Another chess Tournament...

Lucius competed in another grade level tournament a few weeks ago. He and two of his other chess club friends showed up to play in the first grade competition.

We sat and listened to all the rules and such for about 20minutes and then the first game started. 

Lucius cane running out after like 3-5 minutes. He said he got a pawn across the board to get a second queen to checkmate the other kid. It happened so fast I almost didn't believe him. I felt bad for the other kid.

In-between chess matches for the tournament Lucius and his friends played each other.

Again playing each other cause they can't seem to get enough chess play at a chess tournament.

And if they weren't playing each other they were playing the computer on our chess apps. Crazy chess loving kids.

Lucius took 3rd place in the first grade level. His friend took 2nd place and all three took home the team trophy. 

They were so excited about winning. 

I'm happy Lucius has friends who love chess as much as he does.

Simple pleasures: game night

The boys are always excited to play board games. They even enjoy learning new and fairly complicated games like this one. The only thing they don't love is losing. 

Lefse making...

The day after Thanksgiving we decided to do a little Black Friday shopping. Then in the afternoon it was time to make Lefse! Jerimy had pre-made 10 pounds of potatos on Wednesday night (lefse works best with cold, left over potatoes).

My job is to roll out the dough.

Jerimy gets to cook them, though I'm certain he likes that job because he gets to use the lefse sword. 

He showed Oliver how to use it correctly and Oliver was very interested in trying for himself. 

We only make lefse only once every couple years because its a lot of work, but its always lots of fun too. And super yummy too!

Thanksgiving feast & football...

Thanksgiving day started out very relaxing and just continued to be enjoyable. We drove to Jerimy's Brothers house in Wisconsin. It was about an hour and half away but a pleasant drive. We apparently timed our arrival well since everyone else arrived at the same time. We ate, watched football (Lucius watched a LOT of football, couldn't get enough), chatted and enjoyed spending time with family. 

We barely saw Oliver that day. He was spending time on his cousin's tablet. Eventually he came down for food and then adventured outdoors to play before rejoining the land of screen time on the tablet again. The boys had so much fun with their cousins no one wanted us to leave. Auntie Sara said they could have an overnight and that made everyone super happy. I heard they had an awesome time. 

Cinderella...

I took the boys and Mormor to see the play Cinderella at the Children's theater the evening before Thanksgiving. I had heard good things about it but little did I forsee just how much fun we would have enjoying the show. It was a BLAST and a RIOT. 

We went out to a quick dinner then headed to the theater. Of course, we happened to be way early. That's okay cause we had plenty of time to take photos and apparently there was a pokestop so the boys come catch some pokemon on Mormor's phone. I thought we'd never get them into the show when there was pokemon go to play. 

Thankfully we did stop playing long enough to enjoy the laughter of play. What a fun night we were able to have together!!

 

Shoeboxes...

Mormor started this tradition about 6 years ago, I believe. She takes her grandkids out shopping to fill a shoebox for kids who don't have much. Then on a saturday we all gather to drop those shoeboxes off at KTIS radio Station. 

Mormor even got interviewed live on air. 

Then he asked the kids to say "Merry Christmas" on air. Lucius was the only one who actually said anything. I was impressed he was the only one not to clam up.

Simple pleasures: letters...

I found a note on the floor of Oliver's room one day after it had snowed. He made it out of letter blocks.