I am being have!

Football fanatics

2015-06-01T04:26:00.000-04:00

I'm overscheduled and crunched for time, which somehow means I'm more efficient and trying to do more.

Like staying on top of photos and posting here.

A couple quick photos from Finn's latest sport adventure: flag football. He just wrapped up soccer, and is down to one more week of football. They play two short games each Sunday, and the boy unfortunately has missed 2 1/2 weekends (sprained finger, stomach bug, and tickets to Julius Caesar).

He really loves to play this game, which makes it more fun for us. He's playing wide receiver and quarterback. Today he scored a touchdown in a 6-6 tie game, and was absolutely beaming.

I'm not sure when it happened, but he's become a huge football fan. Perhaps because football has become a nearly year-round thing here, thanks to arena football. I was skeptical, but splurging on season tickets for arena football seems to have been worth it. Finn and Calvin are hardcore fans: At the last game, Calvin caught a game ball (several players signed it, and he slept with it for a few nights) and Finn, who has become a JumboTron regular (that's what going to games is all about – getting on the big screen, right?), has a cameo in the team anthem video. I still can't quite wrap my head around arena football, but they love it.

Meanwhile, we're almost done with the school year. We're sprinting through the last 9 days, with a million things to help out with: a concert, a publishing party, baking bread in two classes, helping with two park parties ... but the highlight, certainly, is Calvin's moving on ceremony next week. He's moving on to middle school next year, whether we're ready or not. We have a little bit of camp this summer, but mostly the boys plan to ride scooters, sleep in the treehouse, and play Minecraft.

Because they can't get enough football

2015-03-26T08:00:00.000-04:00

The boys have had so much fun at the San Jose SaberCats arena football games that we treated them to season tickets this year.

I need to point out that in the past we've often walked into the stadium FOR FREE because they're so desperate to get butts in chairs that someone is always giving away tickets outside. But with season tickets, the boys get premium seats in the end zone, so there's that. And there's an annual barbecue with the team, which was held last weekend at a new bar in San Jose that's centered on video games.

So the boys completely ignored the players around them:

Until one of the offensive linemen joined in and totally schooled them in Super Smash Bros.:

Once we coaxed them to put the controllers down, Finn and Calvin brought their football around to gather signatures, including that of Jason Stewart, who is our favorite player because his name rhymes with Mason Stewart:

First home game is next week. You might want to buy stock in green and yellow temporary hair dye.

Soccer season

2015-03-25T15:44:00.003-04:00

eager to be in the center of the action

what form!

It's solidly spring here, and we're three weeks into soccer season. (No baseball this year!)

To Finn's delight, his teammates voted to name themselves the Seahawks — that's his favorite team. Doug is taking advantage of his lightened-up schedule these days to coach the team. He has several years of experience coaching baseball, and as he hoped that experience more than makes up for his lack of expertise in soccer.

The team is off to a great start: They have a 2-1 record, and we're especially happy to see how well they play together. They're supportive of each other and very engaged, and they look like they're having a blast on the field.

Not a bad way to spend springtime Saturdays...

making fun of coach

Book geeks

2014-10-09T11:27:00.000-04:00

I've been so backlogged with photos, I haven't posted in ages!

The boys are off to a great start this year in school. For 5th grade, Calvin has the same great teacher he had last year and has been especially interested in the work they've been doing on maps and U.S. geography and on cells.

Finn really likes his 2nd grade teacher (I do too) and has been very focused on writing neatly and, lately, using descriptive language in his writing. He's very proud of how he's doing in reading and math; I'm just happy to see he's finally discovered books without a lot of pictures have redeeming value.

Outside of school, they're both enjoying new activities. Calvin joined a swim team and has been making great improvement with regular lessons. He still has some skills to build before he should enter a meet, but he can compete if and when he wants to — he says he wants to win a medal.

Finn is very busy with both fall baseball and soccer through this month. Baseball is especially intensive, with two long practices and a game each week, but he's holding up well.

With author/illustrator Katherine Roy

Shark cupcakes!

I'll try to get some other pictures up, but I had these quick ones from last night: Finn was jealous that Calvin got to a book signing with his teacher (Aaron Becker, who made the beautiful Quest and Journey books), so he said he wanted to go to a signing too.

So yesterday he went to his first signing, a book launch party for Neighborhood Sharks. The author grew up in the area, and wrote about the sharks who thrive just off the coast of the Bay Area.

Finn loved it: He parked himself in the front row and helped the author measure out the length of a shark, asked a great question ("Why do humans hunt sharks but sharks don't hunt humans?"), and picked up an extra book for his classroom. It was a very late night, but so worth it. (The shark fin cupcakes were a nice bonus.)

I never thought going to book signings would become a hobby, but I'm happy to encourage them.

Back to school

2014-09-18T14:08:00.000-04:00

Right after vacation, another school year got underway. We're in week 3, and things seem to be going well so far. Devon started 3rd grade, and it was an easy transition back. Only one of his friends is in his class, but he's worked out a schedule for when he sees everyone, and he's feeling like he gets good time with all his favorite people (playing with one at the before school program, a different group at recess, and others after school). He seems to like his teacher, and usually says that he had an awesome day. Homework ramped up, which is a bit of an adjustment for him, but we're developing some strategies for coping with that.

Rylee was super excited to start kindergarten. She requested some Spanish games to play at home to help her practice, and she has been spending lots of time trying to brush up on her vocabulary. She's mastered colors, basic greetings, shapes, and counting to 50. She adjusted well to the new school, and the before/after school program. She comes home exhausted every day, but happy. She's working on making new friends, and really likes her new teacher.

We're back in our full schedule of activities as well. Both kids continued with swim lessons into the fall. Devon's doing Taekwondo twice a week. He has a new instructor - which was a surprise - but his new Grand Master seems really good so far, and I think will be more effective in helping Devon improve his skills. Rylee starts her next series of ice skating classes in a few weeks, keeping her on track to reaching her Olympic goals. Both kids joined the school's chess club - Devon's been involved since kindergarten, and I'll be back for my third year as a parent helper. The chess club is wildly popular, with almost 200 of the school's 750 students participating, so they always need lots of grown up support.

So far, we're off to a good start!

First day of school! Rylee is showing off her new mermaid back pack, of which she is very proud!

Back to school themed treat made by Grandma Lea with help from Rylee

Florida vacation part 4 - driving home

2014-09-08T23:20:00.001-04:00

OK, here's the last bit from vacation...only a few more photos to go.

After leaving Saint Augustine, we made the three-day journey back to Minnesota. Our first stop took us to Tybee Island, GA, right outside Savannah. We went on a dolphin cruise, and saw a number of dolphins playing in the water alongside the boat. It was a gorgeous day and the kids both enjoyed the boat ride. Unfortunately, my camera battery died, so I didn't get any good dolphin photos.

Waiting to board our dolphin cruise. This dock extended over a marshy area, which was crawling with teeny little crabs. This is a picture of my kids emulating said crabs. Devon is having more fun than he looks, but didn't think that crabs would smile for their photos.

Devon and Scott looking for dolphins

Our final stop was the Great Smoky Mountains National Park. We took a nice walk in the woods, visited a historical farm, played in a brook (very reminiscent of New England!), and enjoyed the lovely scenery.

OK, that's it for photos!

All in all, it was a great getaway. Scott and I managed to "unplug" almost completely - a much needed break. And the kids were awesome. I've always enjoyed traveling with them, but a two-week road trip was a new experience for them. I was very impressed with them over the trip. They easily negotiated priorities for our time. They handled the long car ride amazingly well - they read, and played games, and colored. They tried new things. There was a complete absence of drama, fights, or melt-downs. It was really wonderful time together, and I'm glad we were able to get away!

Florida vacation part 3 - the other good stuff

2014-09-08T22:44:00.002-04:00

Here are a few more photos from our Florida getaway. We didn't spend all of our time at the big theme parks. Our resort had two fun swimming pools, with a water slide and a splash area, and we spent a few hours each day in the pool. The kids were great at knowing when they were ready to leave the parks, and head back for a swim. Scott and I swam with them every day, and had a great time cooling off and playing.

The resort also had a mini-golf course, and we managed to play there twice during our stay.

The resort also featured lots of daily entertainment. We had planned on taking advantage of more of it - they had a luau night that I thought the kids would enjoy, as well as evening smores - but we skipped most of it. We did make it to a magic show one night, which was a lot of fun. Both kids were selected as volunteers. Rylee jumped up and down in the front row until the poor magician had to call on her. She very much enjoyed being the center of attention, of course. Devon was also selected, and he went up, along with two boys that he became friends with during our daily swims. Devon's act was the finale, which involved laying him on his back on some folding chairs, covering him with a towel, tying balloons to his feet, and then levitating him by removing the chairs. He's not sure how the trick worked. I don't have a great photo of that unfortunately, but Devon was pretty excited about it.

Here's Rylee though, posing with her new best friend the magician.

We spent the last two days of the trip in Saint Augustine. We visited the Saint Augustine Alligator Farm, played at the beach, and climbed to the top of the local lighthouse. Here are some photos from our time in Saint Augustine.

Florida vacation part 2 - the theme parks

2014-09-01T15:45:00.001-04:00

Here's the second installment of Holm-Hansen vacation photos. Traveling to Florida with a 5-year-old and an 8-year-old pretty much comes with a mandate to visit theme parks. The kids were in charge of planning. I set them up with some links to various parks, and they carefully reviewed their options and identified their top choices.

The first day was spent at Sea World. I debated this one a bit, caught up in all of the debate about the ethical issues associated with orca captivity and performances. I don't disagree with these concerns, but I also knew how much my kids would enjoy the park and the shows (which I have fond memories of from my younger days). Ultimately, we talked it over as a family, including Devon and Rylee. We talked a bit about the ethics of it, and decided to go but to also dedicate our next monthly "family giving project" to helping an ocean animal conservation or release program.

The kids did really love the park, and got to experience some of the typical fun, such as getting soaked at the orca show. They loved watching some animals they had not previously seen, such as manatees and beluga whales. The beluga whales were part of an Arctic exhibit that Rylee enjoyed so much she has requested that our vacation next year be to the Arctic. I'm thinking probably not.

The orca show

I'm already trying to figure out how to make these hanging plants for next year

The obligatory photo with the orca topiary

Disney World was on the must-do list for the kids (and for their mom). We spent two days there. The kids loved the rides of course, and it was fun for them to compare Disney World to their experience last summer with Disney Land. Besides the size difference, there were other surprises. Disney Land has retained some old classics that have disappeared from Disney World - such as the Nemo submarine ride and Mr. Toad's Wild Ride. The weather was more comfortable in California as well. For both of our Disney days (and most other days as well), the temperature was in the low 100's. We'd head to the park in the morning, but would leave mid-afternoon to rest and swim. If you ask them now what they liked best about Florida, both kids eagerly focus on Disney World. However, their feelings at the time were summed up in Devon's postcard to Aunt Megan, which said something like "Florida is hot. Disney World is so hot. Love, Devon."

Rylee impressed us with her bravery. She had no fear and gleefully went on any ride she could. She went through the Haunted Mansion, which she was afraid to try last summer. Both kids loved the Thunder Mountain roller coaster and Pirates of the Caribbean. Rylee also decided to try Space Mountain, and ended up going on that twice. I was pretty impressed, given that I was a teenager before I was brave enough to try it!

A highlight for Devon was the Monsters Inc. Laugh Floor, an interactive comedy show featuring the characters from the Monsters Inc. movies. During the show, animated monsters interacted with a small number of audience members to tell jokes. Devon was surprised (and delighted!) to be one of these audience members. He was the only child picked, and had by the far the longest role in the show. He's usually pretty shy about being the center of attention, but he absolutely loved this experience and it's one of his best memories from the trip.

The obligatory photo of the family in front of the Disney castle

And the obligatory photo with Mickey and Minnie

Devon absolutely refused to sit through the Enchanted Tiki Room show after enduring it last year at Disney Land, but he was willing to pose with one of the tiki sculptures

Aargghh...my Pirates of the Caribbean

It's a bit fuzzy, but this is Devon telling jokes with the animated monster during the Laugh Floor comedy show

We spent one day at Legoland, obviously a Lego-themed park. The park is meant for smaller children, so was a good fit for my Lego-loving children. Scott and I loved it less. Many of the rides were sized to fit only children, so we spent more time waiting around in the hot sun for them to go on rides. It was a fine day, but I'm not too disappointed that my kids will probably have outgrown this park if we go back to Florida again when they're older.

At the Legoland entrance

Driving a boat in Lego city

And learning to drive cars too...both kids were excited to earn fake Driver's Licenses. We thought they knew we were kidding when we offered to let them drive back to the hotel, but there were some real tears when we made them get out of the driver's seat. They had planned to have Devon steer while Rylee knelt on the ground and pushed the pedals.

Channeling the Stewarts...my children developed an interest on this trip in pretending to run in terror from inanimate objects

Finally, we spent one day each at two other Disney parks, Animal Kingdom and Hollywood Studios. We liked Animal Kingdom a lot. Both kids enjoyed the animal focus, seeing a number of interesting animals on display. They also enjoyed stopping at stations throughout the park to earn their "Wilderness Explorer" badges in areas such as animal calling and insects. They also liked the rides in this park a lot, including a big Yeti-themed roller coaster and a raging river rapids ride. Hollywood Studios was pretty fun, too. Some of their favorite California rides were here (Midway Mania and Star Tours), and we got to watch some of the Jedi training.

Gorillas at Animal Kingdom

Devon on the Star Wars thingy...Scott would be ashamed that I don't know what it's called

Rylee clutching her new Elsa doll in front of Olaf the snowman, both characters from her current favorite movie, "Frozen"

Hippos spotted during our "African safari" at Animal Kingdom

What Rylee looked like after going on the raging river rapids ride

OK, that's it for big theme parks. There was lots of non-theme park fun as well. Stay tuned for the next installment. Again, sorry if I'm overdoing it. :-)

Florida vacation part 1 - driving to Florida

2014-09-01T02:05:00.000-04:00

The Holm-Hansen's are back from our two-week end-of-summer getaway. We crammed in lots of adventures, and took lots of pictures, so I'll spread out updates over a few posts. I'm having trouble choosing a few best ones, so I apologize if this is too much information.

We've been planning our vacation for a few months. In the spring, I asked Devon and Rylee to each suggest their top three "vacation wishes." Devon's were somewhat coherent, as he wished for visits to Florida, Disney World, and the Harry Potter World at Universal Studios, Orlando. Rylee's three wishes were to see the ocean, climb a very tall tree, and help sick or injured animals, especially deer or chicks. Little trickier, there. We ended up choosing Florida, and Rylee eagerly got on board with that. We skipped Harry Potter World, thinking that it might be better when the kids are a little bit older. I also failed in my effort to find a good animal rescue for us to attend (an elephant sanctuary in Tennessee looked promising, but is not actually open for the public). We nixed the tree climbing altogether.

Scott's preference was to drive, so we made it a full two weeks adventure. This post highlights our adventures on the way to Florida. We spread the drive out over three days, making a variety of stops along the way.

A silly first stop - we saw that the Future Birthplace of Captain Kirk (of Star Trek fame) was on our route, and we decided this would be a good stop for a breakfast picnic

We also made a brief stop in Chesterfield, MO to see (and climb on) this cool giant statue.

Our main stop the first day was Saint Louis. We first visited the City Museum, which is a very cool museum to visit. The museum is housed in an old shoe factory, and it is built/decorated with a wide variety of salvaged and recycled materials. The whole place is decorated with cool mosaics and other artistic features. Everywhere you look, there are tunnels and slides and caves, etc. It was pretty crowded the day we were there, which made it a little bit tricky as the kids climbed ladders and disappeared into the ceiling with no idea where there would emerge. Here's a few photos, but I could easily fill an album with all of the things to see.

After the City Museum, we enjoyed a nice dinner. The kids eagerly jumped into a dance at a street party (enthusiastically learning the Cha Cha Slide). We capped off our time in Saint Louis with the obligatory trip to the arch. We rode up to the top...the kids enjoyed it, but it made Scott and I a little bit queasy.

Day 2 - We left Saint Louis and headed towards Nashville. We made a brief stop to stretch our legs in Metropolis, IL, the home of Superman. We had an enjoyable afternoon and evening in Nashville with Scott's brother Andrew, his girlfriend Abigail, and their dogs.

Day 3 - This was our longest day of driving, but we managed to squeeze in one stop at Ruby Falls Cave, in Chattanooga, TN. The kids had never been in a cave before, but enjoyed the visit. It was an easy walk, not too claustrophobic, culminating in a cool underground waterfall.

Next up - theme parks, theme parks, theme parks.

A star is born

2014-08-09T13:09:00.000-04:00

Here's one more....

Last week, Rylee attended camp at the Stages Children's Theater. This was the second year that she participated in one of their summer workshops for preschoolers.

The camp teaches some basic acting skills - our favorite lesson is the actor's attitude, "OK, I'll try it!" Rylee first learned this principle last summer at camp, and she's taken it to heart all year. It works well for performing on stage, but also for a variety of other things - i.e., how would an actor eat Thai food? Rylee is generally not at all squeamish, and relishes trying new things. But for those few times that she's feeling more hesitant, reminding her of the actor's attitude is usually all it takes.

Camp is organized around themes - all of which come from children's books. Rylee's selection this year was "The day the crayons quit." For those of you unfamiliar with the newest fine literature for preschoolers, the premise of this book is that a boy named Duncan discovers that his crayons are missing. His crayon box is instead filled with letters from each crayon, outlining their various grievances that they would like addressed (i.e., some feel they are being used too much, some not enough, some wish he would color more neatly).

The highlight of the week is that the kids put on a performance on the main stage for their parents and guests. The children acted out the story. Rylee starred as "orange crayon," who is in a fight with yellow crayon over who should be identified as the real color of the sun. [Originally, she had selected peach crayon as her role. The peach crayon is upset because it's paper has been peeled off. Naked, he's too embarrassed to be used. Rylee decided that she didn't want to stand on stage and imagine that she was naked, so she asked to switch to orange].

Here she is on stage. This girl loves to perform. Not a trace of stage fright or nervousness. She eagerly screamed out her lines in her fake fight with her new friend from camp (who interestingly, she knew only as "my best friend, yellow crayon").

And of course, no crayon-themed theater experience is complete without a musical finale featuring the not-at-all-overdone "Lean on Me."

Big bugs

2014-08-06T23:58:00.001-04:00

Another fun summer happening - the kids and I did a family overnight at the Minnesota Zoo. Devon and I did one a few years ago, spending the night in the cave outside the grizzly bear exhibit. This time, the kids chose an overnight in conjunction with the zoo's "Big Bugs" exhibit. The exhibit features large animatronic insects, along with a smaller exhibit of live bugs.

We arrived at the zoo in the early evening. We had a number of activities through the evening - eating pizza, playing with a slack line, looking for insects, visiting with a Madagascar hissing cockroach, and setting up our tents. The night culminated with a campfire and smores.

Here Rylee walks on a slack line to test whether her balance is as good as an insect's - it wasn't. Yes, that's the outfit that she actually wore that day.

Devon discovered this bee hat right after we checked in and wore it for hours.

We spent the night in a tent on the zoo's farm. The kids did great and slept well. It was an early morning for us, though, as the farm has quite a few free range roosters. And several packs of wild turkeys that like to visit. All in all, a lot of wildlife walking around the tent and making all kinds of noise at 6 am.

Waking up after a night at the zoo

In the morning, we checked out the big bugs. The kids wanted to pose with every single large insect. Here are just a few of them.

The giant grasshopper

What Minnesotans think of very large mosquitoes

The kids pose, while Mommy appreciates that her kids are not yet too cool to do this

Summer so far

2014-08-05T02:20:00.000-04:00

It has been a wonderful summer so far! It's been zooming by, but has been filled with fun outings and summer happenings. Here's just a sampler of some of the good times.

Both kids have been enjoying camps. They each chose two weeks of camp. Devon did one week at the Science Museum, choosing a half-day Wizarding camp and a half-day Lego mini-figure movie making camp. He's doing his second week now - another Wizarding theme, but this one is more nature-based at a lovely arts and environment center. He's loving it so far. Rylee selected a week at the zoo, selecting Under the Sea camp. Her second week was at the children's theater - an experience that warrants its own post, coming soon.

They have enjoyed playing outside and have mastered climbing the large maple tree in the front yard. We had a great blackberry harvest, and they enjoyed picking and tasting the berries. Our blueberry plants - planted last year - have grown well but didn't yield any berries this year. We've been to parks and playgrounds and museums. We've caught insects and frogs. We've been to three different children's theaters, for productions of the Wiz, the Cat in the Hat, and Free to be You and Me. Rylee became brave enough to try the water slides at our gym's pool, and thinks they are the most fun she's ever had. We've been to the annual production for our local children's circus school, and now Rylee wants to go to circus camp next year. Devon became obsessed with Greek mythology and has read at least 20 books on the subject this summer. Devon participated in our library's book club geared for young boys (enjoying both of their summer selections, "The Trouble with Chickens" and "Bookmarks are People Too"). I could go on and on, but suffice it to say, it's been fun so far.

We continued our tradition of hatching and releasing butterflies - four survived and the kids took good care of them. They were named Harry Potter, Mariposa, Rosie, and Waddlehatcher 2.

Rylee and I took a day off from preschool and work to play at the children's museum - still one of her favorite places!

We made our annual visit to Iowa for the 4th of July - Devon got a kick out of jumping back and forth from Iowa into Nebraska.

While we waited for the fireworks, both kids enjoyed a turn on the bungee cord trampoline thingy

Hamming it up during a nature walk in Iowa

Rylee has really enjoyed working in the garden this year - she's always willing to help with weeding, and planted her own garden spot this year. Her garden is filled with lilies and several varieties of butterfly flowers. She's taken good care of her plants, improving on the notion of talking to them by performing song and dance numbers ("Let them grow, let them grow")

Finally, Rylee easily mastered bike riding. This is her about 5 minutes after Scott removed the training wheels. This bike is obviously pretty small...she's now riding Devon's big bike around the circle and loving it!

Summer camp craftiness

2014-07-29T00:24:00.002-04:00

It was all Camp Galileo last week, with both boys at two Galileo programs. Calvin worked on a video game and Finn went on a road trip.

Calvin got to choose: the K-5 camp that Finn went to, or the Summer Quest for grades 5-8. The older group won easily, but it was difficult choosing what to focus on. He settled on making a Minecraft mod and trying 3D printing. (If he had three weeks, he'd be making a go-kart too — deferred for next year.)

For those who don't speak Minecraft, "mods" is short for "modifications" — ways to customize the game. (For the uninitiated, it's a creative world-building game, using block shapes. That's an oversimplification, but sufficient.)

Here are some screenshots of his mod. First, here's his red "awesome armor" and "explosive sword":

What makes this sword so cool, aside from its stylin' red-and-black look? When you use it, lightning strikes your targets:

And he made these "sweet" building blocks. Here they are atop a tower he built:

Put it all together:

Meanwhile, Finn traveled along Route 66. In the art room (the "so-called" diner, he says), he whipped up this billboard he plans to use when the boys host a restaurant at home. (He's especially proud of the sequins, which sparkle in headlights and attract your attention.)

And here's his billboard along with a print of the Chicago skyline reflected in Lake Michigan ( a cool technique with oil pastels and watercolor). Behind them is his kachina doll, inspired by Native Americans in Arizona and composed of three spirit animals he chose to help him in his pursuits: a bear's head, for strength; a shark in the middle, for swimming; and a wolf's legs for stamina.

The kids collaborated on retaining walls to protect the Mother Road from rock slides:

And Finn made a working headlamp for exploring the Grand Canyon:

The grand finale: a short clip of Finn's rubber band car — he's very proud that it can go past 18 feet!

Portland weekend

2014-07-17T09:47:00.000-04:00

Meanwhile, a month and a half ago... Calvin and I had a just-us getaway weekend to Portland to visit Carol and Jessica. I shared some what-to-do-in-Portland links, and Calvin helped plan the itinerary: one night in a hotel in the Pearl District and one night at Carol & Jessica's, with visits to the Saturday market, OMSI (the Oregon Museum of Science and Industry), and bakeries. Carol suggested taking their boat along the Willamette, and that proved the highlight of the weekend.

It was a meandering, indulgent kind of weekend. We arrived at the hotel way past bedtime but ordered a pint of locally made chocolate sorbet to enjoy as we read. Since we weren't in a hurry in the morning (and Dad wasn't there to say no) there was an epic jumping-on-the-bed session, then a half-hour playing with the typewriter in the lobby.

At the Saturday market, Calvin swiftly found the same shop where I found him a gift years ago: handmade tops and toys. He picked out souvenirs — one top that creates an image of a mountain (Mount Hood, perhaps?) when it spins, and another that flips as the spin slows. He found a few other gifts before we stopped at Powell's to pick out new comic books.

But it was the river trip that made him fall in love with Portland. Nervousness quickly gave way to bliss. Before long, he was urging Jessica to steer into the choppy waves — and not long after that, he was driving the boat.

Other adventures: introducing Carol to The Princess Bride, visiting her office, playing with a kinetic sculpture, teaching how to play cat's cradle, sliding down the stairs, and visiting OMSI. Calvin's favorite part was touring the sub used in The Hunt for Red October. Carol even fired the torpedoes:

It was a much-needed break for both of us, and a long overdue visit to Carol and Jessica. Lucky me gets to go a second time, and soon — I plan to take Finn up there before the year is out. Here are more photos:

Get the flash player here: http://www.adobe.com/flashplayer

Football superfans

2014-07-13T06:00:00.000-04:00

Doug has found a way to enjoy football all year round: By getting the kids hooked on arena football.

They've become huge fans of going to San Jose SaberCats games. The games are loud, high-scoring, loud, fun, and loud.

(I find the whole setting fantastically tacky. I haven't been exposed to so much Warrant and David Lee Roth since high school. There's talk of getting season tickets next year ... I'll likely yield my seat to their friends.)

There's not much of a crowd — we often score tickets for cheap to free — but there's fire and motorcycles and T-shirt cannons. (In between, there's some football.) The boys are inspired: Our pregame routine now includes Knox gelatine, colored hair spray, and face paint.

Friday was the last regular-season home game, and the boys were thrilled to get their souvenirs signed:

Summer camp happiness

2014-07-12T13:47:00.001-04:00

We just wrapped up a great week of summer camp for both boys.

Calvin is halfway through a two-week camp at the middle school, where he's taking self-defense, karate, and cooking. No photos yet from his camp, mostly because we keep devouring whatever he brought home from cooking. And his favorite trick learned from self-defense involves pinning my arm behind my back, making it difficult to photograph. But my favorite image is pulling up for pickup, and seeing him light up with a smile on his face and a plate with a treat he wants to share.

Finn just ended a week at Camp Galileo, learning about Australia and making some creative stuff, including this moray eel projectile toy:

and a bird of paradise:

Camp G is one of our favorites. Finn argued at first that there's no learning at summer camp, but after he explained to me about lift and sugar gliders, he conceded that he learns a fair amount at this camp — it just doesn't feel like school. I love that this camp celebrates creativity, mistakes, collaboration, and experimentation. Finn loves that it's awesome.

He goes back the week after next for a road trip-themed camp. And Calvin has matriculated to the camp's program for older kids: He'll spend a week learning to make Minecraft mods and another creating with a 3D printer.

We do a few camps each year, and there's always one or two where I cross my fingers and hope it won't be awful. That's never a problem with this camp — the boys always get caught up in the energetic spirit. Finn relayed stories and songs, explained concepts he learned each day, and was delighted his campmates selected his proposed team name: the Lime Green Zombies!

The camp's mascot is a rubber chicken. (I don't know why. It's a thing.) So Finn wanted to give the camp director a picture of a his chickens and some of their eggs as a thanks-and-see-you-soon gift. (He's costumed as Brazil's Hulk for dress-up day.)

Future blackbelt and future Olympian

2014-06-24T22:56:00.001-04:00

Just a few quick updates from the kids....

First, a few weeks ago, Devon passed his test for his purple belt in Taekwondo. He struggled a bit with focus early in the test, but pulled it together and passed.

And here's one from Rylee. Ever since the winter Olympics, she's insisted that she is going to be an Olympic ice dancer some day (along with being a zookeeper and a mom). She's been starting to get a little bit stressed about it, feeling as though she's behind schedule in meeting this long-term goal. In particular, she was woried that she would never make it to the Olympics unless she actually learned how to ice skate. Finally, this summer...ice skating lessons. Here she is before taking to the ice at her first lesson.

She was a little bit disappointed when she learned that the beginner's curriculum focused on things like balancing, gliding, and falling and getting up (rather than leaping and twirling). She ultimately decided that those were probably important basics to master though, and she did great at her first lesson!

Show and tell

2014-06-10T09:37:00.000-04:00

What we knew as "show and tell" has morphed into "sharing day" at our school, and even then it seems to have been phased out recently. But Calvin was eager to bring in one of his chickens to share with his class and his teacher, always happy to follow their interest, said yes.

So Calvin brought Blackberry, our most easygoing hen, to school Monday morning. He enjoyed the attention as we carted Blackberry to class. One of the great parents at our school took the time to ask all sorts of questions, putting Calvin through a pre-game warmup without him realizing what she was doing.

Calvin took some questions, and really relaxed when he classmates to meet her up close. The kids crowded around to pet Blackberry, hold her, and feed her some scratch and lettuce. They begged to bring her over to the grass, where she happily devoured as much clover as she could between hugs. Blackberry was remarkably good-tempered about the whole thing. And Calvin was delighted.

The chickens are nearing their first birthday this month. We're in our third spell of high heat (low 90s) and they're handling it well. Blackberry decided she was in the mood for motherhood and spent a few days in the most-favored nesting box. This box is so popular that sometimes hens hogging the box end up getting crowded — last month we caught Shadow barging in after Blackjack spent hours in the box and ignored her squawky protests:

Blackjack eventually moved along, but Blackberry was in there day and night. So the boys had their first experience at breaking a broody hen. Finn put up a de-motivational poster, but it didn't do the trick.

So we dragged Blackberry off the next and put her in a cage for two days with food and water. Blackberry was very angry and bashed her head on the top of the cage to the point of bleeding, but then she settled down. And the other birds fussed and fretted over their confined friend. The third day, we let her out and she bolted to the run with her friends. Adventures in chicken-raising...

End of the school year happenings! Part 2

2014-06-08T09:55:00.002-04:00

Here are a few other year-end events for Rylee...

Rylee also had a year-end gymnastics show. At the last gymnastics class of the season, the kids show off all of their skills and receive medals. Again, Rylee loved performing all of her tricks and bowed to all of the parents every time it was her turn to demonstrate a skill. Her new big accomplishment is that she's learned to do a cartwheel, though I couldn't capture it on film.

Demonstrating her balance - she usually just runs across the beam

Upside down girl

She loves the bars - especially doing a tummy roll on the high bar

Posing with her class (she's front right)

Bowing to the crowd after she received her medal

And finally, here are some pictures from Rylee's preschool graduation. Her preschool program put on an adorable little graduation ceremony. The kids sang a few songs, and then each one announced what they wanted to be when they grow up - Rylee said "zookeeper." They received diplomas, threw their caps into the air, and celebrated with fruit and juice.

Posing with her preschool teacher (and babysitter!) Miss Whitney

And one with Grandma!

And now, we can jump fully into summer. We have lots of fun in store - family adventures, summer camps, etc. We're very excited!

End of the school year happenings! Part 1

2014-06-08T09:52:00.001-04:00

School's out!

For the past month, we've been running around celebrating spring and the end of the school year. Both Devon and Rylee have had shows and special events.

First, Devon had his second grade concert. The build-up to the event was intense...unlike his kindergarten and first grade concerts, this one also involved dancing. With girls. Devon dreaded it for months. Once rehearsals started, it turned out he really liked it. He even volunteered to do an extra dance, helping out a class that was short a few boys. Here's one of his dances...

Unfortunately, the video didn't really pick up the music, but you can see the moves at least. A few weeks later, Devon was creating a timeline of all of the important things that had happened in his life so far. He included being born, receiving snuggles, and dancing at his second grade concert.

Rylee had the next end-of-year happening - her dance recital. She's been taking dance lessons at preschool all year and was very much looking forward to performing on stage. She loved everything about it. She adored her costume, and was excited to perform. She knew all of her moves, and danced with a huge smile on her face.

Rylee showing off her dance costume - she especially loved the sparkles

On stage

She had this smile for almost the whole performance!

Wizard birthday party

2014-05-08T08:53:00.001-04:00

We also recently celebrated a birthday party at the Holm-Hansen house. Devon opted for a wizard theme...with some strong Harry Potter influences. Devon played a large role in planning. He designed the invitations, helped create games and activities, and put a lot of thought into gift bag items (which included ceramic owls for painting, exploding frog soaps, quill pens, candy boxes that looked like little spell books, Harry Potter glasses, and other odds and ends).

The activities mostly went well. We made glitter globes and magic wands. Devon led a magic class, where we taught the kids how to inflate balloons using baking soda and vinegar. We had a herbology class, where the kids got to plant a cobra lily (carnivorous!) and an edible plant (mint, lemon verbena) to take home. We also made magic bubbles (potions class!), played "find the snitch", and smashed a dragon pinata.

Here are a few highlights...

Devon's cake...it's supposed to be an owl on top

The kids

For the last few years, the kids have been collecting donation items in lieu of gifts from friends. This year, Devon opted to collect children's books, which we're donating to a local charity that distributes books to homeless shelters and other places

The kids helped me make owls, which we scattered around the house

Celebrating the 10-year-old, part 2

2014-05-04T12:53:00.004-04:00

The boys have fallen hard for James Bond: Doug received a set of all the movies for Christmas, and we've been watching them in order. (We just wrapped up the Roger Moore years, and we're bracing for Timothy Dalton.)

So for Calvin's party, we blended his fascination with 007 and our longstanding promise to let him have Nerf guns once he turned 10. The result was a ridiculously fun party two weekends ago.

As the boys arrived, they took turns navigating the laser trip wire maze Doug set up in the hallway and sampled sugar cane (a rare treat from the farmer's market for Calvin).

Then we walked to the school yard down the street, handed each kid a Nerf gun, and dished out ammo. They spent a solid hour blasting away at each other and taking hostages — no fighting and no tears, and only Finn came out bloodied (not that he noticed or cared).

Back home, Calvin's friends toasted the birthday boy and devoured pizza, profiteroles, and a Bond cake topped with sparking dynamite candles. They knocked back many cups of root beer (another milestone: first time I had a group of boys in my house chanting "chug! chug! chug!").

They all stayed on to watch Thunderball. Most of the boys hadn't seen any old Bond movies: They had no idea what was happening and talked through much of it, to Calvin's irritation, but they had enjoyed themselves. Everyone went home happy, Nerf gun in hand.

I've found boy energy overwhelming at parties in the past, but this was perfect: We let them run wild, and they had a blast. It was a great group of kids, polite and considerate even in the midst of competitive burping and fart jokes.

Celebrating the 10-year-old, part 1

2014-04-27T12:20:00.000-04:00

With four people snapping photos during our two-week vacation, I have nearly 2,500 photos to sift through. I'm working on it, slowly, and will post a few as I go along.

Today, however, I'm focusing on this beautiful, silly, smart boy, who celebrated much of his 10th birthday in transit. We left Paris early on his birthday and flew to Barcelona. He was so excited to be in another new country that he requested McDonald's for lunch, then happily played video games in the hotel room while Doug worked through the afternoon.

Once Doug had fulfilled his work obligations, we headed toward Port Olímpic and the Mediterranean Sea, searching for Icebarcelona. For his 10th birthday, Calvin wanted to go to a bar! An ice bar, specifically: It's a small room with chairs, bars, everything made of ice, and kept at a brisk 6 degrees F. Calvin wore the provided coat over his own parka and sipped juice from a glass of ice. Fun, but so, so cold!

Back to the hotel, where Calvin and Finn happily played Xbox games with a new friend from London while we waited for a late dinner. By the time we got to birthday cheesecake and candles, the birthday boy had collapsed, asleep, on his chair.

He woke up just long enough to blow out the candles, then went right back to sleep.

The cheesecake wasn't so tasty the following day. (Doug and I didn't let the ice cream go to waste.)

A few days earlier, in Paris, Doug and I introduced the boys to Kevin, the photographer who had taken such lovely photos for us two years previous. The kids were harder to photograph — such a blur of movement! — but Kevin captured this shot of Calvin that I just love. It shows his sweet and sensitive side, with a hint of mischief in his smile. And look how handsome!

Happy birthday to Devon!

2014-04-22T22:16:00.003-04:00

Devon celebrated his 8th birthday in style! He requested dinner out at his favorite Mexican restaurant. He was joined by Mom, Dad, Rylee, Grandma Lea, and Grandpa Bob. He was excited to model a sombrero, a restaurant treat reserved for patrons celebrating birthdays.

Devon remains interested in Harry Potter - we're having a wizard-themed party later this month - and he wanted a Harry Potter cake. I asked him to do the design, and this is what he came up with. He drew the picture, and I traced it in icing.

So far, he likes being 8. He says he feels just a little bit taller.

First time ice skating

2014-02-22T21:13:00.001-05:00

Given that Scott and I did not grow up here, we do not always pay enough attention to the rites of passage important for all young Minnesotans. Last week, we finally addressed our appalling failure to introduce our children to ice skating. They have been watching the Olympics, and went into the experience with some fairly unrealistic expectations. Rylee, in particular, had grand plans that she shared with us on the way to the rink..."first, Devon is going to throw me through the air. I'm going to spin fast and then land nicely on my feet."

Reality proved a bit more challenging, but they still had fun. Rylee stuck pretty close to the wall, but kept going for the full hour and a half. Devon took to it pretty easily and was skating pretty well by the time we left. Both kids would like to go again soon. Rylee is interested in taking some lessons. When asked if he would also like to try to take some lessons, Devon declined, rolling his eyes and saying "Mom, I already know how to do it now."

Here's Devon in action: