Friday, December 25, 2009
Christmas Carols
Every Christmas I make the kids sing songs before they get their presents and this year I clearly had only 1 minute to get my video. Love it!
Saturday, August 29, 2009
Hunting for Buried Treasure
EB's got a lot of great dreams. Every day, she offers up lots of really interesting things we could be doing. She'll suggest building a rocket ship, hunting for bugs, contacting ghosts. She's full of great ideas.
"I wish we had a metal detector," she said last week. That got my attention.
"Oh yeah," what would you do with it?"
"Find buried treasure."
"Really?"
"Mmm Hmm."
"Follow me."
I went down to the basement followed by EB & her usual partner in crime, Tate. We headed to the shelves in the storage room and I started digging. In the very back of the top shelf, behind boxes that still held my childhood booty, I found a buried treasure. I pulled out a black, plastic suitcase and showed it to the kids. By now, Harper had come by trying not to look too interested.
"What is it?"
"A metal detector."
"Cool!," they all said.
This was probably the best gift I ever got, way back in 1982. And expensive, too. I don't think I'd spend $369 for this thing in today's dollars, but then I'm not as cool now as I was then.
Since this was more than 25 years old, I had no idea if it would work. Aw great, now I needed 14 AA batteries, or "penlight batteries," as it said on the instructions. But this adventure had EB's magic, and we had exactly 14 batteries in the pantry.
The kids could hardly wait to go outside. "What if we find a treasure chest?" Tate asked the neighborhood.
"Then, we can go out for dinner."
I held my breath and turned it on. It said "Beeeeeeeeeeep." I took my trowel away and it quieted down. Perfect, after all these years, it still works! Using the metal detector was like riding a bike, and we were digging up great bits of metal in no time.
The first thing we got was an old penny. The kids were ecstatic, it was like magic was making money appear from the ground. We found a lot of rusty old junk, too, unless you asked Tate. Every rotten thing we pulled from the ground was a new and beautiful treasure. Old bolts, bits of machinery, pull tabs (remember those?) , he picked up everything he saw and said "Dad, this is SO cool!"
We got some wheat pennies. One of them was from 1923, the date our house was built.
Altogether, we've found nearly $3.00 in change (assuming the rotten pennies are worth anything).
We also found some cool junk: pocket knifes:
What I really, wish I could get are some of the great accessories that were available 27 years ago.
It's really easy to lose track of time when you're hunting buried treasure. After a couple of hours outside with the kids, Jill came to look for us.
"What are you doing?" she wanted to know.
"Hunting for treasure with the kids," I told her.
"The kids have been inside for 20 minutes." she told me.
Apparently, not all of them.
Sunday, August 9, 2009
My Girls
The past couple of weeks has been a lot of together time for the girls. Here are some pictures. Check out EB's new glasses. There is a very very small pink panda on her left lense. Can you see it?
Friday, August 7, 2009
Son Rock Kid's Camp
This week the kids went to VBS and it was great. They could not have loved it more. I was an assistant Ranger and truly it was a wonderful experience to spend the week with the kids at VBS. I was with EB's class and she really liked it. Harper was with all her friends and is planning on going back next year and Tate is now singing all the songs, even as he fell asleep at night. We are going back next year.
Locks of Love
Harper donated her hair to Locks of Love and was so excited to do it. I love her short new hair and I think she loves all the new headbands she is going to need. She was epecially thrilled with everyone's reactions and of course they were great ones.
Wednesday, August 5, 2009
Jump Tate Jump
All summer Tate has been working towards going off the diving board. I told him he would get a trophy and Ms. Meg made his day with a ribbon and a metal. It does not get any better than that. Here he is right after he went off by himself and swam to the side.
Way to go Tate.
Getting ready for the big jump. 
Getting out of the pool.This was Tate the before. Once he had it he had it.
Tuesday, August 4, 2009
Monday, August 3, 2009
Monday, July 27, 2009
Friday, July 24, 2009
Take me to the fair....
Today we went to the County Fair, one of the kids' favorite summer activities. They love it there from the animals to the food to the rides. Thankfully it was not very not this year. We went with Peggy, Andrew and Ms. Focht.
The girls with a bunny names Hershey.
Tate and Peggy out for a walk. This may be where Tate decided Peggy was the one for him.
Weaving wool that was just sheered.
Learning about flood water.
The kids got shaved ice and I think put more flavor in it than one would ever want. Not a neat treat.
Nothing could be more fun than this. They loved it. If only we could have it in the backyard. Life would be calm and happy with them strapped in jumping away. Who need a trampoline.
Tate was a little unsure but got into the swing of things in no time. Once he saw EB do a flip he was convinced.
The girls soaring. I could barely watch them.
EB loved this dog. His name was Panda.
The girls with a bunny names Hershey.
Tate and Peggy out for a walk. This may be where Tate decided Peggy was the one for him.
Weaving wool that was just sheered.
Learning about flood water.
The kids got shaved ice and I think put more flavor in it than one would ever want. Not a neat treat.
Nothing could be more fun than this. They loved it. If only we could have it in the backyard. Life would be calm and happy with them strapped in jumping away. Who need a trampoline.
Tate was a little unsure but got into the swing of things in no time. Once he saw EB do a flip he was convinced.
The girls soaring. I could barely watch them.
EB loved this dog. His name was Panda. 
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