My review of Peter Pan by Owen

A few weeks ago, my family and I went to see the new play Peter Pan. I think the entire family enjoyed it. The play was excellent.

One of the best parts was the flying. Throughout the play Peter, Wendy, Tinker Bell, and Wendy's two brothers fly through Never Land. To fly in the play, they used cables. In the tent where Peter Pan was performed were projectors. They really helped make the actors look like they were moving when they were flying.

Another good part is the puppets. All of the puppets are controled by men in suits, so you have to ignore them. The Crocodile, Nana the dog, and a small bird are the puppets. The puppets let animals be in the play.

Lastly, I think Peter Pan is a great show for both adults and kids. Also, the candy is great!

Adventure Park by Jacob

I went to the Adventure Park. I’m old enough for the zip line now. It was fast! You had to stick your legs out or you would get sand in your mouth. I built a door. I got nails, a hammer, gloves, and a piece of wood with hinges. I whacked the nail with the hammer. I put the door on a house. The last thing I did was skip rocks at the beach.

The Karate Report by Chris

Judges! The shout ends each kata performance and has been heard frequently this year in the dojo — and in the garage, at the park, outside Starbucks, etc. — as all the Shannon men competed this season. Jacob and I typically face only one or two competitors in the Under 6 and Over 35 Divisions, but Owen has been taking trophies frequently while facing as many as a dozen competitors. I’m still working on my warrior face, but Jacob and Owen nonchalantly make the Jekyll and Hyde transformation from mostly innocent boys to near rabid mini ninjas. Our sparring stories are similar, but each of us has matured greatly this year regardless of the abundance or dearth of competition.

Owen and I will be thankful for the lessons learned as we enter black belt school together this fall. A half dozen Saturdays and other days of training over four or five months will culminate in a 4-hour test for Owen and an overnight 20-hour test for me. The training regimen and testing process are secrets, but sure to include numerous miles of running and an untold number of sparring matches from point fighting to Muay Thai to sport Jiu-Jitsu. Bruised muscles and tired minds will also need to master over a dozen traditional forms and board breaking before we can don the black gis of honors black belts. It’s sure to be a father-son adventure not soon forgotten.

Summer fun? by Kerri Grace

As the school year came to a close, we asked the boys to pick a summer project to keep their reading and writing skills sharp. Owen surprised us by deciding that he wanted to start a family newspaper, and Jacob surprised us even more by eagerly jumping on the bandwagon. When the boys pointed out that it wouldn't be a family newspaper if the whole family didn't contribute articles, Chris and I threw ourselves into the fray. The teacher in me thrilled at the notion of my children engaged in "authentic literacy tasks," so I happily took on the job of publishing our little rag.

We had hopes of publishing a newsletter every week. Then reality reared her businesslike head, and the first three weeks of summer slipped by without anyone writing anything. Also, I discovered that our little publishing house was never going to get off the ground if we had to wait for me to type the articles, format them into a newsletter, copy them, and mail them off -- especially since the boys stood firm in their insistence that I actually contribute my writing to the endeavor. Hopefully, publishing a blog will be at least a teeny bit simpler than what we'd originally envisioned. And, hopefully, I won't suffer so terribly from writer's block for the rest of the summer. It's humbling to have one's six year old say, "I've finished my article, Mom. How come you've only written one sentence?"

Jackpot at Superfranks by Jacob

I went to Super Franks with Sifu Glasky on Friday. I went into the machine room. I played this machine. I pressed a button and the ball fell into the jackpot. I got the jackpot and got a thousand tickets.