Monday: army man

I found another army man today!  I keep thinking that I've found all of them and then another appears.

Oh, the wifi has been down and so the picture isn't uploaded.  I guess you'll have to wait until tomorrow!

update:

Sunday: I didn't win?

We played Space Base this afternoon.  You need 40 points to win.  I came in third with 42 points in an exciting, yet disappointing, loss.

Saturday: Easter party and Lego pick-a-brick

This afternoon we went to Great-Grandma's for an Easter celebration.  It was geared a bit more towards young kids, but Joshua still did the Easter Egg hunt.  There were also some animals and we were able to enjoy some time outside.

 Then we had a pick-a-brick challenge.

Ben built a really cool robot.  It had elbows and knee joints.

I built a tower.  It was going to be Rapunzel's tower, but was too top-heavy for the pieces I had.  So then it was a Love Tower were you could go and gaze at the stars.  I used tires for pillows.  Then a corporation bought it and commercialized it so the tacky billboard was added too.

Isaac built a dangerous flower garden with a poison flower, a fire flower, a love flower that you wanted to hug while it ate you, and a tree that he just barely finished in time.

Joshua had a story with all sorts of mini-builds.  It was different from what he normally does and quite creative, but he wouldn't let me take a video of the story.  So here are my favorite two parts.

It looks like a shooting star, but it's actually a spaceship with a bunny!

The bunny's stolen car ran out of gas, so it found a wagon with an invisible horse to bring it to the mountain with the golden crown on the top.

vacation weekend: Fort Wayne

 On Friday we went to the Botanical Gardens.  While not a huge place, it was just right for us.  The kids could get rid of some energy and we could enjoy the plants.  It was fun walking around with Liz and Isaac as we'd all point things out that others hadn't noticed.  Isaac was in a picture happy mood and Joshua was in an anti-picture mood.

At home the kids played more, I took a nap, and we just hung out.  The weather was cold and often rainy, so there wasn't a lot of going outside.

Saturday we went to the new rock climbing gym.  While smaller than Scrapyard, it was still a really nice place...once the initial rush was over.  There weren't many kids, which I found interesting.  People were commenting on Isaac's ability though, and overhearing those conversations was fun.

In the evening we made pasta for dinner.  It was delicious and an interesting experience, but I'm not sure I need to do it more than once a year.

Sunday we went for a walk, because I wanted to move around a bit before the drive home.  It was cold.  We had all our winter stuff, but when we got to the park the wind went right through you.  The kids played on the playground and we all used the outdoor exercise equipment, but we didn't stay overly long.

Oh, throughout the weekend we also played Space Base three times and Isaac always managed to win.  

As always, it was a lovely weekend and a wonderful start to spring break.

Friday: thrifting

I made the kids go thrifting with me today.  It's not something we do all that often, but they needed some clothes that I don't expect them to wear a ton.  We went to three different stores.  The first one took forever and I was a bit worried, but then we realized that I needed to help Isaac first because he needed the most clothes, then I would help Joshua.

We got most of what we needed.  There's a few more things, but I was happy with our haul.

Thursday: CS talk

 Ben gave a talk at Hope College for the computer science department today.  It was a demo of using Matlab in real-time to find the distance of objects in front of a camera.  It was engaging.  It was also my first computer science lecture, even though I've been part of the department for twelve years.

Then, luckily, I was invited to lunch too.  My lunch today was pathetic, but I just didn't know what to do this morning: a half piece of pizza, a piece of cheese, some popcorn, a piece of apple, and some carrots.  And some almonds from my office if I was still hungry.

Also, I now have a picture of a picture of Tornado.

Thursday: Fort Wayne

 Welcome to spring break... For the kids. 

Let's back up.  Ben and I had lunch today and it was really nice.  I got quite a bit of work done afterwards too, and that doesn't always happen in the afternoon. 

Ok.  Then I picked up Joshua, who doesn't think spring break starts until tomorrow.  Then I picked up Isaac, who had to wait for his teacher longer than he wanted and was a bit grumpy about it.  After a brief stint at home I dropped Isaac off at Rock climbing, went to the library, and then to karate.  I picked up Isaac, made him eat faster than normal, and we went to pick up Joshua from piano.  Phew.  I usually don't deal with piano, but otherwise it was a normal Thursday.  From piano we drove to Fort Wayne!

With the exception of I94, traffic was pretty light.  As I pulled off the highway I noticed a funny sound.  I've heard this sound before and last time my lug nuts were loose.  It acts really funny.  When I accelerate or brake there's no sound, but when I'm coasting there's a rattle.  Nathan reminded me that I had a lug wrench in the car, and we proceeded to check all the lug nuts.  Yup!  One wheel had several loose.  Not really dangerously loose, but not as tight as they should be, either. 

Nathan and I stayed up too late talking.  But the first night is always the best for catching up and I don't regret it, although I'm not the one who had to work tomorrow.