Who Needs Football or Basketball?

Okay, maybe running in a circle isn't quite as much fun to watch as football or basketball, but it was nice to see our middle son at today's track meet.

Bret Jr. runs the 400 meter dash and the 800 meter race.

He finished 4th in the 400 meter dash. And here are the highlights of his 800 meter run...



He finished third, which is really good considering that Bret has never been a runner before this year.

Of course, after his races, he is pretty worn out...



Congratulations Bret.

Kekoa is a Star!

Our kids were asked to participate in a political commercial for their grandfather - which they were all happy to do (but unfortunately, Alyssa had to work).  Their roles consisted of sitting on a couch with their grandpa as he read them a book.

But the director really liked Kekoa and asked if he would be willing to do a few more lines as a closeup.

Here he is, standing before the crew...



Of course, his brothers gave him a bit of grief as the the lady in blue applied more makeup on Kekoa...



But hey, no matter what his brothers say, Kekoa was a star today!



Congratulations Kekoa!

David Gets a Haircut

Finally, after more than a year, our oldest son David decided to get a haircut.

Of course, he didn't trust anyone to do it but himself...



And here was the outcome...



For a while there, it was looking like we had four daughters - but no more!

Bret Loves Pi

On April 1st, the bookstore on 3rd Avenue - "Untitled" - posted an unusual challenge on their Facebook page:

"Today and today only, we at "Untitled" will be giving away a $100 gift certificate to any customer today who can come in and recite the correct sequence of pi to the 100th decimal point.  Come on down and have some pi!"

Of course, it was meant to be an April Fool's joke. Who in their right mind could memorize 100 digits of pi before the day was over?.

Well, apparently my son Bret Jr. isn't of his right mind.

Bret's teacher had challenged him to memorize 50 digits of pi in March. He spent two weeks doing it, but eventually he memorized the 50 digits - by far the most of anyone in his class! But that was as far as he thought he could go.

Then Alyssa noticed the joke/challenge on Facebook on April Fool's Day - and pushed her brother to see if he could memorize the rest.

So he spent about 4 hours working on it, and we went to the store about 15 minutes before it closed.

And much to the incredible surprise of the bookstore owner, my son recited all 100 digits of pi.

He was so impressed that he gave Bret the $100 gift certificate even thought it was supposed to be a joke:



Congratulations Bret!

Happy Birthday Grandpa Bernie!

A birthday video for Grandpa upon his 88th birthday...

Springtime for Children in Door County!

It's springtime for children in Door County! Okay, maybe that's not quite a Mel Brooks song, but it does mean it's time for spring concerts!

There are few communities in the country that celebrate the arts more than Door County, so it's not surprising that we have very elaborate music and art programs. Here are the highlights of the concerts from three of our kids.

The first is Malia's performance. Here are the 1st graders doing a tribute to Appalachian folk songs...



Our elementary schools in Sturgeon Bay are separated by grade. 1st & 2nd grade go to Sawyer Elementary, 3rd, 4th & 5th go to Sunrise Elementary.

This means that Nalani goes to a different elementary school than Malia - but they sang the same songs.

Here is the third grade also singing a collection of Appalachian folk songs...



And finally, we have Kekoa and the 5th graders. They decided to be hippies for a day - complete with tie dyed shirts of their own design...



Springtime in Door County!

Plays & Performances Abound

Bret Jr.'s basketball tournaments have been eating up a lot of our time - but there's also all the stuff that our other kids do on the side.  For instance, David served as the co-host of the Sturgeon Bay Middle School Arts Night.

Here's a compilation of videos of my son introducing the acts along with his friend Charles...



Of course, everyone thought we were nuts. I was the only guy in the room who'd pick up the video camera to film the guys who introduce the acts - only to put the camera down once the acts began.

Last week we also attended the Destination Imagination performances of a couple of our kids. For the uninitiated, Destination Imagination (or "DI" as it's known) is a program in which kids have to perform a challenge in the context of a skit they write for themselves. They practice this for several weeks before performing it before an audience and a panel of judges the day of the DI Tournament.

Bret Jr., Kekoa and Nalani all participated in the program.

Unfortunately, Nalani and Bret Jr.'s performances were scheduled for the same time in different rooms. Cari was one of the coaches of Nalani's team, so I went to see Bret Jr.'s peformance on the day of the tournament while Cari stayed with Nalani.

But I wanted to see Nalani's skit, so I attended her final practice which her team put on before her classmates.

Here's a video of the final practice of Nalani's 3rd grade team. Early on, Nalani plays the role of the Fruit Queen - sending her troops to battle the evil Candy Soldiers. Later, all the girls are Cheesehead Aliens and they walk with a strange walk.

Hey, it's an original skit written by 3rd graders...



Kekoa's 5th grade team did a nice job as well. The story revolves around a dream of a "dumb nerd," played by my son Kekoa...



Bret Jr. also participated on a 6th grade team, but he asked his mother not to post the video online. Oh well.

Mmmmmmmmmmmmm.

I came home today and discovered stacks and stacks of Girl Scout cookies.  The garage smells wonderful!



I was going to dig in, but Cari (the troop leader) wouldn't let me.  Something about other people already paying for them.

Evil temptress.