Our Karate Kid!

Joey earned his white belt this week! He just started taking Tae Kwan Do lessons a couple of weeks ago, and the instructor likes them to learn their first "kata" before they are presented with their white belt.

He LOVES this class....more than any of the other dozen activities he does. I would have signed him up JUST so he could wear this outfit...ADORABLE!!!!

BEFORE.....

This is a photo of our dining room before....

AFTER!!!!

Yep...he did it...Tio actually cut a really large hole in our wall! It seemed remarkably easy to do, considering. Of course, that's coming from the person who just stood there watching while he did all of the work (oh, I did run the shop vac...so that counts as helping, right?)

This was the next step in our year long, epic kitchen remodel (well, we've only been working on it for about 4 months now, but I'm pretty sure it will be a year before we're all done). So far we've put in new tile flooring, had an island installed, and added a wall of cabinetry. Opening up this wall was a pretty big step towards the completion of the project, though. We've been planning to open these rooms up since we bought the house 3 years ago, and I can't believe we're making it happen!

Next step, new countertops, including putting a countertop on the half wall (see the stools lined up, that will be a snack bar-type area). After that we're going to cut a door to the garage (apparently in 1950 people didn't walk directly into their houses from their attached garages?), replace the window, and replace the appliances, and VOILA...one year later our kitchen will be done :) Stay tuned...

The MONEY Shot!

What's a party without a pinata? When I told the kids we were throwing a birthday party for Pappy, a pinata was their first request...so off we went to Party City to find a pinata that wasn't shaped like Dora the Explorer or Winnie the Pooh. We were looking for Homer Simpson, but apparently he's not too popular on the birthday scene (doh!) So we had to settle for Ben Franklin, here. The best part is it wasn't one of those wimpy pinatas where you each pull a string...I was told those are NO fun. No, we needed one we could whack....hard...with a bat!

The pinata held up pretty well, considering. Each kid got to have a turn, then Nick let loose his savage baseball skills & Ben was demolished. Unfortunately, the birthday boy didn't even get a turn! That's okay, I don't think Pappy was too disappointed!

Happy Birthday, Pappy!

Here they are...the grandkid crew! They are all ready to celebrate Pappy's birthday! I think this is the picture where we told them to "flex"... and you know Joey is always ready to show off his guns! It was great to have all of the kids together...Joey idolizes his big cousins, and Claire can't wait to see them again when they pass back through later this week. Michigan is just too far away!!!

5K

This is a shot of me running my first 5k in a looooooong time! I'm talking probably 15 years. Yikes...am I that old?!? Yes.

The course goes right past our house, so Tio took this pic as I ran past (that's my sister's car in the background). It's pretty amazing I could summon up a smile...at that point, there was only about a 1/2 mile left to go. I'm pretty pleased with my effort. My only goal was to run it in under 30 minutes, and my time ended up being 28:30...better than I expected! Who knows, this running thing may stick...only time will tell...

Balloon Rally

This is the view from our backyard at 7am Saturday morning. Cool, huh! What a great morning surprise. There was a hot air balloon rally this weekend in our town. They launched the balloons each day at 6am and 6pm. We went Friday night and saw the balloons take off.

I have to admit, a ride in a hot air balloon doesn't appeal to me too much. I mean, flames mixed with string, fabric, & wicker just sounds like a bad idea. But if you are brave enough, I can imagine the view from up there is worth it!