C'mon Baby, Light My Fire

When we moved in, I thought the one thing missing from our new house was a fireplace. We just had a big blank wall in our family room. What to do? We looked into all sorts of things, and had a bunch of guys come out to give us ideas and quotes. But the one we liked best was from our neighbor, Ryan.

The kids loved the "Jungle Gym" that he set up in our house. I tried to keep them off it for the first couple of days, but eventually gave in and let them climb around. Check it out! Isn't it fantastic!?

It's Kara-TE, Jerry.

Andrew and his buddies, Ty and Gavin are taking Aikido this winter. The class is great, but if you come early or stay after, that's when you'll see some real ninja moves. (Check out the girl in the background of this picture going all Jackie Chan on that kid) There are about 30 kids running around the rec center yelling, "Ya!, HI-YA!" Somersaulting, kicking, jumping, chopping and basically acting like Kung-fu masters. It's hilarious.

It's a pretty awesome sight. The instructor (Sensei Mike) claims that Aikido is a peaceful martial art. Yeah, right, try to explain that to a group of kindergarteners who have grown up watching Power Rangers.