Fiesta

We had Elijah’s birthday party today. It was supposed to be at the park, but as of 3 am, when the rain and thunder woke me up, we decided to have it at the house instead. After rushing around to board Beau for the day, hanging up signs at the park letting people know where to go, and suddenly having to decorate the house…the fun began. Kids who were here last year somehow remembered the play room and headed straight there. Ethan and Luca (with just a little help from their dad) built E’s “Krusty Krab” lego building, which is pretty impressive.

After lunch, they headed outside, where it was dry enough for them to give our play set a good safety test (yes, it can handle 4 kids swinging, one on the slide, and another in the “house”). The only scary part was when Ella got a bit too close to Evil Knievel on the swing (a.k.a. Alex). The sting piñata wasn’t as fun as we hoped, as it was opened on the second pull. Actually, none of the kids complained, but then they were the ones showered with candy.

After the kiddies left, Cristina and Ronnie stayed to play the Wii. E beat the both of them at tennis (yeah, that’s right, one on two and he won) and then Carole and Cristina kept their streak unbroken by soundly beating Han and Ronnie at the Wii version of Cranium...twice.

Finally, E would like to give special thanks to Cristina for her “Gator” finger, as it’s proven a very useful tool around the house.

Elijah the 5 year-old!

Today is Elijah's birthday! He went to school for most of the day, then I went in around snack time to give out cup-cakes and goodie bags to the kids.

Then we came home early so E could have time to enjoy his birthday present...a new bike! He had no clue it was coming, the surprise was awesome! Thanks to Cristina for letting us store it at her house all this time :-)

Here's a little video of E riding...wait for the very end, it's the best part!

AND, we got a present from Grandpa Eric in the mail...the new Wii game Smarty Pants. We played it a couple times on "family mode", and it is tons of fun. At the end, we were treated to this little victory dance:

Busy Week!

Elijah had a Valentine's Day party at school, where he gave and received many cards and ate mucho candy. It's so cute see them sharing those little cards :-)

Carole's birthday was fun...a bunch of us had dinner and then went to the UF-LSU gym meet (where both teams did well, although UF came out the winner).

Then on Saturday, Elijah and Carole went to belt test, where E received his "white with an orange stripe" belt, and Carole tested for her green belt. Here's a little video of some of the action.

E's Belt Test

Today was E's test for his "white with an orange stripe" belt. He was the only one in his class testing today. He did very well on the exercises and kata and the written test! He'll be getting the actual belt on Saturday, during the main belt test.

February Birthday Madness Begins

February is full of birthdays! We missed Ethan's this year (off gallivanting in Costa Rica I believe), but Trevor started us off with a fun party at the park! E got to see tons of his friends from his old school, and all had a great time!

Jeff the Turtle

When we first got Jeff, he was about the size of a quarter. Now, over 2 years later, he has grown to be bigger than my hand and is a source of joy and entertainment for the whole family. He's fun to watch swim around, and he goes to the top of the tank and splashes with his "arms" when he wants food. He likes to sun himself on his litlte platform, and jumps down with a huge splash when we walk by and startle him. He also likes to go to the front of the tank and stare at us.

When Jeff was little, he got a couple of tank-mates...some goldfish. The goldfish were also small at the time and grew to be rather large. Jeff and the goldfish lived happily together. They would eat each other's food, swim around, and at times it seemed like Jeff was hugging them with his long arms. Sadly, both died recently due to old age. We have it a couple of weeks and went out to buy more, thinking Jeff might be lonely. The lady at the pet store steared us away from the bigger fish and suggested we get more gold fish. OK, so we got 4 and introducted them to Jeff.

We imagined Jeff was saying "hi there, welcome!" After we let them out of the bag, the fish swam around, explored, and Jeff seemed scared of them...swiming away. The fish spent much of their time checking out their own reflections on the side of the tank...all seemed fine....

Until we realized we only saw 3 fish in the tank a couple days later. Not a sign of fish #4. We though perhaps he died, as many goldfish do, due to being in a new environemnt. And Jeff, being efficient and helpful, "cleaned up" the mess. Then this morning, we noticed there were only 2 goldfish left in the tank. The two remaining goldfish were still staring at their own refelections. Suddenly, Jeff came up from behind and tried to take a bite of fish #1's back fin. Then they got a move on and swam away, only to be chased by Jeff all around the tank.

So, apparenlty, our sweet little Jeff has been eating his new friends. We immediately removed the remaining fish from the tank and will be returning them to the pet store. Clearly, he needs friends his own size who will not put up with being eaten.

None of this was shocking to E, who apparently has enough experience with large animals eating smaller ones to know this is the way things go in nature. Or at least at Seaworld, where fish are being devoured by Shamu and his family by the hand fulls.

Hoggetowne Medieval Faire

Today was the perfect day to visit Hoggetowne, the medieval wonderland that appears once a year. Cara came along to partake in the crafts, entertainment, and of course, feasting.

First, we rushed to the living chess match, where Ms. Moon, E's karate teacher, performed.


The whole thing was very entertaining, although E was distracted by just one single thought...the hunt for kettle corn. After we all found our favorite fair foods, we continued on to find the most beautiful "tree of life" necklace for me, owl pendant for Cara, and a sun pendant for E. Strangely, Han did not happen upon a necklace he wanted.

E then proceeded to try almost every game their was for little kids at the fair. He particularly enjoyed "Knacker Ball", "Leaping Lizards", and the kock down the castle game. On his very last turn at Leeaping Lizards, he catapulted a little fish onto a lily pad and scored a stuffed lizard of his own. Very exciting!













On our way out, we meet the King and Queen, where E was knighted and received a penant.