Carving

This is how we thought Everett would look while enjoying our pumpkin carving last night....

This is how Everett actually looked after he went back inside 2 minutes into pumpkin carving (as photographed by Amelia as she went to check on him)...

Mirror Image

Amelia drew Meggan this portrait to hang in her office. I don't know about you, but I think it looks just like her...well, at least it has blue eyes....

Putting the Man in Spiderman

Somebody is ready to start trying to wear big boy underwear ...and no, I'm not talking about myself...

Satisfied

This is the face of someone who is satisfied with their breakfast choice.  Meggan and Amelia stopped by the dining hall to grab a quick bite before school.  Amelia, who had already eaten at home and said she wasn't hungry, decided she'd go up to the line by herself and order a plate of bacon.  No eggs. No muffin. Pure bacon.

Crown

I don't think the people at church realized once you give Everett a hat of any kind (even a hand made crown), the man is wearing it until it falls apart...

Big Night

Amelia was on cloud 9 after getting to hang out and cheer with the big girls tonight...

Rough Rider

This is the look of a little man whose mom had to leave early this morning and forced him to slum it and ride with his lowly dad....

...he had that sad look on his face the whole way to school.

Well Read

Amelia's class is now working on sight words. These are words you should be able to read at a glance. These words were sent home with a note that said "For Amelia, these words will be a review, but she might think it's fun to participate with the class."  This made me a very proud father. It also made me happy to see her teachers recognize her strengths. To date, she has been able to do her reading homework in 5 minutes with no help and then move on to reading actual books she enjoys.  So far, kindergarten couldn't be going any better.

Dress Code

For their behavior, Amelia's class was rewarded today with Pajama Day.  This made her one happy little kindergartner (with a dad who takes...

Visitor

We had this little visitor hang out with us on our deck today. Everett found him in the toy box and thought he was hilarious. Amelia was mesmerized by it right up until the point where he flew across the air and landed on her chest. I'm pretty sure that was the last time she'll ever get near a frog again. On a related note, a frog jumping on her was even funnier than when she fell in the toilet the other night. That little girl is instant entertainment...

Crafty

With mom working all day, we had to find ways to keep busy.  So, this morning, we decided to paint these birdhouses.  Painting always sounds like a good idea. However, what it actually turns into is 15 minutes of set up, 5 minutes of painting, and 15 minutes of clean up.  Oh well, at least it was a good 5 minutes...

Homecoming

Amelia attended her first homecoming as a student of her school tonight (it is a k-12 school). While she had a great time seeing all the big football players and cheerleaders, I think Ev enjoyed his corn more than anyone in the stadium enjoyed anything on the planet.

Night Out

There was no post last night because Meggan and I had a very, very rare date night.  As always, a special thanks goes out to Ms. Tonya (or Aunt Tonya as Everett called her while he was looking for her this morning).  We had a delicious child-free dinner and enjoyed a grown up movie for the first time in a while.  That said, judging by the pictures Tonya sent me, I'm not sure we had a better night than the kids.  They got to get in their pajamas and make crafts they enjoyed so much that they played with them all night tonight.....

Laughing

How do you teach your children to laugh at themselves? The line between embarrassing and funny is razor thin.  Without going into all the details, I'll just let you know Amelia fell into the toilet tonight. She wasn't hurt. She ended up splashed down in the water, folded like a taco, with her legs straight up in the air...and it was hilarious. Well, it was hilarious to us. She cried because she was embarrassed.  It wasn't that she didn't see the humor in the situation. She admitted it would have been sooo funny if it happened to me.  She simply didn't like being laughed at and there was no way she was going to laugh with us about it.  We tried and tried to explain that life is much better when you can laugh at the silly things.  In the end, she calmed down, but she she never accepted the comedy of it all. I'm wondering if this is something that comes with age or just something you're born with.  To me, I think being able to laugh at yourself is one of most singularly important virtues to a happy existence. To her, I was just her jerk dad laughing at her misfortune.

Shopper

Ev is mesmerized by all the holiday decorations. We have to take him to the store regularly so he can look at them. He and I went this weekend and spent at least 20 minutes staring at them...

Judo Chop

I think we are enrolling Amelia in karate in the spring. She got a little taste of it this weekend....she can clearly use a little work on her punching...

Helper

When you're a parent, you will find that your kids love to read, watch, and listen to the dumbest things over and over and over again. Luckily for me, I found out this morning my nightly efforts with teaching Amelia to read are finally paying off. Sure, I'm proud of her and she's doing great in school. However, the payoff I'm talking about is the fact that she now happily reads all those terrible books to Everett instead of me. This is the early stages of my master plan to have children so they can perform all the tasks in life that I want to avoid. Phase two includes teaching her Microsoft Excel so she can go to work for me too.

Message

When you come home from working late and you are bummed out from missing the evening with your kids, there are very few things that can cheer you up like stumbling upon this sidewalk chalk message...

Artist

Here is Amelia's drawing from school. It is a great rendition of our house. We actually do have a green chimney, red door, and a red and blue bounce house on the side.. However, I would like to know who the person lounging in a lawn chair in my front yard is...that's just silly...

Verbal

A few months ago, Everett was a man of few words and Amelia could only read books she was familiar with. Last night, Everett had a 15 minute phone conversation and Amelia read me over 20 pages of a chapter book. It's amazing to me how quickly children grow, how ferociously they learn, and how massively they change over a short time.  As a parent, all you can do is sit back and watch them in amazement.  I feel very lucky to have a front row seat to their show.

We're Back!

While date night was destroyed and isn't coming back anytime soon, I'm happy to say we were all relatively back to good health today. We even squeezed in a little Halloween painting ...

Just As Good

You know when you think you and your wife are going out on a much needed "date night" you've been looking forward to, but instead your wife and daughter end up in Urgent Care because your daughter has been throwing up her food, water, and possibly her soul all evening? Yeah, that's just as good, right?

Just in Time

I've been hoping Everett would potty train a little faster. However, I now see why he's taking his time....he wanted to give me enough time to come across these gorgeous leather diaper covers....

....they've got all the discomfort of a diaper AND the ridiculous look of leather. Brilliant!

ABCs

The man's got it down...

Responsible

Amelia was given an award at school yesterday. As a proud father, I'm hoping this is the first of many to come...

"Amelia is a very sweet girl. She always follows directions very well and sets a great example for her friends at Extended Day"