Gooooaaaaaaaaallllll!

Jay finally scored a goal in soccer this week! He is not the most amazing player and goals are all that count to five year-olds. Sadly, there were only four kids there this week (not that it mattered to Jay, the best player of all was still there). It was a little rainy- we've had the kids out playing soccer in the snow and a November downpour. So this was nothing. I actually have meant to bring my camera to soccer since August and finally remembered it this week. So if it took this long for Jay to get a goal, I am glad that I was there to capture it on film. Now I might have to bring it every week as Jay's lucky charm!

Super Nils!

The kids love to dress up, they have just moved (somewhat) beyond lions, bats and frogs. They now love superheroes and Star Wars. So I got them some new costumes. Here is Nils in Superman. Of course, it is not enough to be the Man of Steel. He likes to stuff a pillow down his front as "muscles" and have you hit him. The other day he went another step and stuffed a pillow down his pants to have even more muscles. Jay followed and we soon had a butt dance (Sir Mix-a-Lot anyone?)

Easter Sunday

Here are a bunch of photos from Easter Sunday. The kids had an egg and candy hunt and in the afternoon we went on a walk to the river. We had a Star Wars themed Easter (how did the Easter Bunny know that is the boys' favorite??) with Star Wars eggs and Star Wars toys. It was great.

School "Performance"

Once again Jay's class had a performance that wasn't a performance. Or a recital. It was just that the kids invited the parents into the classroom to see what they have learned so far this term (in their music & movement class). At one point siblings and/or parents were invited to join in, so up Nils went and tried his best to shimmy along with the rest of the kids. This term's theme was Broadway songs and they learned "Do-a-Deer" and "Blue Skies." I'm sure they learned more (I've heard Jay singing from "The King and I"), but that was all we got to hear. We also got to hear a rhythm helper with m-i-ss-i-ss-i-pp-i.

Lake Como

We booked our vacation! We are renting a place in Italy right on Lake Como (where George Clooney has a house...). Here is a link to the place we got:

http://www.lakecomohomes.com/displayproperty.asp?p=223

Sorry, Linda already called me first to ask if she and Sacha and Soffian can tag along. No more room!

Long Time Overdue

I knew I hadn't blogged in a while, but over three months is a lot longer than I thought! Once again, my usual excuse (no photo ops in a while) is the culprit. But I guess what it really is that I never carry the camera. So I'll recap some recent events.

A few weeks ago, we went shopping in the city. Of course Jay complained the whole way there that it's sooooo boring. As soon as we got to the first store, we saw that there was a radio station promotion going on. They had face painting and balloon rides for kids. Jay and Nils said they wanted to do it, but we were convinced they'd chicken out at the last minute. Nils chickened out on face painting and Jay on the ride. Nils almost didn't take the balloon ride. But.... at the last minute he decided to (all rides were alone or it would be too heavy for the tiny balloon) and loved it. When he got out, he decided to get his face painted too. Jay didn't want to do the ride until he saw Nils do it. So he went also. The promoters took some photos and printed them out for us. I have to scan them in and post. The photos are a bit dark so I'm not too confident that I can post them, but we'll see. After the rides, we went upstairs and bought Super Mario Cart for our wii.

Speaking of wii, we made Jay's reward for filling in enough on responsibility chart one game of wii a week. If he fills everything (perfect week) then he can play two times. He loves bowling. In fact, he is even better than me. And I actually am trying to beat him!

Jay has also started drum lessons. I just read a book by the former drummer of Semisonic (check out my "consuming" bar on the side of the blog main page). It made me want to go and buy all their CDs. Well, there were only three and I already have one (and, no, it is not the one with "Closing Time"). But it was a good look into the life of a band.- Jay better either be a super-mega-star or break out that physics textbook! And from the way the book sounds, they were a relatively well-grounded, sober band.

Anyway, once Jay started drum lessons, Nils wanted them too. Rather than tell him he needs to wait another year or two, my first answer was "Why? We don't need two drummers. How about guitar or bass?" Poor guy.

This week was the beginning of spring break. On Monday, the first actual day, Jay cornered me at the breakfast table. Our conversation was basically this:

J: Who is coming over today?
D: No one, I thoought we'd have a relaxing beginning to break.
J: Then whose house am I going to?
D: No one's; we're taking it easy today.
J: Then where are we going today?
D: Nowhere really. Maybe for an ice cream and the playground later on.
J: Again? Oh no.
D: We haven't been to the playground for a year!
J: Man, that is soooooo langweilig (boring). This will take an ewigkeit (forever).

I have now survived three days of Spring Break. Today is day four- tomorrow and Monday are holidays, so I think I can pull this off. Wish me luck!