Captain Tory - Bayley's latest story

“Dang it! Dang it! Dang it!” Captain Tory yelled in the empty cabin. Captain Tory’s ship was on a collision course with an unknown island. It wasn’t on any of his charts and the ship’s controls were no use.

Bam! Captain Tory was flung off his boat and flew over the rocky beach, hitting the trunk of a palm tree.

“Ow! He said. “Well, I’m lost and my ship is destroyed. How could today ever get any worse?”

Captain Tory got up and decided to explore the island. “Woah! Ow! “ he exclaimed when he tripped on a half-buried golden lantern. “Strange, but at least I have a lantern.”

Captain Tory made his way through the bush and found a wide clearing. He thought it would be a great place for a house. “If only you could get me a house,” he said to the lantern. He waved the lantern three times, looking around the area. Suddenly, a house popped up in front of him!

“Sweet!” he said. The house was two stories tall, painted red, had plenty of windows, an emergency escape rocket, and a beautiful garden.

There was a panel on the front door. He entered the code one, two, three.

A mechanical voice said, “The code is one, two, three.”

The door slid open and Captain Tory saw a robot in front of him. “Wow,” he thought.

The robot had a mechanical voice. It said, “Hello. My name is 3YN172, but you can call me Three-Y. “

“Thank you,” said Captain Tory. He decided to explore his new house. On his way through the hallways he learned the house was run by robots called Droids. He also met some Droids; one garbage Droid and two house-cleaning Droids. He also met a squad of ten guard-Droids.

Then, Captain Tory found an elevator and went upstairs. What he was paradise. It was an ultimate game room. There were games from Wii to Gameboy. He also saw some steps leading up to a large bedroom with a built-in TV, a closet, and another door leading to a computer room. There, a work Droid was tweaking some wires on a machine as large as semi-truck cab. One the side “Teleporting Machine” was engraved.

“Good thing I finished,” said the Droid. The robot left the room through a small doorway.

“Teleporting is just what I need,” said Captain Tory. Still holding the golden lantern, he hopped into the machine and teleported back home. In his driveway was his silver car and drove to the orphanage. He adopted an orphan named Josh because he wanted someone to keep him company.

Captain Tory took Josh home and showed him the teleporting machine, but it seemed to be shorting out. Without trying to, they teleported back to the island.

“What the heck!” cried Captain Tory.

“Is this your house?” asked Josh with amazement.

“Yes, it is,” said Captain Tory.

They heard the teleporting machine go fffttzzzzzzzzzzt! Then it blew up. Captain Tory hadn’t realized that as he climbed out of the machine, he accidentally hit the self-destruct button. Some work Droids took care of the damage.

Captain Tory and Josh went inside the house and ordered dinner. After they ate pizza, they played video games for three hours and went to bed at 10:37.

The next day, they went hiking with the golden lantern to look for a place to build a harbor. One poofed up at the perfect spot. They hiked back to the house and packed a lunch. Then, captain Tory made some snow with green pine trees on the side of the hill. After that, they skied down the slope to the new harbor.

“That was awesome,” said Josh.

“Agreed,” said Captain Tory. He waved his lantern three times and a boat appeared….

And then Captain Tory woke up.

Pump It Up

It turns out, Grace is more like Bayley than we imagined! We went to a birthday party at Pump It Up for Steven & Ava...and Grace screamed through about 80% of it. Bayley was extremely sensitive to noise (which he grew out of between 5 and 6) and we're thinking Grace is the same way. She was only happy while going down the slide. Not going up, not once she was done, just the 2.4 seconds it takes to go down the slide. Fun times!


The boys had a fantastic time, like always! They get so sweaty, it looks like we just pulled them out of the shower!! They were both excited because it meant pizza and cake - two things that haven't been in the house lately!!

Dinner Dance

We weren't sure what to expect from our first Dinner Dance at the elementary school...since we were told there wasn't much dancing and dinner was pizza and soda. I did the first half of the night solo - and I don't thnk I have EVER been so happy to see Jeff as I was when he got there!





It turned out to be a great party, if a little loud. There were raffle baskets, a silent auction, and a hilarious hula hooping thing done by grade. Did you know 3rd grade is when most kids learn to hula hoop? It was that obvious :D





There was a little bit of dancing - mostly kids milling about and then some group things like the chicken dance. The boys do want to go again next year, but I think Jeff and I will draw straws and one of us will stay home with Grace.

And some of them are missing!

Hayden needed to count up his Thomas trains for a Tiger Cub elective...we got to 92. And he noticed a handful are missing. We think they may have jumped to the Geo Trax tub!

SPACE!

A new exhibit on space opened today at OMSI, so we took advantage of member night to preview it. That is really the time to go, the new exhibit is busy, but the rest of the place has very little waiting for everything. Jeff spent most of the evening in the Physics lab with one boy or another.











The boys liked the space exhibit - especially seeing the replica of the robot that explores Mars and the meteors. Bayley got to do a computer game that senses your hand movements -- kind of like Wii, but more like virtual reality. Hayden did the anti-gravity simulator where they spun the kids around and had them pedal bikes like the astronauts do.


On member night, they have previews of the classes they offer. The boys both got to try out a Segway which apparently isn't that different from the Wii Sports Resort version. Who knew?


They also had face painting -- after trying to decide between being Robin or The Joker, Hayden went with a bat. He looked great! I wish I could do this for him on Halloween!

B

We didn't do as much for B as we'd planned. There was a lot of baking, even brownies. The boys took in a high school basketball game, Hayden signed up to do baseball in the spring, and we played lots of bowling on the Wii. We tried to teach Grace body parts -- she is really only interested in poking people in the eye or picking their nose! Thank goodness we get a fresh start with a new letter!

Artist Renderings

Sometime between when I went to work last night and this morning, Grace redecorated my sofa with a ball point pen. The new one. Took two upholstry cleaners to get it out...and now there is what I am hoping is residue and not a permanent mark from the cleaner! Oh My Wow, where does she come up with this stuff?

I was so upset about it, when I was shopping for cleaner, I picked up new toe polish for myself - Fairy Teal. Almost made my day.

And then...she did it again. I kid you not. I signed Hayden's permission slip, set the pen down to put the piece of paper in his backpack and WHAMO, she grabs the pen and plays Picasso on the back of the sofa. I could have tossed her in her crib right there and declared the day over.

Pinewood Derby

The boys made their cars for the Pinewood Derby the Cub Scouts put together every year. They designed them completely on their own!

Bayley won 3 out of 4 races, Hayden won 1 out of 4. However...they take the finishing times and average them to get the leaders for each den. Hayden was 2nd place for his den, Bayley didn't place. Still...they did phenomenally well since lots of the dads make the cars, not the boys. Plus, they designed very easy-to-recognize-in-blurry-pictures kind of cars!

Muffins and Models

Too bad it's not the M fortnight! The boys had a great time yesterday afternoon. Hayden spent hours (yes, plural) baking lemon poppyseed muffins in his EZ Bake oven - he made enough for everyone to have one after dinner for dessert! He is the most generous little guy.

Bayley needed to do a model for Cub Scouts, and no one was shocked when he was able to find a Star Wars model to make! He did it all himself and says that it is quite realistic!

Alphabet Soup

We decided to do the alphabet year game again, where you focus on a letter of the alphabet every fortnight. We didn't get very creative this go-round. Mostly apples, avocados, Apple Jacks and arranging furniture. Hayden started a new art class at school. Uncle Dan even tried to help out with his abdominal surgery. We really need to get out more!