Shawn's karate test for 3rd red stripe on double blue belt

It's hard to see Shawn (because of his size, place in line, & all the kids look like bobbleheads with their gear on!), but Shawn is 2nd in line, next to the boy in red gear. It was a really short test (just 1 move), but he earned his 3rd red stripe on his double blue belt. Coming soon is a test is for a red belt!
Click here to see the bobble heads testing.

Lilly's "I Love You" song

A (very short part of a) serenade by Lilly while on vacation. She can say 'you' more clearly than she does in this song, but... words often get mushed in lyrics!

It's official, we have a 1st grader among us!

Happy Birthday Ms. Johnsen!

 There was a fun birthday surprise in kindergarten this morning. Click for the video.

20 chicks

I'm a Dad.

May 26 UPDATE

Lilly 'reading' Sandra Boynton's "Blue Hat, Green Hat"

In case you need a bedtime story tonight, Lilly will share hers.  

3rd place at the spring National Karate tournament and some baseball

Unfortunately, Shawn didn't earn a sticker this morning, but he still had a pretty amazing day.

Warming up

He started the day by earning 3rd place at the spring National Karate tournament! His final score was 9.94/10.00.

See the action here.	Hear the yell!
Third place	The judges present scores.

All the hard work left Shawn with a severe calcium deficiency. We made an emergency stop to Culver's for lunch & frozen custard. Crisis averted. Phew!

Lilly was quickly running out of steam. So, while I took her home for a nap, Raj and Shawn got haircuts together.

Later in the afternoon, Lilly and I found new robin's eggs in a nest by our dining room window. Then, we were invited across the street to see our neighbors' daughter, who has babysat for us a couple of times, get ready to go to her Senior Prom. So many sparkles on her dress and shoes!

Lilly entertaining herself (& me) while the boys went off to play

Then, we were off to a Kane County Cougars baseball game. Though we didn't come prepared, it was "Half Way to Halloween" night and some came in costumes. (We joked about Shawn trying to squeeze into his seat wearing his S'mores costume.) The first few innings were a bit painful to watch, so Shawn and Raj disappeared to the Kid Zone filled with inflatable bounce houses and obstacle courses. Lilly and I entertained ourselves at our seats, when there wasn't some silly event on the field between innings. She tried really hard to get a baseball and/or a T-shirt thrown to her. Luckily,  the game picked up and we ended up winning 9-7. To top it off there were fireworks and we got to run the bases afterwards. Shawn took some batting practice.

View from our seats

Shawn and some Ghost Busters

Spanish Class for Lilly

Raj special ordered Shawn a Star Wars calendar and some stickers. The plan for the month of May is that Shawn will earn stickers for getting ready in the morning and for bed at night with 2 or fewer prompts to stay on task. If he reaches his goal of 40 stickers by the end of May, we'll go to LegoLand. (Shawn got a free year pass from his 5th birthday party that we didn't activate until this winter!) This morning he earned his first sticker and he got another at bed time - a great start.

Lilly, on the other hand, had a rough morning. She had two meltdowns before 9:30 am and I'm not really sure what triggered either of them. I was ready to call it a day and go back to bed! Luckily, dragging her kicking and screaming (literally) to Spanish class was what we both needed. We studied modes of transportation, sang "The Wheels on the Bus," colored a steering wheel that we 'drove' around the room, played with some vehicle puzzles, and bounced plush vehicles on a parachute. Though she didn't care a whole lot about the topic, she does love class!

We were able to leave Tiger Lilly behind and enjoyed the rest of the day. We spent the afternoon in the backyard getting some much needed Vitamin D - from the sun & 'D'irt 😎. (I got a little more color than I had intended, but it's not too bad.)  Lilly practiced swinging (hanging by her tummy and the usual sitting position) and has mastered, "Mommy push more, please!" We laid in the grass and sang songs. We checked on the residents of our bird house. Someone's moving in!
And Lilly helped me repot a few house plants. I'm sure they were happy to be outside, too. We giggled when a big, juicy worm surprised us in one of the pots! We moved him to a box Shawn set up for his 'pet' worms. He was thrilled to see it after school.

Lilly fell asleep in time for a quick nap before I got a call from Ferson explaining that Shawn's bus broke down before getting the kids from school and a new bus was on its way, but kids would be 15-30 minutes late being dropped off. No big deal.

Lilly was excited to show Shawn that the little bubbling water fountain was turned back on in the garden outside of the church where their Spanish classes are. Lilly and I would've loved to spend Shawn's class time back outside, but as the official bathroom chaperone in exchange for a tuition break, we settled into our usual seats in the hallway with a bag of crayons and paper as we listened to beginners' music lessons (piano, guitar, violin, etc.) screeching from one room and Spanish class echoing from another.

Not a bad day to start the month of May.