9th Birthday Party

My birthday is on a Tuesday this year, so we had a party on Sunday, June 5th.  IT also happened to be the hottest day of the year!  Once again, my party was at The Tag Zone, a nerf gun arena in Des Moines, not far from the marina.

 Dad played too. 

 We had to drink a lot since it was so hot.  Mom served popsicles as well as cupcakes. 

 I had friends both from Kent Mountain View and karate.  I invited 5 girls, but only Evelyn came.  

 

 After the party, my local grandparents came over for desert and Boccie Ball.

It was a good day.  On Tuesday, I will celebrate my birthday in Miss Newby's classroom. 

Competition Day

Competition Day is one LOOOONNNGGGG day at the dojo.  We get to compete with our friends at karate and get medals for first, second and third place for sparring, wrestling, kata, fitness etc.  I only competed in fitness and sparring.  That took 5 hours.  I was done.

I took gold in both my events!  I competed against kids my own age.

 I read a book while I waited.  Bindi sat next to me.

May-o

I'm a three armed mariachi guitar player!  No, that is not a cigarette in my third hand, but a grape lollipop.  This cut out was at the wine shop we were visiting.  Mom and Dad are always on the search for a gluten free beer.

I made this card for my Mom.  I talk about it with Miss Newby on the next post.

This week at the dojo, Sensei's Sensei, Sensei Paul was visiting from southern California with his wife, Sensei Michelle.  This is the second time that I have worked with them.  They are fun and interesting.  During this class, we learned how to "take down" an opponent.  I showed Mom when we got home.

Mom and Andrea still teach art for my class.   Friday, we did Royal pooches.  This is my dog.  Mom finds a lot of art docent inspiration from Deep Space Sparkle.  Two weeks ago, we did insects.

 Mom knows it's a good class if I have fun.  

Here is Andy's bug.

Mother's Day Card

Miss Newby asks Rowan about his creation.

What I have been up to.....

I have been busy with normal everyday things.  We did Easter at Aunt Megan's and Uncle Patrick's in West Seattle.  They had a really big egg hunt!  That's me searching...

 Here I am with all my cousins on my father's side of the family  (The Henley's)

After all the picture taking we got to go through our booty.  I couldn't eat any of the candy because they all had corn or dairy.  Mom got me some candy from Starbuck's.  After Easter, my dojo was training for a competition.  I did not participate, but I helped my karate friends get ready by sparring with them.

Mom cut her hair.  I liked it better the other way, but she's still my mom.

Poppa got out of the hospital/recovery center and came over to play Bocce Balls.  We played around the yard.

School is going well.  I tested into the highly capable program.  On "choice day", I am taking Maker's.  We make/build stuff.

 I helped build this marble run with Seth and Andy.  Mom's in the classroom too, she helps out and teaches knitting to the kids who are interested.

My friend Andy comes home with us on Tuesday, Wednesday & Thursday.  We do homework together and then play until his mother comes for him.  Andy also does karate with me.

Bureau of Fearless Ideas-Creative Writing Workshop

Today, I went with my old school friends from the Bridge School to The Bureau of Fearless Ideas in Seattle.  It was located inside and behind this shop.

 Their were 12 kids, 4 Moms and our KMVA teacher, Miss Newby.

At The Bureau of Fearless Ideas, or BFI , our hosts Zack  (black shirt on right) and Jeremy (very left) asked us to gather outside the store front.  They explained to us not to shoplift in the store and that they were going to take our picture on the way in for our book.

There's my back.  I have the blue sweater and the camo backpack.

 The backroom was large and it had 5 large tables and a gathering space.  We were asked to sit in the gathering space.

 Zack introduced all the other volunteers. Louie was writing down our story that we created as a team.  A young lady to the left of Zack wrote down our ideas on the white board, David to the right, illustrated our story.  There were at least 6 other helpers.

On the right side of the room, past David the illustrator their was a curtain.  Behind which was Geoduck Pubishing.  We could hear Mr. Geoduck yelling at Zack from behind this curtain.  Apparently Zack had recently been fired-but if Zack could produce 12 awesome stories (there were 12 kids...), his job could be saved!  Also, at this curtain, we had to stand on the dot and call for Harriet to turn in our stories.  Harriet was extremely shy and extremely hairy.  We only saw her arm.

 The curtain from the main gathering space.

Mom sat in back with Teacher Andrea, and Miss Newby (my 3 rd grade teacher) and Jaime.

The BFI not only taught creative writing, but tutors lots of Seattle kids.

 With Zack, we worked as a team creating characters, place and a plot, discussing the different parts of a story.  We wrote the start of the story as a team, then we were given a half and hour for us each to finish the story in our own way.  Our main characters were: Jemima the fighting mouse and Jake the winged boy who was afraid to fly.  There were  also some dragolfs (dragon wolf combination) and a dragoodle (dragon poodle....)  There was also a volcano. 

Above is the start of the story then we went to the tables to write.

We had a half hour to finish our creation, and then we had to give it to Harriet.  David called her.  Do you see her hairy hand?

We had to actually give it to her.

And then bow.

Tah dah!!!!!!

Our stories were then bounds and presented to each of us.

Oh, Zack used the R in my sweater to spell my name.

Bureau of Fearless Ideas Logistics-Getting Published!

At the very end of the workshop, Mr. Geoduck (The mysterious yelling voice from behind the curtain  and publisher) had something nice to say about ALL of our stories.