Breaking a board

Kat is breaking boards at TKD. Last night it was by kicking and today it was with an elbow snap. She looked a little proud of her first attempt.

Kat and her weapon

Kat's tae Kwon do had parents' night tonite. And it was free for us, except the weapon I bought her on amazon. The theme was nerf wars. There were at least 60 kids there, they divided them into teams (ages), painted their faces, tied on colored headbands and they were off! I think they had a ridiculous amount of fun.

We had to practice at home, make sure that she knew how to use it. She loved it.

The beauty of being an American!!!

Skiing. and wrestling

The video is Kat going down hill for the first time ever. You can get a sense of her bewilderment. She looks behind her....no one there helping nor telling her what to do. Then she changes direction slightly, which I think is impressive and instinctive. And then she heads for the people at the bottom of the rope tow with her arms out. You have to watch thru the end.... And then again and again.

I'm sure it doesn't reflect well on me well in any regard whatsoever, but I watch this video over and over on the loop and laugh till I cry. The two instructors wiping out the other kid on the rope tow (and kind of Kat, after the rescue), just kills me!! And her poor baffled run down the hill, back to where she started. Why wouldn't one return to where they started?

The second video is from Tae Kwon Do today, They do SUCH fun stuff. She is always a sweaty mess after class! The camera is shaking a little, as I was cracking up the whole time. She is the hungry badger and the instructor is the crocodile guarding his egg. I realize he wasn't giving it his all, but was still really impressed that she could roll him over, twice, no less (these guys are all muscle). The ending of this video kills me too. She trips when she's almost there, BUT lands on the ball and rolls away from him. She may have a future as a receiver.

Winter has arrived

This is today's snowstorm. And the snow dogs were loving it.
We went to Cheyenne's hockey game. She was the goalie in the white jersey. She had never played goal before and I suspect may never play it again. She was a real trooper.
The little ham. Being still for just a brief moment. Drinking my pop.
This is our 82 year old neighbor and his new hip, snowblowing our driveway.

You might see a little ham in and out of these videos......

Kat's new kitties?

There was text with this when I emailed it..... Anyway, when Kat got home from school yesterday she saw this box and asked "is this my new kitty?". I guess you can't blame her. She's still a rookie in some regards and while every adult would recognize that this is a 40lb box of kitty litter from a warehouse store, she just saw kitties on the box and assumed (hoped) that it was a kitty. Because they come in boxes? And she's been told that we will get kittens after Hermy dies. So the day after that, when she saw Hermy, she said 'Hermy, you didn't die yet." Oops.

Kat's newly decorated bedroom

This was Kat's room this summer after we added her bunk beds. I told her we could paint her room and make it hers (it was a little kids' room when we moved in- yellow with a cutesy border). What color did she want? Blue. Green. Purple. And Pink. Really? Not all one color? No. This wall pink. That wall purple...etc. She knew exactly what she wanted. I was silly to question her.

However, I picked out the paint alone, except the green. Since she was a rookie to the whole process, I figured I could get away with the paint just showing up and getting itself on the wall. And I did. This time. I am sure that I won't be so lucky next time.


And I did most of the painting while she was at school. But I saved the purple wall for her to help me paint. And she did. The same spot, over and over and over. It's more of a textured surface. And at point, Dan had to come in to see, cause he heard me say "get your feet off of the paint on the wall!" Things I never thought I would say.
She now has a really cool art desk with all sorts of art supplies, a fun rug for playing with her cars, and lots of cubbies and storage all over the place.
She also picked out the curtain colors. But the blue one was a navy blue, so we wound up with 2 purple (lilac) curtains.

Kat's first skiing lesson

Skiing anyone? Despite the lack of snow, not to mention wintry weather, Kat had her first ski lesson yesterday. She had fun and it went well. These are pics of the area.... the ridiculously muddy parking lot, the non-running chair lift with no snow underneath, etc.
Here she is. They use hula hoops to get the kids used to being up on skis. The pull them around with them. And they also use them to capture escapees who start heading downhill. When Kat was getting dragged around, the instructor said her skis had been well waxed, maybe even with racing wax! Awesome!






Kat did great, and most importantly had fun. Of course we were talking to our friend Dave and Whistler came up. We are trying to figure out of we can put together a trip. It's still under discussion and we are still waiting for more info before we decide when and where. If at all.

So far, this is Kat's favorite way to get down the hill!

Catching up. Xmas and stuff

Well, this is the fire that took place Wed night at our friend Bruce's building. Where Dan's new partner HAD her office. No one was hurt in the fire, and no one will be working in the building for the next couple of months (though damage was pretty isolated to one section). So, Dan has some new projects, as you can see in the picture below.
Yes, he has 4 computers on his desk. He and Nan bought new machines and he is installing software, encrypting them and getting the machines ready for work on Tuesday. They went out Saturday and found some office space for the next 6 months. And then started shopping, spending some insurance money.

On xmas morning. We gave Kat her own camera (she is always taking mine and taking pics of everyone and everything). And she also got the turtle night light that she requested from every santa that she saw (below).

Below is one of her creations when she is up before me in the morning. Those are 2 pieces of bread COVERED with jam. And I'm not sure that there isn't fluff under the jam. There is on one of the pieces. She couldn't open the PB jar, so couldn't complete her masterpiece. Too bad!!!

On another morning, she had set the dining room table for a breakfast party with her dolls and many pretend friends (actually they are all real friends, however, none of them were actually here that AM). The cuteness was overwhelming.