Lego Creativity

Avritt decided that he wanted to build WALL-E out of Legos. His model is really cool, complete with cockroach. Isaac made the block of trash that gets squeezed inside WALL-E's stomach. They are going to send it in to Lego Magazine.

At the Beach with Friends

We spent Friday with Jason and Shelly up in Pentwater. Their daughter, Myla, is beautiful! She was seven months old that day. Jason took the kids on the dune rides, and then we went to the beach for the afternoon. We had fresh salmon for dinner - the best I've ever eaten. At the fish place, I bought some fried smelt, which I had at my grandparent's as a child. Great food and friends is all a summer day needs.

Bambi Lives!

Mike took these shots early one morning when he glanced out the window and saw these deer along the edge of the pond across the street. The kids weren't awake yet (we had to remind Emily about the concept of "morning" :) They saw these pictures and said, "Bambi!"

Swimming

Avritt is on the summer swim team at school. He's got a good friend, Max, who is on the team, and they enjoy hanging out. The bottom picture shows what we see from the stands. Avritt is conferring with one of his coaches about a race.

Video of A Relay Race

Avritt was asked to be a part of a 200 meter freestyle relay with the high school swimmers because one of their teammates was not at the meet. Each swimmer did 50 meters. He did a great job swimming with the "big boys" and kept his cool. It was fun to see them encouraging him, and although they didn't come in first, they beat a women's team will all high schoolers!

The Trebuchet Lives Again

We cleaned out the garage over the weekend, which involved emptying its contents onto the driveway in sorted piles, rebuilding the loft that was in the old garage, loading things in the loft that we won't need anytime soon, and putting the rest of the stuff in aisles so Mike can access his tools. In the midst of all the work, the boys reclaimed the trebuchet that Mike built for something at work several years ago. They played with it all weekend when they weren't helping. Here is a link about trebuchets: http://www.trebuchet.com/ if you are interested in their history or how they work.

This video is sideways, because I took it with the camera held sideways to get the best angle, but I didn't know that you can't rotate videos sideways after taking them.

Happy Fourth of July!

Even though it was 11:00 p.m. when we got home from the fireworks, we let the kids light some sparklers. To get these images, you have to turn off your flash, which makes the person blurry, but the light from the sparklers is cool.

Avritt, Isaac, and Eliot

The boys have donned their cool shades at the air show.

Air Show Video

Mike took the boys to the airshow today. They enjoyed seeing the Thunderbirds in action.

Emily is Now On the Road

It's official. Emily passed driver's ed and got her permit today. The Secretary of State office near our house was closed because the power went out around there from a storm yesterday. So we had to drive down to 28th street to get it. After waiting a really long time, Emily and Mike emerged triumphantly from the overcrowded, stinky waiting area (I had taken the boys to a toy store in the mall). Emily drove us to a restaurant near the mall, and then all the way home. She navigated well, and even had to deal with two major intersections where the power was out. She has a tendency to drift to the right side of the road, but she did really well overall. We now have to log at least 30 hours before she takes Step 2 of the drivers ed program, and then another 20 hours before she gets her license when she turns 16.

Cat Lounging

More Pictures of the Flood

This is the road where my parents live.

This isn't my parents' car, but a relative of their neighbor who was trying to navigate the road. My dad got in to their house yesterday with a four-wheel drive.

Video Post - Avritt Shooting His Bow and Arrow

First Video Post - Isaac Shooting His Bow and Arrow

My Parents' Farm

This picture was taken yesterday. The arrow is pointing to my parent's house. The road, which is under water, is running up the left side of the picture between the clumps of trees (there are houses in every clump). There's sort of a wavy white line where the road is, which means the water is flowing over the road with enough speed to make a "wave." My parent's farm is on the left side of the road, all around their house. The river is on the right side of the thicker line of trees. Pretty much on either side of the river is farmland. It will be really hard for my parents to return to their house and for them to see the damage from the flood water. Here is the link for more pictures of the area around where my parent's live: http://www.voy.com/99480/33580.html

Bows and Arrows

Last week I bought a book for Avritt called The Dangerous Book for Boys. I mentioned in an earlier post that it included instructions for making a bow and arrows. That has been the project for the last week. We first went to a friend's house who owns some property with woods and collected some branches suitable for making a bow. Avritt spent several hours shaving the bark off the sticks and cutting off the little knobs to make a spot to hold the bow. Yesterday we finally rounded up all the various parts we needed for arrows. I had a hard time finding feathers, and ended up going to a dollar store where I found an Indian dreamweaver. I bought two for $2, which included just enough for eight arrows. I went to Lowes and bought four 48 inch dowels for 53 cents each. We cut them in half, sawed a nock in the end to keep them on the string, and then attached three feathers at 120 degree angles from one another. That was the hardest part. I almost super-glued my fingers to the arrow. The feathers were curved, and that was a challenge because they had to be straightened out to get them to stay on the shaft of the arrow. Then we struggled with figuring out what to use for the arrowhead. I objected to using metal pointed tips for obvious reasons - projectiles, young boys, and sharp don't mix. I couldn't find anything that was suitably blunt. In a conversation with my physical therapist about it, he suggested that we just use a dremmel or a grinder to make a tip on the dowel, and not worry about gluing anything else on it. I called Mike on his way home and asked him where the dremmel was, but he wondered whether the 1/4 inch dowel would fit in the pencil sharpener. I replied that I doubted it would, but upon Mike's confidence that it would work, I got the sharpener and sure enough, it worked perfectly. We just sharpened the arrows and 5 seconds later had a perfect tip. The tips are plenty sharp, and could do some serious damage to a person, so some safety procedures have been put into place. The boys can only shoot with adult supervision. Our last challenge was a target. We found a pizza box in the recycling, and we stood it up on the ground. The bottom of the box had a small circle shape, so we had a perfect target at no cost. So far the boys have been having a blast. Even Mike and I tried shooting the bow, which was great fun.

Fun with Grandpa

My dad is here visiting after having to evacuate his house due to the flood in Iowa. We went to a local botanical gardens for the afternoon. It was a beautiful day (high 60's), although a little chilly when the sun went behind the clouds.

Parental Bragging Rights: Isaac

Round three and the last of the bragging rights here. Isaac received the top score on all the outcomes on his report card, and here are some comments from his teacher:

"Isaac is a great listener, has wonderful ideas to contribute during group time and uses his time wisely when working. He is very conscientious and enthusiastic about learning and seems to have a good attitude toward school. Isaac is a very cooperative, well mannered boy who is always kind to everyone. You can be proud of him. He continued throughout the year to make excellent progress both in reading and math. I look forward to hearing about all his accomplishments next year!"

Isaac was in an accelerated reading group this year in school. His scores on the Gates-MacGinitie Reading Test placed him above 99% of his peers in word decoding and above 94% in comprehension. His total score placed him above 99% of his peers.

Of coures these scores aren't the be all and end all of assessing someone, but I'm excited that they are reading a lot and understanding what they are reading.

Parental Bragging Rights: Avritt

I also believe in equal treatment, so here's the report from Avritt's teacher:

I am enjoying having Avritt in class this year! He is a good friend to his peers, and a very hard worker. Avritt puts his personal best effort into his work, and frequently raises his hand to participate in class discussions and share his ideas. He is respectful and considerate to his peers and adults at school, and is very responsible. Avritt has a great sense of humor, and is very clever. He is doing well in all areas of the language arts curriculum, and is a great reader and writer. Avritt continues to demonstrate an overall strong number sense in math. Avritt has done a phenomenal job in 4th grade this year. He is a great problem solver and thinker.

Avritt took the Gates-MacGinitie Reading Test, and received a national percentile rank (he scored better than that percent of national students) of 93 in vocab and 97 in comprehension. He is scored at grade 10.5 for vocab and Post High School for comprehension. His total was at grade 12.5.

The latest favorite book of his is called The Dangerous Book for Boys by Conn and Hal Iggulden. Here is the beginning of the introduction: "In this age of video games and cell phones, there must still be a place for knots, tree houses, and stories of incredible courage. The one thing that we always say about childhood is that we seemed to have more time back then. This book will help you recapture those SUnday afternoons and long summers--because they're still ong if you know how to look at them." The book includes how to make a bow and arrow, the five knots every boy should know, making a battery, the rules of soccer, understanding grammar, famous battles, spies - codes and ciphers, astronomy tidbits, making a paper water bomb (this worked quite well), sampling shakespeare, the navajo code talker's dictionary, skipping stones, a brief history of artillary, and more.

Parental Bragging Rights: Emily

OK, I try not to do this too often. I have no interest in being the mom who has the "My Kid is an Honor Roll Student" bumper sticker. However, when it comes to grade point average, I have an admitted weakness, so I am going to use this forum to brag about my kids. Emily achieved a 4.0, straight A average this year as a freshman in high school! She took two honors classes, Advanced Algebra 2 and Honors English. She worked hard in those classes and it paid off. Her exam grades were all 92% and higher. I am very proud of her so today we are celebrating. We're going to the mall so she can find a new bathing suit and some shorts.