Big News For Breanne

Last weekend we shared some big news with Breanne.  Check out her reaction:

Azul

I love my boys. And by my boys I mean, my boy David and my nephew C who spends a couple of days a week at my house. I like to pretend that he's mine because he's really well behaved and generally pretty calm so it makes me feel like I'm doing a good job. Of course I have nothing to do with this and it's really my brother and sister in law who have done a great job with this little guy. Yesterday as the boys were sitting around the table, C notices David being grumpy and rubbing his eyes.

C: "Dabid tired?"

Me: "No, David's not tired, he just has pink eye."

C is completely confused and looks at me like I have five heads.

C: "No, no, no (He always says no three times when he thinks you're a lunatic) Dabid has boo eyes"

Me: "Well yes, but David is sick and has an infection called 'pink eye'" Cause every 2 year old knows what an infection is right?

C: "No, no NO awin (Lauren) Dabid has BOO eyes!"

At this point I'm sure, he's thinking, "Geeze Mom, why do you leave me Her! She doesn't even know her colors!" And to clarify this for me in case I don't understand English, he says,

C: "Awin...azul" Looking at me very intently like this is how he is going to get through to me. "No, no, no pink, awin, Dabid has azul eyes, Ok??"

Me: "Yes hun, David has blue eyes, but . . . nevermind . . . you're right, David has azul eyes"

C was very pleased with himself that he had finally taught me the difference between blue and pink.

"I hab lunch now?"

Cause his favorite thing next to proving you wrong is eating lunch.

Boys and Balloons

Today I am thankful for whoever invented balloons. The boys played with them like this for 45 minutes straight! They never seemed to get bored and it did a great job of tiring them out for naps.

Dancing in the Moonlight

There are lots of things that our family likes to do together. We play games, we wrestle, we play disk golf...ok, Brandon plays and I walk, I throw like a girl. Above all else though, we love to dance. Not because we're good either...trust me, we're not. There's no dance floor material here. (Unless we're talking about the three Honza brothers at a wild wedding, then we might have something to talk about) But seriously, we are strictly closed curtains, don't answer the door type people when it comes to our dance skills. Tonight however, I thought this was worth sharing. Brandon decided tonight was the night to pass down the knowledge of valuable dance moves to his ready to learn daughter. Dance she did, and it's the cutest. Go Breanne!

Great Wolf Lodge Weekend

We decided to take a weekend trip with the kids to the Great Wolf Lodge in Williamsburg.  They have a huge indoor water park and lots of activities for the kids to do.  The nice thing is, a two night stay gets you into their water park for 3 days starting on the day you check in at 1, and lasting until the park closes on the day you check out.  We did have a slight scare when we arrived as they did not have a reservation for Honza.  After a tense 5 minutes they discovered they had us under Honva.  Our room wasn't suppose to be ready until 4 on check-in day but was ready at 1, so we were able to get settled in before heading to the water park. 

The water park had a fort of sorts with a bucket that held thousands of gallons of water.  Every 5 minutes the bucket overflows and dumps it's contents on anyone below.  This area also had some smaller water slides.  Check this out:

There was a nice little toddler/baby area too with even smaller slides and water that got no deeper than a foot.  Breanne and David both enjoyed this area as well.  David is not afraid of water at all and did several face plants into the water without any hesitation.  Good thing Lauren and I were right by his side at all times.

Breanne's favorite areas were probably the wave pool, the lazy river (which Breanne actually runs through), and the outdoor pool.  She did go on the big slides she was allowed to go on, but she really preferred just jumping around in the water.  I kept telling her, "We don't have water slides back home, but we have pools".  This didn't seem to matter though, and all that really matters is that she had a good time.  I personally loved going down the two big slides on the double tube with Breanne.  She couldn't sit in the middle (she would just fall through), but if I put my feet up next to her, she would hold on to them.  She did an amazing job though as those slides got moving pretty fast.

Another nice feature at the Great Wolf Lodge, was a fantasy role playing game called MagiQuest.  We purchased a wand and a game book and were given 9 quests and 3 tasks.  Your wand is battery powered and shoots a ray of some sort into a special place on interactive pieces located throughout the hotel.  It was pretty neat to see Breanne point her wand at a treasure chest and watch it open.

You have found 100 gold coins!

Each quest gives you a rune you can use on your 3 tasks.  To get a rune, you must collect certain objects and give them to certain people.  While the first quest took Breanne and I close to one and half hours, we eventually got each quest down to about 20 to 25 minutes.  By the end of our second day, we were down to one more quest and hopefully on to the dragon!  This is no small feat, as some quests are time sensitive (try running to the other side of the hotel in 30 seconds or you fail with a 4 year old).  However, once we (I mean she) attained the title of "Master Magi" we took a look at the dragon and Breanne was no longer interested.  Well, I showed that dragon who was boss.  No, just kidding.  It was a ton of fun to do with Breanne and I enjoyed it thoroughly.  Maybe next time, we'll slay the dragon.

Monday morning we got to the water park at about 10:00.  By 10:30, our son who constantly fought us on being stopped, helped, or blocked all weekend, was asking to be held.  He actually rode on top of Lauren and I on the lazy river for 20-30 minutes on two separate occasions.  At about 11:45, I looked at Breanne and noticed she just didn't look peppy anymore.  When I asked her if she was ready to go home, she quickly said yes.  Our kids were pooped.  We saddled up and headed on home.  This picture was taken on the way down, but it mirrors the one on the way home.

Also worth noting is that David is a ladies man.  Hanging at the outside pool, a little girl kept watch on him for awhile.  Eventually, she walked up.  After some chatter this was the result.

We had a great weekend and look forward to going back sometime, but first we need a little rest! :)

Herricane Irene with the Family

No, I didn't misspell Hurricane, but only wrote it the way Breanne understood hurricanes.  As we braced ourselves for the ensuing storm, Breanne commented that the hurricane must be a girl since it was a her icane without knowing it was named Irene.  I really think Breanne is onto something here.  Maybe we should call the ones that are girls hurricanes and the boy ones hisicanes.  It makes pretty good sense to me! 

Honestly, Saturday was a little disappointing.  It rained a lot, but the winds only got to about 30-40 mph during the day.  With all the hype, Breanne was often asking if the hurricane was here yet, but the storm seemed to delay.  Following a night of TV and videogames, Lauren and I decided to turn in at around 11 which is right about the time the real fun started.  At 11:30, the lights went out leaving us in the dark, and beginning a long spell of time without power.  I will admit, I was a little jealous we got the brunt of the storm in the middle of the night as I could hear the winds blowing very hard and would have liked to see it (and even been on my back patio to see it). 

When we awoke, the power was still out and there was a little excitement as we looked outside.  Since we couldn't have coffee, I ventured out in search of a place that had power so Lauren and I would be ready for our day.  It wasn't until I entered Howard County that I actually found a place with power and coffee!  By early afternoon, the novelty had worn off as the recording from BGE was telling us we may be without power until Friday and it was only Sunday.  We were refraining from opening the refrigerator unless absolutely necessary and I fired up the grill to eat whatever might go bad. 

By Monday morning, it was definitely not fun.  School was canceled (the first day of school this year) so I was home to help out, but the water bottles we froze to keep important stuff cold were almost thawed out and it was the end of most of the stuff still in the frig.  Fortunately the eggs had kept cold with the water bottles.  Seeing that this was our last chance to eat them, I fired up the grill and for the first time, I barbecued eggs.

The day went on with a lot of reading and playing outside (a very nice side effect of no power), but the kids were in need of baths and the sun was setting.  Lauren figured out, if you hang a flash light by it's string in the bath tub you have enough light to see to get clean.

This night was suppose to be the Circle Drive Fantasy Football Draft, but with no power and several people trying to draft online it was called off.  This didn't stop Josh, Joe, and I from hanging out and playing poker by candle light outside.  Notice Landry isn't present despite living in the neighborhood.  He couldn't take it anymore and headed to my parents where they had power!

 

 

Poker After Dark

Finally, at about 4:30 in the morning on Tuesday, I awoke to a bedroom completely alight.  I breathed a sigh of relief and fell back asleep.  The frig was empty, but I still had coffee!

You might think the rest of the week went grand, but it had it's ups and downs.  We lost power two more times, but never more than 12 hours (all the new food we got Tuesday didn't go bad).  However, the rescheduled Fantasy draft fell on a night we didn't have power, and the neighborhood crew drove all over before finally finding a McDonalds with wifi so we could complete our draft. 

Let's hope no more herricanes or hisicanes come anytime soon!

Breanne and Daddy Day or Days

So, last week while I was doing New Teacher Orientation, Breanne approached Lauren and said she wanted a daddy/daughter day before I went back to school.  Like any sensitive father, I wiped away a tear and, of course, agreed to spend a wonderful day with her.  The only problem was we were booked pretty solid for the next couple of days.  So instead of one special days, we did several chunks of days.  We began the 1st of many chunks by going to see "The Smurfs" Saturday morning.  It was a decent movie, but it was even more fun just watching Breanne react to seeing the Smurfs on the big screen.  Sunday, we were suppose to go to a lobster feast, but it was canceled due to rain (and quite frankly, I had just played my first soccer game in a decade and played 88 out of 90 minutes).  Instead we went and had ice cream.  Breanne had crazy vanilla and I had my usual cooked brownie topped with chocolate peanut butter ice cream with some extra peanut butter on top.  Hey, you don't keep a figure like mine by having frozen yogurt.  Our final segment happened yesterday.  I was able to get off work early because, of all things, we had an earthquake (5.9).  We went out disc golfing on a beautiful afternoon.

As you can see, Breanne is starting to get pretty good at throwing too.  Breanne actually played the first 3 holes by throwing, picking up, and throwing from where I landed.  During the round, I had one of my best throws of all time.  As seen in the picture below, I was more than 30 yards away from the basket when I threw and put it in.  The picture below shows my view from where I threw the disc from.

 

Sorry the photo is so big, but it is hard to see the basket otherwise.  Anyhow, it is great that one of the first things Breanne asks to do with me is play disc golf.  We did our usual playground time to break up the round and then finished it out.  Following disc golf we hit up Chick-fila' one of Breanne's favorites and low and behold, it was kid night and a clown/magician was there.  We ended our night watching a guy juggle, make napkins come back together, and play a guitar while standing on a ball that was 3' in diameter.  

As a father, there really is nothing better than having your child want to spend time with you.  The fact that she is so into playing disc golf is a bonus, but I would do anything.  Thank you Breanne for our wonderful day!

Bre's first photoshoot

My daughter melted my heart today. She's been doing that a lot recently, or maybe it's just the upcoming school year that has me sentimental and weepy. Today she told me she was going to do her very first photoshoot so that she can come and help me on my next shoot. She asked for help and guidance on where to put "Linda" her kitty and how to use the camera. It was a bonding moment, for me anyway. Ugh...I just love her.

Notice the leash keeping Linda steady and in one place. Not a bad idea. :)

She then decided she should take "brother/sister" pictures. I'm thinking I should try this technique with multiple children. Just get a single collar and strap it on both of them! It seemed to work for this duo.

Every now and again your kids will drive you nuts. It's just part of life. It doesn't mean you don't love them, or that they are bad kids. It's just that your kids will have an unreasonably large amount of energy compared to your own and you just won't know what to do with them. Today was such a day.

To say that David is a wild child compared to Breanne is an understatement. I am certain that over the course of his toddlerhood my little man will force me to purchase every baby proofing contraption ever made just to keep him safe, while for Breanne we bought...next to nothing. Now to be clear, he is in no way a bad kid. He is curious, energetic, sly and tall which makes it easier for him to get to things his older sister may not have had the reach for. At 14 months he can get his fingertips to the first burner on the stove.

Enter cousin C. A much older and wiser toddler, who knows about things such a lolly pops, glitter pens and mud pies and suddenly we have a dynamic duo that is sure to turn me gray earlier than otherwise necessary.

This is when newspapers come in handy. The kids don't read, they don't care what the president signed, who was found on what street corner or what the stock market is doing. They just know that they can destroy it. Rip it, crumble it, shake it, tear it to pieces, it really doesn't matter as long as they don't eat it. And that's what they do. For at least 20 minutes they will sit screaming and laughing and ripping a pile of paper to shreds and I get 20 minutes to myself...granted, not quiet minutes, but minutes non the less.

David "plays" with Cody

Currently I have a screamer on my hands. Usually these things are just a phase, we're working on that part. But I just had to get a clip of David "playing" with Cody. Poor dog might just lose his ear drums.