Man Vs. Wild

We threw a pretty awesome party for Tucker.  The theme was Man Vs. Wild (Bear Grylls style).  When the kids arrived they got a survival whistle:

 These goodie bags were given out at the end:

 I made a couple of banners out of twine:

 Anders worked hard on this poster:

 The "cake."  Perhaps not the most creative, but it worked:

 The anticipation:

 The preparation (Rob is burning the edges of the survival instructions:

 When the boys arrived they piled in the "helicopter" to be "dropped" into the wilderness just above the house where they had to find animal tracks, kindling, a fresh water source, and signs of "human activity".  These things had to be captured by camera:

 The boys walked back and Anders posed (as per tradition) on Anders Point:

 Upon returning home they were given clues to help them find items to put together a shelter:

 They lashed and duct taped a shelter and then moved on to the fire starting.  Oh, yeah, fire! Flint and steel was given a huge chance but we finally resorted to a lighter:

 And snow for extinguishing:

 Next it was presents and cake:

 It was an awesome party and I think everyone had a good time.  After the party our boys went out and retried the fire and they were able to get it going with the flint and steel and they also reconfigured the shelter (tissue paper for tinder seemed to be the trick.  It lit much better than jewt).  

Pretty awesome party for a pretty awesome boy!

Happy 10th Birthday to Toucano!

Double digits!  That went fast.  Tucker is a great kid and is going places.  He is smart.  Seriously.  He is.  He is very knowledgeable in lots of different areas.  His teacher told me she is impressed by how much of a thinker he is, how creative he is, how much he always surprises her about how much he knows.  Yup, that's Tucker.  He has a thirsty mind.  Current interests are:  Greek mythology, birds, nature/survival.  Tucker is a champion skier, a dedicated soccer player, and is up for any outdoor adventure.  He and Anders are such good buds, which has been nice as we have adjusted to a new life here in Reno.  He has also made some good friends here, which has been great.  Also that boy can run.  His class is running a marathon (in small pieces) by the end of the year.  On Friday they ran their first mile.  He didn't need to walk and beat every single classmate.  I had trouble keeping up with him.  I guess he has a competitive streak too.  He adds so much to our family and I look forward to a bright future from this genius kid.  Tucker, we love you more than anything!  Happy birthday.

Weekend Visitors

A couple of weekends ago Whit, Jim, Ever, and Court came to visit.  On day one some went up to Mt. Rose for some skiing.  I got to watch the baby.  Clara is a fan.  This is the two munchkins in the lodge:

We ate lots of good food of course.  We went to number 168 Chinese Restaurant (amazing) and had Brazillian:

We attempted to go to Tahoe on Monday but because of snowy roads we ended up at Galena Creek:

Tuesday we succesfully made the trek up to Tahoe.  Beautiful as always.  I don't think the babies liked being posed for the "Shenanaquin" (a TM Kringel photo genre) shots:

It was great to have everyone and it was especially nice that Clara could spend some serious quality time with Jim who sang her some pretty amazing operatic ballads and read her some really gripping stuff out of the New England Journal of Medicine.  She's a fan.  And my kids all told me that Ever was really going to love storytime with her Dad.  Come again everyone!