Taking the Scenic Route

Because it is more fun to play with.

A haircut request.  I like.

Zach doing a lesson with Zane.

Zane suddenly developed an interest in chess. YAY!    He took the cheaper chess set (the “No Stress Chess Game”) and set it up next to his computer, ran a computer chess game that we have had on there for a while, mirroring the moves on the chessboard next to him.  After doing that for several hours, he asked his Dad to play a game with him.  Then Zora heard “play a game” and wanted to also join, so we went into storage and dug out our nice chess set, from Zach’s mom.  Zach ended up playing with both of them at once, Zane an actual game, and Zora a pretend game.

I am SO excited to see him be interested in chess.  When he gets a little better it would be a great social outlet for him, besides the obvious brain building benefits.

Zach’s birthday was pretty low key this year.  Zora helped make the brownies for Dad because she insisted that he needed a cake of some kind.  Both the kids made cards, and Zach’s best friend came over and bought him a burrito from Chipoltes for his birthday.

From Zora, picture is a truck

From Zane, picture is a skateboarder

The robot detects objects, gives a warning, then shoots a ball.

Zach went back to work. YAY! The unemployment was over and we had to adjust to regular life again. He is now an application engineer for a balloon company. The best part of the job is that it is really close to us, which allows him to come home for lunch and, since it is across the street from where the kids get ST and Zora has preschool, he is able to drop her off when she has school so that Zane and I can eek out a little more time for school without Zora underfoot.

The other big surprise was the sheer volume of stuff sent to us for Zane’s school. He is enrolled with Lawrence Virtual School (public school district in Lawrence, KS) and doing the K-12 curriculum. I was expecting a shipment of a few textbooks, but was shocked when I got several big boxes including everything from art supplies (paints, brushes, modeling clay), science stuff (pulleys, levers, graduated cylinder, a rock collection that shows the hardness scale, magnifying glass, thermometers), math manipulatives (gram cubes and bars in a different color than ones we own, wooden 3D shapes, a balance scale exactly like we have so both kids can do their own thing with a scale, and some connecting unicubes), and maps, inflatable globe, and books. LOTS of books. Science books, art books, and every language arts book we will need during the semester. It was like Christmas. It took us a while to even open everything. We don’t have to return any of it.

A few days later I went to a meeting and picked up the laptop and nice case that we get to keep as long as he is enrolled in the class.

#192: Happy Birthday Zach! Zach was excited to spend his birthday with his mom for the first time in years. It was a lot of fun. In the evening we went to Carrabbas.

Naturally, I couldn’t stop with one picture. lol.

#81 Bubble Joy!

Zach succumbed to the begging of Zora for Bubbles. Both kids were out enjoying the fun, but only Zora was dressed appropriate for internet viewing.