Helping

One of the nice things about Christmas time is that it provides opportunities for us to get our kids involved with helping out others. Mrs. BigKat and I are always looking for ways that our kids can do things to get them personally involved with sharing God's love with people who need help.

Last month, we did a couple of different things. The first was Operation Christmas Child. It's a program through Samaritan's Purse that shares shoeboxes filled with gifts as well as the Good News about Jesus with kids in tough situations all around the world.

We had a great time with it. We took our kids to Target and bought up a ton of stuff to fill shoeboxes with. We had a list of the different types of items that we wanted to get (toys, candy, school supplies, clothes, toothbrushes, soap, etc.) and the kids all got a chance to pick out which things they thought the other children would like the most. The boys even got to spend some of their own money on special items that they wanted included. At home, LilKat1 and I carefully laid all of the stuff out, divided it up, and filled all of our boxes. Then we drove all of the boxes down to the dropoff location. The boys liked being able to see the hundreds of other shoeboxes that were already there. We talked about how God is using people in our community and all over the country to share His love with people all around the world. And of course we prayed for all of the kids that the shoeboxes are going to.

Another thing we got to do was box up food for a local food pantry. At LilKat1's school, there are many families who depend on the free lunches that the school gives their kids. When their kids are home for winter break, they can have problems providing enough food for their families. The food pantry provides them with boxes of food to help them get through the couple of weeks when their children are home from school. Our Bible study group decided to help out with this situation. One of the members of our group was able to get a bunch of food to donate to the food pantry. All of the families got together one night and worked assembly-line style to box everything up. All 3 of our children had a great time with this.

Me and LilKat2 were in charge of canned peppers and boxes of breadsticks. Each food box was to get 2 cans of peppers and one box of breadsticks. As a food box would get pushed in front of me, I'd yell out "Two cans!" LilKat2 would run over to his pile, grab 2 cans of peppers, hand them to me, and I'd drop them in the box. Then I'd yell "One box!" and LilKat2 would run back to his pile, grab a box of breadsticks, hurry back, and hand it off to me to put into the food box.

Mrs. BigKat, LilKat1, and PrincessKat were in charge of tempura mix and rice. LilKat1 was in charge of rice. PrincessKat was in charge of tempura, but under LilKat1's supervision. In other words, if she got distracted, it was LilKat1's job to make sure that 2 boxes of tempura still got into the food box. 

That night was a lot of fun. It was great seeing how excited the kids were to do things to help out others. They seemed to really like the idea that they were actually in charge of an important job that was going to really help some people in need.

This month, we're going to be able to go to the store and purchase any other food that the food pantry needs. And hopefully, we'll be able to help distribute the food as well.

I think it's pretty cool that our kids are now getting to the age where they can do things like this. As a Christian parent, I want to make sure that the whole idea of ministering to others and serving others is just part of their normal lifestyle. It's not always easy to find opportunities for small children to do things that they can actively participate in, which is why I think it's important to try and come up with creative ideas.

One idea that I had that I would like to start doing it going around to neighborhood garage sales on the weekend and find jackets and blankets that we can give to the people at church that minister to the homeless. I think I would also like to start making it a regular part of our weekly grocery shopping where the kids can go down the canned food aisle and pick out stuff that they'd like to donate to the food pantry.

Like I said, I like it that there are these great Christmas-time opportunities for our children participate in helping others. But at the same time, I want to make sure that they know that serving others isn't something we do just once a year, once a month, or once a week. It's part of sharing Jesus' love which is an all the time thing.

Tichu

I own a bunch of boardgames. I've got a whole wall full of them. I've got train games, racing games, city building games, archeology games, zombie games, war games, space games, sports games, mystery games, and many more!

But right now, my favorite 4 player game is a simple card game that costs under $10...Tichu!

Tichu uses an almost standard deck of cards. It's a regular 52 card deck, but with 4 special cards added. I was originally interested in the game because I heard it was similar to a game I used to play in college all the time, Big 2 (although, back then, we just called it 'Big'). 

Tichu (like Big 2) is a trick taking games (or I guess more accurately, a climbing game) where one player will lead a card (or set of cards) and the other players must play cards that are higher than the previously played card(s). For example, if a player plays a 5, the next player would have to play something higher than the 5, like an 8.

Not only can you play single cards, but you can also play sets of cards, like pairs, triples, or runs. So, if a pair is led, the every player that follows can only play pairs of cards. If everyone passes after a player plays a card, that player wins the trick and gets to lead a new card (or set of cards).

The player who gets rid of their cards first is the winner of the round.

Pretty simple stuff so far, right? Well, the part that makes Tichu interesting is that it is a partner game, kind of like bridge. At the beginning of the round, someone will usually call 'Tichu'. When they do this, they are trying to be the first one to get rid of their cards (they get a lot of bonus points if they succeed, but will also get penalty points if they fail). So your job is to either get rid of your cards first or try to help your partner get rid of their cards first. But you can't actually say what things are in your hands or what you'd like them to play.

And in our house, this leads to some fun times...

...like when I yelled at My-Friend-Who-Lies (MFWL, who was my parter at the time) because I was going for a Tichu and he played a middle ranked single, preventing me from getting rid of one of my low cards.

...like when I passed MFWL (again, my parter for the game) the Hounds (one of the special cards) 3 times in a row and really wanted to pass it to him a 4th time to be funny, even though it would've really messed up his bid for a Grand Tichu (and given us a 200 point penalty)

...like when my mom was using VERY un-subtle hand signals to ask me if I should break up her run of 3 pairs

...like when my mom started woofing as another un-subtle way of finding out if she should play her hounds

...like when MFWL and I start complaining about the bad plays the other person was making, even though we were winning by several hundred points (it's actually quite funny when we're partners)

So far, we've had 2 sessions of Tichu and they've both been great fun. The game itself has a lot of interesting decisions to make, and you also get to use a little bit of creativity figuring out what combinations to create when playing your cards. The rules take a little while to explain, but the complexity level is really quite low, which provides for a nice, relaxing, fun game.

But again, the great thing about Tichu is the partnership aspect. Mrs. BigKat noticed that we laughed a lot more in this game than when playing our regular boardgames. In this sense, it was kind of like a party game, but with the tactical decision making of a boardgame.

If you ever have 2 couples getting together for a game night, this one should be right at the top of the list of games to play. This is one game that I can see playing many years down the line while wearing my straw hat, white tennis shoes, and dress socks after the kids ship me and Mrs. BigKat off to a retirement home.

Hide and Seek 2.0

Now that the weather's getting colder and rainier, indoor Hide and Seek has become a popular after dinner activity in the BigKat household. Even PrincessKat participates sometimes (and let me tell you, you have not seen cute until you've seen a teeny-tiny 2 year old run behind a coffee table and flop on the ground with her hands covering her face while her big brother is counting).

Well, today, me and the boys came up with a new and improved version of Hide and Seek. We called it the 'Monster Treasure Hunt'. Here's how it works...

First, the Monster (me) gathers up his treasures (3 balls, not too big. Like a kid sized soccer ball). Then he goes upstairs to hide them. The Monster puts them in places that they are fairly easy to see, but also near a potential Monster hiding spot (like in front of a closet). When he's ready, he tells the Treasure Hunters to start counting. While the Treasure Hunters count to 20, the Monster hides near one of the treasures.

When the Treasure Hunters are done counting, they head up the stairs. Their job is to find the treasures and bring them back down. So they search around until they spot one. Then they have to go get it...

Now this is the funny part because they don't know if the Monster is near that particular treasure. And if the Monster is nearby, they don't know exactly where he's hiding. This makes the Treasure Hunters quite nervous as they approach the treasure. Almost like Indiana Jones going into a booby trapped room to get a gold statue. And it is absolutely HI-LARIOUS to see a 6 year old pushing his 4 year old little brother into a room to go get the treasure while he hangs back in the hallway where its safe.

Well, you've probably figured out that the Monster's job is to scare the daylights out of them when one of them gets near the treasure. Then everyone runs screaming down the stairs and gets chased around the kitchen several times for good measure. When the Monster catches LilKat1, his job is to tickle him. LilKat2 prefers not to get tickled, so he just gets hugged and kissed.

At the end, when all the treasures are found, you repeat the whole thing all over again. And again. And again.

Anyhow, if you're finding that your games of Hide and Seek are growing a little bit stale, I highly recommend this new, exciting thrill-packed version.

I'm Done!

Oh boy, what a week...

Here's all the stuff I did:

1) Ran 3 Soccer practices

2) Coached 2 Soccer games

3) Attended 2 End of Season Soccer parties

4) Created 2 Soccer Team movies (along with copies for all of the parents)

5) Created 1 flower arrangement for my friend K's family (huge assist from Mrs. BigKat here)

6) Attended 1 pumpkin carving event at LilKat1's school

7) Created 1 Sunday School PowerPoint lesson with associated take home pages

All while sick!

I just printed the last page of my Sunday School stuff.

I'm done! Woo hoo!

Oyster Race

Ever heard of the Oyster Race? A friend of mine just ran one last weekend. It sounds like a ton of fun! You team up with some friends and do an 'Amazing Race' style event where you get clues that take you all around a big city. There's running, biking, skating, and other things, so it sounds like a pretty good workout. But there are also other challenges, like finding certain flowers in the Rose Garden and taking a picture of them, or sitting in every single seat in a particular row at a sports stadium. I am definitely going to do this next year. It just sounds too fun.

Here's a video of what it's like...

Boo-ing

Last Friday, while I was in the kitchen, the doorbell rang. I took a look through the window and saw a small child running away. LilKat1 rand over and opened the door, only to find a small bag of candy one the welcome mat.

This was exciting for 2 reasons:

1) We got a bag of candy

2) It's BOO-ing TIME!

BOO-ing is one of our favorite activities. I look forward to this all year long. Have you heard of BOO-ing? No? Well, let me show you how it works...

First, you print out one coloring page for each house that you're going to 'BOO'. You also need to print out an instruction page for each house as well. Then you make a little bag of candy or treats for each place and attach the pages that you've printed out.

Then you sneak over to your target houses, leave their stuff in front of their door, ring their doorbell, and run away without being caught. The idea is that then they will do the same thing for 2 other houses, and so on and so on. You put the coloring page on your door after you've been BOO-ed so everyone knows not to BOO your house again. 

My boys love doing this. We actually break the rules a little bit and BOO several houses. This year, we did 6.

Now, in the past, you could say that we have been a little less than sneaky. For instance, a couple of years ago, we BOO-ed 4 houses and I think we got caught 4 times. The boys just weren't that fast back then. Especially on houses with steps. I ended up having to carry LilKat2 like a football to try and get away quickly without being caught. And it didn't always work.

But now the boys are starting to get bigger and faster. We BOO-ed all 6 houses and didn't get caught once! This year, LilKat1 was in charge of putting the candy on the step and ringing the bell (LilKat2 was in charge of the candy on the first house, but got too nervous after that. For the rest of the houses, his job was to stand on the sidewalk and be the lookout).

It is hard to describe how much fun this is for us. My boys love 'secret agent' type stuff and this definitely fits right in. They actually get quite nervous about not getting caught. But I think that's part of what makes it so fun for them.

I think I need to figure out a way to do this at Christmas time too. Call it Secret Agent Santa-ing?Or maybe Ho-Ho-Ho-ing? We'll see...

Back Home

We got back home from our trip down to my dad's house yesterday. We had a good time, but it wore all of us out. Lots of good stuff always happens when we take trips like this. Here are some of the highlights:

 

1) Kid Conversations - Sometimes when we're driving, me and Mrs. BigKat will just be quiet and listen to the goofy conversations that are going on in the back seat. Here's an example of a time where LilKat1 was being a good big brother and explaining all about dinosaurs to his little brother...

LilKat2: Why is it called a Triceratops?

LilKat1: Because it tries a lot. It tries and it tries and it tries and then it...(pause)...ceratops!

2) The big bang - We had been driving for a little while. The kids were in the back quietly coloring in their brand new coloring books. We started to pass a big rig when, suddenly, on of its tires blew up right next to us. The noise was pretty loud, and I had to swerve a little to avoid the flying tire bits. It caused quite a commotion in our car. From the back I heard LilKat1 exclaim 'It almost made me...'

Now, at this point, I was very curious to find out what the big noise almost made him do. Because when a grownup starts a sentence like this, it is very likely to end with something that I might not want my kids to say. I wasn't quite sure what to expect, but was anxious to find out because I figured it was going to be good, whatever it was. And LilKat1 did not disappoint me. He said...

'It almost made me SCRIBBLE!'

I realize that this may be one of those 'you had to be there' moments, but it made me and Mrs. BigKat laugh for a couple of minutes.

3) Golf - I got to play golf with my dad on Sunday. Now, I'm not the best golfer in the world at all. I'm actually pretty bad. I play only once or twice a year, but this time I was quite happy with how I played! I was hitting my driver nice and straight, and I made a bunch of long putts (the part in the middle was not so great though...). After I had made a couple of good putts, I started to get quite confident in my putting. I was able to read the greens fairly well which is something that I don't normally do. On the scorecard, I started making little notations for places where I made a nice putt. Well, we got to this one hole and I knew that the ball was going to break to the left. But my dad said that it was going to break to the right. Now, my dad is not the best putter in the world, so I really should've known better. But I decided to listen to him and hit the ball as if it was going to break to the right.

It broke to the left.

I was so mad! I quickly picked up another ball and put it in the same spot so that I could see how I would have done if I had it it my way. Sure enough, it broke exactly like I thought it would. I took a double-bogey on that hole, but as I was writing my score down, I put LTD next to it. My dad asked me what that was for. I told him that it was so I could remember that that was when I Listened To Dad. It's now a standard piece of golf lingo in my vocabulary. As in 'I think I could've broken 100 today, if I only had a few less LTD's.'

4. The 'Breakfast' - For some reason, my dad knows very little about the appropriate way to act around kids. I am always telling my kids that 'Yes, I know Grandpa is doing that, but it's really something that we're not supposed to do.' Like walking in the middle of the street, saying potty words, taking your seat belt off while the car is moving, things like that.

Actually, it's not just around kids, it's around grown-ups too. One time, Mrs. BigKat made some lunch for me. He took a look at it and said 'That's disgusting!' right in front of her face! She did not appreciate this at all. Still gets mad about it to this day. But the point is that there is very little that he does that surprises me anymore. Until yesterday...

LilKat2 woke up early and left his bedroom to go hang out with Grandpa. I got myself ready and then went out to see what they were up to. I saw LilKat2 was at the kitchen table, so I figured that Grandpa must've gotten him some something to eat. Want to know what he had prepared LilKat2 for breakfast?

A glass of root beer!

Who gives a glass of root beer to a 4 year old for breakfast? Not cereal, not milk, not juice. Root beer! I had trouble comprehending what I was seeing because I didn't think anyone would actually think to do such a thing! At least when Bill Cosby gave his kids chocolate cake for breakfast, he served it with some grapefruit juice! I immediately took that root beer away, which of course made LilKat2 cry.

5. Boardgame withdrawals - For some goofy reason, we didn't bring any board games with us, except for a copy of Ingenious that we gave to my dad as a birthday present. So in 3 nights, I only got to play one board game. On the drive home, I having to tell Mrs. BigKat that I missed my boardgames. She was very nice and played a game of Roma with me last night after I came home from basketball, even though it was late. Isn't she great?

 

And now we're back home. Everyone got to sleep in their own beds last night, which made everyone very happy. Traveling is fun, but, with kids, it can be a lot of work!

Soccer Games

I tried out 2 new games at soccer practice yesterday, and they worked pretty well. One was for the Kindergarten team and the other was for the 1st grade team.

1) Hospital Tag: I played this with the Kindergarten team. It's basically a game where one or more players are It and chase the remaining players around, trying to tag them. But when you get tagged, you're not out yet. The first time you get tagged, you have to run around with one hand on the spot where you were tagged. The second time you get tagged, you have to put your other hand on the spot where you were just tagged. It's pretty funny to see kids who have been tagged twice running around with their arms all tied up like a pretzel. The third time you get tagged, you have to go to the Hospital (since you have no more hands). You go over to a designated spot and perform an action (in our case, it was spin around 5 times) and then get back in the game.
We played our first game with no soccer balls, so that the kids could get used to the rules. For the second game, the players had to run around with their soccer balls. And if their ball went out of bounds, either by them kicking it out or someone else kicking it out, it was the same as being tagged on the foot. Now you have not seen funny until you've seen a group of Kindergarteners 'running' around trying to kick a soccer ball while holding their foot. There was a lot of laughing involved by both kids and adults (well, there was the one dad who saw his son holding his foot and ran to check on him because he thought he'd been injured...). Anyhow, it was a very good game to start off a Kindergarten soccer practice.

2) Zombies! : I played this with LilKat1's 1st grade team. We're trying to work on our passing this year and getting open. So I came up with the Zombies! game. In this game, the kids get into pairs (although groups of 3 work well too). Each group has one soccer ball. The coaches are the Zombies! who try to eat the soccer balls. Now Zombies! can only walk, not run. So normally it would be easy to get away from them. But in the Zombies! game, the person with the ball can not run or dribble. The only thing they can do is pass. This forces the other players on the team to get open in a spot with a clear passing lane. It worked pretty well. The kids were starting to get the hang of finding good spots to run to when they didn't have the ball. I think this is the only game we've done so far that has really achieved this goal. Plus, I think they had fun with the Zombies!

The Week in Review

A lot happened this week, so I thought I'd give you a quick review...

1) Camping! Me and LilKat1 went on our first camping trip on Saturday. We went to a place not too far from our house. We took LilKat2 with us, and Mrs. BigKat and PrincessKat caught up with us after PrincessKat's nap. It was quite fun. We set up our campsite, did some hiking, fishing, and marshmallow toasting. At around 7pm, Mrs. BigKat took LilKat2 (who did NOT want to go. He was very sad...) and PrincessKat home. That left me and LilKat1 at the camp. We went out and did some more fishing. It started to get dark, so we went back to the campsite and got ready for bed. Unfortunately, the people next to us were really loud for a long time. The camp ranger guy even had to come out and scold them. But it didn't help. So LilKat1 had a lot of trouble falling asleep. He eventually did at around 11:30 or so, but was awakened 2 and a half hours later by BOOMING THUNDER! His first time camping and we get caught in a Big Loud Thunderstorm. He didn't like it one bit. He asked me if we could go home. At first, I was thinking that we should just stick it out and stay until morning. The tent was keeping us dry, and we wouldn't be able to pack up until it stopped raining anyways. But I knew that he would not be able to fall asleep all night and would be pretty much miserable, so I agreed to take him home. Besides, my air mattress was leaking and I was basically just sleeping on the ground. Getting a few hours of sleep in my bed sounded much nicer than where I was at the time. So at around 3am, we quickly packed everything up and headed home. And that was LilKat1's first camping experience! Mrs. BigKat asked him if he'd like to do it again sometime, and he gave her an emphatic NO!

2) Mormons! When we got home from camping, I left all of our stuff in the truck. So the next day (Sunday), I had to unload everything. Right as I was starting, 3 Mormon guys rang our doorbell. Now anyone who knows me knows that I love talking to the Mormons. It basically gives me an opportunity to share the Gospel with a group of people and they have to stand there and listen to it and not go away! And sometimes, they even come back for more! I always see it as a great opportunity and have fun with it. These boys that came were very nice. One of them had actually come by a few weeks back, and it was clear that, this time, they had a game plan. But I wouldn't let all the talk of latter day prophets deter me from sharing my faith with these fellas. We talked for about an hour and a half. Mormon theology has a lot of things that don't make a lot of sense to me, so I was able to bring these things up to give them something to think about. It was also a nice exercise for me because it gave me an opportunity to try to articulate my beliefs in a way that people with different beliefs can understand. Plus, I was able to unload all my camping stuff while we talked, so I didn't feel like I was not getting my jobs done.

3) Dinosaur VBS and the crazy pastor! LilKat1 was invited to go to a VBS program at a local church. It was a dinosaur themed program, and LilKat1 LOVES dinosaurs. He only heard about it yesterday, so today was his first day. When he came back, he was all smiles. He had a fantastic time. He handed me all of the stuff that he got, and I started looking through it. Then I noticed something strange...on his handout, there was a lot of stuff about dinosaurs, but also a lot of stuff about Noah's Ark. I didn't get the connection. Then I saw the big picture on the 3rd page and it all made sense. The picture talked about how scientists have many ideas about how the dinosaurs became extinct, but they're pretty much wrong. You see, the real reason why the dinosaurs are extinct is...THE FLOOD! As in the Noah's Ark Flood.

Needless to say, I was a bit surprised. I had never heard of anyone believing this. I quickly called LilKat1 over and asked him if they talked about how the dinosaurs became extinct. He said 'Oh yeah...The flood!' I had to have a talk with him right away and let him know that I didn't think that this was right. He was pretty disturbed by the fact that I disagreed with the VBS people, so we had to have a big talk about it to settle him down.

I wanted to make sure that we wouldn't be in for any more surprises tomorrow, so I called the church. I was able to talk to the pastor, and I expressed my concerns. Now, this guy was amazing. He fully believes that not only were dinosaurs made extinct by the flood, but there were a bunch of them on Noah's ark. Now, I personally don't believe this (like I said, this was the first time I'd even heard of it), but I'm actually ok with someone else thinking that it's true. After all, I'll be the first to admit that I don't know a whole lot about the ins-and-outs of Dinsaur-ology. But there's a good reason why I haven't studied the subject very much: Because It's Not That Important! You see, this guy acted like his view about dinosaurs was a fundamental doctrine of Christianity. Basically, he was telling me that either you believe this version of how the dinosaurs became extinct, or you didn't believe that the Bible was the Word of God and you didn't believe that there is a Creator of the universe. I tried to tell him that it was hard for me to believe that something so trivial as when the dinosaurs existed would play a role in God's Plan of Salvation, but he was having none of it. According to him, I had a decision to make, and apparently, what I believe right now is not one of the options. It took me quite a while to get him off the topic of the Importance of Dinosaurs and on to the topic of Is There Anything in Friday's Lesson That I Need To Be Worried About, but finally, he filled me in. I'm a little apprehensive about it, but LilKat1 is still going to the VBS program at the crazy church tomorrow. I would rather he not go, but he just loved it so much that I can't not let him go. And I figure that if they teach him anything wrong, I can always set him straight like I did today.

One big problem that I had was that the pastor did not seem to care about the emotional impact of telling a kid something that contradicts what their parents and teachers might be teaching them. I mean, this is an outreach ministry, but he didn't seem to care at all about looking at things from the perspective of the kids that they're supposed to be ministering to. If you're going to teach the kids something as controversial as this, you'd think that you'd want to put a little preemptive effort into alleviating any confusion that the kids might have. His thing was that he wanted to be able to get to the parents with his message about the dinosaurs through the kids. I don't know, just seems kind of rotten to me. Hopefully, things will go smoothly tomorrow.

4) Soccer! Soccer's still going on and I found out something about LilKat2 today. That kid has WHEELS! Oh my goodness! He's 4 years old, but he's on a Kindergarten team. Today, we played a game of Sharks and Minnows. In this game, the minnows have to get from one side of the field to the other side without being tagged by a shark. If they are tagged, then they become a shark in the next round. Well, at one point today, everyone was a shark except for LilKat2. He was the lone minnow. I said 'Go!' and he took off. He headed towards the sideline with the whole rest of the team chasing him. Then he turned the corner and flew past everyone, and made it to the other side untouched. Now, I understand more than anyone that 5 year olds are not known for their knowledge of pursuit angles. But still, none of the kids on the team came close to catching him from behind. LilKat2 is a Fast Little Boy.

5) Road Trip! We leave tomorrow to go to my dad's house. Should be a fun trip. We actually enjoy the travel part of it, and I'm looking forward to the drive.

Furniture Shopping: Then and Now

We went to Ikea over the weekend to get some new furniture. I thought it was interesting how different furniture shopping is now compared to when I was a boy.

A long time ago, there were 2 things that I hated the most: furniture shopping and plant shopping. And it seemed like we did both of these things every weekend for as long as I was a kid. When we went furniture shopping, we went to Levitz, and it was B-O-R-I-N-G! First of all, the whole place was a big boring warehouse. First, we'd look at a bunch of boring couches. Then we'd look at some boring beds. Then maybe some boring tables. Then back to the boring couches. Not. Fun. At. All.

Compare this to the boys' experience at Ikea. First, we check them into this play area. There's a big ball pit that they can jump in. There's things to climb on, including the world's biggest wooden shoe. There's a coloring station. There's a movie (with couches!). And the coloring station was right by the movie, so you could color AND watch a movie. When Mrs. BigKat picked them up, she knew immediately that they had a great time running around because LilKat2 was drenched in sweat. After playing, they got to eat lunch at a cafeteria. LilKat1 got macaroni and cheese, and LilKat2 got a PB&J with a fruit cup. They both even got their own orange juices. And the best part was that they got to sit at a table right next to the window. The Portland Ikea is right next door to the Portland airport, so they got to see big huge jets fly overhead every few minutes. How cool is that? Oh yeah, they also got chocolate cake.

You want to know the highlight of all my trips to the furniture store? One time, my parents let me get a candy bar from the vending machine (yay...). I didn't know what to get, so I got a Big Hunk. I didn't know what a Big Hunk was, but it had a brown wrapper, which is the universal sign for chocolate. How could I go wrong?
Well, if you've ever had a Big Hunk, you already know that it may as well have been called a Big Mistake or maybe even a Big Lie, because there is no chocolate involved in it at all. Just a big pile of chewy (and not just gummy bear chewy or even salt water taffy chewy, but more like steel belted radial chewy). Now, I'm not positive that this next part actually happened, but I have this vague memory of 'losing' the Big Hunk somewhere in a boring couch (which in all honesty, was a smart call by me because if my parents had found out that they bought me a candy bar and didn't like it, it would've drastically reduced the likelihood of future vending machine purchases...but again, I'm still not sure I actually did this. Although, My Friend Who Lies (MFWL) seems to believe that I did. Not that he was there or anything, he just likes to think the worst of me).

But I'm not bitter about any of this. Really! I very much appreciate the ability to do furniture shopping without having to drag around bored, complainy kids. Maybe we'll just start going here instead of to the zoo.

First week of August

Lots of stuff going on this week. I thought I'd smash them all into one post:

1) Soccer started! We had our first practice on Tuesday. LilKat2's team was first, followed immediately by LilKat1. You know what? Running 2 soccer practices back-to-back takes a lot out of you! Especially when it's hot. The dinner schedule on soccer nights is a little crazy, we end up eating in shifts. But it was a lot of fun. We have our second practice today. I think it's going to be hot again, so I'm going to break out the dribble-the-ball-quickly-to-the-other-side-before-I-pummel-you-with-my-water-squirter game.

2) Got some free money at Costco yesterday! Mrs. BigKat and I had our weekly date night last night, and after we ate, we ended up at Costco (I know, Costco doesn't sound like a great date night, but we actually really enjoy walking around a store with no children. A lot). Earlier this summer, we bought a new tv. It's a nice tv, but just a shade too big for the space that we put it in. Mrs. BigKat wanted to see the tv that was a size smaller. We went to the tv section to take a look, and we noticed that our current tv was listed with a $100 rebate. After we were done shopping, I went to the customer service desk to find out if I could get the rebate for my earlier purchase. The lady said that it would be fine, but only if I bought my tv in the last 30 days. We went home, and I checked my receipt. 30 days! Perfect...no wait...there's 31 days in July...oops! 31 days! Not so perfect! I went back to Costco and saw the same lady and asked if it was ok even though I bought the tv 31 days ago. She asked her manager, and he said it was fine. Woo hoo! She handed me a $100 and off I went. Free money!

3) So last week, I ordered a big pile of games. Well, it turns out that the place I ordered from ran out of games, so they canceled my order. Which actually worked out nice because it saved me a lot of money! To celebrate my good fortune, I ordered a different big pile of games from Boards and Bits, one of my very favorite places to buy games. Here's what I got:

1. Taluva - A cool tile laying game where you build up a little island with volcanoes and stuff.
2. Ubongo das Duell - Another game in the Ubongo series. It's a puzzle game where you have to figure out the right way to fit these tetris-like pieces together. But this version is really hard! It uses crazy, monstrous, misfigured tetris pieces! And there's lots of them!
3. Roma - I've been wanting this for a while, but I've read that a new version was going to come out soon. Well, I couldn't take it any longer and just bought the old version. It's a 2 player card game that uses dice in an interesting way. Looks like a lot of fun.
4. Thebes - I got this mainly for game nights with my mom. She doesn't like it that I win so much, so I thought this would be a great game for us because it adds in a bit of a luck factor. It's an archeology game, where you travel to various places around the world in search of ancient artifacts. Part of the skill of the game involves doing your research so that you have the best chance to find something good. But in the end, even if you've done your homework, it's always possible that all you find is a big pile of dirt. This one looks like a very well made game, and I can't wait to try it out.
5. Scripts and Scribes - This game was the equivalent of standing in line at the grocery store, seeing a Whatchamacallit in the candy bin, and buying it even though you're not sure what it is, but it just looks kind of tasty. I hadn't heard of this game before, and I just saw it on the Boards and Bits website as I was about to check out. I researched it a bit and it looked pretty good. A lot of comparisons to For Sale, another game I like quite a bit. Always nice to have a game that you can play in just 10 or 20 minutes when you don't have time for a big game.
6. Mykerinos - We actually got to play this last night. What a great game! Another archeology game, although the theme doesn't seem as quite as important as in Thebes. It's really more of an abstract puzzle type game. You place cubes down on the excavation sites and try to control areas while blocking everyone else out. If you win a region, you get a card, which not only helps your score, but gives you special abilities in later rounds. Pretty simple, right? Well, there's a whole seperate component that you need to keep in mind: the museum. When you win a region, you have a choice of collecting a card, or getting a spot in the museum. Ignore the museum and your cards will not be worth that much at the end of the game. Focus too much on the museum and you won't have enough cards to gain control of the board. Also, you need to keep in mind when to save your resources for later rounds, and when to get as much as you can during the current round. This was really a fun game. Even as we were getting ready for bed, I kept muttering 'What a fun game!' It's funny, because the game itself it really small. The board is tiny, the pieces are tiny, the box is tiny. But the game itself is quite substantial. This one is one of my new favorites. The only problem with this game is that I don't know how to pronounce the name correctly...

4) My Friend Who Lies (MFWL) is getting married tomorrow. The wedding is at the beach. I'm taking the boys with me. They're very excited. This will be their first time at the beach ever! They've been wanting to go to a beach for so long.

5) My computer has been broken in one form or another for the past 2 weeks (ranging from 'Can't start SQL Server' to 'Can't run Windows in Safe Mode' to 'Randomly shutting down at some point during the day'). 3 video cards, 2 motherboards, 2 lcd's, a power supply and about 16 hours on the phone with tech support later, everything seems to be working fine again. Thank goodness!

Bike Parade!

We live in a pretty fun neighborhood. On the 4th of July, one of our neighbors organized a Bike Parade. A bunch of kids decorated their bikes and they marched around the neighborhood led by a lady dressed like the Statue of Liberty. The boys and I had been playing at the park that afternoon. We knew that the Bike Parade started at 4:30, so we wanted to make it back in time to check it out. But due to circumstances beyond our control (i.e. kids covered in wet sand), we were a little late getting back. The parade had just passed our house as we drove up. LilKat2 immediately ran from the truck and grabbed his bike. We hustled ourselves down the street and caught up with the parade (LilKat1 stayed at home, since is often quite averse to hustling). It was quite fun. Afterwards, the Statue of Liberty lady judged the bike decorations and handed out prizes. And all the kids got some candy.

A little later, there was a dog parade. I was curious to see if people were actually going to decorate their dogs. 5:30 rolled around and sure enough, there was a pack of red, white, and blue dogs walking in front of our house.

Isn't our neighborhood cool?

Father's Day Craft

Here's a craft that I've done in Sunday School for the past couple of years. I have the kids make their Dads a tie.

The kids start with a big piece of colored cardstock. We have a tie template that they use to trace out their tie shape. Then they cut out the tie and decorate it with colors and stickers and things. We punch a couple of holes at the top that we put a string through. Then the kids tie the string around their dad's neck. It's pretty fun to see all of the dads walking around with their goofy ties after church.

So if you're a Sunday School teacher looking for a good Father's Day craft, or if you just have some small kids that want to make something for their dad this weekend, there you go!

Paper Airplanes

Here's another good resource for having fun with your kids...

A couple of years ago, my stepmom got me a paper airplane calendar for Christmas. It's called the 'Paper Airplane Fold-A-Day Calendar'. Each day, you get to make an interesting paper airplane. The current day has the instructions. You use the instructions to fold up the previous day's page into the airplane. The pages are all colored so that your airplanes look extra cool when you're done.

I started out trying to do one a day, but quickly fell behind. So now, instead of using it as a calendar, I just take it out when me and the kids are looking for something fun to do. I'll fold 4 or 5 of them up and we'll have a whole brand new fleet of airplanes to play with.

I'm guessing that you can't get these calendars right now in the middle of the year, so you might have to wait a bit before you can find it. But they made a new one last year (my wife bought it for me), so hopefully they'll keep producing new ones each year.

One word of caution though...when I was searching for the calendar, I saw one called 365 Tiny Paper Airplanes Calendar. This one has the same group of paper airplanes repeated over and over again. Not as good. The one that I got has 365 different airplanes. Much more interesting!

Boardgames for Kids

In my last post, I talked about family activities that we like to do. Well, one of our favorite activities is playing boardgames. When I was a kid, I liked boardgames. I used play games like Battleship, Life, Bonkers, Sorry, Stratego...things like that. But as much as I liked those games, I always felt like there was something lacking. When I'd go to the game closet to pick out a game, it was never 'Hey! That's what I want to play!' but more of 'Hmmm...well, I guess we'll play this...'

Well, things have changed. There are a ton of great boardgames for kids out there. These are games that have that extra something that I would've loved to have when I was little. Cool pieces to look at, fun themes to keep things interesting, tactical decisions to make you use your brain a bit. Here are some of our favorites:

1) Monza - If you have a little boy that's into car racing, this is a great game. The race track in an oval that has a bunch of colored spaces on it. On your turn, you roll 6 dice that have different colors (that match the colors on the track) on each side. You have to put the dice in the best order to move your car the farthest around the track. It's kind of like a little puzzle for the kids. For example, they might roll something like blue, blue, red, white, yellow, purple. In front of them is a yellow square, so they put their yellow first. In front of that is a purple square, so they put that next. But for their next move, they could either go to a blue square or a red square. They have to then continue down each path to figure out which choice will advance them the farthest.
The race only lasts one lap, making Monza a nice short game, just about right for the attention span of a 3-5 year old. And it's a HABA game, which means very nice components (if you aren't familiar with HABA, they're a German (I think) company that produces some very nice stuff for kids. Most of their products are made from wood so they cost a bit more, but are top quality.)

2) Tier auf Tier - Another HABA game. This one has you stacking up little wooden animals on top of each other. The great thing about this game is that the animals can really stack on top of each other in interesting ways. My 4 year old plays this game and is ok with it. I took it to my older son's kindergarten class and they did fine. I would say this game would be good at least up through 8 years old, maybe more.

3) Blokus - Blokus is a kind of Tetris like puzzle game. Each player is given a set of colored pieces that they need to fit onto the board. When a player places a piece, a corner of the new piece must touch one of the corners of one of the player's pieces that is already on the board. Furthermore, the sides of the new piece may NOT touch the sides of any of the player's pieces that are already on the board. I've played this with the kids in my son's kindergarten class and it has been a hit. My 4 year old was also able to figure out how to play (and he even did this when he was 3). It's a great game because the rules are quite simple, but there are a lot of tactical decisions to be made. It also forces the kids to really use their brains when figuring out the best way to fit their pieces into place. This game is also a great game for adults, but only for 4 players (although there is a 2 player variant that works quite well). So I'd say this is a great game for ages 4 (maybe 3 depending on your kid) and up.

4) Gulo Gulo - Here is a game where the kids can beat their parents, even if the parents are trying their best. In this game, you pluck these little colored eggs from a small wooden bowl. But the bowl has a stick (the 'alarm') coming out of it. The player has to get the appropriate egg out of the bowl without making the alarm stick fall. The thing is that kids have these little ninja fingers that can easily pluck the eggs out without disturbing anything. But grownups have big fat clumsy fingers that just knock everything around. Both of our boys like this game. I would say that this would be good for 4 (and again maybe 3) up to 7 or so.
The game is a little on the expensive side, but it's got very nice components. It also has a box that is way too big. I'm guessing that if people are going to spend $25 on a kids game, they don't want a teeny-tiny box, even if a teeny-tiny box would fit everything just fine.

5) Zingo - Zingo is a very simple Bingo-like game that has a really cool dispenser that shoots out the tiles. If the picture on the tile matches a picture on a player's card, that player calls out the the name of the item on the picture. First person to say the name gets to put the tile on their card. First one to fill in their card (or get 3 in a row depending on how you want to play) wins. One of the nice things about this game is that you don't need to know how to read to play. You just say the name of the picture. Our boys like it a lot, and so do the kids in LilKat1's kindergarten. I've also played this with my 1st and 2nd graders in Sunday School and it has been a hit. So for this game, I'd say it would be good for ages 3 or 4 up through 8 or so.
There are a couple of downsides with this game though. Kids will fight over who gets to use the dispenser. If you're playing with them, it shouldn't be a problem because you can do the dispensing yourself. The other downside is that it can get competitive when kids are trying to get the tiles. I've had issues with this in Sunday School, but not so much with my boys. When we play at home, we generally keep playing until everyone gets 3 in a row. Then we all win! Works for us.

Now, you're asking 'Where do I get these wonderful games?', right? Well, some of the games, like Blokus and Zingo, can be picked up at Target and stores like that. Unfortunately, there are really few good games that can be purchased in the big retail stores. For the most part, if you want good kids games (or really good boardgames in general), you're going to have to go to either a specialized toy store or shop online.

If you're shopping online, a good resource is www.boardgameprices.com. Just type in the game you're looking for and you'll get a list of places that sell them along with how much they're selling for. Some of the places that I typically shop for kids games are www.thoughthammer.com, www.fairplaygames.com, and www.timewellspent.org.

I have more games that I'd like to mention, but I'll save those for later. Like I said, there are a bunch of really great games for kids out there. Get a few nice games in your collection and you and your kids will have lots of fun stuff to do on those rainy days when you can't go letterboxing or orienteering.

Family Activities

My friend Tara gave a link to this new weblog, Simply A Mom. It sounds like it will have a bunch of activities that you can do with your kids and other helpful things.

Which got me thinking...I should write about what we do with our kids!

We definitely like to do fun activities with our children. But due to schedules, naptimes, budgets, etc., our activities can't be big complicated all day events. The things we tend to do are simple yet at the same time fun for both parents and kids. So here you go...our favorite activities:

1) Orienteering - If you enjoy hiking, then I think you'll love orienteering. It's like hiking...but with a purpose! Orienteering events usually take place in large parks, although they can also take place in urban settings. You start with a map and a compass. The map tells you the location of several 'controls'. You have to use the map to figure out the best way to get to each control.
There are usually several courses with differing levels of difficulty. When we go as a family, we usually do the easiest course. The easier courses are pretty much all on trails, so you don't have to go off road at all.
Here's why we think orienteering is a great family activity:

• We get to take a nice hike in a park - The shorter courses can range anywhere from 1 to 3 miles. For our kids, the 1 mile one was too short and the 3 mile one really tuckered them out. If the shortest course seems too long, there's nothing keeping you from just cutting it short and stopping midway.
• Finding the controls makes it interesting for the kids - On the easier courses, each control is not too far apart. So they get to do something fun at regularly spaced intervals. In addition, you don't really know the exact location of the control from the map. So you are given a clue sheet that tells you what to look for when you get in the general vicinity. So finding each control can be like a little game (although on the easiest courses, the controls for the most part are quite easy to find).
• Kids have fun using the map - Now, our kids are too young to actually be able to read the map. But they seem to love holding it and trying to navigate with it.
• Not too expensive - At our events, the cost is usually $9 for the family ($7 for the 1st adult, $2 for any additional adults, kids are free).
• Scores - At the events that we go to, they post the results on the internet. So when you're done, a few days later, you can go to the website and show your kids how well you guys did.
• Local - There are several nice parks in our area. So most of the orienteering events are not very far away.

How do you start? Well, first of all, you need to find an orienteering club in your area. Try going here and see if you can find one. Then just find out when they're having an event. Orienteering events are kind of a big deal to set up, so there usually aren't too many a year. We probably only get to do this 3 or 4 times a year.

2) Letterboxing - Think your kids would like trying to find a hidden treasure? Then maybe you should take them letterboxing. In letterboxing, you're given a clue to the location of a 'letterbox'. It will be hidden in a public area. Some clues are pretty direct ('follow the path 100 meters, look at the base of the large oak tree') while some require you to use your brain a little bit.

When you go letterboxing, you need to bring a couple of things with you. You'll need your own personal rubber stamp and a notebook to use a letterboxing journal (and a stamp pad would be helpful as well). Why? Because each letterbox contains its own rubber stamp and journal. The journal in the letterbox contains a history of everyone who has ever found the box. The idea is that when you find a letterbox, you take your rubber stamp and mark a page in the journal, adding yourself to the letterbox's history. Then you take the stamp from the box and mark your own journal, so that you can keep track of all the boxes that you've found.

How do you get started? First go someplace like this to read up on the basics of letterboxing. Then go to a letterboxing website and look for clues in your area. When you find one that sounds interesting, get your supplies together and go find it! Pretty simple. Keep in mind that sometimes, you won't be able to find a letterbox. Since they're in public places, they can go missing every once in a while. Because of this, it might be a good idea to start with ones that have been recently placed (the clue lists should also have the placement dates).

Our kids really enjoy this. They call it 'treasure hunting'. There's something that's just plain fun about following a clue and actually finding a hidden box nestled under some twigs behind a bush, or underneath a park bench, exactly where the clue said it would be.

This is actually also a great activity for long car trips. When you're planning a trip, take a look and see if there are any letterboxes along the way. Maybe there's one at one of the rest stops or at a small park that's not too far from the highway. Fun activities like this can really break up a long road trip.

So yeah, I highly recommend letterboxing. One of the nice things is that you can really do it anytime. You don't need to wait for a special event, just pack up and go. And if your family gets really into it, maybe another activity that you could do would be to create your own letterbox!

There are other activities that we like to do, I'll save those for another post. But these are 2 of our favorites.

The Pickles

Here's a picture of my legs after running though the prickle bushes while orienteering last week. The funny part is that if you were to ask LilKat2 what happened to my legs, he would say that it was because his dad was 'running through the pickles'.

Orienteering!

Our family went on an orienteering adventure today. The weather forecast said that we were going to have showers. Not ideal weather, but nothing we haven't done before. The last 2 times we've went to this particular park for orienteering, we've been rained on. We got all of our raingear on, piled into our cars, and took off.

I took a look at the maps when we got there. The last time we came here, we did the easiest course (the 'White' course). It was too easy. I think it was a total of less than a mile. We finished and the boys (especially LilKat2) were itching for more. But this year's maps were much longer. The White course was a little over 3km. I thought it would be a good challenge for us.

It worked out pretty well! We had some rain, but our raincoats protected us (PrincessKat was in the stroller with a raincover, so she stayed the driest of all of us). Towards the end, we even got a little sun! LilKat1 had a good time, but he got a bit tired towards the end. LilKat2 said he had a 'great' time! He just loves orienteering. He takes off sprinting whenever he sees the controls.

After we were done, I decided that I was going to stick around and try the expert (Green) course by myself. We had taken separate cars, so Mrs. BigKat took the kids home while I stayed for another round. I was the last one to start for the day, so I had to get going pretty quickly.

It started out pretty well. The first 2 controls were not too bad to find. The sun was still peeking out, so the weather was good.

It all went downhill from there...

It started with control 3. Control 3 was near the south end of a small river. The small river was surrounded by prickly plants. Very prickly plants! And those very prickly plants were surrounded by other very prickly plants. And of course, I wore shorts because...well, I always wear shorts. As a result, my legs got a bit bloodies as I tried to fight my way through all of the prickles. Actually, you know what? Calling them prickles really doesn't do them justice. They were more like spikey razor claws. I had to fight my way through a field of spikey razor claws. In fact, later in the course, I had to crawl through a barbed wire fence. The barbed wire fence was less prickly than the spikey razor claws. Well, it took a while, but I finally got to control 3.

Control 4 looked pretty easy. But I took a slight wrong turn and wasted about 10 minutes looking for it. Not too bad, but not great for my time.

From that point on, things went pretty smoothly until control 9. I could not find control 9! I looked all over the place. I triple checked the map to make sure I was in the right place. I spent probably a good 20 minutes there looking for it. I started wondering, since I was the last person to start, did someone not know that I was still running and started taking all of the controls down? Well, I backtracked a little bit and tried one last time. This time, I looked a bit to the left, even though it wasn't the spot that the map was pointing too. Sure enough, there it was, plain as day, right out in the open. I felt dumb.

Control 10 was easy. And control 11 wasn't too far from control 10. It was right in the middle of a small water channel. I punched my card and checked the map for control 12. Control 12 was on the other side of the water channel. The channel wasn't very wide, maybe 3 or 4 feet. I took a standing broad jump, cleared the channel and...CRAAAAAACKKKKKKKKK!

OW! That would be my ankle making that sound. I rolled it pretty good. I only had 2 controls left, though, so it wasn't too bad. I just took it a little slower. I tried running a little, but it wasn't going to happen. So I tried hobbling. Ahh...much better.

So here I was hobbling through an open field. When suddenly...Ow...Ow...OW...OW-OW!!! Someone's throwing rocks at me! Little white rocks about the size of peas! Wait...those aren't rocks...that's hail! Here I am in this open field with nowhere to hide and it's hailing on me. I looked around to see if it was hailing everywhere. Over to my left, it was really bad. It looked almost like a snowy tv set with bad reception. I mean it was really dumping. Well, it's a good thing that I wasn't over...

OW-OW-OW-OW-OW-OW-OW-OW-OW-OW-OW-OW-OW-OW-OW-OW-OW-OW-OW-OW-OW-OW-OW-OW-OW-OW-OW-OW-OW-OW-OW-OW-OW-OW-OW-OW!

Ok, now I was getting bombarded by sheets of white ice rocks. I put my head down to protect my face and just hoped that I was hobbling (in an open field at approximately 6 hours per mile) in something resembling the right direction since I couldn't see where I was going.

It took a while, but I finally made it to the trail. Only 2 controls to go. By now, everything was covered in white. Which made things a bit slippery, something that my ankle didn't really appreciate. I followed the map to control 12. It was pretty easy to find. But the problem was, it was halfway down a steep slope heading towards the river. This would normally not be a problem, but now, it was covered with slippery ice rocks, and my ankle wasn't working properly.

I somehow managed to make my way down to the control without killing myself. I started to punch my scorecard when...hmmm...where's my scorecard? Not in my pockets...Not in my hands...uh, oh...

I lost my scorecard. Without my scorecard, I won't get an official score. Even if I find all of the controls and finish, my score will be recorded as 'Did not finish' or something like that. My hands were really cold. I must've dropped it and not noticed it. Well, it can't be too hard to find a scorecard, right? A big white card stands out pretty well on the ground...unless the ground is covered in white ice rocks! Then it's impossible!

I searched for a few minutes and gave up. I just moved on to the last control, took a good look at it, and headed towards the finish line. When I got there, there wasn't even a finish line. Just one of the orienteering helpers packing away a bunch of stuff. Turns out that the officials had all already left. They thought that no one was left on the course. When I registered for the Green Course, the guy told me not to fill out another registration form. He told me that they would just use my first original number. I'm guessing that they assumed that since they had my scorecard from the White Course, I was all done. So even if I hadn't lost my scorecard, it wouldn't have mattered.

Fortunately, I had my stopwatch running, so I could check my time, even though I couldn't get an official score. My time was 2 hours 8 minutes. Hopefully good enough for 2nd to last place...but probably not. Maybe it was good that I didn't have an official score...

I headed back to my truck. My socks and shoes were soaked. My legs, back, and sides ached. My legs were covered with spikey razor claw wounds. But did I have a good time? YOU BETCHA! I love orienteering! I guess it just goes to show that if you're doing something you love, even if everything goes wrong, you can still have a great time!