Wednesday, October 31, 2007

Saturday, October 27, 2007

You must see this...

This is so much like our Sylvie, we laughed out loud when we saw it the first time... and we're still watching it over and over again!

Sunday, October 21, 2007

Happy Birthday, Mama!

Since I'm out of town later this week, we celebrated Amanda's birthday this afternoon with a little dinner party. Gramma and Grampa, Aunt Laura, and Aunt Patty were all able to come over to the house to visit. We had some of Gramma's world-famous lasagne for dinner, and a masterful Halloweeney Carrot Cake, courtesy of Aunt Patty!

And somewhere in the midst of it all, Amanda opened some presents and the boys and I played some football in the back yard!

What's Halloween without a costume party

There are few things in life that my wife enjoys more than Halloween-- so we're doing it up right this year! On Friday night, we hosted a little Halloween party for a few of our neighbor friends. All the kids and most of the grown-ups came in costume. We were visited by a Billy Goat, Darth Vader, a Blue Power Ranger, Jango Fett, a Red-Headed Cowgirl, Pocahontas, the Incredible Hulk, a ballerina, the cutest Strawberry you've ever seen, an adorable (if teary) giraffe, and even a princess puppy! As for our boys, Aidan went as a member of Lightning McQueen's Pit Crew while Bryce went for his all-time favorite-- Batman!

We had lots of tasty treats and drinks for everyone, the kids did an arts-and-crafts project, followed by a round of "Monster Freeze" Dance-a-thon and I think the whole thing was smashing success.

Monday, October 15, 2007

Crossing the Finish Line

Just wanted to be sure to post this picture of Aidan crossing the finish line at the last X-Country meet of the season.
Grampa pointed out that you can see the clock in the picture-- and it looks like Aidan finished in REALLY nice time! No, no stopwatches next year!

Thanks to Gramma and Grampa for the great picture!

Burgeoning Entrepreneurialism

Last week, the boys got the bright idea that, during the Fall community yard sale in our neighborhood on Saturday, they should put up a Lemonade Stand.

A lemonade stand! Beautiful!

As the days leading up to the yard sale passed, the idea was elaborated a bit to include some baked goods and coffee since, at 7am on a cool Fall Saturday morning, Lemonade might not be the strongest seller.

And a portion of the proceeds, they decided, should go to a very worthy cause, the Nashville Rescue Mission.

It was, in fact, a cool morning on Saturday.. but a very successful one. Aidan was a great salesman, asking "How may I help you?" of each of the people who came up to the table. And he even got to try out a little of his 1st-grade Spanish with a few of the Hispanic families that came by.

Bryce did wind up spending a little time on Time-out, though...

In the end, the boys raised $10 for the Mission, meeting their goal while also leaving enough left over to put a little in each of their piggy banks, and buy one small toy on a trip to the store with their Mom.

Turned out to be a good lesson all the way around, I think and SleepyMama did an amazing job of managing the whole enterprise!

Friday, October 12, 2007

Late Summer Watermelon


Late Summer Watermelon
Originally uploaded by sleepydad

Blaine's mom sent us a few pictures from early September when the kids all sat on her porch to eat some watermelon..

Thursday, October 11, 2007

Playing "Garbage Truck"

Of course, they've been getting up to making some big messes, too!

And speaking of costumes

While we're on the topic of dressing up, Bryce and Maddy (from across the street) have been really getting into the spirit the last few weeks!

Wednesday, October 10, 2007

Aidan tours the dancefloor

Experimenting with the Blogger video service a bit here..
this is a short video I took of Aidan making his way (with style) around the dance floor at the wedding reception last weekend.

Goofing around..

A few more pictures from the Louisville trip last weekend..



Knights, Pirates, and Gypsies, oh my!

A few pictures from a really fun wedding reception we attended in Louisville last weekend.
Most everyone went in costume-- Aidan went as a Pirate and Bryce as a knight (courtesy of a great little costume his mom whipped up for him!).



Tuesday, October 02, 2007

I like 1st Grade

Aidan may have set his sights on being a 4th grade teacher, but he may have a hard time getting there if he keeps thinking like this:

I like 1st Grade. I want to stay in it next year.

Really? You want to stay in 1st grade?

Yeah, I like Ms. Price and I like 1st Grade.

But won't you get bored learning all the same stuff all over again?

What? [This is where Aidan gives me a look like-- "are you crazy? I'll never get tired of adding 4+2 and coloring the clouds with even numbers blue and those with odd numbers orange."]

Well, okay. 1st grade again next year. But you know all your friends will have moved on into 2nd grade by then.

[This makes him think for quite a while.. and then...]

Yeah, okay, Dad. I'll go into 2nd grade next year.