Happy Halloween!

 

Obi Wan Kenobi and a very fierce ninja!

 

And after his beard grew out...

 

Happy Halloween!

LiveLaughLove

One of the things that makes Aaron and my relationship work is how much we love to make eachother laugh. We have tons of stupid inside jokes that date back to when we first met nine years ago. One joke has to do with a confusing license plate we saw one day - "LMEJAJS". I don't know what it's actually supposed to stand for, but we work it into our conversations at least monthly even now! We also like to come up with new ideas for "family businesses" that make no sense and have hilarious and ironic names - i.e. "Weave It To Beaver", a hair extension business! We also like to combine family business ideas to create the true "up north business" conglomeration, wherein the business owner just combines 3 things he or she is good at into a business. For example, "Junior's Cabinetry, Macaroni Salad & Screenprinting."

Aaron's latest attempt to make me laugh was pretty clever, and even scared me a little bit! I have a collage of family pictures in our master bedroom that I'm almost finished with.

 

 It still has a few open spots, and I even kept one of the stock photos of an Asian couple in one spot that Aaron likes to refer to as our "Asian relatives"! Well, I was getting ready for bed the other night, and happened to be facing the collage, when something seemed off to me. I looked a little more closely and saw THIS:

 

I may have screamed when I saw the photo on the right, and then died laughing at the naked couple on the left. Note: neither are relatives...! Sooooo funny. And the best part is that Aaron spent time looking for these pictures, printing them out, taking the collage apart, putting the pictures in, and then putting it back on the wall for me to find! I may just leave it like this for awhile! I love you, sweet. Thanks for always making me smile. 

Art For Art's Sake

 

Liam is such a creative kid. I just love seeing what his mind dreams up. This is a map of our neighborhood with a route for trick-or-treating! He and Max worked on it together before school this morning. They even included a map "legend" in which the color red outlines the route where a "grown up" is required...

 

He and Max also collaborated on this turkey project for Max's class. They cut pictures out of magazines and then glued them on the turkey. Seems pretty simple on the surface, but then I looked more closely. Liam carefully cut a portion of a picture out of his Highlights magazine to create the head and beak of the turkey. The white for the head is part of a picture of a girl's shirt and the yellow was part of a boy's shirt that Liam cut into a beak shape. That is just one piece of paper; it's not glued to look like that, he cut it in that shape himself! He then drew the blue dot for the eye...and I am speechless! I can't stop looking at it!

 

They also had various complete images cut out of magazines. I liked this glove that they glued to create a convincing tail feather...but that cigar may need to be removed before we send it off to school...!

Quick Notes

The boys have a new fascination with the show "Mythbusters", thanks to their father! They will choose this show on Netflix on their own almost as often as cartoons!

Liam likes to teach Max about math, and this morning he said, "Max, I'm going to be your private math tutor...ok?"

Max, trying to determine which Lego storage case is his, says "Hmmm...I BELIEVE this one is mine..."

Tae Kwon Do Masters

Liam and Aaron have started taking a Tae Kwon Do class together one day a week. It's really cute to see how excited they are about it, and to hear them practicing and giving eachother advice about kicks and punches! Liam even "teaches" Max proper form while they wait for the bus in the morning!

Last night was the first class they had been to in a few weeks due to Liam being sick with a cold. Aaron called when they were on their way home and said Liam had something to tell me, but he wanted to tell me when they got home. He bounced in excitedly and told me that he got to break his first board with a palm strike! He was the only kid to do it on the first try! I was so proud! I didn't get to break my first board until I tested for my first belt! Liam has taken 4 classes and already broken a board! Impressive!

 I'm happy he enjoys the class so much, and that he gets to spend quality time with his dad at the same time! (Aaron also broke his first board last night...and the board then fell on his instructor's toe and broke it...!)

The Civil War

Liam has a new fascination with the Civil War. Seems quite appropriate, considering his father's life-long love for it as well! Liam learned some facts about the war at school, and checked a giant "Smithsonian" book out about it from his school library. Since the day he checked it out, he's been making his "own Civil War book" by copying pictures of weapons, soldiers, canteens and cartridge boxes into a wide-ruled notebook. He even copies paragraphs that are interesting to him. I asked what his process was for finding things to draw and he said, "Oh, I just turn each page and see if there's something interesting." So, he's going through this 300+ page book, page-by-page! He says his favorite things he's learned about so far are the cannons.

I usually get home from work around 10pm, and the other night I found Liam still awake! He was working on his Civil War book and had books and papers spread out all over his bed! I knew he'd be tired in the morning...but it was too adorable to be angry about!

I love this smart kid! He says, "I want to be an author some day..." And I bet he will!