New West Fest

Okay, here's my annual post about Asher and Micah performing with the Karate West demo team at New West Fest. Here's the group picture at the beginning:

They were missing three members but did fabulously...

I still haven't figured out how to load videos here, or I'd share the two that I took. :( (I may, actually, be looking to change blog hosts, as I also know that leaving comments here isn't working currently but haven't been able to sort it out.)

In any case, the weather was beautiful (unlike the last two years that were a bit wet) and everything went great. After the performance, this year, we skipped the food booths and went in search of actual food...which worked out better for us.  

Pending...

Whew. This past week has been a little bit full. I've shared some photos over on Facebook and am working on getting stuff up here. Really. In the meantime, I'll ask you to hang tight and remember that this is (some of) what my past week has involved:

THURSDAY: Asher's first day (ever) at CEC...Asher's weekly parkour session

FRIDAY: Asher to CEC...boys to karate and demo team practice

SATURDAY: met a friend at the gym...took boys to demo team practice...weekly chores...Asher's first experience with homework, lol

SUNDAY: Asher and Micah performing with the Karate West demo team at New West Fest

MONDAY: me to boot camp...Nathan leaving for a last minute business trip...it was also Nathan's birthday, btw (we may celebrate this weekend??)...started our homeschool year...Asher to CEC

TUESDAY: Micah started his First Lego League season with a four hour session with his team...Asher to CEC...homeschooling (with some extra to make up for knowing we wouldn't do any Wednesday)...met with Noah's roommate and his parents for dinner...finished all of Noah's packing and loaded most things up

WEDNESDAY: Nathan's plane was delayed and he didn't get home till about 1 am Wednesday morning...I went to boot camp...we loaded the last few things and headed for CSU to move Noah into his dorm...Nathan and Asher left after an early lunch altogether, to get Asher to CEC...Micah and I followed after going with Noah to the bookstore to collect his textbooks...boys to karate that night

THURSDAY: had a sprinkler repairman out to fix a leaking line (fortunately a simple fix)...homeschooling...took some last items up to Noah...picked up Asher from CEC...rescheduled Asher's weekly parkour so we could all go enjoy the Ram Welcome dinner and carnival

And now we're finishing up our homeschool week, Asher's home from CEC, we'll have karate and demo team practice later tonight, and we're *really* looking forward to the weekend and getting into a more routine routine. :)  

First day!

Asher started classes at CEC today! I took the opportunity to take first day of school pictures of all three boys. :) These were taken after we'd all gone out to breakfast in Old Town to celebrate the start of the school year, so they were happier than they had been earlier in the morning. (You can click on them to make the photos larger.)

Sniff. They're growing up. Just for comparison, here are their first day pictures from just two years ago:

And if you want to really go back in time, check out this first ever "group first day of school photo" from 2010:

And compare it to this year's group shot:

See?! They're getting so big!!

For the record, then, here's how this year looks:

MICAH will be homeschooling with me full time as an 8th grader. He'll be on a First Lego League team again and continues to do karate and karate demo team. We're still sorting out what else might be included in his year. We'll officially start our school year on Monday.

ASHER will be taking classes at CEC part time as a sophomore this year. He'll also be homeschooling with me part time. (I'll update our curriculum lists on the left sometime before the end of the month.) Meanwhile, he'll still do karate, karate demo team and parkour. He'll also get his driver's license later this fall.

And NOAH is off to CSU next week. He'll be listed as a freshman, though he has his Associates already so won't need to do most any of the general ed stuff. Classes start August 20.

That's it in a nutshell. Whew. I'll leave you with this small sample of the outtake photos I got this morning when I asked them to stand together and let me take a nice picture:

(This one (above) is because I said "get your heads closer together.")

And, in the end, this was my favorite:

Because it's genuine. :)

Yup. Those are my boys. They're growing up, but they're still mine. 

And now I need to wrap this up to go pick up Asher and find out how his first day went...

Fly Fishing Camp

Not sure how it got to be August already and definitely not ready for summer to be almost over. (Asher's high school classes start this week, our homeschooling year will start next week and Noah moves into his dorm next week with classes starting the week after that.)

Before it gets all school-y, though, I wanted to share some pictures from the day camp Asher attended last week. It was the Rocky Mountain Flycasters fly fishing day camp...six days of fly fishing, fly tying, and other fishing related activities and lessons. Asher went with a good friend...

One of the mornings, the 15 boys spent time at a couple of different fish hatcheries:

They also spent an afternoon doing a restoration project, helping to clear a trail:

And they got to help with some electro-shock collection and classification of fish:

(Asher enjoyed this part along with the time they got to spend snorkeling in the river.)

From my understanding, whenever the boys actually fished (which was pretty much every day), they each had a volunteer mentor to help them out. Here's Asher with his on one of the days:

And then they each received a certificate during their "graduation" ceremony up at Estes Park:

And now my boy has a lot more experience with fishing...and with day camps. :) And Micah got a taste of what days with Asher gone will be like. (Micah's not a fan, lol, as he and Asher spend most of their time together and Micah's already miffed about Noah leaving for college. Fortunately, Asher's only taking a few classes at CEC this coming year so will only be gone part of the afternoon and not all day.)

Thirteen

Happiest of birthdays to my youngest today!!

Yup, my Micah is officially a teenager. (And now I have three!) Here are the height progression pics:

(I didn't take pictures of all three boys because I don't figure any of them really grew that much since the start of the month when I took them for Asher's birthday, lol.)

As you can see, he's starting to sprout. :) Despite his own impatience and desire to be taller than me, he's still a smidge shorter but definitely on the way up. Before he gets all teenagery, though, here's a look back at a group of photos I put together on his fifth birthday (one photo from each year)...

And here's my boy yesterday:

Given our low key celebrations this year (and the fact that his birthday falls on a Monday when Nathan's at his Boulder office and Asher's off at a day camp), we did most of our celebrating yesterday...saw the new Mission Impossible movie and went out to lunch. Tonight there will be cookie cake and singing. :)

Yup, he's a little bit of an imp still...getting ready to start eighth grade (homeschooling still with me)...excited about the coming First Lego League season...still loving karate and demo team...anxious to be old enough for high school (he plans to attend CEC like his brothers)...sad that Noah's off to college soon...and just full of all the emotions involved in the growing up he's working on.