Happy Birthday JC Part Uno!

Although my birthday celebration is all about me, the changes you see in the blog were to pacify a virulent Uncle B.  He claims that his eyes are so used to looking in space, that the fine font and color scheme we used was unreadable at best and un-American at worst!  You are welcome in advance Uncle B - read on!

My birthday started with a feast at the local Sonic food emporium on the Saturday prior!  I am so special I got tots and fries.  No need to choose, because unlike the first James Bond film, my dad became Dr. Yes!

After lunch we went to the Santa Fe Children's Museum.  A great display consisted of all the bugs that were found during construction.  New Mexico - come for the sunshine, stay for the bugs as big as your hand!

There was also a water area.  Here I am watching balls flow down the river.  M is behind me playing with the bubbles.  SM is also in the background filling her diaper.

An outdoor section of the museum followed.  Painted tunnels...

And a sea-saw!

Once it started to get dark, we had to find a place to stay.  This local inn was available.  We sent SM out to look for beans.  She came back empty handed.  So she slept outside.

Come back next time for my presents, cake, and party!!

Tempurpedic Schmempurpedic

Being a kid is awesome.  When large shipments come via air-mail, we get the boxes.  I, JC, and my sister, M, fabricated houses complete with windows and doors utilizing the boxes received in shipment.

I am on the one on the right.  Don't I look as snug as a bug in a rug?

Bedtime came calling later that day.  No one could actually fall asleep, though, right?  Wrong!

In my sleep, I kicked out the side of the box to give me room to stretch out...

It looked like we had so much fun in a box, that my dad is fashioning a barrel-type outfit with suspenders for casual wear.

Non-Pop-Up Video!

Unlike the current iteration of Pop-Up Video on VH1 which costs $30k per episode, this post was written free of charge.  Two videos will be presented tonight with limited commercial interruption.  The first shows SM and her "mow the lawn" maneuver.

The video was brought to you by  J&D's Baconnaise.  It's origin?  'It started with a customer request to make “spreadable bacon, namely mayonnaise.”'

The next video is M at her school's musical epic "America is the best and these countries aren't so bad either!"  M got the Danish Hay Dance.

Richard Scarry's Busiest Saturday Ever!!!

A couple weeks ago, our family schedule dictated a very full, very busy Saturday.  It started off with the Elementary school carnival.  My sister, M, did the cupcake walk...

 I, JC, did the catapult fling...

And my other sister, SM, did the Lucky Duck Flippin'!

Midway through the carnival, my sister, M, had to go attend her Tball opening day game.  Did I want to go?  No!  I stayed at ate my way through. 

Down the hatch went the snow cone.  And now...brain freeze!!

I also spent some time on all the bounce house accoutrements.

Since my dad was coaching and my mom was running the carnival the following pictures are those from her first practice, not her first game.  Watch how my dad taught M to swing and then the end result!

After the game she came back to the carnival.  And I kept eating.

Then we went home and made a tin can phone.  Our courteous conversations devolved to rude noises in a little less than fifteen seconds.  The novelty of the rude noises through the tomato can phone did not wear off that day and is still awesome in my humble opinion...

My dad ate a whole pizza for dinner and then we got to read Richard Scarry's Busy Busy World.  It is quite possibly the best book ever written.  It is 92 pages long and my dad has read it to us fifteen times in the past two weeks.  Even SM loves it!

Then it was time to go to bed.  What a nice end to a busy, busy day.

Pink Hair Wig

What fun!  A new wig arrived in the mail from our wig-of-the-month club.  It was a loud color.  The color was...

Everyone gave it a wear...

 No fear of lice in this family...

We don't only share hair, we share clothes too!

Thanks for the outerwear, Grandma L!

Easter on the Dniester

Do you know where the Dniester River is?  You probably should since only seven two syllable words rhyme with Easter according to the Word Hippo.  Dniester, of course, being one of them.  As with all LOE holidays, Easter was spread out over a week this year since the next state-wide holiday isn't until  JC's birthday in May.  It started with the official White Rock Ward/Community Egg Hunt put on by my beautiful momma.  The hunt overtook all of Rover Park which encompasses a full 10% of the land area of our town.  Given the acreage of the hunt, my beautiful momma could only pick one kid to follow.  She chose SM.  JC was not surprised.

At least we didn't have the kid who looked in the port-a-potty (see background of the above photo) and fell in.  Here is the lone photo of the older kids who were moving so fast they were a literal blur.  M is behind the kid wearing snow boots.

Here is a shot of M displaying her latest loss - two of her teeth fell out of her head leaving her unable to eat corn-on-the-cob but still able to eat Easter candy.

We moved on to coloring hard-boiled Easter eggs using tubs of dye.  When my dad was a kid he remembers gratuitous amounts of vinegar when coloring eggs.  We reminded him that in the 22nd century we had no such concerns.  Look - none of us have the face of one breathing Pine-Sol!

SM quickly figures out that these were no ordinary plastic eggs.  While everyone was dyeing and paying no attention she served herself a snack.

The next day was another Easter Egg hunt in the backyard of some kindly neighbors who also gave us ham.  Here is a shot of the camera-shy middle child in his Pops-Approved Purple Easter Shirt (PAPES).

Easter baskets from the Easter bunny focused mainly on water toys this year for the upcoming pool season.  SM traded everything in her basket for the other two stuffed animals which she wanders around with on a near-constant basis.

Happy Easter from the LOE Clan! 

 

Late Season Snow

After two consecutive days of 75 degree weather, a snow storm decided to roll in.  You can see how late in the season it way by how green the grass was underneath.  This is SM's first walking excursion through the snow!

We tried to build a snow man.  SM mainly managed the operation.

Alright, that's enough winter for me!

On to Easter next time!