This year has been busy to say the least. All four of us have had activities and gatherings to keep us occupied. 2013 has been great and 2014 promises to be just as eventful!
Matt (MVP) turned four this year. He started attending a preschool story-time at his sister’s school once a week. It is just like preschool, but with parental assistance. He loves it – especially the story reading and singing. He is all boy and loves cars, dinosaurs, Lego bricks, and My Little Ponies. Yes, MVP is a brony. Because of MVP, we are now a MLP addicted family. We read the comics, watch the TV show, and have even played a couple of games all because one day over a year ago he asked, “What’s my cutie mark?”
Tori (VIP) is in the 2nd grade this year. She has been one busy girl! She is 2/3 of the way through the belt series in Tae Kwon Do. Being the active little girl that she is, she is already planning on trying out roller derby and music lessons of some sort after she has achieved earning her black belt. She must plan ahead after all! She still loves reading and art. She is making her way through the Harry Potter series right now with periodic dips into several comic book series.
Both kids are too smart for their own good. They both love reading together and are quite fond of visiting museums one day and tromping around in nature the next (with a magnifying glass in hand, of course). MVP has quite the imagination. He is so easy-going; he plays well with VIP and her friends as well as boys and girls his own age and younger.
Cathe is still writing for GeekMom and is now on a team of copy-editors for the growing website. When she is not writing up a recent science experiment she did with the kids, a board game review, or editing other content, she is busy helping out with the kids at school. Tim and Cathe have also done several gaming date nights where they record themselves playing video games together for something called “Let’s Play” videos, a trend on YouTube. These videos can be found on the GeekMom YouTube channel (Warning: Walking Dead Videos are very vulgar and violent). Since her professional focus changed slightly this year, Cathe is focusing more on beefing up her resume for the possibility of going back to school for her teaching certificate. Volunteering for teaching art in all four second grade classes at VIP’s school seemed like a logical start. Aside from being thrilled at seeing what the kids create each month, Cathe loves working with the kids. She still tries to get in some photo shoots, but mainly does them for friends and family as gifts. When she has something called “free time,” Cathe enjoys playing games with friends or dabbling in crafts at home.
Instead of going to several gaming conventions this year, the Posts stayed closer to home.Though Cathe tends to apply for press passes to events, they only attended two convention this year. GameStorm was in March and was cut short due to a stomach bug that tore through the house. September brought a long 10th anniversary weekend with a day trip to a Mini-Maker Faire at OMSI. There are hopes of having the time to attend more conventions in 2014.
Tim is coming up on his 10th year with Underwriters Laboratories. He’s still an engineer, but has focused more on writing code for the company than safety testing recently. When Tim isn’t working he is active in the Portland Ska/Rock Steady band The Sentiments, playing trombone or trumpet. He also gets an itch if he goes more than a month without being in a role playing game campaign.
During school breaks the kids had several opportunities to go to museums and camping with grandparents and family. Since we only went to gaming conventions that didn’t require hotel stays this year, we took a family vacation to Fort Stevens, near Astoria, for a camping trip. It is the first time we have been camping as a family since VIP was 2. It was a lot of fun. We learned lots about science and history, ate a variety of camping foods, played in piles of dirt, and were very cold in the Pacific surf.
As a family, it is hard not doing things together. Most friends have kids the same age as ours so it is easy to say, “Go play while the adults play games.” The kids are growing up quickly, and it won’t be long before MVP has his own extracurricular activities to schedule in with his sister’s. Add that to the parents activities and work – it’s no wonder the house is always a mess!
Here’s hoping your house is happy and healthy this holiday. Cheers!
Mom Plays Gamez 
Thanks you for sending me these pictures. Fran