fat suburbanite dad: 2013

The kids got kittens on Friday the 13th. We went to the shelter and when we found out that black cats were the least adopted cats, the kids made their decision...black it would be. They picked out two 3 month old, bonded brothers. They are adorable and fit right into the family. Each child named a kitten. The boy named one Loki...the god of mischief. The boy picked correctly, as Loki is very rambunctious and runs the household. The girl named the other kitten Coltrane, after our cat that died a few months back. Coltrane is very sweet and shy.

Happily, the kittens only explored and slept under the Christmas tree and not in it. They didn't even break an ornament!

Evidently, Deacon was meant to be a Mother Hen. He loves the kittens and follows them around everywhere. He just stands over them and watches them. They drink out of his water bowl and have eaten out of his food bowl while he hovers over them. They have also kicked the 95lb dog off his dog bed and they sleep on it, while Deacons sleeps next to them. Sometimes, I catch all three of them curled up on the girl's bed.

Saturday, December 21, 2013

Guitar Hero

The boy had his first guitar recital last week. He has been taking lessons since September. He played Spanish Theme, This Land is Your Land, Ode to Joy, Silent Night and Jingle Bells. The other boy that was suppose to play a duet on some of the songs with him didn't show up, so the boy did all of the parts himself. I was very proud of him. I have some video footage, but he didn't want me to post it to the blog, as he is embarrassed. Either that, or he is smart and won't allow his music to be played for free :).

An Altering Experience!

The girl is an alter server at Mass. She did two Masses her first weekend, as her friend couldn't make the Mass he signed up for.

She did a great job!

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Monday, December 9, 2013

Lego Chess

The kids were playing chess after school and I looked over at the board and noticed several lego figures. I asked them why they were using lego figures and they told me that they always used them, as they have lost several chess pieces. Since we have at least 4 other chess boards, I asked them why they didn't use one of the complete sets for their game. I was told...then it wouldn't be lego chess. Of course, how silly of me!

Wednesday, November 6, 2013

A Little Light Reading

I went to check on the boy to tell him it was time for bed. I found him reading hubby's 'Notebook of Leonardo Da Vinci' Vol. 1.

Thursday, October 31, 2013

Have a Spooktacular Halloween

The girl is a cat and the boy an alien this year. They have a carnival at school with all the proceeds going to charity. This way, they are nice and sugared up from all the stuff at the carnival, before trick or treating!

Tuesday, October 29, 2013

Booed!

This sign showed up on the front porch the other day, along with a bag of stickers, crafts and other fun things for the kids. They are having such a fun time trying to figure out which neighbor sent it. What they like even more than getting the gifts was shopping with me and planning what neighbors would get booed from them. They ended up booing the three kids next store and a brother and sister two doors down. They were so excited, they waited until it was dark and then dropped the goodies, rang the doorbell and ran. The next day when they were all playing outside, their friends were trying to figure out who booed them. It has been fun to watch. We are lucky to have such great neighbors!

Friday, October 25, 2013

An Athletic Performance

The girl was named student athlete of the week at school. The school picks one girl and one boy athlete a week from the hundreds of kids that play sports for the school. The criteria isn't solely on athletic ability, though that is one of the factors. The other factors are teamwork and sportsmanship. We are so proud of her! Since the picture of her with her certificate has a lot of personal information on it, we substituted a pic of her and her best friend after the game. Her friend G, has also been student athlete of the week, which she very justly deserved.

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In other volleyball news, the girl was on fire today helping her team win their second to last game of the season. She was able to maintain her serve 11 times in a row, with more than half of them aces. She is really enjoying volleyball. It is a very busy, but short season.

Friday, October 11, 2013

Just Thought This Turned Out Interesting

It's amazing how far camera phones have developed over the last few years.

Saturday, October 5, 2013

Weekend Update

We went to a church carnival Friday night. The kids had fun and luckily didn't win a fish in the ping pong toss. We made Aunt J come with us and we all ate a bunch of unhealthy carnival food.

We are in the midst of volleyball season and the girl is loving it. Today was a big tournament and we were in a gym for hours. The girl's team ended up winning the most games and took first place.

This afternoon I got to spend time with my Godson for his birthday. We went to Chuck E Cheese and Toys R Us. Chuck E Cheese happened to have a train game. Since A is really into trains, it was perfect! We had so much fun!

Tomorrow the boy starts football season, he is so excited!

Sunday, August 25, 2013

Good Times

This has been the summer of nice visits from relatives that live in Oklahoma and Texas. M came to visit for a few days. We always enjoy her visits and this time was no exception. Not only did she make lemon meringue pie...twice, we also went to San Francisco with her. M taught the girl how to make M's Mom's lemon meringue pic recipe. It was nice seeing them in the kitchen cooking, while I relaxed! M has a niece, L that recently moved to San Fran. Her niece came down to see us last time M was here, so we went up to see her in SF this time. Since L is a professional chef, it was an easy decision to head up to SF to enjoy the day and have dinner. L and her roommate G have a cute apartment that overlooks the bay. We were able to watch the America's Cup racers from the picture window. L and G had us out walking up and down hills, past Lombard Street to Fisherman's Wharf and Ghirardelli Square. It was so much fun. It made me realize that we need to make an effort to get to the city more often. The kids had a great time seeing all of the sights. L and G were perfect hostesses and we had a delicious meal. Even the kids loved everything. G had better watch out though. Both L and G are pretty, blonde girls and the boy loves blondes and obviously older women. Don't ask me why. He has been like that as far back as 2. It was funny, wherever G would be in the apartment, the boy would be next to her chatting her up. He sat next to her on the couch, walked with her around the city and staked his claim next to her at dinner. She is very sweet and answered his questions and gave him attention. She is the oldest of 5 kids with a little sister that is 10, so she is very good with kids. The happiest place on earth...for the boy. He was so excited when we finally made it to Ghirardelli Square. Of course we went into the chocolate shop. The best thing was, the free samples!

The small island out behind the tall masts is Alcatraz. It was a really beautiful day and there were a bunch of people swimming in the bay.

The kids in front of Lombard Street. I couldn't believe the amount of tourists on the street and on the street below, where we were. There were police officers directing both the car and foot traffic. So, of course we had to add to the traffic and stop and get some pictures.

Wednesday, August 7, 2013

A Scare By The Numbers

1 Reese's pieces that the boy mistakenly thought was a plain M&M, while at camp. 1 friend's Mom who recognized what was happening. 1 Epi-Pen and ambulance ride. 2 pretty EMT's that the boy still managed to flirt with, while hooked up to oxygen and an IV.

7 hours in the emergency room. 1 additional treatment, once the boy started to have another reaction 5 hours into the ER visit.

2 parents that lost 5 years off their lives. 1 little boy that has recovered and is running around like nothing happened. 1 very thankful family.

Sunday, July 21, 2013

Rollin Down the River

It has been really hot here, so we took the kids to cooler temps. We took the kids to Alpine Lake and Union Reservoir and a river. I forgot to get pictures of the kids and dog swimming in the lake and reservoir. At least I remembered to take pictures of them tubing. They had a blast! The river was in gold country, so there were a bunch of people panning for gold in the river. The gold panners told us that gold is now selling for $3,000 an ounce. I think I am going to buy a gold pan.

Tuesday, July 16, 2013

A Pleasant Visit

Hubby's Aunt J and Uncle A came out from Oklahoma and stayed with us over the weekend. It was so nice to see them and visit. I hope we didn't wear them out to much, so they come back and visit with us again.

I think the obvious title for this pic is "legs".

Evidently Uncle A makes a good chair to rest on.

Wednesday, July 10, 2013

Happy Birthday Cousin B

My oldest niece is turning 17 today. I remember when she was just a sweet little girl and now she is a poised, brilliant and multi-talented young woman.

Here she is teaching her young cousin (the boy)to skate. It was his first time on the ice and he and the girl still talk about how much fun they had that day with their older cousins. Even as a young girl, B had patience. She has always been incredibly helpful and responsible and able to make everything she does fun. Have a great 17th birthday!

Tuesday, July 9, 2013

Happy Birthday Pumpkin!

Today my baby turns 8. He is a kind boy with an adventurous spirit, hilarious sense of humor and loving soul. It seems like only yesterday when he looked like this.

And now he is going down into caverns, riding his bike with no hands and occasionally no feet, while he stands up on the top tube of his bike (which hubby rightly said would give me a heart attack when I saw it) and helping out with the little kids, like his cousin Z.

Have a great birthday! We love you very much.

Monday, July 8, 2013

R.I.P.

We had an unexpected death in our household this weekend. Boscoe, was killed by a coyote on our street. Since we live in the suburbs, it was very shocking to find our 14 year old cat dead that way. We are close to some foothills and we know there are coyotes and probably a mountain lion in the hills, but it has been awhile since the coyotes have been seen here. Boscoe has safely patrolled a three house area for the 13 years we have lived here. After our neighbors found out about Boscoe, we have been hearing from other people around our area that have had them in their front yards. He will be remembered as the cat that would be sure to remind us if there was no longer any half and half in his bowl,an awesome foot warmer, garden napper and the sweetest, gentlest cat there ever was.

Ecclesiastes 3 For everything there is a season, and a time for every matter under heaven: a time to be born, and a time to die; a time to plant, and a time to pluck up what is planted; a time to kill, and a time to heal; a time to break down, and a time to build up; a time to weep, and a time to laugh; a time to mourn, and a time to dance; a time to cast away stones, and a time to gather stones together; a time to embrace, and a time to refrain from embracing; a time to seek, and a time to lose; a time to keep, and a time to cast away; a time to tear, and a time to sew; a time to keep silence, and a time to speak; a time to love, and a time to hate; a time for war, and a time for peace. It was Boscoe's time. You are missed!

Monday, July 1, 2013

Spelunking

It's 100 plus degrees out, so we decided to explore some caves and do a little spelunking in the nice 57 degree caves.

This is the "womb room" . You can climb down into it and crawl around in a room the size of a crushed car. It is the " claustrophobia test" they make the all day cave expedition cavers go in at the beginning of the tour to see if they can pass.

So of course the boy was the first to volunteer to go down it. His sister wasn't far behind.

Once the boy found out there is an all day adventure tour he asked how old you have to be. Our guide told him 8. He told her he would be 8 in two weeks and will come back after that to do it.