My First Karate Test (and Little Robby's 6th)

Well, we had another big day for karate testing. Little Robby is moving up the ranks to purple belt white stripe, and I am finally moving on to something other than white (in this case yellow). Jenna has been watching class on the side lines for a little while now, and I think she really wants her pink belt! Below you can watch and see how we did:

Little Robby performing his forms, as well as a little bonus footage.

And now, look out world, it's Karate Mama in action! Hi-ya!

Packed and ready for school

Monday was Little Robby's first day at his new school. Despite the fact that we had gotten to bed the night before a little later than planned, both Jenna and Little Robby got up early! Much earlier than I had hoped. Jenna came to arouse us at 5:40am (so much for my rest) and then we heard Little Robby up and about around 6am. The excitement of the beginning of school was too much for him! I almost think that he anticipates the first day of school with the same level of excitement as Christmas. I am certain that Little Robby's excitement rubbed off on Jenna because she was following Little Robby around wanting to do everything that Brother did, including wear a backpack (which they both paraded around with for the last half an hour before we left for school!)

Here they are ready for school!

Backpacks are loaded and ready to go!

Jenna didn't want to put down her backpack, and she insisted that she have it with her in the car on the way to the school. When we arrived at the school, we all went in to get Robby's schedule and see him off to his first class (since the school is brand new this year then we were still finding out information the first day.) Jenna was so happy marching around the school with her backpack just like all of the big kids. When we walked into Little Robby's classroom she went and sat down in one of the chairs just like she belonged. We had to coax her to leave the classroom, and then as we were about to walk out of the building, she threw a fit! She wasn't about to leave the school. As far as she was concerned, she was going to school, too! Dad managed to convince her to leave by telling her she was going to go to "Mommy School."

I think she thought that we were going to go to a special place, somewhere other than home. Boy, was she disappointed! Then things got worse when Daddy left for school also. After he was gone she questioned, "Where's Daddy?"

"He's at school, sweetie." I replied.

"Where's Robby?" she then asked.

"He's at school, too, sweetheart."

"Noooooooooo! Waaaaaaaaaaaahhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhh!"

Yes, she wailed... and wailed... and wailed! She wanted to go to school, too! Poor kid.

Luckily, she has come to accept the situation over the last few days and we are past the wailing, although I am sure she still wants to go to the magical land of school just like everyone else!

Summer Vacation 2007: Petrified Forest National Park

Now let me catch you up on the end of our vacation. On our drive home, our last stop was to see the Petrified National Forest and Painted Desert in northeastern Arizona. I must say that I thought this was going to be a little more spectacular. It was one of those places that you can see once and be satisfied that you have "been there, done that." Unfortunately, the petrified rocks at the park have been plundered over the years, and most of the original petrified wood has been removed. I think things would have been more impressive if we had seen it decades ago before people had walked off with so many samples. One interesting thing I learned there was that petrified wood found in every state. Let me get on to the pics...

Here we have Little Robby and Jenna posing in front of the painted desert. It was really neat seeing the variety of colors in the landscape here. These pictures don't do it justice.

While there we got to see some pictographs from the people that dwelt in the area hundreds years before. We liked this one... A large bird carrying a baby (or is it a man.) We wondered was this a stork bringing a baby, or did someone lose a baby to a large bird. Or, did some big brother wish that his baby sister was snatched by a big bird and taken away. Okay, maybe not the third idea.

Robby liked the colors at this particular lookout called the Blue Mesa. Although things look grey in this picture they really weren't that grey. They did have some bluish tones.

Here we are sitting in front of "Old Faithful," the largest petrified tree in the park.

And lastly, Jenna is standing in front of a large polished piece of petrified wood. It is neat seeing all of the colors that come out in the the rocks.

Summer Vacation 2007: A trip to the Fort Worth Science Museum

On our last day in Texas Robby found out about an exhibit at the science museum in Fort Worth that was all about the making of the Star Wars movies. Since Little Robby is a huge Star Wars Lego fan we knew he would think that it was totally awesome. And we were right! We also had the fun of going to the museum with Logan, Wendy, Molly, and baby Will.

Robby and Uncle Logan are standing by their mag-lev Lego cars. Some parts of the exhibit were about how some of the technology ideas used in Star Wars are actually used today. This one was all about using legos and magnets to create a car that levitated and moved by magnetism.
Aunt Wendy had to help Jenna remove her thumb so we could see her smile.

Jenna enjoyed listening to the voice talking in the audible exhibit reader. (They were for the visually impaired so that they could have a voice read the exhibit explanations.)

Many of models that we saw in the exhibit were actually used in making the films. This X-wing was one of Little Robby's favorites, especially since he has his own Legos X-wing at home.

We are standing in front of the Millenium Falcon. It was really cool seeing the details the creators put into the models. (This lego set would be the ulitmate for Little Robby, but he'll have to save up his money till he's an adult for it since a Millenium Falcon set cost $500!)

One thing I didn't realize about wookies was that they were 2 meters tall! And here's our favorite wookie, Chewbacca!

One of the later parts of the exhibit let the kids build their own robot and then give it a simple program to tell it where to go. Little Robby thought this was cool because the concept was exactly like his Lego Mindstorms set.

Jenna wanted part in the building fun too!

And lastly, we have a trip to the pretend grocery store. When we first arrived Jenna was determined to stuff her basket full of produce.

She worked hard place each produce item she found into her basket.

She was so thorough that she almost cleaned the produce shelves off single-handedly.

But, what I liked best was the item she balanced carefully on the top of all of her healthy produce! It's okay to eat some, but only after you have your vegetables!