In the news

 Another appearance in the local paper!  This time, Rudy was showing off one of the new laptops the PTA purchased for the school.  The other kids are from Brady's classroom.

LegoFest

The LegoFest has been the talk of the town lately and our kids were thrilled to be a part of it.  Our session was from 3:00 to 7:30, but none of us actually expected to be there the whole time.  We were, and the kids would have been happy to spend even more time there!

Brady's favorite activity was the Lego buildings.  We got to build our own creations and then tell the Lego people where we wanted our buildings on the United States.  It's funny that this one small tweak made it such a novel experience.

Brady's two creations.  You can see them on the "map" in approximately Ohio and Oklahoma:

Rudy built a boat and a lake for the Florida peninsula:

They each had a turn driving the Technic R/C trucks:

Rudy's favorite stop was the car building and racing.  (This was also a favorite activity at LegoLand.)

MY favorite activity was the Hero Factory.  The boys have a few of these guys but don't play with them much, but this was unique because there was such a variety of parts you could use to build your hero.

Brady teamed up with some other kids in a building competition.  Their tower was the tallest, but it didn't survive its transport to the competition table.

Rudy's project for the art wall:

James and I brought a little Tribe Pride to the art mural:.

Glass blowing

The other part of our no-school-day adventure was to visit a glass-blowing shop in a nearby town.  The boys each got a chance to "blow" their own ornament.  (I'm glad I had a significant discount on it, because there really wasn't much that they could do!)  I think it was cool for them to get some idea of what Papa does in his hot shop though. 

      

Looking forward to summer camp!

We visited the summer camp the boys were thinking about attending and they were both SOLD!  There will be tons of outdoor activities and games and general summer camp fun.  They were both especially impressed with the clubhouse and its wide variety of critters, including this friendly snake.  

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Rudy basketball

This was Rudy's first basketball season.  I'm not sure whether he loved the sport, or loved having his daddy as coach!   Some Saturdays, he seemed really motivated to play hard...others, he was not quite as focused!  (His best game was actually against Ben's team; I think Rudy felt a little pressure that day!)

 

This video is a little long...you can skip to about the last 30 seconds to see Rudy score.

Cruise Photo Book

I promise I am going to get around to posting the cruise pictures!  Last week was all about getting back into our routine and I had a deadline to finish this photo book, since my free photo book coupons expire at midnight PST tonight!

Click here to view this photo book larger

Build your own high-quality photo books at Shutterfly.com.

FW: Chihuly and VMFA

The VA Museum of Fine Arts had a Chihuly exhibit for most of the winter.  When I emailed James the information about the several-month-long exhibit last fall, he jokingly replied "I'm busy that day."  That turned out to be a pretty accurate description.  The kids and I managed to squeeze in a visit on the last weekend of the exhibit!

The glass was, as always, amazing and stunning.  We're pretty spoiled though, and this was our third exposure to Chihuly glass; we saw an extensive exhibit in at the Desert Botanical Gardens as well as a lot of Chihuly pieces and glass art in general in Seattle.   The size of this exhibit just didn't compare, and it didn't take us long to walk through.  I don't think the boys noticed that aspect though; they were adequately impressed with what they saw.

We thought it was funny how so many of the pieces were wonky, but still considered almost-priceless art.  We told Papa he needs a better marketing team for his glass work!

These pieces together use all of the glass colors.  The inside and outside are different colors, with all different flecks incorporated.  Even the rim of each piece is a contrasting color.

Since we had made it through the Chihuly exhibit more quickly than I'd expected, we took some time to explore the rest of the VMFA.  We spent a lot of quality time mocking the modern "art".   So uncouth, I know.

The description for the piece below includes:  "Despite the wide gold frame and the vibrantly patterned background, this subject's stylish Sean Jean street wear and Timberland boots keep him firmly in the present and urban America." I do actually get the artistry and commentary of this piece, which is supposed to be critiquing how the "Old Master" paintings excluded people of color.   All I could think of when I saw it though?  That's something Tracey Jordan (from 30 Rock) would commission. 

This one, however, was too much of a stretch for me.  "This forty-part work was created by pressing individual felt-tipped pens onto blotting paper until the ink reservoirs emptied onto the page.  As vessels rather than drawing instruments, the pens are used in an unconventional manner that preserves their material purity."  HUH?  This is something you would yell at your toddler for doing with his marker collection, but it's art when it's framed an stuck on a museum wall.  

Like I said...uncouth.  I'm not sure the docents were impressed by our commentary.  

 

Of course, after all that culture...this may have been the best part of the whole night:  Hot Doughnuts Now!  Mmmm...warm Krispy Kreme doughnuts!