Kristin has had braces applied to her teeth. The pink and blue traintracks will remain in place for six to eight months and are intended to remove the famous inherited GAP from her smile. The gap between the two front teeth showed up with both Kristin and Jakob, and was inherited from Mom, whose gap closed up in later years.

Kristin decided that she didn't want to have the gap any more, so she went for the braces. She can't chew gum, or eat really chewy stuff, but apparently it is okay to still eat chocolate.

Jakob's performance of Inter-City Stomp (Norton) earned him a second place finish at the Barrie Kiwanis Music Festival! The adjudicator commented on his "effective staccato touch and good energy" and awarded him a score of 86 in the Conservatory Piano Solo Study - Grade 3 class at the festival. That score was high enough to place him second in the class.

But that wasn't Jakob's only performance during the week. He was also entered in the Conservatory Piano Solo - Grade 3 class two days later, where he had to play first.

It wasn't the fastest, but it sure looked nice! And the judges agreed as they awarded Jakob's cub car the second place trophy in the "10 Year Old Best Design" category at this year's Simcoe Phoenix Area Kub Kar Rally.

This was the third -- and final -- year for Cub cars, and the first year that Jakob's car was actually entered in the design contest. In both previous years, his car was too busy racing in the finals to enter in the design contest.

Conceived by Jakob, and created with help from Dad, the 2006 creation was a bold blue streamlined car with a powerful bolt of lightning running down the length.

The hat in question is the delightful and colourful jester's hat that Dad has been wearing in public for at least three years, usually around Christmas time.

For the second year, Kristin participated in the Barrie Fair with Jakob joining in this time around. Both entered chocolate chip cookies and a "summer fun" photograph in their respective categories.

The chocolate chip cookie category required three cookies. Interestingly, the judge took about a 3 mm wide sliver to do the taste test. "He should have at least tried a whole cookie," Kristin commented. However, it would then be likely that the last ones he tried would make him ill, no matter how good they were.

In a freak accident Thursday evening, Jakob snapped both his radius and ulna -- the two bones of the forearm -- clean in half. The accident happened at Airtime Trampoline centre, where Jakob and his sister were just starting trampoline lessons.

Only minutes into the lesson, Jakob lost his balance after performing a standard "seat-drop" manoever. He went forward, and it is believed he came down on the edge of the trampoline where it wasn't so springy. The position combined with the momentum were enough to break the bones in half.