Christmas Games

Learn Spanish

We just concluded a great trip to Cancun Mexico. Among the interesting and fun things we did was hear and try to speak various basic Spanish words. I thought it would be cool to link to a site that helped kids learn some more basic Spanish vocabulary. I haven't searched extensively yet, but the site listed below was among the first in the web pages.

Spanish For Kids

Chichen Itza

Yucatan, Mexico

Read Me a Book

This is a great little site brought to you by the Screen Actors Guild Foundation. It is called Storyline Online. Actors read childrens books while the camera shifts around to images of the book. It's definitely worth checking out and I'll keep a link to the right as well.

"A Bad Case of the Stripes" is just one of the books featured by the program.

Picture of the Day: Halloween Costumes

Yeah I'm posting this late. I know.

Hey, hey hey

Fat Albert Halloween Special

They don't make em like they used to.

Halloween Fun

Eli, try this.

Halloween

Mission to Mars

Eli built up points by helping out around the house to earn this.

"This is awesome" - Eli

Sam and Wheelbarrow

Turn up the audio for this one.

I don't know if she is cut out for manual labor.

Milo and Otis or Predator/Prey??

I've seen this twice now, so either it was a new chipmunk or the same chipmunk as last time. Which would mean it survived the first encounter. I'm not sure what to think here. Charlie didn't like us getting too close though because he warned us with a low growling sound. A toy or victim?? Hmmmmmmmm.....

First Day at Kindergarten

" I got lost at a different school" - Eli

Thats the bus that dropped Eli off at the wrong school on the first day Kindergarten and the first day ever of riding a schoolbus. It also dropped him off at the wrong location after school. It dropped him off at our house when it was supposed to drop him down the street. Imagine coming home after your first full day, after being dropped off at the wrong school, to an empty house void of Mom and Dad. We got back there quickly but , ......, still, it didn't help matters much. But in the meantime things have gotten better and thankfully there is no school bus phobia.

The Zucchini Experience

I decided to plant a vegetable garden this year. I thought it would be an interesting experience for the kids and even for myself. This has turned out to be the case. We have harvested zucchini and jalapenos so far, but have ripening tomatoes, red peppers, and onions in the near future. I have even got the kids to try the zucchini and surpisingly they are tolerant towards it and actually ingest this mortal enemy of children. It has been really cool and we check the garden for changes, bugs, fruit, and whatever else we see.

Now, .... The zucchini, well most of the plants have shriveled up and died. I have learned that there is a condition called bacterial wilt. This bacteria is apparently carried among several bugs including this one, the cucmuber beetle. Hopefully you can see it. There are the striped variety and the spotted variety. We had both.

When the plant becomes infected it wilts in a matter of about a day. You can almost watch it wilt and die.

Sadly, we have lost most of our plants and is only a matter of time before we lose them all. But it was an interesting learning experience. Next year we'll be more prepared for such things.

And now on to more creepy parts of the garden.

On the same zucchini plants were eggs. Hmmmmm, eggs. We've seen these other bugs in the plant as well, but they seemed to have no ill effect on the plants, so no big deal. I think they are stink bugs, but still haven't looked into it extensively. Either way, the eggs would surely hatch someday. And soon enough, that day had come.

A grab of a leaf and a look at the underside of it revealed, DUN DUn Dun, these creepy crawlies. This is only one picture of the chilling kalaidescope of criss-crossed insect legs and newly formed shiny blue abdomens. It was certainly enough to send a shiver down my spine. At the same time, it was striking enough to prompt lifting more leaves in anticipation of more huddled groups.

The kids thought it was neat as the oohs and ahhs kept coming. But EGADS, who would have thought a simple vegetable garden could reveal so much??

Picture of the Day : Rainbow

4th of July 2008 Lake Webster

They weren't the best fireworks I've ever seen. It really didn't matter though. Maybe it was the armada of pontoons anchored to the weedy lake bottom. All in wait like an outdoor drive-in theatre in the lake. Watching the day slowly layer with deeper shades of night. A fingernail crescent moon hanging. Eli and Sam persistently questioning "When, when are they going to go??" Then the first sizzling fuse climbs the dark sky to a long awaited boom. Don't get me wrong, it was a good show, but the best thing for me was the experience. The kids, the boat, the lake, the misquitos, a moment in time. Wish Amy had been there.

Of course after it was over, they were ready to go home as you'll hear in the second video. And Sam had to pee. We'll just say that she didn't make it to shore before that happened. Good thing she was still wearing a pull-up.

The Penny

He swallowed the penny to catch the fly. I don't know why he swallowed the fly.

Actually he didn't swallow the penny to catch the fly. He swallowed it up as a re-enactment of Mr Crabbs. Mr Crabbs, you know SpongeBob works for him. And Mr Crabbs is money OBSESSED. He LOVES money.

So Eli was doing just that. Going crazy with money. Coins that is. In his mouth. A bunch of them apparently. And as he was going crazy lie Mr Crabbs as he describes, he swallows a penny. Well, we didn't know it at the time, but when it came hurtling up like a change machine spitting out coins, I saw that it was a penny. The exact coin you see above.

Kids just make a lot of mistakes. As if adults don't. But these are type of mistakes that cause emergency room visits. The kind that cause stitches. The sort of innocent, yet quickly learned, mistakes that you don't often repeat. I don't think Eli wil be swallowing any more spare change.

Amy stopped off at MedCheck. This was after we called to see what to do. They said go to the ER. But not ringing the alarm bells, MedCheck was a safe bet. They basically said wait it out, which is what we did. He said the middle of his chest was sore. Probably from the coin turning and perhaps scraping the esophogus. As it turns out, I'm fairly certain that after three days it DIDN'T make it to the stomach. But it did, as I said, get ejected on the family room rug.

I believe it was in his esophagus. Everything, thankfully, worked out or worked itself out. If Eli had made it to the ER, he would have likely faced surgery. Instead it's just a small, but important, episode in his life. He even made it through a birthday party not being able to gobble down cake. Too hard. Hard stuff hurt going down and didn't stay down. Guess that should have been a clue to us that it wasn't in his stomach. Like I said worked out. Wshew.

Picture of the Day: Monument Circle

In the middle of Moument circle downtown Indy sets the War Memorial. We climbed every step up and down. I'm not sure how many steps there are, but the stairwell was clear. The elevator line was loooong. Pretty good view but kinda stuffy.

Here's a picture of the

memorial

Youtube Test

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tuZQwRRnpS8

Picture of the Day : Charlie

Sam is Three and Charlie is Here

Sam has just turned three on Friday April 25th 2008. We had a tea party to celebrate. Actually more of a strawberry lemonade party with a butterfly cake.

And to top it off, our family went feline. I really didn't want this to happen. Reluctantly I folded to the persistent imploring. I figure the best I can do as a parent is to give my kids lasting experiences, even if it is with a cat. Well, experience is exactly what we got.

Sam has the intention right now of man-handling this kitty. She is quite brutish with him but is learning, ... I think. I'll admit I did have to raise my voice a bit when I saw her carrying Charlie around by his collar. She hasn't done that since. Charlie himself has either accidentally, or perhaps purposely, placed rather pungent gifts throughout the house in the first few days of his arrival.

Things have calmed down a bit now as we expected some excitement. Charlie is actually growing on me although he distracts me when he tries to attack the cursor on the computer monitor. And the camera strap. And my shoestrings. And my fingers and toes. But I think he will fit in fine. And there have been no classic dog-cat disagreements thus far. I guess we'll have to keep him. He's a heck of a lot easier than a new puppy.

T-Ball

Eli is now playing T-Ball.

Actually the "T" is only used when a kid repeatedly misses the pitches from his coach. So far Eli hasn't had to use the "T". He really does have a nice swing( what father wouldn't say his kid didn't have a nice swing?) and when he connects, he hits the ball pretty hard. There are no outs, lots of runs, and lots of errors. But thats the point.

" I like to hit it really far and hit a home run"- Eli

Art - Replay of butterfly

http://artpad.art.com/?undefined

Time for a New Helmet??

There are times in my life where I have seen kids look, well, ... rather ridiculous. And I'll comment aloud or even in my head "I will never allow my kid to look like that". And now recently I've found myself telling Eli to put on his helmet. No, he isn't the kid that has to wear a helmet to protect himself from running into walls.

It has just become very obvious that he REALLY needs a new helmet.

Sam is just really cool, Eli is just, well,... born into a family where his Dad gets a kick out of such stuff. At least for a picture or two. Time to head to the helmet store.

Hair does grow back, right??

"I didn't like the haircut. I didn't like being itchy and I didn't like it when the soap gets in my eyes and burns" -Eli

Before

After

Wait a minute, I think I may have mixed up the before and after pictures. I mean, I couldn't really ADD hair to his head could I? Could I, .... please?

Cincinatti Aquarium Visit

We all visited the Cincy Aquarium lately. The kids thought it was pretty neat. I think.

"I liked the sharks, because I like their sharp teeth"

Here is a Deep Sea Fishing game to stay with the theme.

Racing games

Why do like racing games??

"Because I'm wondering who wins. It's a surprise." - Eli

Racing Games

Coloring page link

Coloringbookfun.com

Lots to color here.

Sam's ABC's

"Sam is my little sister"
- Eli

Power Rangers Stuff

On the Power Rangers...


" I like when they fight invisible bad guys."
- Eli



Power Rangers Coloring Pages