Berit is in Shakespeare camp at the CO Shakespeare Festival for a half day every weekday - it's a kick. She plays one of the three witches from Macbeth in the performance they'll do at the end. This past weekend she memorized Sonnet 116:

Let me not to the marriage of true minds
Admit impediments; love is not love
Which alters when it alteration finds,
Or bends with the remover to remove...

Griffin and I did a crystal growing experiment, but so far I am questioning its success. He fell asleep watching SHARK WEEK.

Happy 11th Birthday Berit!

The other day, Griffin and I were doing some "legomation" with the legos and some lego star wars people we have. I set up our digital camera on my tripod and we shot still pictures of the lego people moving.

He was pretty into it, so I (against my better judgement) left the camera on the tripod there by the legos in the living room - in case he wanted to mess with it some more. Griffin is pretty good with the camera. But his judgement wasn't so good either when he took the camera on the tripod across the alley to his friend's house and ended up dropping it and breaking it.

I was not happy. In fact, I was obviously (and vocally) angry about it. We made up, of course, but before that - here is the note he left me (click image to enlarge).

Her name is Bellatrix Betelgeuse, and we got her yesterday. Sure - it sounds like we named her for the Harry Potter reference, but the names are the names of stars - Bellatrix and Betelgeuse being (I believe) the two shoulders of Orion's belt (her parents are named after two of Jupiter's moons).

She is six weeks old, has extra toes (polydactyl), and has quickly become the most popular member of the family.

Evidently, polydactyl kittens are in high demand, as her siblings have been adopted by familes as far flung as Colorado Springs and Florida. And get this - Melanie Griffith and Antonio Banderas sent their help down from Aspen to adopt two of Bellatrix's siblings. How about them degrees of separation?

"I think its your parents who bring the Sacajawea coins and not the tooth fairy. The next time I lose a tooth, I'm not going to tell anyone and see if the tooth fairy comes." - Griffin

Tonight he was pretty broken up for a couple minutes because he thought that Berit would be leaving to live at another house when she became a teenager.

Today, Griffin lost his first tooth!

We got back from Club Med Cancun on Sunday - our second Club Med gathering with Pam's family. What a blast - we all had the best time having spent our days between ocean and pool, sailboats and trapezes, wonderful food, and two amazing performances by the kids - one production of Peter Pan, and one magic show. More to come on that along with pictures.

Pam took the kids to the dentist yesterday. The good news: no cavaties. The bad news: Rowan is missing two adult teeth, the ones that would be on either side of her two front teeth. Consequently, the next two teeth are sort of coming in diagonally at an angle toward the middle. This is not good. Pam set up an orthodontist appointment to see what measures can be taken - perhaps surgery, we don't really know. Whatever it is sounds extremely expensive and likely painful. Oh - and they said it was hereditary, so I need to speak to Mom and Dad about that.

This morning, Griffin and I watched "How it Works" on the Discovery Channel and learned how they make silver miniature items. Griffin wants to do it now so evidently I'm going to need a lathe, a soldering iron, and a whole workbench full of silver-smithing tools.

Sorry I've been so bad about blogging - I vow to do better! For now, here's a photo of the kids at the Boulder Creek Festivus, yesterday:

Tonight at dinner, Griffin told me that a great invention would be a sign on his bedroom door that said "Danger - Keep Out," and a laser beam that if a person walked through it would cause all of Griffin's underwear to be dropped on the interloper's head.