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The Boys With Their Matching Ornament Hats 21 December 2007

Posted by Obi-Mom Kenobi in Padawan Learner, Simplicity.
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Padawan Learner, Lando Calrissian, R2-D2 and C-3PO

We got together with Qui-Gon Jinn, Yoda and the boys after gymnastics this week. For Christmas, I made each of the boys a hat that looks like a Christmas ornament. You can kind of see the metallic top and loop on Lando’s hat, but I obviously should have stood a bit higher up to get a better shot. It was hard enough to keep them all in one spot, though, let alone pose them. Yoda was a little baking busy bee last weekend and brought us all goodies to take home. Qui-Gon Jinn crocheted us the most delicate snowflake ornaments and found us each a ceramic bird to hang in our Christmas trees. 

Our Dutch teacher was off to Florida to see her mom, aunts and uncles this week for a rare family reunion so we didn’t have a dutch lesson yesterday. This felt odd. I was happy to oblige, however, as this was the first time that her mom (The Netherlands), uncle (Florida), and two aunts (Australia) had seen each other in several years. This family has a unique and interesting history. All the kids were born and spent the majority of their childhoods in the Dutch colony of Indonesia (known at the time as the Netherlands East Indies), having a father in the Dutch military. During WWII, Indonesia was invaded by the Japanese so the mother and kids were forced to live in a Japanese concentration camp for the duration of WWII. The father was immediately pressed into duty as a POW and worked on the Death Railway of Burma among other things. The brother, in his early teens, was later pressed into service as younger and younger men were pulled from the camps to replace dead and dying POWs. Very fortunately, all members of this family survived the ordeal of forced labor and imprisonment and at the war’s end were transported to The Netherlands on merchant ships and troop carriers. My dutch teacher’s mom (12 at the time, I believe) snuck her Indonesian pet cat on-board, completely against regulations, and several months after arriving in their new home kittens with the stumped tail typical in Indonesia could be seen living in and around their neighborhood.

Frederik Meijer Gardens 7 December 2007

Posted by Obi-Mom Kenobi in Padawan Learner, Socialization.
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On Wednesday, Padawan Learner and I headed over to Frederik Meijer Gardens (after driving back home to pick up my wallet – duh – and filling up the car with gas as the low fuel light was on – doh). Yoda, Lando Calrissian, R2-D2, Qui-Gon Jinn and C-3PO were already there waiting for us. After perusing the international Christmas trees, we headed over to the holiday train and trolley exhibits. This was merely a prelude to the REAL show though, as Qui-Gon had arranged a behind the scenes tour of the train layouts with the resident train engineer (and rest of the year head botanist for the indoor gardens).

He was so wonderful. He showed us the controls, the maintenance and upkeep procedures and a couple other engines and trolleys that they swap in and out to keep a train running at all times. I was surprised to learn that over the course of the holiday season, the train – taking 4 minutes to make a loop – runs over 1,000 miles and completely wears out its sets of wheels and couplings.

Thanks to Yoda for the picture.

Well, well, well. How time flies. 2 November 2007

Posted by Obi-Mom Kenobi in Home Improvements, Padawan Learner, Socialization.
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These have been eventful weeks in our house. For all of you that have been concerned about the basement shower, you can rest easy knowing that it is in, functional and only needs the last little touch ups to make it picture perfect. Oh, and they installed the piping to the hot/cold nozzle backwards. Sigh. One last thing, huh? Dad Windu still needs to finish painting the ceiling, even out the floor next to the shower and put down tile next to the shower door. Hopefully, these things will be completed this weekend, but either way we are no longer trying to wash our hair in the bathtub so all is good in my book.

We pulled up a bit short on the Halloween ridiculousness this year. We hit the basics of course, pumpkin carving and Trick or Treating, but did little else.

I never did get a single Halloween decorations out, which is a huge shame because I love Halloween and have a few things that I drag out of storage only for October. Padawan Learner went as a Cereal Killer (picture below).

 

I didn’t get to sew the boy a costume this year, nor last year come to think of it. Maybe that part of my life is getting phased out. On Halloween morning, we headed out to assemble the costume (nothing like waiting until the last minute). We bought an orange shirt at the first store we went to, had to drive around for a while to find iron-on letters and couldn’t find orange pants for the life of us. He had already “improved” his oversized box of Cheerios. After his homeschool gymnastics class and a visit to the podiatrist, we headed over to Qui-Gonn Jinn’s house for some play time before dinner and Trick or Treating. Unfortunately, Yoda, Han Solo and their boys like to Trick or Treat in “their own neighborhood” but at least we got to see their costumes last weekend. C-3PL was quite ferocious looking in his Ninja costume, just so you know. Dad Windu met us at Qui-Gon Jinn’s after work, but decided to stop at home to divest himself of his Obi-Wan Kenobi costume first. I guess wearing it all day at work had been enough for him. Go figure.

The Boy Participating in a Little Pre-Game Kabitzing with Teammates 8 September 2007

Posted by Obi-Mom Kenobi in Padawan Learner, Socialization.
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After a mere two practices, today was The Boy’s first ever soccer game. He decided about a month ago that he wanted to take a break from poking strangers with metal sticks and was interested in giving soccer a try. While we were sad to see him leaving a sport he’s been involved in for so many years, we were glad to see him giving something new a try (and not unhappy to be able to take a break from the expense of fencing).

The Dad was especially interested in having The Boy try out one of his favorite sports, but was a little concerned about The Boy taking it up later than most players do. We looked around a bit and felt that AYSO was the best place for an “older” player to start out (most league players his age have been playing since they were 5 or 6), since AYSO’s primary goal is to teach the skills, teamwork and sportsmanship necessary for players to love the game for years to come.

While it was obvious that these kids were out to win, they were excellent at redirecting The Boy back to his position when needed, didn’t yell at each other about missing balls or screwing up. They were positive with each other no matter what happened, which is a great thing to see – especially from a crowd of 12 – 13 year old boys.

We were rather impressed to see The Boy get some nice footwork on the ball, fake out a rival player with a backwards kick, and run like mad out there. Several people in the stands were surprised to hear that he had never played before. He seems to have a preference for defensive positions, but he was also seriously butt-dragging tired when he switched to the forward position, so I guess we’ll see what he prefers down the road. Regardless, I’m pretty sure he’s going to sleep well tonight.

The Boy Turns 12 – The Mom Is Unprepared 10 July 2007

Posted by Obi-Mom Kenobi in Daily Living, Padawan Learner, Socialization.
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How did this happen? Geez, the time is really flying this summer. I can’t even keep up with pictures from The Boy’s birthday, let alone the other fun stuff that’s been happening around here!

Run Dad Run, Battle Creek and, more importantly, Arcadia Brewing Co. 21 June 2007

Posted by Obi-Mom Kenobi in Dad Windu, Obi-Mom Kenobi, Padawan Learner, Travel.
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A couple of weekends ago, Dad Windu ran in a local 5K race as part of his company’s wellness and promotional programs.

This is pretty unusual, considering that – unlike my friend Qui-Gon Jinn who likes to run and run and run and run some more – he hates to run. HATES to run. But it helps keep him healthy and he gets to be a team player, so everyone wins. Since they start these things so blasted early (9 a.m. on a Saturday morning people?), Padawan Learner wasn’t out of bed yet when Dad Windu left so we didn’t think PL Boy and I would be there to see it. But as luck would have it – or perhaps it was just poor planning – The Boy forgot to turn off his alarm clock and it woke him just a few minutes after Dad Windu left. It took a bit of hustling to get both of us dressed, quick breakfasts eaten and drive over to the start/finish line, but we got there just in time to hear the start and see a wall of people race by.
After staking out a spot on the curb, the first runners started to come by around 14 minutes later. Now, I don’t know about you, but I can’t even imagine being able to move that fast, for three miles, without mechanical gears somehow involved. A wee bit later, Dad Windu came by and PL, as is his habit, jumped in and ran along to finish with him. It may be hard to identify him among the others, but he’s the one in long pants and a long sleeve shirt – in a race – on a hot June morning.
After returning home, we got a call from our friend Mr. Sunday Morning Doughnut Buddy inviting us along on a mini-trip to Battle Creek for the Cereal Festival. Well, as it turns out, they actually hold this “Breakfast Cereal Festival” in the morning, starting around breakfast time, and not around 1 p.m. which is when we got there. His dear wife Mrs. Sunday Morning Doughnut Buddy suggested we head over to the Leila Arboretum to see the children’s garden. Well, that sounded nice, but before any further discussion could be made, Mr. SMDB said, “Ya know, Arcadia Brewing Company is right.over.there…” So there was really nothing else we could do but go in for a pint before heading off to the Children’s Garden.

Jango & Boba Fett, Mr. & Mrs. SMDB, PL and me

After trying out the Witsun (Mrs & I), the Cocoa Loco and the London Porter (the he-folk), and a round of soft drinks for the under-aged members of our group, we headed over to the Children’s Garden. Only to find out that it was closed for a wedding – a most unfortunately dressed wedding, by the way. We had already seen at least two other wedding parties out in the general gardens so, realizing that Battle Creek was apparently closed to our ilk, we headed back home. At least it was a beautiful day for a car ride.