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.

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!

All three kids got new belts today! Nora became an orange stripe, Emma became an orange belt, and Ian became a green belt. I’m proud of all the hard work they have put into earning their new belts!

I snapped a quick photo with my phone this morning on Emma’s ninth birthday. She asked for a breakfast of chocolate chip pancakes and I served it on our family’s “birthday plate”. I can’t believe that she is nine.

Last night was the annual Christmas Mai Tai party at Kahana Village. Every year around the holidays they invite the hula girls to dance and Jeff sings and plays the guitar. This year they invited the kids to come up and dance too. I quickly ran home and got the video camera. It was dark and the video quality is not very good, but here you go.

As I was putting the kids to bed tonight, Emma asked to sleep with me. My gut reaction was that I really wanted to sleep alone tonight. I’ve had one of the kids in my bed every night since I got to Maui. Tonight they all had beds elsewhere and I thought I’d sleep alone. But then I thought about it a little more and I was happy that Emma wanted to sleep with me. Before I know it, I’m sure I will be wishing she still wanted to sleep with me. When I said “yes” she was over the moon.

I stayed up editing photos for a bit before I went to bed. When I got into bed I looked over at her and I had to get up and snap a photo of her.

Isn’t this adorable?

I posted about Emma’s book talk on “Harry Potter and the Chamber of Secrets” the other day.

I promised that I’d post the video when I got it.

Here you go!

Emma’s class is really devoted to reading. They have a silent reading period every day. They have beanbags and nice chairs to sit in. I remember doing that once in a great while when I was in elementary school–we called it a read-a-thon and I LOVED it! Emma gets to do that every day. They also have a dedicated period where the teacher reads to them everyday. They have finished quite a few books already. They also do numerous activities centered around the books they read–they dress up as the characters, they cook meals like they ate in the books, and act out parts of the stories. It is really wonderful!

Emma has always liked to read, but lately she has been LOVING reading. She started the Harry Potter books and I think that just pushed her over the edge. In a matter of weeks she has read hundreds of pages and is now on book 4. As part of the reading emphasis, the kids can sign up to do “book talk”. This is the equivalent of book reports from when I was in school, only the kids are much more into it and much more involved. They aren’t required to do them. If you want to do it, you just find a time slot and sign up. You can ready any book you want.

Emma has done one already. Last time she made a poster and talked about the book. This time she really went all out. She did her talk on “Harry Potter and the Chamber of Secrets”. She made an amazing poster. She drew each of the characters from the book. I seriously don’t think I could have drawn as well as she did! Then she decided she wanted to dress up as Hermione Granger. Since she has been so into Harry Potter, I decided to order her a nice costume. It came just in time and Emma was thrilled! She couldn’t wait to get to school today so she could do the presentation.

It sounds like it all went well. Emma was happy with it and she said the class LOVED her costume. I’m proud of her that she worked so hard on it! I didn’t get any photos of her, but her teacher did. She also videoed the presentation. As soon as I get it, I will post it here.

I am so happy that Emma is so excited about school. I feel so incredibly lucky that she has such an amazing teacher. I can’t wait to see what the rest of the year will bring for Emma in 3rd grade!