Charlotte's Birthday

Charlotte is my next door neighbor.  I am friends with her older sister, Lillian.  Charlotte recently turned 3, and I got invited to her party.  He party was at the Jungle Gym, in Burien.  It's small, but a lot of fun.

 I went for the climbing wall. There are the two neighbor sisters below.

 The time at the gym is structured, but I like that.  We played with this parachute for a little while.

 I got to get it!

 Back on the wall!

 If you can see, I am on the zip line.  This is fun!  Unfortunately, we only got to go twice.  Over all, it was a fun party and I was the oldest kid there!

Geocaching

I finally started geo caching with my parents this weekend.  My Dad downloaded the app so that we can now start finding all the caches in our area, and in new places we go.  I got introduced to geo caching by Andrea, Andy & Elliot on our school trip to Leavenworth and have decided to pick it up as a hobby this summer.  Geo caching is like treasure hunting, except the treasure is a water tight box or container that holds a piece of paper, and possibly other stuff.  

 Our first location today was in a park just west of Highline Community College.  We are checking Dad's phone for the coordinates of the cache.

 I think we should walk this way.....

 It's pretty here, but a little wild.  The plants are trying to take the paths back.

 Huh...we are close.

 Dad found this one.  It was hard because it was small.  This plastic tube contains the paper that you write your names on.

 I wrote down all three of us, plus the date.

I found another one in a parking lot down at South Center, how funny.   Geo caching is fun.  It gets us all out of the house searching for something.

Mock Trial at the Burien Courthouse

During the month of May, our school has been learning about the government (remember the Capitol?)  Today, our whole school did a mock trial of The Three Bears vs Goldilocks.  Goldilocks was on trial for bad behavior!  But first, we had to walk to the courthouse.

 We had to go through a metal detector.  The Mom's took longer than the kids.

 The defendants. (Left to Right) Goldilock's mother, Goldilocks, and their attorney.

(Left to Right) Momma Bear, Poppa Bear, Baby Bear, and me, their attorney.

                                                 

 Malia is the judge and she actually has the robe!

 The Plantiffs and Defendants, ready for action!

 The Coho Room sat in the jury.

 I opened the questioning staring with Momma Bear.  She is on the witness stand.

  Then I had Poppa Bear and Baby Bear.

 Goldilocks got sworn in.  After all the questions were asked the jury retired to another room to deliberate.  They finally came back in.

 Goldilocks was found to be innocent of bad behavior!!!!!  I was surprised.

This was a lot of fun and it was neat that we got to use a real courtroom!

Baby Bear on the witness stand!

Rowan is the Bear Family's attorney. Baby Bear (Andy) is on the witness stand to testify against Goldilocks eating his porridge, breaking his chair, and sleeping in his bed.

Competition Day 2015-Goju Karate

Every year, sometime in mid-May, competition day happens at the dojo.  This is my 3rd year of competing.  The day starts at 8:00 am and goes to 6:00 pm.  This year, I came at noon, because most of the events that I was interested in happen in the afternoon.  Some of my friends spent all TEN hours at the dojo, I'm not there yet.  I started out with wrestling, and unfortunately, got pinned down by my first two opponents, who were 2 + years older than me and bigger kids...

 Here I am getting pinned by Elliot.

 Now I am fighting Sean (9 or 10 years), I made it harder for him, but he still got me pinned.

 Now I am fighting Olivia.  She always grabs my helmet to pull over my eyes.  That always bugs me.

 Olivia is 8 and a little bigger that myself, but more of a fair fight.  

 Fighting Olivia was close, but she won.

 Dad came right at the end of wrestling to cheer me up.

 Sensei pulled me in for balance kicking.  I didn't medal, but I did well.

 Next  was team kata. I did it with Andy & Elliot.  We were named the "Del Tacos".

 We got gold!

 Next was individual katas.  I competed with the other kids in the black belt club.

 I did my kata....

 and got the silver medal!

 The last competition of the day was Kumite or point sparring.  I fought against David and won.  I then fought against Olivia and lost.  I got silver in this too.  We left the dojo at 6:15.  It was a long day, but I felt happy with my accomplishments.  

State Capitol!

On Tuesday, my school went to the State Capitol in Olympia.

There are 42 steps to get inside the capitol building because Washington is the 42nd state in the union!

 Once we made it up the stairs, our guide Chris, showed us some bronze doors.  This set is permanently closed since the earthquake in '01.

 Once inside, we saw marble everywhere!

 I waited with Anne & Andy while everyone else went to the bathroom!  There were a lot of stairs inside this building.

 Chris showed us more things about Washington State.  We saw the state seal, state frog, state tree, apples etc....

 They also had a replica of the gun that shot Abraham Lincoln 150 years ago.

 Here is a rare handmade flag with 42 stars.

 The bronze state seal in the floor in the very center of the rotunda.

 This is the class sitting in the rotunda.  We tried out the acoustics, which were really good.

 The entrance to the state senate chamber.  The one behind us looked just the same, although it was for the house.

 We went into the reception room where they have fancy parties.  The pair of chandeliers in this room cost as much as the whole capitol building!  Wow!

 The only gold in the capitol building is found in the gold thread which make the state seal in these curtains.

 Chris was showing us pictures that could be seen in the marble.

 Mom caught me yawning!

 After the reception room, we got to sit in the gallery to see the house of representatives.  They come back to work tomorrow.

 The representatives work down there.  The senate looks the same.

On our way out, Mom took a picture of me by the big chandelier that hangs from the center of the rotunda, above the seal.  After this we had lunch and went to see the Justice building.

We got to go inside, but not in the courtroom.  Court was in session.  It was a fun field tip!