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Do you know about Odyssey of the Mind ? It was new to us this year, even though it's been around for 25+ yrs, some how this was the first I'd heard of it. This educational program challenges young minds to problem solve creatively while mastering the skill of team work. Kids take these skills and address a given problem in a competition first at a district level, then state, and world level. So we signed up Aidan to participate in this, he was in a group of 7 7-8 yr old kids from his school. With the help of parent volunteers, really angels, they spent several months in preparation for the tournament this past weekend. They practiced responding to spontaneous questions as a group, and worked diligently on their skit addressing the given problem. They demonstrated, fantastic thinking skills, creatively thinking outside of the box, and best of all managed to do this as a team. And although tournament day managed to be a long grueling day for some parents (yes that might be me),the day came with lots of rewards. Seeing Aidan beam with pride after the reward ceremony, showing me his medal, and knowing all the skills he attained from this experience, made it all worth it.

Ninja Love

Ninjago craze, if you're experiencing this or you know what it means, then I'm sure you'll appreciate these cupcakes. Miles and Liam recently went to a birthday party that had what seemed to be a zillion 4 and 5 yr old Ninjago crazed boys. So when the birthday boy's mom pulled out two towers of these clever ninjas cupcakes, the room was filled with hollers, "Wow!" "Awesome!" "Yay!" and one very happy birthday boy.

Food and Mood

This weekend I attended a cooking demo and lunch called "Eating the Right Food to Stay in a Good Mood" . I thought this might be something just worthwhile, and boy was I right. It was really quite informative and inspiring and the end results were delicious. Wish I had taken a photo of the fabulous lunch that was prepared, cilantro quinoa, radiant radicchio salad with an orange vinaigrette, kale chips, homemade hummus, and yabeba gomen seleta (Ethiopian cauliflower dish). For those of you who may not know, I am an extremely obnoxious picky eater so the fact that I enjoyed the meal speaks volumes. Beyond the lunch demo, I got to make my own mimita (Ethiopian spice mixture) and take it home for future use in the cutest little tin, ask lots of questions, and sit down and enjoy the company of 5 lovely women while enjoying a delicious meal. Thanks to Katya P Baxter, MBA, CNP that was the first step to improving my mood through eating.

Happy Valentines Day

Today the boys will be handing out handmade Valentines. They each did something different....Miles wanted to hand out lollipops, Liam heart shaped stones and Aidan these fun cell phones we made ( a sweet idea out of a Family Fun book). All in all, I helped make 88 Valentines. Phew! Glad that's over. The kids loved them, so that makes it all worth it.
Hoping you're all having a Happy Valentine's Day!
XOXO,
Kika

Student Council -The Beginning of His Political Career

You are looking at our future president. Aidan's class elected him for student council, Aidan is pretty excited about this and we're proud parents, even if it is only elementary school. Aidan has often said he either wants to be president or a video game designer. Although, I think both are fine ideas, of course I'd prefer him to be president. So, as far as I'm concerned, student council is the beginning of his political career (insert big grin here)!

Anatomy Of An Orca

Aidan's latest school project was marine mammals. All the 2nd graders were assigned a marine mammal, to sculpt, draw, write, paint etc. etc. whatever medium chosen. The projects would be presented in a Marine Mammal exhibition for the families viewing. Aidan was assigned Orcas. After some discussion we agreed to do a cut paper project and agreed that we also wanted to make the project informative so this is what we ended up with, 3 cut paper pictures describing 3 distinctive attributes of an Orca (killer whale). I cut the pictures out with some help from Aidan and we assembled it together using a shadow box to complete it. Clearly this 2nd graders project had much parental assistance. Aidan was really proud of it, as was I. During the exhibit there were lots of friendly commentary from parents about Aidan's project mixed with some sarcasm about how talented my 2nd grader is. Although it was amusing and all done in good humor, I have to say the big lesson to mom was let your kids do their own projects and assist only when necessary.

Walking School Bus

Aidan's school launched a monthly walk and roll day that will be held every first Friday of the month. Although we don't live walking distance to school we decided to have Aidan participate, with the incentive that the first 100 students to walk in got a free pedometer. I located the most convenient drop off spot for Aidan to pick up the walking school bus. This turned out to be about a mile away from the school. I thought it seemed a bit far for him as a first time walk, but what the heck, everyone else is doing it, he'll be fine. Well he made it. He got his free pedometer, ha! it's those little things that make it all worth it , right?! The kids all filled out a form that was hung at the entrance. The form stated their name and how they felt about their walk. As i was looking them over, they all said they felt happy, or good. Then, I came across Aidan's, which said "I felt exhausted!" and yes, he added the exclamation point. I had to laugh, wish I'd taken a photo of it...clearly the boy needs exercise. Thank goodness little league season is about to begin.

Derby Time

This was our first year participating in the cub scouts derby car races and boy was there lots of excitement about it. Miles and Liam got to participate in the siblings race (cub scouts are really good about including the entire family in their events).
They thought this was pretty special and were also given certificates after the races. The number one lesson we took away from this event is, the weight of your car really matters. There is a 5oz. limit that your car can not exceed. But the more your car weighs the faster it goes so trying to get as close to the limit as possible is important. An important lesson for next year.