International Children's Festival

We took Pete and Sam to the International Children's Festival in Hampton, VA on April 15. It was on our way back from Virginia Beach to home in Northern Virginia.

Some interesting things we saw:

- Pete went to the Japan exhibit, which was fun since he had recently finished his unit on Japan in school. They had a little game where you knock the bottom piece of a stack out with a hammer. The kids were better than the adults at this because you had to hit it hard, even though this seemed counter-intuitive

- We stopped by the South Africa exhibit to see if they recognized dad from his visit last year (no).

- We got some cookies at the Nigeria booth.

- We saw a guy with a monkey who would take quarters from little kids. I think this was in the "Tribute to Ebola" area.

- We saw a mariachi band. They were not affiliated with any particular country, I think they were just included by the festival planners under budget for "random stereotype".

- We also saw some hula dancers at the exhibit stage.

- Pete and Sam won a t-shirt and squeeze bottle at the "we're not a country, but we paid an exhibit fee" booth for Liberty Insurance.

Vacation Transformation

We recently took a few days vacation without Pete and Sam. You don't realize how relaxing this can be until you try it. For example, see the pictures below:

Sam Object Quiz

See if you can figure out what these items have in common:

Basketball
Pair of shoes
Crash doll
Pillow
Nintendo "Cabal" game
Two "weapons" (made from Knex)
Stuffed blue bear

===============================
Answer: Stacey is right, these are the items Sam took to bed with him last night.

Rock Paper Scissors

When we were in Vriginia Beach a few weeks ago, Pete and I sat down to play the board game "Sorry" with cousins Sarah and Joey. Pete and Joey both wanted to be blue, so we were at an impasse before we even started the game. Then Joey suggested best 2 out of 3 rock paper scissors, to which Pete agreed. The game proceeded as follows:

Round 1
Joey: Rock
Pete: Paper

Round 2
Joey: Paper
Pete: Scissors

So Pete took the color he wanted and they proceeded to play the game. (There was a further competition between Joey and Sarah when he turned his coveting to her red pieces, but that can be a topic for future discussion.)

A few days later, I asked Pete about the rock paper scissor game.

Me: Pete, how did you manage to win two consecutive games of rock paper scissors?
Pete: Well, I figured usually people like to start out with rock. So I decided to go with paper.
Me: I see.
Pete: When he jumped right into the next turn, I figured he would try to beat me with my own strategy of paper. So I went with scissors.

So for those of us who thought there was no strategy to rock paper scissors, I guess we need to think again.

After The Last Supper

This picture of Joey, Sarah, Sam, and Pete somehow reminds me of The Last Supper. It's the lesser-known part of the story, after dinner when Jesus and most of the disciples went back to Jerusalem while a few others stayed back at the house and watched a Rugrats movie.

Beware the Evil 2-Headed Leprechaun

Easter Eggs

Here is Sam coloring eggs at Nana's house with Sarah, Ashleigh, Aunt Cathy, Aunt Stacey, Joey, Pete, and mom.

See if you can guess what Sam is going to try to do with the egg:
a) Color it
b) Take a picture of it
c) Eat it
d) Throw it at Aunt Stacey
e) Squeeze it

I will post the answer here later.

(Answer: c)

Thrill of Victory

One thing I will say about Pete - he has a lot of persistence once he gets started on a wall. The biggest difference between Pete and Dad is that after Pete "gives up" on a wall and comes down, as soon as his feet hit the mat he is ready to go up again.

Harness Optional?

Here is Pete doing an unharnessed free climb at the rock climbing place. In his defense, this was prior to the safety lecture where they told us important rules such as "no free climbing", etc. The instructors were a little bit concerned about Pete's clothing. Not because it was loose, more because of his shirt that said "I do all my own stunts". During the safety briefing, we met our fellow climbers. The group consisted of Pete, 6 other kids, and dad.

Rock Climbing

This week is rock climbing week, which will include recollections from dad and Pete's first rock climbing adventure on April 7, 2006.

Downstairs Racquetball

We finally got the ping pong table from Freecycle set up downstairs. Sam calls it "racquetball".

When we are playing Crash, Sam will walk around and gather everyone's paddles and give them out. This means he is ready to play racquetball. We keep records of the longest rally for each person. Pete's record is 10. Sam's record is 2, but I think we are getting close to 3. Dad and Pete stand at the two ends of the table, and Sam stands on the side.

This would probably be a good place for a picture; too bad we don't have one yet.

Sam Bowling

Here is Sam's first time bowling. The picture is a bit misleading - he did go up there the first 2 or 3 frames, but after that he only wanted to roll the ball from all the way back where you step up onto the lane. The optimistic view is that he has mastered the game and was thus looking for a bigger challenge. The more likely explanation is that he saw a ladybug near the foul line and got frightened of going back up there.

Thanks to Aunt Stacey for taking the picture.

Carpet Squares

Mom: Sam, do you want to help us look at carpet squares for the family room?
Sam: No. Rectangle.

Gold Belt

Pete got his Gold Belt on Saturday. He has been excited to go to class this week and start learning gold belt combinations.

Sam and I went to class with Pete on Saturday. A boy and his mom arrived early for class and were sitting next to us. Sam was talking loud so they could hear him.

Sam: That boy holding his yellow card
Me: Yes, he has a yellow card
Sam: That boy has crazy hair
<*sigh*>

April Floos

Sam was really getting into the April 1 concept on Saturday.

Sam: Me lost my shirt
Dad: How did you lose your shirt?
Sam: April Floos!

Pete was hard to fool after we got him the first time. If you ever want a real challenge, try playing Simon Says with Pete. It is very difficult to trick him. After a while you have to get him on a technicality, like "Simon Says masticate with just your left mandible". Then yell "game over" run away before he figures it out.