"Would you like to play a game of chess?"

I knew the day was coming. In fact I've been helping it come about for a year now. But I'm not sure I'm quite ready. Both my sons have been playing chess a lot lately, mostly with me at home, but also chess club every Friday, often at after school, etc.

Now, I'm not necessarily that good a player - I do OK, and I've been studying and practicing with my tablet chess game, but I'm sure I'm a beginner myself. I always beat them, and I've told both boys I will never let them win - when they win against me, they will both know they've beaten me on their own merits. It's the learning struggle that is important. I've had some close calls (mostly stupid queen losses), but I've always pulled it out. And my larger concern was Alexander, since he was the older and the better player.

So it came as a large surprise today when I tipped my king over in resignation to my youngest son Ryan last night. He is a very intense and dedicated player, and in fact he won a trophy at the recent chess tournament. Now, to be fair, I gave him one or two "redos" where he didn't like his move and what resulted and I let him undo it. But I could see how sharp his moves were, how far ahead he was looking for his moves. Even 2-3 moves ahead is a lot, and as far as I can tell he was a bit further than that. At the end of the game it was down to a king and pawn each, and he clearly knew what he was doing as he guarded his pawn with his king, took my last pawn, and completely blocked my king from getting to his pawn before he could move to the opposite side of the  board and get a queen. I figured he'd be happier if I resigned rather than make him beat me, so I did. He was extremely excited.

So we'll call this one a close-to-a-win against Daddy. And good lord I'm going to have to try harder ;-)

Fifty States with Team Danger

Since I'm in a traveling mode right now... I've decided to make it a goal to visit all 50 States with Team Danger.

Carl and I have hit a bit more than half of them, but for the purposes of the next eleven years, we are just going to go with states we've been to as a family of four (which leaves Arizona out since only Alex has been, before Ryan was born).  I've been to all states along the bottom of the US, and on the east and west coasts. But other than a trip to Chicago, none of the midwest or north-central parts of the country. I'm also not counting states we simply drive through, or change planes in. But if while driving, we get out and spend some time doing something in that state, I'll count it. For instance, we spent about four hours at the Stennis Space Center in Mississippi, so I went ahead and colored that state in, even if we didn't spend a night there.

My goal? To color this map in completely by the time Ryan graduates from high school (thus the eleven year deadline). I found this map generator online, and it looks kind of sad and boring right now. We're at seven states so far. That's 43 to go. Wow - clearly, its time to travel!

A Super Star Wars Father's Day

Dreams

(photo credit: the Young Adventuress)

Last year, I posted my Travel Bucket List.

The Top 40 places I wanted to visit in the next 40 years, in honor of my 40th Birthday.

How am I doing? Well, I managed to get three spots crossed off last year:

#1. Chawton Cottage, England.

#12. Destin Beaches, Florida.

#16. Giverny, France.

This summer, I'll be able to cross off another bucket spot: #22, Wiliamsburg, Virginia. Moving a bit slower, but then again, this is my "off" travel year, when we do things less expensively so that we can save up more for next year. (Consider yourself on notice, Carl).

So here we are, age 41. Bucket spots left: 36. Where will I go next?

Den 10 End of Year Party

Because I couldn't seem to get away from hosting parties in late May, the last one we hosted was technically in June - an end of the year swim party and barbecue for Ryan's scout den.

The boys were all at Cub Scout camp last week, which is a lot of fun, but outside all day and exhausting. So my husband naturally decided to invite the den over with one day's notice for an evening swim after camp. Thanks, honey.

The boys had a great time, and the weather and mosquitoes cooperated with us nicely.

Spurs!!

My beloved San Antonio Spurs are in the NBA Playoffs this year. Some may call it luck. Some call it the determination of Tim Duncan and Greg Popovitch to go out with a bang (I suspect retirement is not far off for either). But I'm going to call it as the BeBe effect. BeBe was a big Spurs fan, and I used to love watching games together when I was growing up. In recent years, I'd call her up during some of the games so we could cheer (and hiss) together.  Now that she is up in heaven, the Spurs are getting just a little bit of extra assistance, from one of their biggest fans.

It's worked before, after all. In the summer of 2003, Beau and I had just lost Dad, and we were going thorough our first Spurs season without Dad. We knew it was Dad's help that gave them that NBA title. I was pregnant with Alex at the time, and still highly emotional, so every game I was crying and cheering and crying some more, often all at the same time. Two summers later, I was again pregnant, this time with Ryan, and I knew that the Spurs big win that year was also Dad's way of letting me know things were okay.

Now BeBe is sending us the same message. So, while Sunday night's game was hard to watch, I have every bit of confidence that BeBe and Dad (and the Spurs) won't let us down.

DC Dollars

This summer, we're going on our first big "sightseeing" trip as a family with the children. I think they are finally old enough to appreciate traveling, and not just "vacations" at a beach, or at Disney. We're spending two weeks hitting some Civil War battlefields (for my little historian, Alex), Shenandoah National Park, Williamsburg and its environs, and then finally, Washington D.C. We'll hit four states as well as D.C., so the boys are excited about having more places to check off.

My main concern is that we do move around a bit, hitting different sites every day, and that the gift shops are very tempting for little boys. Before we went to Disney World two years ago, I had the same concerns, having learned on our Disneyland trip that they wanted something in every gift shop, after every ride. And while I had no problem telling them no, I hated the tears and pouting, and sometimes fits they would throw. Solution: we let the boys earn "Disney Dollars" for reading during the summer. It worked great. They each had somewhere around fifty Disney Dollars to spend on the trip, and they would hand them in to us when they found something they wanted enough to spend. They also brought whatever money they had from allowances, but that wasn't much (pokemon cards are just sooo tempting!) We were pretty clear that this was all they would have to spend on souvenirs, and they listened to us.

After a lot of thought, I've come up with "DC Dollars." We're on an expedited earning curve here since our trip is only 3.5 weeks away, so in addition to math and reading time, I'll hand out DC Dollars for extra chores that aren't their usual requirements. They'll have their money to redeem for items, so hopefully they will use it sparingly, and not spend it all in one place. I'll even show the boys some of the items they can buy in gift shops at the Smithsonian or Mount Vernon online, ahead of time, so they can anticipate.

The internet wasn't very helpful with some ready made DC Dollars for me to snaffle like they were with Disney Dollars. So Carl created these instead for the boys:

The best part? I can tailor these dollars for other trips in the future, too.

Book Club: Life After Life

Last week, it was my turn to host my book club. We've read a variety of books over the past two years, everything from The Hunger Games to In Cold Blood to The Round House to 50 Shades of Gray. Since I was hosting, it was my turn to pick the book. I had given lots of thought and deliberation into which book to pick. My favorite meetings we've had are when we read something new, and something I possibly wouldn't have picked up on my own. For three months, I was planning to go with The Fault in Our Stars, by John Green (and brother to Hank Green, who created by beloved Lizzie Bennet Diaries). A book which is possibly in the young adult category, but it was one of those books I just kept hearing about, over and over, during the past year. And then a few members said they had never read Pride and Prejudice, and I thought, oooh, Jane Austen Party. I can finally try and pull off this one Dear Lillie hosted a few years back and I've been dreaming about.

But then two weeks before I had to announce my choice, I started to hear a LOT of buzz for the new Kate Atkinson book, Life After Life. It sounded intriguing, and I've always loved alternate reality kinds of books/movies, like Sliding Doors, Groundhog Day, or Next.

While it took me a bit to get into the book, once I did, I was hooked. And while I knew that the author was British going into the book, I had no idea what a British book it would be. As in, wow, I don't think I've ever read such a quintessential British novel before. Name an important historical event in British history since 1910, and its covered in detail. Wonderfully, excruciating detail, that the historian in me just ate up. I don't think I've ever read such a fantastic book about the Blitz, for instance. Talk about really making you feel as if you were there. I loved reading about Ursula, her family, and her many lives throughout history. I don't want to say too much, except that you should go read this book. NOW.

So since I was hosting a book club about Britain, I naturally had to drag out some of my English decor to set the food table.

And when it came to choosing my hors d'oeuvre, well, what else could I serve but quintessential English food? Like scones, strawberry jam, and Devonshire cream.

And an English Trifle (I know, not exactly a trifle bowl. I have one, but after searching an hour plus for that sucker, I gave up, and just went with a footed crystal bowl).

There were also English cheeses, like Cheddar, Stilton, and a Double Gloucester with Chives, served with Carr's Table Water Crackers, of course. And I through out some Walker's Shortbread (which is technically Scottish, but I'm going with the Great Britain theme here, so I decided it worked).

And finally, in addition to the wines, I made some Pimm's. No English party is complete without Pimm's!

(The wines weren't English - even my dedication to the theme couldn't bring me to try a wine 

from a country known for its lager and scotch).

My favorite part of the book? Besides the history? The writing style was excellent, and it typified the English motto of "Keep Calm and Carry On." You can just see every character and stout fella putting out their stiff upper lips, keeping their chins up, and muddling on through. Keeping Calm and Carrying On. 

Chess and Soccer Tournaments

Mid-May, we participated in our first ever chess tournament.

I wasn't sure what to expect, since we are new to chess, nor was I sure how much any of us would enjoy it. But we didn't really have anything else planned for Saturday, so it seemed sort of like kismet that we give it a try.

Alex, well... he didn't do so hot. He tied his first match, and then lost his subsequent three matches.

On the other hand, Ryan did great, and tied for second place in his age division!

His friend Michael came in first place.

The next weekend, the boys played in a soccer tournament.

They both played fantastically, and their teams did great.

I love watching what great little players they are. So does Coach Daddy.

It rained most of this weekend, but that didn't stop the tournament from going on. Which is whymy main camera stayed safe and dry in the car. Still, despite the rain, humidity, and sometimes heat, we all had fun.

End of School Ninjago Training Party

Every year, our PTA hosts a Silent Auction to raise money for the PTA. Its held at our country club, its a big social event, and you can bid on everything from summer sailing camps, to wine tours, to weekends in Port Aransas, to ice cream with the teacher. And then there are the grade parties. Third grade had a swim party at Emler back in December, which was great, because I was able to drop off Alex and get some shopping done. Somehow, I was roped into volunteering to host the 1st grade boys party.

Fortunately, I know first grade boys pretty well, so the other hostesses and I quickly decided on a ninjango training party. We wanted to also make it a swim party, so we've been waiting six months for this baby to happen.

I lucked into my favorite part of parties - invitations, decorations and food.

For invitations, evite it was. But I customized one of their swimming evites to add in this ninjago picture.

For drinks, we just went with water. But it was special ninjago water, of course.

We also served fruit and chips, which wasn't too exciting, so I didn't take pictures. But I did take pictures of my ninjago cupcakes.

Carl helped a bit with the decorating. The eyes ended up being a bit too big in my opinion, but otherwise, I was pleased enough with how they came out.

And then I had ninjago balloons. I paid some nice soul $2.75 on etsy for a PDF of these eyes, and printed them on stickers. If we'd had more time, I would have let Carl produce it for me, but at some point, $2.75 is well worth 15 minutes of his time.

Not to mention two hours of my reminding him time to get the eyes made. ;) (love you, honey)

For activities, there was swimming, jumping on the trampoline, and the zipline. This wasn't at our house, any Ryan came home with serious zipline envy. "Why doesn't OURS go OVER the pool??!!"

Finally, it was time to make their own ninjago swords. Each boy picked a color for their sword based on what ninjago characteristic they thought they possessed. (or, in Ryan's case, he picked his favorite color, blue)

These were great for sword fighting with friends.

They even had a contest on the trampoline for ninjago fighting.

Finally, they had to raise their swords and recite the Ninjago oath.

All the boys had a great time, and it was a fun way to kickstart their summer.

School's Out for Summer

Friday was our last day of 1st grade and 3rd grade.

My babies are getting too big!

The first grade stayed in and watched Finding Nemo, with a popcorn bar. The third grade had their end-of-year party at the park, with picnic lunches and a visit from the snow cone truck.

Since I was ridiculously insane and volunteered as one of the homeroom parents for both boys' classes this year, I was in charge of the end-of year gifts for their teachers. I stole this cute idea off pinterest, and was rather pleased with my flower pot gift card end result. I actually like this better than the winter holidays tree we've done in the past.

Both boys had perfect attendance this nine weeks. Ryan would have had perfect attendance for the entire year if mean old Mommy hadn't made him miss a day to go play with Laurel and Audrey in Houston back in October.

Alex also received honor roll again. Combined with his absolutely perfect STAAR test scores, I'm a very proud mama of my "staar" 3rd grader right now.

And I know, getting a 100 on your standardized test scores doesn't mean you are a genius, but unfortunately, those damn tests are important and can make all the difference in your future. We made a big deal about his test result with him, to show how proud we were of him. And then in his end-of-year summary, my heart warmed about ten degrees when I saw he was equally proud of himself. Especially when this moment was sandwiched in between his favorite activity was "the last day of school" and he'll never forget when "today happened" (ie, the last day of school).

So to celebrate, we took the boys to see Iron Man 3 after school on Friday. Both boys were thrilled, although Ryan afterwards admitted he was a little scared by it. Yes, I know, neither boy is anywhere near 13 in age, but somewhere along the way I accepted superhero and science fiction violence as being tolerable since its not "real." Or so my bizarre justification goes.

Our celebrations continued on Saturday watching our first Austin Aztex game of the year. They won 3-2, and it was a good game. We love watching real football matches!

*and yes, somehow both boys are wearing the EXACT SAME CLOTHES TWO DAYS IN A ROW. What can I say? Its summer vacation. 

Finally, Ryan and the first grade boys had an end-of year Ninjago Training Party on Sunday, but I'll make that a separate post.

Now, on to a summer filled with (hopefully) fun camps and awesome vacations! Or, as Alexander put it: