Talents to Recognize

Torie's advertising skills -

Today she gave me a advertisement today that read: "Are you unhappy and need to get away? Then call Torie and Victoria's tippady tappaday toes. Number Do Dae Do Yell Fun in the Sun." So cute!

Aster's creative story line skills -

Today he put together little cartoons he made for YouTube that he made using a stick figure animation program. He makes these cartoons on paper all the time.

Kelsea's time-management skills -

Not only does she wake me up each morning like an alarm clock ("Dad! Time to wake up!"), today she presented me with a schedule of when I was to watch a program with her and at what time I was to study for my test.

The little ones need help

David

Expanding family

Jolina and Cocker (as in Spaniel)

Girls meet Amanda Borden

The girls met 1996 Gold Medalist Amanda Borden at their gymnastics meet. They each got their own mini-gold medals that day too.
 
David

My supermodel and her Webkinz

Supermodel Torie won't pose without bringing her "family" along. So all the Webkinz went surfing.   
 
David

Aster Takes 3rd Place, Loses to Girl

Aster won two out of three of his matches at the state jiujitsu tournament and took third place. He lost to a little girl with awesome skills. I think it was really good for Aster. He had no idea what hit him. Of the eight total competitors seven were boys and one was a girl. The little girl won first place! And she was all modest about it too.

Will it end?

This is what you get when you have two kids too close together in age. One tells on the other one, the other says he/she didn't do it, and then you hear the yes you dids and no I didn'ts over and over until someone ends up getting kicked or in a headlock. Advice?

Nice afternoon with Aiden and Eric

Summer and Ryan let us babysit Aiden and Eric today. Aster tried to be a skater. Kelsea hoolahooped and shot hoops.

Webkinz, give the hamster a chance...

If you have a daughter between the ages of 5 and 10, chances are she has a close relationship with her Webkinz. She probably cuddles it at night and then plays with a virtual version of the same "pet" online.

How can the hamster compete? Will it become a pet of the past? I think so. Why? Because Webkinz animals don't bite. They don't need cages. You don't need to clean out smelly droppings. The biggest drawback for my kids is that there's no digital video game benefits.

So I say to Webkinz, "Bring back the hamster, please." If you can sell my daughter a stuffed animal for $15 with a digital version of it online, then why not do the same thing with hamsters. And not just hamsters. Why not parakeets? Maybe kids should learn responsibility of caring for an actual living animal and be able to play with a virtual version of it online. Maybe Webkinz should give us back our smelly pet poop... or at least create a digital alternative.

My kid beats up another kid

"Hi Dad, I was in a fight today."

"What happened?"

"Don't worry. It was self-defense."

"How was it self-defense?"

"I was walking along with [BOY] and [BOY] and there was a kid making fun of us. He called us names. We started saying stuff back. He said he could beat us up. I said I could beat him up. I didn't want him to hit [BOY] so I got in front. He punched me. And we started fighting."

"What did you do to him?"

"I got him to the ground. I think his glasses were broken. He was crying."

"Are you sure it was self defense?"

"Yup."

"Aster, you're a trained ground fighter. I'm sure you knew you could beat him up. But don't let all that confidence go to your head. It doesn't matter if he started it. I think you could have probably done a little more to avoid a fight."

"But..."

"Listen. You can always fight. But it takes maturity to walk away. You don't need to prove anything. You're not a bully."

"Oh... [PAUSE] Dad, please don't tell Master Lopez about it."

"OK."

Jiujitsu champ

This is my son (he's had a haircut now) with his two senseis after winning first place at a jiujitsu tournament. He's gotten pretty darn good. We needed to have a little chat about what the difference was between "self-defense" and "showing off". David

Kelsea asleep

This is Kelsea asleep. She goes to bed before anyone tells her to. She wakes up when I finally drag her off her bed. She was very appreciative of the sleeping mask that I gave her so she could sleep anytime she wanted despite whether it was day or night. David

Torie on the rock wall

Torie has now made it to the top of all the self-belay routes at the rock wall at my gym. She was very proud. I made it explicitly clear that this doesn't mean she's grown up yet. She may be 8, but to me she's still the baby. David

Torie blowing bubbles

My youngest daughter can now blow bubbles. That leaves me as the only one in the family who can't. Life isn't fair. David

Aster vid

Pretty girls

Roaming the mall on heelies

Kelsea's birthday today!

Kelsea's birthday today. She turned 10! She had a slumber party, we had pizza and cake, and crepes for breakfast.

Kelsea Celebrates Her Birthday

Birthday slumber party at Despains' house on Dec. 21-22. Lots of
little girls running around with screeching high voices, cheese pizza,
chocolate birthday cake, Hannah Montana presents, Hairspray movie, and
stress for the parents.

David

Torie's Commercial

This was part of her book report on a Junie B Jones book

Seeing and feeding dolphins

Dolly the dolphin and all her friends entertained us with flips and
dancing. Then the kids fed them!