Make Him Smile!

I just wanted to put up a couple of quick pictures today. This first one shows DS#2 and I wrestling in order to get a picture. My lovely wife has already commented on this picture extensively over here. I like it because it shows how difficult it can be to get DS#2 to let us take a picture. As a joke I grabbed him for a picture and we are both actually laughing pretty hard here.

Now, the reason the camera was nearby is that my dear wife was taking pictures of DS#3 while he was playing with his trains. Lately, it is hard to find him without a train, a car, or some other object with wheels in his hands. He is definitely in love with Thomas the Tank Engine, I would say just as much as DS#1 was at this age. He also loves having DS#2 put together the "roads" for the matchbox cars as well. He can play quite peacefully with his trains and cars for a pretty good chunk of time

This afternoon I have the kids playing inside. We had LOTS of outdoor time on Tuesday, and yesterday DS#2 and DD went to SeaWorld with our neighbors. DD gets some dry skin problems when she spends lots of time outdoors and in swimming pools so I decided today is a day off from pools. This means that right now I have a total of 6 kids upstairs in the game room. The neighbors that took DD and DS#2 to SeaWorld and another of DS#2's friends along with the three younger kids. DS#1 has his last day of PE Summer Camp today. He is excited because this means he can sleep late tomorrow. Honestly, I am looking forward to not getting up too.

Tomorrow I am thinking about the Witte Museum or the Zoo with the kids (not that I have told them this). We'll see how everyone is acting tomorrow. We might end up somewhere else.

Cool Rocks

Well, this is a bit longer description of the video clip I just uploaded to Facebook. I don't think the videos get pulled over when the blog gets pulled to Facebook, but this video is already uploaded there so if you are reading this on FB, you can find it there.

Our trip to Washington DC involved LOTS of time in the various Smithsonian museums. The boys (okay, the big boys) really enjoyed themselves, particularly DS#1. DD got a bit bored at times because she is a very "hands on" young lady that likes to play with things. Let's face it, she is 6 (or, as I was told today, ALMOST 7!). Kids this age do need to touch and hold things, that is just the way they learn. Fortunately, people at the Smithsonian clearly understand this so there are a number of different "hands-on" areas in the various museums as well as exhibits that encourage touching or holding various items.

I found DD practically running back and forth along these rocks talking about how "cool" they were so I pulled out the video camera and she gladly walked along the rocks for me. She is always MUCH easier to get on camera than the boys, mostly because she actually likes to ham it up for the camera.

Another Video

Okay, here is another quick video from some of the clips taken during our trip to Washington DC. The kids really enjoyed the hands-on exhibits so we did quite a few of those while we were there. The video and audio quality were somewhat low because these were taken with the smaller camera (the one I recently, um, caused to cease functioning). Basically, there was a large exhibit looking at an excavation in the Chesapeake area. Scientists were able to learn a lot about life (and death) in the 17th century by studying the skeletons and other remains. I thought it was a "cool" exhibit and the kids liked it too. This is a hands-on exhibit area associated with the larger exhibit that you can learn more about here.

I tried to have a little fun with this video. I actually tried a number of different little things that I ended up deleting most of, but it definitely is helping me get to know iMovie and what I can with it.

Happy Birthday Lola!

Okay, this is really late, but such is life. I don't get that many opportunities to play around with video so when I do I usually spend an entire afternoon with it. This is a short video (hey, the afternoon as only just begun) of all the grandkids (minus DS#3 who was in melt-down mode) singing for their Lola.

Always behind a bit

I am always behind a bit on posting. My sister-in-law was here for a few days with my niece and nephew so the kids could play and we could all go to Fiesta Texas (a Six Flags theme park). We have passes so between the free tickets all the kids received as reading awards from their schools we went ahead and went two days in a row. The first day we did the theme park area and yesterday we went to the water park.

I did bring the "big" camera along for the first day in hopes of catching some pictures of DS#3 playing in the "Wiggles World" area or in other areas but that didn't work out. As I described below, he was approached by one of the "characters" and pretty much freaked out. This after I already told the handler not to have the characters get near him. I try to think of it from a 2 year-old's perspective, think about being 2 and having a 6 ft. tall humanoid dog approach you, relative height for an adult, oh, say 25 ft. Would you freak out?

In any case, I did take a few pictures, okay, a lot of pictures, and these two of my niece and nephew and of DD and DS#2 came out beautifully.

The water park was a good time, the older boys stuck together and went on several of the tube and water slides, as well as the lazy river. The girls stuck with their aunt/mama and played in the lazy river and I believe some slides as well. I stuck with DS#3 who wasn't anywhere near as adventurous without the others around. He got pretty wiped out by the whole thing, a napless 2-year old is never fun in the evening. No, I did NOT bring a camera, not after Tuesday's experience. My sister-in-law did take a picture of the kids which I am trying to link to here. This was taken with her iPhone on our way out of the park after a number of hours of play.

This final picture is from last night when the girls had the same dresses on. It is wonderful to see them get along so well.

Last night DS#1 went out for pizza and LaserQuest with some of the friends he has met at the PE Summer Camp for High School. I am thrilled that he has been able to make new friends and excited to see the kids actually planning things together. Not exactly as thrilled about the driving, etc. but I guess that is a price we have to pay for keeping tabs on our kids.

Right now DS#3 is napping with his mama (or his mama is quietly playing on her iPhone while resting beside a sleeping DS#3 ...). Tomorrow she is on-call which means that she has Monday and Tuesday off. That sounds fantastic when you talk about them as "days off" but weekend calls usually mean that she spends most of the next day recovering.

Pool time and broken cameras ...

Well, I was right, after posting twice on Sunday I didn't post anything until now. I guess that is the way things go sometimes. It hasn't been that busy a week really. Monday was spent mostly around the house with a few errands out to do things. This post will probably be a bit disjointed, but hey, I am posting ;).

Tuesday we went to Lifetime Fitness so I could exercise and then take the three younger kids to the pool. I went out of my way to take some pictures and short videos with "the small camera" as we tend to call it here. I am not a big fan of this camera, but I took a number of pictures anyway. To my horror, something happened to it in the swim bag after our trip. The camera won't open or close all of the way anymore. My lovely wife is going to use this as an excuse to purchase another small camera, one with a few more features than this one. I will "mess with" it to see what I can do with it, but I don't have high hopes.

These pictures show how much fun the three of them can have together. This pool has a very nice area for toddlers as it has a very slow, gradual grade into the water giving plenty of shallow space to walk and play. DS#3 loves it for that very reason. At our neighborhood pool he refuses to play in the kiddie pool because all of the older kids are in the big pool so he ends up playing on the steps.

Wednesday (yesterday) my sister-in-law came with my niece and nephew so the kids have been playing together ever since. Today we spent our time at Fiesta Texas and tomorrow we'll head back (with DS#1, he doesn't have camp tomorrow) to simply go to the waterpark. The big tale for today is that DS#3 does NOT like characters (those wonderful costumed folks) and a 6 ft. tall dog scared him to death, so the "Wiggles World" toddler area was suddenly not a place to be. Truly, he didn't recover much until later in the day and by then he was exhausted.

Good Day

Well, this has been a productive day, in spite of the fact that I radically changed ideas about what I was going to try to do today.

This afternoon I spent about 45 minutes outside with DS#1, DS#2, and DD while DS#3 napped with his Mama. What did we do? Well, water gun battles, of course. Everyone knows that squirt gun fights are more fun when Papa (read, "#1 Target") is there. We all had fun, got a bit of exercise, and the yard got a bit more water ;). I'd tell you more about "Squirt Gun Club," but I don't think I am supposed to talk about it ...

In addition, I got quite a bit of writing done, played with the layout for some upcoming books as well as some things planned for the longer term. Uploaded some of the older videos on the blog to Facebook. Here I am with my second blog post of the day while my lovely wife is cooking veal and pasta in the kitchen. In a little bit we'll all be eating and having a family movie night. Really, it has simply been a nice day, both productive and relaxing. I wonder what tomorrow will bring.

Water Time

Well, here is a picture of my girly-girl. Yes, she does have a "squirt gun" in her hands and she is soaking wet. But notice how girly she is--she is wearing pink!

San Antonio is presently going through a drought and we are on "Stage II Water Restrictions" which means you can only use automatic sprinklers (or any sprinklers) on one assigned day per week before 10 AM or after 8 PM. The other days you can hand water before 10 or after 8. We had horrible heat during our vacation to DC which means that when we got back our lawn was completely fried. We have been doing some hand watering lately to try to catch up and keep the grass from completely dieing off but it isn't going to be a quick change.

Yesterday (and some other occasions) I decided that squirt gun battles don't count as watering the lawn (but I do tell the kids to stay on the grass). When DD asked to play with squirt guns with her friend A, I said yes. She and A played with the water or a good hour in the backyard. Alas, the backyard is actually still fairly green due to the shade from the oak trees. One of the things I find funny is the fact that when my daughter says "squirt gun" she means these huge super soakers. Somehow we have acquired enough to outfit an army.

Today my dear wife is still on back-up call so we don't have any "big" plans. I would like to get out to Lowe's and/or Home Depot to look at a few things without the kids along. I can leave everyone here, if she gets called in DS#1 can watch the kids until I get back. My only problem with this is the fact that LOTS of people usually head to the various home improvement stores on Sundays. We'll see what actually happens today, so far I have been interrupted enough that this post has taken over an hour ;).

Another Weekend

Well, here we are having a slow weekend. My dear wife is on "back-up call" so we haven't planned anything major. She tends to get called in when we try to do something major.

Right now DS#3 is napping with his mama. DD is out in the backyard playing with squirt guns with one of her neighborhood friends (-yes, I know, water restrictions, c'mon, kids do have to PLAY!). DS#2 is out at the Harry Potter movie with his friend E, and DS#1 is behind me working on his summer homework. Did I mention in the post below that his high school is very demanding? I knew he had summer projects for English/World History and Math. Normally you expect these aren't all that involved. These projects are actually quite a bit of work so I guess it is a good thing he has started them already.

Instead of going out to dinner this weekend we decided to go out to California Pizza Kitchen on Thursday night, and then on to our favorite ice cream parlor, Brindle's. DS#3 LOVES ice cream and is willing to, well, climb across the table while screaming "My Turn" in order to get some from his loving sister.

In my delayed posting about our vacation I didn't get to mention much about our trip to Houston last weekend to celebrate my mother-in-law's birthday. Why do I mention it now? Well, I KNOW my lovely wife won't put this picture up on her blog. She was trying to get a bit more rest in the morning when DS#3 came into our room on Sunday morning to start playing with cars. He decided to, well, basically decorate his mother and her pillow with various vehicles. I had to take a picture because I just found it so funny. Needless to say, she didn't get any more rest.

Yes, I know the post is a bit disjointed, but, hey, I posted!

High School ???!!!

Yes, I guess this week we have to say that DS#1 is officially in High School. He is attending a magnet school that I have discussed before, the Design and Technology Academy or DATA. The academics at this school are very rigorous so they encourage taking a "Summer PE Camp" to free up more space for electives during the school year. DS#1 will be playing soccer anyway but he won a certificate to attend the camp for free so it is an opportunity for him to meet some of the other incoming freshmen and make new friends before the school year actually begins. This is particularly important for DS#1 because, at most, there might be 1 other student from his middle school going to DATA.

Well, the camp started this week so what this boils down to is that technically he is in High School. We are still trying to get our minds around the fact that he is going to be in High School this year. He let me take a few pictures of him outside the school before class yesterday morning, so I guess he isn't THAT much of a high schooler yet. The yellow shirt is the field trip shirt he needed to wear to go to the roller skating rink. Yes, sounds like the camp is, indeed, fun.

While I am a bit apprehensive, I am also very excited. This school has the type of challenging curriculum that I believe DS#1 really thrives on. Right now he is enjoying the PE camp, making new friends, and clearly even more excited about starting school this fall. This makes any extra driving (and early wake-up times) worth it in the long run.

Vacation Revisited

Okay, okay, so I never finished posting about the vacation and more than a week has gone by. I think my lovely wife covered most of the vacation pretty well in her blog so I guess all that remains are a few details she missed. I did get a list of pictures up at the family .Mac website so if you want or need a link to those email me.

She talked about the Washington Monument, Jefferson Memorial, etc. that we visited on Wednesday. She also talked about our visit to the International Spy Museum that Thursday (July 2nd). Well, what she didn't mention is that DS#3 had a complete meltdown so I had to take him out. Basically, I missed over half of the museum because I simply had to leave with him. On the bright side, there was a new street vendor doing some "testing" before their official opening the next day. Yes, DS#3 and I got to eat a free lunch outside while waiting for the others. After we ate I walked him around in the stroller until he fell asleep. No pictures are allowed inside this museum so we didn't take any.

Quick Edit: the International Spy Museum is very, very cool and the kids LOVED it. It is a bit pricey, but I think it was worth it based on how much fun the kids had there.

After that we went to the National Portrait Gallery and the Smithsonian American Art Museum (which are both really in the same building). One afternoon was enough to see the presidential portraits and a few other things but DS#1 was ready to stay much longer.

Friday (the 3rd) was our last day before leaving and we made a long day of it by traveling to Mt. Vernon. It started looking like some bad weather was coming in so we made it through fairly quickly. We got rained on at the bus stop, but otherwise made it back to the hotel fairly early. DS#1 and I stopped off to go back to the American Art Museum again. We wandered around there a bit before heading back to join the others at the hotel.

We ate our last dinner in DC in the hotel restaurant. Not that cheap, but actually very good food. Then DS#2 and I made a long walk down to the Lincoln Memorial with plans to see the various memorials and monuments at night. We were both very happy we made the trip, in fact, DS#2 was so pleased that he willingly let me take some pictures. This is my favorite picture of the trip, mostly because it turned out pretty close to what I was hoping for. I am very happy that it came out much better than I initially thought it did. I like the fact that you can see his face has just enough light to make out a bit.

The next day was Saturday, July 4th, time for us to pack and make the trek home. We were packed and ready for the shuttle early enough that the kids played around in the large lobby for a bit, one of the bellmen gave the kids some food for the fish and they promptly, and gladly, helped make the fish fatter. We got home shortly before 7:00 PM which gave us time to unpack a bit and even run out to see some of the fireworks.

I guess that is going to close the vacation post for now. I know I should have been posting more this past week and a half but I guess I got a bit distracted.

Back from Vacation

We are back from our summer vacation to Washington D.C. This was one of those vacations that was truly worth the time and expense. I like to think we timed it perfectly in terms of DS#1 and DS#2. I know that DD and DS#3 didn't get that much out of it, but the older boys did, and DS#1 was particularly interested in everything we did.

I probably should have tried to make various small posts via email like my lovely wife did on her blog, but, well, I didn't ;). We had a laptop with us but didn't use it for uploading the pictures or any other "internet fun" --we have the iPhones for that. I have some pictures on the family website, if you need the site, email me. I thought I would try to post a few additional pictures (as in, pictures I didn't post to the website) and some brief (okay, as brief as possible) explanations.

Our first day of the actual vacation we walked from the hotel all the way down to the Lincoln Memorial and then we walked by the Korean War Memorial and the World War I (DC-more about that in a second), World War II and Washington Monument on the way to see the White House (from the outside only, we would have needed to sign up for tickets last December to be able to tour there) and on to the Smithsonian American History Museum (which we only saw a little of). This picture is the kids taking a break for some ice cream and frozen lemonade. It was hot and we did walk quite a bit.

Oh, lest I forget, we also went to the National Aquarium our first day as well.

This is the Washington DC World War I Memorial. Really, it is only for/about the soldiers from the Washington DC area that died in WWI. There is no true national WWI Memorial (at least none that I know of-correct me if I am wrong). When you consider the number of people still alive that remember this conflict and the people that fought there, well, you can begin to guess that it will be some time before anyone collects enough money to create a memorial that does those soldiers justice.

I am beginning to see that this is either going to be one HUGE post, or I will have to split it up a bit. We'll see how much longer the recently awakened DS#3 lets me type.

Our second day we headed to the Smithsonian National Museum of Natural History. We had this strange idea that we would spend a few hours there and then go "finish" at the National Museum of American History. Well, this was the day that made it completely clear that these museums are simply so huge that they are entire day affairs. We had a blast here, particularly the big boys. DS#1 probably went through the museum the slowest, stopping to read almost everything he came across. It was amazing to see how interesting animals, dinosaur bones, rocks, etc. were to the boys and, sometimes, DD.

The next day was the National Air and Space Museum. Okay, it was boy heaven here, for all 3 boys (okay all 4, I loved this too). Honestly, while she did get tired, DD really enjoyed it as well. We actually joined one of the free tours with a Docent that gave a lot of background information on the space program and the Wright Brothers that only DD and DS#3 failed to enjoy. DS#3 and DD are much more excited about hands-on activities, fortunately, all of the museums have some sort of area with hands-on activities.

The day after this was Tuesday, and we went back to the National Museum of American History and pretty much spent the whole day there. There are several hands-on areas there so DD and DS#3 had a good time (as did the big boys). DS#1 really soaked up the museum--in Texas they have American History and Government in 8th grade so virtually everything tied in with material he studied over the past year. Personally, I was thrilled to see how much he knew and how excited he was to learn new details.

Okay, time is running short here so I will have to continue this in another post. Basically, we had a great vacation.