Future documentarians...

Paige left me home alone with the boys the other morning.

Levi and Noah have rediscovered their cameras, and have been taking pictures of everything. And then Paige texted me and said "get them outside for some exercise."

So we decided that Levi and Noah should make their first documentary.

Cheap kid camera from Christmas? Check!

Extra rubber tourniquet bands from a vendor that shipped the wrong parts to our office? Check!

Camouflage fleece hats for padding? Check!

I'll spare you the 10 minutes of absolutely riveting footage of a first person view of the life of a four year old boy on a swing. The dialogue itself is worthy of some kind of screen writing award...

"Going up... going down... going up... going down... g-o-i-n-g u-p........ g-o-i-n-g d-o-w-n....... DAD! PUSH ME I'M SLOWING DOWN!!!"

But someday when they make it big, that little video of their very first movie is going to be worth millions!

;)

Ella's half birthday (complete with pictures of the Rowe kids)

We celebrated Ella's half birthday this weekend, with half a cake. Hard to believe my baby girl is 6-1/2.

We had the Rowe's over to celebrate, and their kids, being avid blog followers, insisted that they get some coverage on the blog. So here you go Rowe kids!

A swing'n new nephew

Tim and Gina stopped by the other so our kids could show off their jungle gym abilities.

Ella demonstrated the monkey bars...


Noah narrowly missed being smacked in the face by a tether ball...


Luke yelled for pushes...


And Levi? Well, he tried to see just how high he could get on each and every swing...






Of course, if you paid any attention to the title, you are wondering what this is about a new nephew. Well, he got to swing too...

Tim and Gina are doing foster care, with the hope of adopting Asher. He's an adorable little kid who we met for the first time, and who we are totally excited about joining the extended family. And so you can get a better look at him, and because this picture is hilarious (Gina sent it to me...)

City slickers visit the farm

That thar is a whole lot 'o cows...



Ella's girl scout troop went to visit a local dairy. Bein' as that we're rais'n a bunch o' city slicker chillin's, we figur'd we better be takin' the whole bunch o' them out to see that thar wildlife...

Gett'n the edumacational speech 'bout reee-cy-clin...


So that's where our milk comes from?


Noah found hisself a chik'n...


And Ella a goat...


While Levi wandr'd off to play with his 'magination...


Wildlife of the two legged kind...


(Now seriously... nothin' says "Honor - Respect - Loyalty - Integrity" to me like a T-shirt with a profile of a nekkid woman. Golleee!)

Luke and a little hassenpfeffer...


And workin' the gears on big red...


Finally, nothin' says allergies like a hay maze!

The post wherein I (shamelessly) brag upon my kids

Ella brought this home from school the other day...

Make's a Dutchman proud! All the other kids drew pictures of themselves blowing it on chocolate, or a new bike, or flowers for their mom. Our kid would save it! Such responsible behavior at such a young age.

Then she followed up with this...

The other kids were declaring no school forever, giving their mom flowers, wishing for world peace... ours would make "noo rools."

Hmmmm, is that "no" rules? So she is an anachist ummm, Libertarian? Well, that might not be what we are aiming for...

Or is that "new" rules? So she is a socialist... ehhh... pinko commie... ehhhh... Democrat? Not good either....

Either way, she's in the ballpark, I guess. Since our current president apparently doesn't realize that the executive branch doesn't actually make laws, that being the duty of the legislative branch. So basically, a kindergarten understanding of the role of the presi...

Ahem. Where was I?

So our second son, the other day, was drawing something for Ella at the table. I was making food (I don't recall which meal) and Noah kept asking me how to spell words. "T-h-a-n-k" "y-o-u" "f-o-r" "t-h-e" "l-o-v-e" "l-i-s-t" Suddenly he absolutely flipped out, in full on meltdown mode. We are talking screaming fit that was inches away from earning him a spanking. He had scribbled out his entire drawing, and I finally got out of him cause of his anguish:

"I wrote a two where I was supposed to write an S. Waaaaaaahaaaaahaaaaaa!"

Yes son. Clearly your most obvious issue was the 2 at the "end" of "OFUOYKNAHT EVOLEHT 2IL."

Clearly.

And finally, every day when I drop Ella off at school, I walk by this creepy cowboy...

Somebody has seen too many scary movies. Reminds me of the Coraline button people, or Nightmare Before Christmas...

Ella is the cute cowgirl to the right...

It's Earth Hour people! Get those lights on!

I heard something about it being Earth Hour tonight at 8:30?

I didn't hear the details, but I assume we are supposed to turn on all the lights in our house as a beacon of our enlightened higher consciousness, and to shine the rays of global climate change into the hearts of our un-informed fellow citizens!

So I turned every light in the house for the last hour. It's so bright and cheery in here! Those Earth guys sure had a good idea to come up with a day to celebrate modern technology and everything it has done to improve our lives!


(No, I didn't clean up before taking the picture. Deal with it.)

I thought about starting all the cars and letting them idle, so that their voices could join those of us mourning the loss of the old growth trees. But I thought that might be going a little overboard.


Oh wait....

I just perused this official looking Earth Hour website.

I may have gotten this slightly, ummmm, backwards.

Whoops! :)


Update, 3/27/10 7:14 PM: It's tonight people! I totally jumped the gun on this! You didn't miss your chance. Get that electricity meter spinning! I might have to celebrate all over again tonight!

Piddle Pinata

After finally getting fed up with changing and washing bedsheets every single morning, Paige got Levi and Noah an undie alarm. It's this little gadget that emits an ear piercing siren and vibrates like a gerbil on speed as soon as whatever cloth it is clipped onto gets wet.

If that cloth happens to be Levi's undies, we get to spend a couple of nights frantically bolting through the house at 3:24 AM, eyes half open, while the soggy little boy doesn't even crack an eyelid as a little plastic box vibrates furiously on his chest and wakes everyone else in the house.

He eventually got the hang of it though...

Enough that he has now gone 10 nights completely dry, and is sleeping in big boy undies without the angry little alarm clipped to his PJs. And as promised, he got to have a piddle pinata party upon reaching his goal.

He picked out the star, rather than the dinosaur, because "it holds more candy." Wise little man, that one...

Paige also points out that as his mohawk grows more and more unkempt, he looks even more like a mangy chipmunk. She might have a point...

They each took turns whacking the pinata.

How do you negotiate a handoff between a stick-wielding 22 month old and his sister? Very carefully...

Eventually they beat their way through it, and got to the sugary insides...

Yes, yes. Noah is wearing butterfly wings. And no, I don't know why his mother lets him dress like that.

Levi with his fistfuls of loot...

Now we can clip the vibrating little box to Noah's PJs. And then maybe he can stop wearing these ridiculous night-time diapers...

Seriously, the kid looks like... I don't even know what. Like he's got a pith helmet stuffed in his pants. Paige has apparently gone so green that our kids now have washable diapers, and she is stocking up on cloth diapers for our "someday sister." What the???

And no, they don't look any less ridiculous once you put pants over them. Sheesh...

(I tried to snap a picture of Noah without his finger up his nose, but the camera doesn't have a speed that fast. Seriously, that kid is always mining around in there for hidden treasures!)



As a total aside, did you notice the funky looking stick we were using on the pinata? My sister and brother-in-law picked it up as a souvenir just for me while they were in Africa. Apparently it is called a boobata stick and is carried by the local tribesman to thwack dangerous animals, enemy tribesmen, or unruly children.

And apparently when my sister told me what it is, I totally mis-heard her. Because what she actually said she got for me was a...

boob...

on-a-stick...

Because as she shops the African village markets, she must have thought "What authentic African market stuff would my brother like? Oh look! A boob on a stick! Just what he always needed!"

And she was right.

The boobata stick sits handily tucked under my side of the mattress, ready for easy deployment against any invading tribesman...

Or star shaped piddle pinatas.

And I have no idea what that stick is actually called.

My cousin Ron would kill for this gig.

10 boxes of Cinnamon Toast Crunch on sale for $2 each...

Free movie ticket (value ~$9) for every two boxes...



I'm being paid $5 to eat two boxes of sugary cereal and go to the movies!!! Does life get any better?

Given his fondness for both breakfast cereal and movies, I am sure my cousin Ron is wishing he had gotten in on this deal...

God is God, and God is good...

I posted about one of my classmates from high school before. Here is an update video...

The Story of Zac Smith from NewSpring Media on Vimeo.