10 posts tagged “alexander”
Now that the little man is becoming the big man, we decided this year would be a good time to have his first KIDS birthday party (in addition to the family birthday party). He got to choose the venue -- and of course he chose the Seattle Gymnastics Academy, where in early July he broke his arm at another kids' party. (The photo above shows the harrowing trampoline jump where the fracture occured. Did this slow our madman? not at all...)
Fun was had by all, from the foam pit to the rings to the "volcano cake" that Grandma baked to the big conclusion on Alexander's ACTUAL birthday (Monday) at the Mariners' game.
Click here to see a slideshow of photos. if your kid attended, who knows, he/she might be in here! Some seriously high-jumping kids in action!
This is one of our best, in our humble opinion.
Alexander plays "I Can't Stand Losing You" on Rock Band... all parts. At the same time. (Well, kinda...)
Enjoy!
http://www.belfiore.org/2008/videos/2008-04-06,%20Axel%20Ryo's%20Rock%20Band%20-%20for%20web.wmv
Alexander beat Guitar Hero II on Medium... and we covered the whole thing in our January "Video of the Month" on www.belfiore.org. This one is worth watching, in our humble opinion. if you have a Mac and can't watch WMV, you can catch it on YouTube. Show us some comment or rating love!)
What a great way to start 2008 ... getting up to Snoqualmie pass to ski with Alexander for the very first time!
We ramped up to the actual snow by taking Z to INDOOR ski lessons about a month and a half ago, at a place called Mini Mountain in Bellevue.
The setup is cool... 3 different carpeted ski hills, with the instructors taking kids out for 20 minute lessons where they drill "pizza slice" and "hot dog", and do turns. They play tag, have kids go between their legs, etc.
After about 4 of those lessons, we decided he was ready -- time to take our little man out to the snow.
So, on Thursday we woke up early and left the house at 7:30am to head for Snoqualmie. The lesson started at 10am (time for Starbucks, getting rental gear, etc.) and Alexander had a great time. I got to snowboard -- and each time I came back to check on how things were going, he and the other 4-5 year olds were still in the "kids corral" area. I asked the instructor "you gonna take these kids out to the real hill?" and he said he probably wouldn't because they just weren't ready.
Lesson ended at noon -- and when I picked him up he INSISTED on going to the real hill before getting lunch... so he and I walked over and down the hill he went (I walked/jogged in my snowboard boots). And he did GREAT! He rode the magic carpet (no chair lifts yet) up the hill... and after a couple tries was doing it all by himself.
We stopped for lunch and he did NOT want to go home, so we went back out onto the hill and did probably another 10-12 runs. Now he's been asking mommy and daddy when we can go back... our mission to get him to HAVE FUN really worked! Woo hoo!
Joe and I were both exhausted yesterday morning. Sydney is fighting a bad cold so she slept in our room to make sure we could hear if she was having problems breathing. She ended up keeping us both awake for hours.
The following afternoon, Alexander was enjoying an after school snack when I noticed something odd and exclaimed, "Alexander, your shirt is on backwards!" He nonchalantly replied, "I like it that way." Normally, I wouldn't care that his shirt was on backwards, but unfortunately, IT WAS PICTURE DAY AT SCHOOL!
We don't call him Axel for nothing. The little man nailed a consecutive 215 notes without flaws to earn 5-gold stars on "Woman" this weekend.
Alexander celebrated his big 4th birthday this weekend. We had a fun day, complete with...
- morning breakfast at Mae's Cafe in Seattle, where the best cinnamon roll can be had not just with a birthday candle, but with a chocolate milkshake!
- presents, guitar hero, nap, then...
- party for the family and a bunch of kid-friends!
To see photos of the big event, check out the photo slideshow now on www.belfiore.org.
OK, it's not huge news or anything ... plenty of you have kids starting school again, but we thought it warranted a mention. here are the highlights we've observed so far:
- Crossing the Chasm: For the first time ever, Alexander can swing himself across the monkeybars! hand over hand, all the way from start to finish, without falling. Lookout Tarzan...
- Shockingly Accurate Self Portrait. Ok, we're probably biased in this, but holy crap, is that a PHOTOGRAPH? look at the detail! And look at the lovely smile on his face...
