Friendship Feis

Day two of feisanna! Today was what is referred to as a "blackout" feis. No glitz or glitter, no fancy dresses or vests. Just plain black and/or white! Chris did great! The treble jig that he moved up yesterday into prizewinner had him placing third! In that video (below), he is dancing with the girl who ended up winning that dance. At one point she almost kicked him in the face! But he avoided contact. I guess that is a possible risk in Irish Dance--maybe it can be a contact sport! He also placed 6th in his reel and 7th in his hornpipe. Then, after a four hour drive home, he proceeded to dance for another full hour in the driveway! Here are the videos from today's dances...

Reel...

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sZFw1yJTSYs

Hornpipes...

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CV3R0JsAe4o

Treble Jig...

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gC_tfndZDZQ

Another feis weekend is in the books!

An Samhra Feis

Hello from St. Louis! We are here for a double feis weekend and day one went very well for Chris. He danced in three dances today. He earned a fourth place in novice hornpipes, a fourth place in prizewinner reel and (drumroll) a first place in novice treble jig! This last placement means he moves up to prizewinner treble jig (which he can enter at tomorrow's feis). And most importantly to him, when you have two of your dances in the prizewinner category, you get a solo vest (or solo dress if you are a girl). If you are not familiar with the "solos" think bling, bling, bling, bright and fun colors and a slight dent in your wallet. Anyway, we are so proud of our boy! This is only his third feis and he has moved his dances up quickly. Here he is after getting his medal for the treble jig. So excited, he couldn't keep his eyes open!

Since we are becoming more experienced feis parents (lol), we don't always record every single one of Christopher's dances. I did record the hornpipes though so here it is...

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sHCr43bZEmU

More feising to be done tomorrow! Tomorrow is a blackout feis, which means the kids can kind of "dress down" for it. The girls don't have to wear the crazy wigs and fancy dresses and Chris and other boys from his school will simply wear black button down shirts with black pants. More updates tomorrow when we return to KC!

Trivial Pursuit: The 50 States

We went to Crown Center today with Grammy to see an exhibit with interesting facts about the 50 states. It was very cool! It was also very hands on so the boys had a great time. They had little representative activities about each state that the kids could get involved in. Here are the boys finding out about sailing off Rhode Island. Chris was trying to remember the sailing knots Grandpa taught him!

Here is Chris flying a hot air balloon, although it was actually J's favorite part of the morning...

And here is J scuba diving in Hawaii...

We also had lunch at Unforked and made a little visit to the chocolate store upstairs where we all had some delicious homemade treats!

One more thing unrelated to our morning: I recently picked two bell peppers that had changed colors! We've only ever had green peppers in the garden before so this was very fun to see...

Hair Up!

These boys were both LONG overdue for haircuts! With Christopher's next feis only days away, we decided today was the day. They posed accordingly...

Level II Champs and Backyard Fun

Yesterday was Level II swim champs at the Mission pool! It was Christopher's favorite day because it had his stronger strokes: freestyle and backstroke. He also swam in the medley relay (backstroke) and the freestyle relay (anchor). He did great and had fun! Here is some video of his freestyle race in which he got 4th place overall...

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IR24d5AeyXE

This morning was free of swimming since the season is over. We joined our friends down the street for some summer backyard fun! There were about 17 kids, a lot of water, some ice cream and a whole mess of shaving cream. The kids had a blast getting messy and then hosing off and also ingesting ice cream before lunch!

It was mayhem and madness until the ice cream was served and then you could hear a pin drop! The ice cream was burned off by an epic water balloon fight and the festivities came to a close. Now Chris is off to, logically, ice cream camp!

Taking Flight

If you know Christopher, you know he has always been fascinated with airplanes, rockets, etc. For years now, he has been asking for a remote control airplane and, well, that just hasn't been possible. However, this year we thought he would be ready for a drone--close enough to a remote control airplane. He just had a camp a few weeks ago where he learned a lot about drones so he already knew how to use some of the controls. After camp today, he tested it out in the backyard! This drone is equipped to take pictures and video and he tested out these features a little bit. Here is a little video that we tried!

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RlHjU5F6fAM

The possibilities are endless! 

Happy Tenth!

Happy tenth birthday to this amazing kid! We cannot believe it has been ten years since Christopher made us parents for the first time. When you get to ten years it is one of those milestones when it makes you stop and look back at all the things that have happened over the years. We are constantly amazed at Christopher, most importantly that he is a kind and compassionate kid. We have people tell us that a lot and we see it ourselves. More than anything he does in his life, that is the most important thing and we are so proud of him for that. It is amazing to watch this kid grow!

Champs: Day One

Today was Novice Champs for Chris and his team! He swam three races: medley relay (in which he swam fly), individual medley, and fly. His team finished 6th in the relay and he got 7th in the IM (makes me tired just thinking of it!). Not sure yet how the fly ended up but we are proud of our boy! On Thursday, he'll have Level II champs when he will swim free and back with the possibility of a couple relays. Those are his favorite strokes so he is really looking forward to that. Here are some more pics from today...

It Pays Off

So we just popped in to our local Hy-Vee to pick up a few snacks for swim champs this week and a funny thing happened. Wherever Chris goes, he doesn't walk, he Irish dances. So down the aisles of Hy-Vee he goes, reeling away, when a worker notices him and says (as people often do) "Is that Riverdance you're doing?" Chris tells him it is Irish dance and the worker asks him to show him some moves. Chris does and the man says, "Now that deserves a cookie!" He then gave both boys an M&M cookie because, well, just because. Jonathan happened to be in the right place at the right time!

Celebration!

We had Christopher's birthday party (a few days early) at Skate City! It was a roller skating party and the kids all had a great time...

Also over the weekend was National Mac and Cheese Day (Saturday), which in Jonathan's opinion should be a federal holiday. The boys ate the mac and cheese (sans bread crumbs) that Grammy made for them and wore sunglasses while doing it because, well, why not?

And then, there's Holly...

Creations

The boys would like to share with you two things that they made today. First, Jonathan made a boat (with a little help) out of one of the leftover Chipotle dishes from our picnic the other day. He named it "Tad Frog," apparently a combination of the names of Grandpa Eric's boats, the Fat Frog and the Tadpole!

Christopher is in a camp this week called "Amazing Architects" and the kids are getting a chance to build with Lego architecture sets. He has worked on the Empire State Building, Falling Water, and Big Ben. Today, his teacher sent me a picture of his work on the Chicago skyline!

Play Time

After having a pipe replaced in our basement (and our old carpet and concrete floor torn up as a result), we replaced the carpet and now the boys have a "new" play area downstairs! Chris helped Jonathan make this train track set up and they've been playing with it a lot. 'Thena approves.

Also, sometimes Mackenzie will bring Evalee with her when Chris has his piano lesson. J and Evalee play together so this morning I went in and J had found my old breast pump and decided to use it for God knows what. Evalee looks like she is trying to figure him out too...

Athena

Athena has a couple quirks about her that we have come to know, love and get frustrated with all at the same time. First of all, she's a thief. Her preferred items include Jonathan's stuffed animals, tissues from the garbage, and food. Never mind though, her cuteness often makes up for such incidents! The other day, Chris was stretching out his hips after dance class and Athena stepped over him and proceeded to just stand there over him. It was so funny because he literally couldn't have gotten up, even if he wanted to!

Mind you, she wasn't just walking over him; she just stood there. I think she just wanted to stand there to see if anyone noticed and happened to pay her some attention... Also, beware if you are sitting on the couch and make eye contact with her. She will come up and give you a kiss or two and if you stop petting her, she will place her paw on you until you remember she is there!

She also chews the coffee table, but that's neither here nor there. We had another dog who did that once and she happened to be the best dog ever!

Lil' Swimmer

During Christopher's swim practice, Jonathan will occasionally swim in the baby pool. Being that it was nearly 85 degrees at 9AM, we decided today would be a great day to do so!

And continuing along with the fun of slo-mo, check out this epic jump off the steps of the pool!

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sy6xE5E0plk

Ummmm...

Anybody want a cucumber?

There is no shortage of cucumbers and tomatoes in our garden right now. Certainly there is a cucumber/tomato salad recipe someone wants to share with me? Also our neighbors and friends are about to get some cucumbers for their households!

Happy Tenth!

Happy tenth anniversary to Baby Wogs! It was officially ten years ago today that we started this blog in anticipation of the birth of who we now know and love as Christopher. To celebrate, we just got done having our annual 4th of July-ish barbecue (although this time instead of potluck and grilling, we just got it catered by Chipotle--there's no going back now!) This rose is all that is left of the aftermath and it is also the only picture I took today. Anyway, I can't believe this blog is ten years old and still going strong after I said, "Oh maybe I'll do it for a year." I also can't believe that means the initial subject of said blog will be ten years old soon!

Loose Park

I took the boys to Loose Park this afternoon. It's been awhile since we've gone because this summer has just been so darn hot! Today was still about 90 but it felt so much "cooler" than it's been so off to the park we went. We spent some time at the duck pond, saw some mommy and baby ducks as well as some turtles.

Then we meandered over to the swings, a favorite of the boys. Jonathan still likes the baby swings but sometimes, it is hard to get that boy in them so I encouraged him to use the "big boy" swings. He uses them in his own way and has a ton of fun doing it...

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=y3Z3zlXQdv0

Later when we were home, we were all out in the back and (not sure how or why this happened) but both Chris and J were drawing their respective pictures. I got this pic of them deep in concentration...

4th of July

We all went over to the Groden's house yesterday for their annual 4th of July BBQ! It was a great time as usual. Jonathan was able to come for a little while but, being that he doesn't like loud sounds right now and it was past his bedtime, Brian took him home after he had some treats and time to play. Chris had a blast with his friends there, one of which is a girl from his dance school. You can imagine that their particular conversations revolved mainly around dance and they even put on an impromptu "dance off!" Here is a pic of the big kids...

And here is me with my dear friend, Danna...

The big kids had fun setting off (very tame) fireworks in the driveway followed by an epic water balloon fight! Then we headed over to see the Corporate Woods fireworks display. It was a fun night!
Here is video of one of the cooler fireworks in the driveway...

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zVWE0A3aoqA

You'll also notice in the background of that video that the CRV was there. For those of you who knew about our car issues, it ended up just needing a starter (much cheaper than a new car!) so we fixed it and it will plug along. It is a Honda after all and we haven't hit 200,000 miles yet so go forth CRV!

Swim Meet

Last night, Christopher had his fourth swim meet of the season! Jonathan is always happy to spend time at his big brother's meets and usually brings some toys along to play with. Obviously, the pool needed to be vacuumed. What decent three year-old would attend a swim meet without his trusty vacuum? Hetty got a seat as the guest of honor!

Chris swam great last night in his free and back and got first in both! Here is a video of his freestyle. He was motoring!

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KLHw6uABkxk

These boys

Yes, this pretty much sums it up...