What, are you yella'? (Week 30)

Yellow belt that is. Yes, much pride is afoot in our house. Leif and Hannah's dojo had it's seasonal gassuku (aikido training intensive and belt challenge) this week. They spend about 4 hours together, learning new moves, practicing old ones, playing outside and in. Then they test for the next level. Hannah has a yellow stripe on her belt tip now, which signifies that she has attended the gassuku, and is working on her yellow belt. Leif passed his belt test and now is a yellow belt. They are both very proud of themselves. We are too!



Also this week they both had their soccer tourney that marks the end of soccer season (why on earth we have soccer in the winter, while the rest of the country has it in the spring, I'll never understand). They got little trophies with their names on them, and they now adorn our simple springtime mantle.



We've had this website on often this week. It is an owl-cam in an owl nesting box up in a tree, in california. We watched the owl eat some so of meal, we guess a squirrel, and we saw one owlet and three eggs as-yet unhatched. Pretty dang cool huh?

We have also all been having a lot of fun with this way cool music site. You click on the little squares and it creates tones in a repeating rhythm. Then you can alter it, unclick some, add some others . . . even Ivy's grooving on it. It's provided hours of creative musical output for all of us.

Speaking of winding things up, the drop-in ice hockey sessions stopped this week as well. It is so cool to see how far they both have come since November. They are quick and confident, and fall with smiles and without getting discouraged. Too bad the rink will now sit empty all summer.

We've gotten back to reading our Ramona Quimby novel. The kids really like hearing about the hijinks of Ramona as told from the perspective of her older sister Beezus. I remember reading all her books as a kid, and look forward to sharing all of them with the kids over the coming months.

We came up with a great April Fools Day prank this year. Since we're renovating our bathroom, and we have all the fixtures piled up in the yard (pretty huh?) we decided to go set up an outdoor toilet in Kit's business parter's back yard. We took the toilet, some TP, the plunger and a magazine, and it was waiting for him when he came home from work. Nice huh?



Sadly, we end on a grim note. This week, late one night, a ravenous raccoon gobbled up all of our pond goldfish. We found severed bodies and guts all over the property. We're working on a fiting remembrance ceremony. I'll keep you posted. Poor fishies.

C