Canada Summer '09

We made another successful pilgrimmage up to Canada a few weeks ago (sorry for the posting delay....I do have a life you know!). We didn't do too much exciting, especially since it was so darn hot and humid most of the days we were there. We spent some time at the splashpad in Ian's (Christine's brother) neighborhood park. It was also nice to see Beckie, Bill and the kids for a couple of days too. One afternoon was spent watching Mikaela riding horses at an equestrian stable. She's quite good and actually did some jumping. Then we spent another afternoon at the Stewart kids' school, as it was Ryan's kindergarten graduation. The kids in his class were split up into teams and participated in a variety of games: egg race, waterballoon toss, sidewalk art and tattooing. Thanks to Ryan's teacher for allowing both Spencer and Syd to take part too. Funny story from that day. When Ryan's teacher asked him if he wanted his friend Spencer to be on his team, Ryan quickly snapped back, "He's not my friend, he's my cousin!!" This was followed up by a huge hug between Spencer and Ryan. Here are a few photos from our week up north.




Mikaela and Syd with Cashew





Syd and Grandma Marilyn at putt-putt golf




Ryan, Spencer and Adam concentrating on the egg race




Syd enjoying her ice cream and gummi bears at the kindergarten graduation




Mikaela taking a break from the slip-n-slide




View from the Blue Water Bridge, coming back into the US




This is the scene on every trip back to Fort Wayne from Canada, completely wiped out from a week's worth of fun at grandma's house in Markham.

My roses

Much to Jason's chagrin, I like roses. I have several rose bushes which we've planted next to the garage. I took a picture of one of the plants about a month ago (before the heat wave). Jason admitted that he thought it was a pretty good picture, so I thought that I would post it.

Back to the zoo

We decided to take the kids to the zoo today since we hadn't been yet this year. We were excited to go, as this year was the opening of the new African exhibit. It included lions, zebras, hyenas and other African animals. They even let you handfeed the giraffes. The kids were pretty excited with all the sights and we ended up spending about 3-1/2 hours at the zoo (I think that's a record!).






The new lions, Bill and Ina (yeah, Bill. You would've thought it was Mufasa or some other cool African name, but no, it was Bill)

Hand feeding the giraffes

The obligatory carousel ride

After looking at all the photos from today, I remembered a similar photo taken back in 2007 when Syd was a year old. How quickly they grow up!! Maybe we should make it an annual thing.

Day at Tippy Lake

Our friends, the Colglazier's, invited us to their summer house on Tippecanoe Lake. We drove up on Friday morning and stayed over, returning on Saturday. Friday was the best day of the weekend and we had a great time. As soon as we got there, the kids wanted to go for a boat ride so Wade fired up the pontoon. We had a nice cruise around the lake and the kids even swam a bit when we stopped on the ride. The water was a little chilly but the kids didn't seem to mind. We got back, had a snack and a beverage, then went back out on the ski boat. We brought along the Hot Dog to go for rides. It was Spencer's first time doing anything like this and he was a natural! He even rode by himself for quite a while. Then he tried the tube, but ended up falling off and that was the end of the watersports for the day. I think he was a little freaked out falling into that big lake and being out there by himself. Christine jumped in and swam out to him and all was good. We came back to the house, had a terrific steak dinner (thanks Janet!), then relaxed on the deck. Once it got dark, we had the firepit going and the kids roasted some marshmellows. However, as soon as Christine broke out the sparklers we bought, the s'mores were quickly forgotten. All in all, we had a great time and hope to head back up again!

Christine, Spencer, & Syd on the Hot Dog

Brandt having a good time on the boat

Syd, Mya and Brandt after a long day of fun

Jason and Syd playing with sparklers

Weekend in Michigan

This past weekend, we headed to Michigan to attend our friends Bob and Virg's daughter Jane's 4th birthday party. We hadn't been to their place in Holland for a while and it was good to catch up. Here's a picture of Spencer and Syd at the party.





After enjoying breakfast at the local IHOP, we headed to Plainwell to visit with the grandparents. We got to my dad's house around 11:30am and the kids were eager to take a dip in Poppa's pool. They got changed and jumped right in. Spencer was jumping off the diving board and going down the slide. Syd even started going down the slide after making it up the ladder.










Here's Syd getting some nail polish applied by Aunt Kelly.






Around 1pm, we headed out to Camp Merriewood where my mom works. It's a Girl Scout camp that hosts campers most weeks during the summer. Sandra picked up a pizza from Doster Store and we had lunch with her at camp. After that, she took the kids for a ride on the camp golfcart. We're going to see if we can teach Spencer how to drive the tractor this summer so he can earn some money cutting grass at camp!

Salad Box

I was reading an article recently and came across a "salad box." It's a wooden structure used to grow salad-type vegetables...lettuce, sprouts, beans, etc. You can modify it to grow deeper root items such as tomatoes. We've been wanting to plant some vegetables with the kids for a couple of years, but never could really find a spot in the yard to do it. So we jumped at this idea. It's nice and compact and, more importantly, it's mobile. I found some plans online and modified it with a deeper bed (2x8's versus 2x4's) and put some old jogging stroller wheels on it to move it around. We've put in some strawberry and tomato plants. Christine started some cucumbers, beans and carrots in starter planters, but the little guys didn't make it. I think I left them outside too long one day. Oops. Anyway, we'll see what happens. We've actually pulled about a dozen strawberries off already and they tasted great! Here's the link where I found the plans: http://www.hgic.umd.edu/_media/documents/hg601.pdf

Farm Field Trip

On Friday, I accompanied Spencer and his kindergarten class on a field trip to the 4-H fairgrounds for a Farm Field trip. The kids were learning about farm animals in class and every year, all the kindergarten classes get to visit farm animals for hands on learning. All the kids had a great time. I even learned a thing or two about some of the animals we saw. Here are some photos from the trip.

Spencer and his best friend, Max

Learning about sheep

Here's the dairy cow. The boy talking about the cow asked the kids how much they thought the cow weighed. Spencer was the first to guess. His guess.....60lbs. Then he corrected himself and said 90lbs. Good try pal! Actually the cow weighed in at 1,600lbs and produces 8 gallons of milk per day.

Spencer and Jordan petting the baby ducks.






Spencer and Max on the hay ride. (Notice Max's sweatshirt. His parents are alums of Michigan State and were actually there the same time as I was....Hey Jason and Mindy!)

If only Mr. Kellogg could hear that.....

Spencer, Syd, and I were eating breakfast this morning. Syd was eating Kix cereal, Spencer was eating Cheerios and I was eating Rice Krispies. Spencer commented that my cereal, Rice Krispies, was "talking" to me. So, I figured I had a teachable moment in my hands. Every kid needs to learn about Snap, Crackle & Pop. I explained about the popping cereal and then showed the kids the cereal box and the characters.

At this point, Spencer said, "Dad, I think Snap is the best." And then, without hesitation, Sydney says, " Dad, I like crap." After the initial laughter, I figured she meant "Crackle." I corrected her and no one (but me) was the wiser. Good stuff.......

Gators and Ants!

It seems that the long cold winter took a toll on the battery for the kids' John Deere Gator. I broke down and bought a new one (with the help of a second mortgage!). Now, the fighting over who gets to drive has started, as Syd has become quite proficient at cruising around the yard. Spencer's almost outgrown the Gator, his knees scrunched up by the steering wheel.

Now on to the ants. Spencer got an ant farm as a Christmas present. He was extremely thrilled until he learned we had to have the ants mailed to us. The fine print on the order form says the ants will only be shipped when temperatures are somewhat warm in the part of the country you live. Well, it finally warmed up here in Indiana...it got to 83 today! We got the ants earlier this week (after sending away for them in January!). Spencer again was extremely thrilled when the ants arrived. However, he asked me, "Dad, are these ants my responsibility?" To which I responded, "yes." He looked at me, looked at the ants and went back to watch Spongebob. Needless to say, Daddy has been watering/feeding the ants. Sorry about the flash, but here's a photo of the farm. The little critters are quite interesting to watch. About a third of them were dead upon arrival in the mail, so I ordered another tube. I figure if we ever go the Amazon, I'll try to pick up a few Army ants to see what happens when they meet the docile ones we have!

FAME Festival

We took the kids to the FAME Festival today at the Grand Wayne Center in downtown Fort Wayne. FAME stands for Foundation for Art & Music in Elementary Education. It's a showcase for local elementary schools to show off art projects & musical performances (individual & choir). Sort of like the Woodstock of Fort Wayne, minus the muddy fields and hallucinagenic drugs! Spencer was fortunate enough to have one of his art projects featured at the festival. His piece was a clay sculpture of a leaf that was painted. He was pretty proud of it. Just one more thing he's good at!











They had several booths set up for kids to do simple craft projects. While Spencer and I strolled around looking at various things, Christine let Syd do a couple of the projects....an egg carton butterfly and Easter Egg suncatchers. Here's Syd painting her suncatcher.







And here's Spencer and I taking a break, sharing some popcorn.

Sydney's New Bike

A little late, but Sydney's Birthday Party was this weekend. The prize winning gift -- a new bike! She absolutely loves it. Daddy put it together yesterday and she has been riding everyday. She will be devastated if it snows again.

Night at the Y

It's Wednesday night. Swimming lessons at the Y. First time we've had class in about 3 weeks, since class had been cancelled due to weather (snow) the last 3 weeks. Here a couple of photos I snapped with the camera on my cell phone. Not the best, but what do you expect for 2 megapixels?








Syd is sitting on the lap of one of our friends, Terri, who's daughter is in Spencer's swim class. Syd is playing a game on Terri's iPhone. Amazing.....I'm sure I was playing with rocks and dirt when I was 3 and my daughter is playing on an iPhone!





This photo is quite blurry (see explanation above). Spencer has swimming class first, then Syd's class is after his. Once Spencer is done, he likes to have a go at the rock wall while we wait for Syd. Tonight, it took him about 20 minutes, but he finally reached the top. I took this photo just as he was starting down. The girl who runs the rock wall says she's pretty impressed with his abilities as a 5-year old, considering many adults can't make it to to the top. By the way, it's 26ft to the top. I asked about a climbing class, but she said it's only for adults. However, they're mulling an idea to start one for kids. She said Spencer's a natural. Now if we can just figure out how he can get rich doing it and allow Daddy to retire early.......

Syd's 3rd birthday

We celebrated Syd's 3rd birthday on January 16th. After dinner, we sang happy birthday and had a cake. Then Syd opened up some presents. Here's a short video of the birthday cake. Happy Birthday, Syd!

Flooring Update

Well, I've made it to the halfway point! I finished the tile in the laundry room today. I then grouted where the washer and dryer sit. This way, I can let that area set up and get them back in place ASAP (see photo of our kitchen below). I've created an expansion joint at the doorway going from the hallway into the kitchen. That's where I'll pick back up again. Here are a few photos.

Xmas '08 in the bag!!

Another Christmas holiday has come and gone. The anticipation leading up to the big day was intense this year, with Spencer being on the ball about what Santa should bring and Syd getting into it more also. We had been juggling our plans right up to the day before we left, as we were also heading to Canada to spend time with Christine's family. We toyed with leaving on Christmas Eve day, but that entailed (as we've done the past few Christmases) packing all the kids' toys in separate suitcases, packing wrapping paper and waiting until we got to Canada to wrap them. The reasoning behind this is simple. When we go to Canada, you must patiently wait your turn at the border to cross into Canada. When it's your turn, you drive up to the little booth and play 20 questions with the border guard. How many are in the vehicle? What are your nationalities? Where are you coming from? Where are you going? Why are you going there? How long are you staying? Any gifts? What's the total dollar amount? What's the most expensive item? Any tobacco, alcohol, or firearms? Then it's usually "Have a safe trip" and we're on our way. However, there's always the chance that you could get a overly diligent border guard who wants to search the car. Back to the presents. If they search your car and see wrapped gifts, more likely than not, they will unwrap them to inspect and then we'd have to re-wrap them. Hence, it's just easier to pack them unwrapped and do it all up there.

Well, this year we decided to spend Christmas morning at home. The kids are getting old enough to appreciate Christmas morning, plus we eliminate any potential hassles at the border. The one big item Spencer asked for this year from Santa was a set of Batman wings. Spencer's friend Jack in Canada got these last year and Spencer couldn't stop talking about them. So it seems Santa still had parts leftover to put together a set this year. Take a look at the short video below showing the Batman wings in action.

Here are some photos from Canada. We had a good visit with everyone, spending quite a bit of time with Christine's cousin's kids (Mikaela, Ryan and Adam). Their dad is sick with leukemia right now so Christine and I tried to help out Beckie (her cousin) as much as we could. We all know Bill is going to pull through!

Spencer, Syd and their cousin Riley

Syd, Ryan, Spencer and Mikaela

Ryan and Spencer hamming it up for a picture!

Ice Storm 2008

On Friday, 12/19, we had an ice storm. A real doozie. 3/4"-1" of ice on everything all over Fort Wayne. At one point, there were 75,000 people/businesses without power. I lost power at my office around 9:30am and we eventually left work around 11am. I got home around 11:30am and then our power went out at home about 12:30pm. We were taking the kids to the doctor at 1pm, so it wasn't a big deal to not be in the house. When we got back around 2:30, the power was back on. We were fortunate all weekend to have power, as the temps held steady around 0-5 degrees with windchills hovering around -25 degrees. This morning, Christine was taking the kids to daycare and I was going to work. At about 7:00am, our power went out again. I came home from work around 10am and the power was back on. The local power company guys are saying some people won't have power until Wednesday or Thursday. Merry christmas. Oh, and they're calling for another ice storm for Tuesday night. Yippee!

Casa de Ice

Our front yard and the neighbors

Looking out into the backyard

Looking down our street