on Phonics, and the world rejoices. We immediately put on shoes and headed to Gamestop to pick up his golden prize with gleeful excitement. 

And because it was such a big accomplishment and we needed a celebration fit for a king, we went to Yogurtland and got us some Super Mario frozen yogurt. 

And because that wasn't enough, I let them play Lego Star Wars all day. For hours. Uninterrupted aside from Cam's football game this evening. And then they came home and played more until ten freaking p.m. And Camden got to be the coveted Player 1. Because let's be honest, unless it's a National emergency, the older brother always gets to be player 1. This is a big deal, you guys. 

I mean, it really did deserve a big celebration. For both Cam AND me. 

Ready for some player 1 action!