Since we are a karate family, we decided to have Nora’s birthday party at Bobby Lawrence Karate this year. She was so excited about it! And I have to say that I really got into it to. She invited all the girls from her class and a few other close friends. We gave out the cutest pink belts to all the girls. I went all out and found a really cute cake pattern and a karate pinata. Once again, Mr. Klekas was fantastic with the kids and all the girls had a great time. The entire party was a success!

Last night was promotion again at Bobby Lawrence Karate. All three of the kids promoted. Nora to a white with blue stripe, Emma to a green belt, and Ian to brown with an orange stripe. I was really proud of all of them!

Nora’s promotion was first. She was the only one promoting to a blue stripe, so she had to do her form all by herself. I was worried that she would be nervous, but she was awesome.

Ian and Emma had a combined promotion this time. It was a little bit crazy and there were tons of kids.

Emma did her form first:

And Ian performed his a little bit after her:

Then they both got their belts.

Then they did the belt ceremony. Ian was in the back of the room, so I couldn’t really see him. I just got some pictures of Emma.

Emma was really excited about her new belt. Can you tell?

It was a crazy and fun night at karate. I’m really proud of the dedication and hard work they have all put into karate.

Yesterday was the first day of school for Emma, Ian, and Nora. Everything went off without a hitch. Everyone was happy to go and they all seemed to like their teachers. Nora is in her last year of montessori and has Stevie for a teacher again this year. Ian is starting second grade with Ms. Hendrickson and Emma is starting fourth grade with Mrs. Jerome. Ms. Hendrickson plays hockey so Ian was really excited about that. Mrs. Jerome told Emma that her favorite things were art and reading and Emma was over the moon about that. I’m excited to see what this school year will bring.

The past few years Scott and I have really enjoyed watching the Tour de France bike race. So much so that I really missed it when it ended this year….I think I was having withdrawals.

To ease my symptoms we decided to go see the Tour of Utah, much of which was held in our home town this past week. It is known as the toughest stage race in the world, and after watching the riders this week, I can believe it.

Some of the worlds best bike riders were here for it including, Levi Leipheimer, Christian Van de Velde, George Hincape, Tejay Vangarderen and many others. After watching them on tv for the past few years it was a lot of fun to be able to see them in person.

We watched the opening prologue at the Utah Olympic Park and the sixth stage at the Utah capitol building. At the capitol we got to watch them come around 12 times, since it was a loop.

We furiously cheered for Levi to win each time he came around. Team Radio Shack really worked hard and ran themselves into the ground for Levi on the first 4-5 laps. They looked totally spent by the end, but they did what they needed to.

Today I watched the last stage on the internet and was thrilled to see Levi get the win. It was a really fun few days. I can’t wait to see it again next year.

Back in April, Ian lost his two front teeth!

Back in March I went on a weekend getaway with Emma and my mom. We went to California to visit Dreamworks Animation and to spend some time with my mom’s brother and sister. It was the first time I have traveled with Emma and left Ian and Nora at home. It was a really special trip.

We have a family friend who works as a storyboard artist for Dreamworks. Since Emma loves art and drawing, we thought it might be fun for her to visit and see what goes into some of the animated movies. We had a great day on the campus. We got to eat lunch in the employee cafeteria and see what a day looks like for an animator. Emma really enjoyed it.

I enjoyed it too, but my favorite part of the trip was just spending time with Emma. Having her just by herself made me see how grown up she is getting. Parenting didn’t feel like work at all….it was more like hanging out with one of my friends. Spending time alone with her showed me just how much she does for herself and how independent she is becoming.

I took a few pictures of her when we went to lunch at one of my favorite lunch spots: The Beachcomber

Last week I went out for a short mountain bike ride in the afternoon. I left the kids home with Scott. When I got back this is what I found:

All three of the kids decided to be Harry Potter with a mustache. Of course it was done with a permanent marker. Luckily it came off quite easily. Fun times with Dad!

Recently, Ian was given an assignment at school. He had to write two sentences using a noun, adjective, and a verb. For most first graders, this assignment would probably take about 5-10 minutes. For Ian, this can easily be an hour project. I started on the assignment with him. I helped him come up with a sentence and he started to write it. Then, I had to leave to take Emma and Nora to karate. I asked Scott to take over and help him with the second sentence. That is when everything fell apart. Ian just gave up and didn’t want to do the assignment. Every sentence that Scott suggested, Ian hated. Scott got frustrated and started teasing Ian and suggesting he write sentences about him crying. He just collapsed into a mess of screaming tears. Scott left him alone to finish the assignment. When he got back he didn’t find any sentences written, but he did find this card:

He also made this card:

When I got home Scott showed them to me and we both just laughed hysterically! He took so much more time to write this card than he would have to just write the sentence.

This is life with Ian!

I can’t believe how quickly Gus is growing! I took him outside to take a few photos of him today. As I looked over the photos I really saw how much bigger he is. You know how when you see someone everyday, you don’t really notice that they are changing or growing? i think it took these photos for me to really see it. I know he is still small, and someday I will look at these photos and think he looks tiny, but today, he looks like a giant to me!