Carson's Sweet Gun - and message to his cousin

Carson's first Karate lesson

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Carson at age 5

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TaeKwonDo

 

Carson has been begging to take karate lessons for years.  I finally took the time to call... visit... question.. or research every martial arts studio in the phone book  I was able to narrow it down to two studios.  Being that I didn't know one single thing about martial arts it was a very difficult decision.  I was able to eliminate all of the other studios based on location, price, weather or not they actually fight each other, etc.

The final two studios both looked great as far as I could tell.

 So, What was my deciding factor?

The instructor/owner of this studio is named Master Han.

In fact it is called Master Han's Olympic TaeKwonDo.

cool.

Carson had his first belt testing last Friday, and had moved up to yellow belt.  We were both very surprised when Master Han brought out actual boards for the kids to break, especially since this isn't something they have practiced in class.  The first thing I did was check it for weak spots.  I was really unsure about my kindergartner breaking a piece of wood with his hand.  Then I looked down at Carson and saw in his expression that he was thinking the same thing.  So what do I do?  I give his shoulder a little nudge and say "You got this", while in my mind I'm saying "Holy #$%^&*".

He broke it on the first try, and we were both very happy... and relieved.

Halloween

Happy Halloween to all!

We have been very busy with all the celebrations, and have overloaded on treats everyday for the past week... or two.

We had tons of fun at the ward trunk-or-treat.  Carson had a great time playing the games as well.  My favorite was watching him attempt his first doughnut eating contest.

 Even better... the resulting mess on his face.  he he he

 All jack-o-lanterns were designed by Carson and carved by mom

 Iron man.

In full costume

October update

Another month has gone by, and I find myself very behind in the blogging updates.   October has been a month of hikes for our family.  Every year we try to get out and see the New England autumn.  It truly is very beautiful, and I am very glad we have had the opportunity to see it ourselves.

 

 This is before the actual hike :)

 Carson has taken to collecting sticks while we hike.  I think he is on the perpetual hunt for a perfect walking stick.  He has to pick up any stick he finds and try it out.  It seemed that every stick Dad picked up was the BEST, and Carson just had to have it.  About the time I was going to demand a "no stick rule" Curtis gave me a huge grin then proceeded to pick up a huge branch that was nothing short of a log, just to see what Carson would do.  Of course Carson demanded a "trade" and then tried to drag dad's log down the trail.  

Curtis and I had a good laugh at this.

Then we started the "no stick" rule :)

 Ahhh. The art of building character.

It all begins in childhood.  When your 5 year old demands a gigantic leaf pile to jump in... hand him a rake.

  And this picture. Because I like it :)

First day of school

Carson started kindergarten this year. We spent weeks talking about how much fun he was going to have at school. By the time his first day came around Carson was very excited. Most of the other kids in his class were crying, but not Carson. He wanted me to just drop him off at the curb. I insisted on taking him to class at least once.

I really shouldn't be surprised by his independence. He may be an only child, but we expect a lot from him. We are always having people tell us how smart he is and how mature he behaves.

You are such a good Guy.
We love you Carson!!

Grandma Week

We finally had a visitor! It seems like forever ago that we had anyone come to visit us. Our week with Grandma Kathy was tons of fun.
When we were at the airport picking up Grandma, I told Carson to watch out the window and tell me when he saw her. After a few minutes of looking around I heard a gasp from the back seat as Carson says "Oh crap! I forgot what grandma looks like!"
However, when she came around the corner he was very quick to recognize who it was.

Carson was very happy to have all of Grandma's attention. Grandma got Carson a nerf gun, and those two spent the whole week "hunting" each other.

We spent a whole day at the Connecticut Science Center. I am so glad that Carson has a decent attention span. He was very interested in almost all the exhibits. He loved to play with the exhibits as well as learning how they work. He loves going to the museum, we could spend hours experimenting with their toys.

We also took a short trip to Rhode Island on Saturday. The funny thing is that Curtis had a conference in Newport a week before this and he decided it was totally cool. So we went back.
We started our tour with the Ocean walkway and a short tour of "The Mansions". I have seen some big houses.... these were bigger.
The pictures here are of The Breaker. We joked that it was called that because of the expense of building and maintaining a home this size.

The funny part... this was a summer home :)

The backyard view of the ocean.

The back of the house. Big right.
Can you see my boys?
They are on the steps.
No?

Lets use the digital zoom option.
Oh! There you are!
Seriously. I had to walk a mile away to take this picture!

Another sail boat. This one was huge. Sadly there was no wind that day so they had to use a motor most of the way. It was still fun.

I was unaware that Rhode Island had such cool beaches.
We were caught unprepared for this beautiful beach. We didn't bring our swimming suits.... but Carson didn't care, he just used his clothes. It had the best sand, huge waves to pay in, not to mention the showers and lifeguards every 30 feet.

Here is Carson, using the random toys we had in the trunk to dig in the sand.

August Fun

We were finally able to take Curtis to the beach. This was the first time he has been able to come with us during the 2 years we have live here.
We went to a private beach in Connecticut with some of our friends. Lucky us.... they also own a sail boat:)
I also find it fun that it only takes us 1 hour to drive to this part of the beach. Especially since we have to drive across 2 states to get there.

Carson is holding up the ocean... or so he thinks

My boys out on the sail boat.

Carson and I had a lego day this week. He has been begging me to build him a REALLY cool space ship for quite some time.
I love building things with Carson. However, 5 hours of sitting on the floor digging through legos is really not very much fun. By the time I finished the project my whole body hurt...even my eyes!!! I must be getting old.
Anyway. This is what I made.

And, if you were to ask him what would happen if he took the space ship apart, he would look at you very seriously and say "Mom would kill me".
That's my boy!

For some reason I have never been able to part with any of Carson's preschool projects. They were all saved in a large box in the basement. It is a good thing to! Just yesterday Carson asked if he could look at his old projects, and was sooooo happy when I pulled out that huge box.

This was the resulting mess. It was very cute to watch him go through all this stuff and listen to the things he remembered about each one.

July

July was a horribly long month.
Curtis was working a rotation in the CCU. A very "not fun" job that required him to stay overnight every 3rd night. So... we rarely saw him.
Nearly all of our friends went on vacation, or otherwise left town. Carson and I had a ton of free time together, but not a whole lot to do.
We went swimming every possible day... sometimes twice a day. We joined the summer reading program at the Library. We did TONS of yard work and even more house work.
I had 8 job interviews during the month... and still no job. However, I have several options and some really tough decisions to make very soon.
So... on the last day of the month we took our last 20 dollars and went out for mini-golf and ice-cream. It was fun to do something together on a beautiful summer day.
Oh... and Curtis won by a measly 4 strokes.

Random update

I am still unemployed... and loving every minute. It is fun to have a little free time every once in awhile. I wanted to share some random pictures.
This is my nephew Cole. Cole is 3 years old... and totally CRAZY!!!
He is into extreme sports :)
I'm just glad his parents can keep up with him.

This is me and my buddy Samuel. Until recently, I have been taking care of him during the day. He is such a sweet kid. We will miss him.
Love you! Samuel!

Here are some of Carson's soccer pictures. I shared a few in the past, but these are with his "bobble-head" trophy.
(weirdest lookin' trophy ever)

I hope you like the summer hair cut. This one is the dinosaur hair cut.
He really wanted 3 giant spikes. Sorry :)

Home Improvement

I hope you see this as an "improvement" anyway.
I have never been a huge fan of the 1970's Ranch style house, and our home was defiantly stuck in the 70's.
This was the front of our Home in 2008

This was a few days ago.
note- new front door, storm door, and missing/dead bushes.

The walkway. Only useful in sunny weather. Did I mention that we live in New England?

Here are the construction pictures.

My new walkway and steps. yahoo!!
The best part... I didn't have to do it ( :

So... what do you think? Did we increase the "curb-side appeal"?

I'm an East Long Meadow Rotary Survivor

The first time we drove through this rotary I was so totally confused!!! We are continually complaining about the crazy design and general bad condition of the roads here in Massachusetts, but I have NEVER seen anything like this. After the EL Rotary... the lack of turning lanes is barley noticeable, the narrow roads seem normal, the one way-dead end streets are no longer cause me to silently curse this state. Sidewalks? "ice-shifts"? "car-size pot holes that appear over night"?
The EL rotary is one of the most dangerous intersections in the world according to Ripleys Believe It or Not.. Seven streets, no lights, pray before entering. If you have witnessed the awesome power of the East Longmeadow Rotary, then you deserve recognition!
And to think... I drive through this intersection about 2 times a day.... sometimes 4.
Tip to newcomers - PLEASE don't just stop in the middle of the rotary. Try going slow. We all expect that you might need time to figure it out. But please.... don't just stop.

Disney Marketplace fun

We had so much fun in Florida. One of our favorite places to visit, because it was free and still full of fun stuff to see. Some of the best stores were at the marketplace, such as the Lego store, or the Ghirardelli ice cream shop, the Harley store, and yes.... the Ridemakerz.

Looks real huh?

Carson had tons of fun posing on this Harley. Not sure where he learned that.

Yum. Life is good.

Really good if you are a Lego fan.

Curtis and I were drooling over the way Lego organizes the pieces. If our collection gets any larger I would not be surprised if Curtis builds some buckets into the wall and sorts all the pieces by size and color. :)

I think Carson was in shock.

We even designed our own mini-figures. Can you guess who we made?

Its us!!
ha ha ha