little dragon

Ben earned his yellow stripe belt in karate on Friday.  He knew all the positions and moves, and has shown self control.  As a yellow stripe belt he gets to be a leader in the class.  He is so proud, and we are so proud of him!

sunny february, snowy february

What a month!  We had beautiful sunshine early on, with trips to the park and playing in the yard.  Then... Wednesday night it started snowing, and didn't stop till Friday night.  We have never had so much snow in Corvallis- we measured 16" before the freezing rain started (I would find out if it is a real record if they would deliver a newspaper...).  Owen put in lots of sledding runs down the side of our house with Laurel and Richard.  Toys were unearthed and spread all over the house.  We played and played for four days.  One good thing about the timing was that we got to enjoy watching some Olympics.  Ben made flags for the opening ceremony.  And I updated the blog!  And it melted enough to make it out today to see the Lego Movie.  No school tomorrow...

ben kenobi turns five!

Ben turned five before returning to school.  His special treat was having a friend over for the day- Sterling came over and the two of them had a blast playing together.  Its really a giggle-fest.

Here's Ben's answers about himself at five:
What is your favorite color? green (it was blue when he was 4)
What is your favorite movie? Star Wars - the one where they go on Hoth
What is your favorite outfit? Wolverine costume
What sport do you like best? basketball
What song do you love? Star Wars theme song
Who is your best friend? Sterling
What do you want to be when you grow up? I don't know yet.  Maybe a ninja.
What is your favorite book? Wookie book that came with the Millennium Falcon
What are you really good at? playing basketball at school (we did not know this)
Where do you wish you could go on vacation? Seattle
What would you buy if you have $1000? Lego death star
What do you like to do best with your friends? Play basketball (really???)

The next weekend, we had Ben's Star Wars birthday party.  Almost all of his class came which meant our basement was completely full of 5 year olds and their parents, plus Laurel showed up looking like a mini Princess Lea.  Richard and I made stations for the kids to earn the rank of Jedi knight- build a droid (out of foam), learn to use a light saber by balancing a balloon on it, and "use the force" to move Luke's ship out of the swamp.  Owen ran the last station and was really good keeping the kids amazed at their Jedi powers.  When the kids all became Jedi's (about an hour ahead of schedule) they got to fight the Death Star pinata that Richard had made.  All the kids had a ton of fun, everyone got wacked thoroughly with the inflatable light sabers, and Ben was welcomed into his 5th year with style.

skiing in the new year

We rented a small house in Sun River for a couple of nights at the end of December and over New Year's eve.  Owen had been excited all December to get back out skiing, and Ben had been asking to take his first lesson.

We had an unusually warm and dry December and January, and there was limited snow on the mountain and no snow in Sun River.

Richard and Owen skiied the greens both days at Mt. Bachelor, and Owen got his "ski legs" back.  Ben took two days of lessons and throughly enjoyed both days.  It was a little hard to watch the second day, where he was more laying on the snow then skiing, but Ben had a blast and wants to go back.

Owen and Richard made it up to midnight on New Years- Ben tried hard but gave up 20 minutes early.  We drove back to Corvallis on New Years Day and prepped the house for Ben's birthday and back to school.

christmas

Christmas vacation was kicked off by a pair of performances by the boys.  Ben's class sang some Christmas classics, along with the ABC's of Christmas, where Ben recited a couplet about the letters G and X.  He memorized them well and did a great performance, along with the rest of his class.  Owen was a penguin in the classic Christmas Penguin pageant.  He sang beautifully and made a very handsome penguin.

Dad made it in time for the shows, and then for a trip up to Portland with the Muhly's to see Natalie King Cole sing with the Portland Orchestra.  We had time to walk around Portland a bit, and for Ben to sit on Santa's lap (where he asked for Lego Star Wars).  The concert was wonderful- and all but Ben made it to the end.  We spent the night next door at the Heathman, had a nice family breakfast, then spent the morning with the kids taking the Max around Portland.  We returned to Corvallis for our earlier than usual annual Christmas dinner and gift exchange with the Muhly's.  One of Ben's and everyone's favorite gifts was a Darth Vader mask from Grandpa.

The Muhly's flew to Hawaii for Christmas, but we stayed in Sunny Corvallis, where Richard and the boys made gingerbread cookies and prepared for Santa's arrival.

The boys had a wonderful Christmas day and subsequent days, discovering new toys and lots and lots of assembly.  Richard and I cooked beef burgandy and french onion soup for Christmas dinner, and I documented it with the iPhone fish eye lens Richard got for me.  Richard and I enjoyed our new Tragger grill and made some ribs with Dad to initiate it.

Time passed quickly as it always seems to while on vacation, and before long it was time to take my dad up to Portland to the airport.  We also made a stop at the Zoo Lights while we were up there- a first trip for us- and we were all amazed at the lights.