Bà & Ông nội Visit

Kelvin's parents (Bà nội and Ông nội) were here for the past 10 days. Having them (on usually about semi-annual visits) is seamless in our house-- they have their "room"(guest room) with clothes and shoes that they leave here, and they know where everything is and get around McKinleyville/Arcata/Eureka easily! My mother-in-law, Thao, is a wonderful cook and I'm always off the hook for meal preparation (/kid complaining about meals) while they're there, and Kelvin's dad stays busy working on house/maintenance tasks (I don't know how he has the energy, honestly! But the apple obviously doesn't fall far from the tree).

They enjoyed taking the kids to school (so the kids didn't have to go to before-care every day due to our work start times) and church.

Niall taught "Bà Bà " how to play chess! 

Kelvin and I snuck away to Havana, a new Cuban restaurant in Arcata, for a date night!

My MIL always takes a lot of photos of the kids, but we don't have that many photos with them! 

Spring blooms!

They also were able to attend the kids' track meet on Tuesday-- pics to follow!

Arcata Forest Run '25

 We did the (rainy, again) 6 Rivers Running Club Arcata Forest run this weekend with some friends.

  Kelvin's parents are in town and braved the rain to watch the competition and cheer us on.

Iver made this cloth napkin into a headband to "match" his outfit!

Iver and Xander led the 2-mile rice (Kelvin and Niall participated, too, although Kelvin's a very fair-weather runner and hung back to keep Niall motivated). 

Iver took second place overall, beaten only by neighbor, former LL classmate and ten-year-old,  Charlie!

Place Name                    G/age  Time     Bib#

 1 Charlie W                   M10   15:49    1025

 2 Iver V                      M10   15:53    1016

Kelvin and Niall finished in ~22 min. 

I decided to run the 5.5 mile event again, although I haven't been doing much running in recent weeks-months due to the weather and OB on-call schedule. While my body is feeling demonstrably more "middle-aged" lately and I was really feeling the forest hills this year and walked up many of them, I thought I'd beat last year's time by a few minutes when I saw the stopwatch at the end. However, I had, in fact, not-- I clocked almost the identical time (1:01:50) as last year (1:01:46 in 2024).

Thankfully, no one fell in the mud (I came close going downhill a couple of times!) and no one got hurt (Kelvin's stated biggest concern). Our shoes are pretty disgusting but intact (Kelvin's soles fell off  two years ago!), but we all had fun!  Until next year (probably. Maybe we'll get some drier weather?).

A wee bit o' magic

 

I thought that we'd escape this year without any March shenanigans. Apparently Kelvin reminded Iver on March 16th that March 17th was St. Patty's day and Iver decided he needed to make a last-minute Leprechaun trap.

Unfortunately, our power went out for over six hours on Sunday, due to a storm, but Iver worked for three hours on this trap while there was still daylight! 

Alas, Lucky escaped but he left a box of Lucky charms and turned the milk and toilet water green.

I, generally too grouchy and tired to participate in "fake" holidays, busted out some shamrock earrings that I probably got decades ago from my Grandmother. 

Until next year!

Science Fair

 

The school's 4th and 5th grade science fair night was a couple of Thursday ago. Iver and friend Xander studied the effects of different running shoes on race performance (speed), finding that the golden "spike" track shoes Iver wished for and got for his birthday were solidly superior to other athletic shoes and crocs in terms of their running performance in a ~200 m distance.  I helped the boys with data collection, but the poster and interpretation was all them, completed at school! 

Other kids studied the voltage of electrolyte solutions, plant growth, and other chemical reactions. Five participants from each grade were selected to present the county level and Iver's project qualified!  

Next to the posters was a science area with other booths. The kids were infatuated with "Nature Joe" and his reptiles! 

Now Iver really wants a snake (I drew the line at two amphibians!). 

We found out later that the boys' project/poster placed as "second place" in a group of  kids in the county and a ceremony was held at the County of Education conference center this weekend.

Fuente Strong!

Niall wanted to share in the credit :)

Iver's already thinking about his next year's project (involving his latest passion, football!).   

Flag Football

Football has rapidly become Iver's favorite sport, and even Niall is interested in throwing and catching the ball in our driveway.  I'm not a huge fan of football as a contact sport for young athletes, but it's pretty harmless for now.

football on the beach! 

Kelvin organized a kids' flag football game this past (sunny) weekend when I was on call. There was a good turnout of ~16 boys, and we even now own flag sets. 

The kids are interested in doing a flag football league this summer, and we'll see if we can make the practice and game times work with our work schedules and other commitments.

What I miss when on 48h OB call (bedtime reading & snuggles)  :(