OK. Maybe I will play soccer

Jake reconsiders - after he hears that his friends Keola and Alika are hitting the pitch.

Buh-bye baby seat !

 Jake is totally excited that he's gotten out of the baby seat and into a booster. Over the last few months the only way to keep him happy was to tell him that baby seats had 5 way restraints like race cars....

Jake - "I click in like a RACE CAR? OK !"

We went to Kmart and he picked out a Diego booster seat. While we don't catch much of the adventures of Diego (he's not on PBS - don't tell my kids) Jacob still has a soft spot for him since they share a name Jacob/Diego = Enlgish/Spanish in case you didn't know. Every once in a while Jake even tells us to call him Diego (which was my plan before he was born anyway...at last ! My plan is coming to fruition! BUWAHAHAHAHA!)

Now Lily tries to sit in the Diego seat. Finally Jake has something she wants, but he's cool about and actually let's her. What a guy.

Blues on the Bay

Went to the other side of the island to an air show with the most rabid plane-friends we have, the Brooks'. The kids (Jim and I) had fun and the little boys and girls had a blast as well.

Happy Anniversary Jim and Laurie!

Double thanks to moms/wives to indulging our obsession.

Stay on target......stay on target

In previous generations parents would stress about when to introduce their children to the important things in life: the birds and the bees, mortality, what really happened to dad and why he lives in that big house outside of town with the bars and all those other scary looking men.

Now, generally speaking we can leave a lot of these to the Internet (thanks YouTube!) but there comes a time in any parents life when they need to help their children make an important passage:

When to watch Star Wars for the first time?
And perhaps more importantly, which of the six movies to begin with?
How young is too young?
Can a 6 and 4 year old be expected to handle arms getting hacked off, planets full of people murdered....the whole Luke and Leia thing (shudder).....

These weighty questions were brought into sharp focus in the last couple of weeks because Jacob saw the presents that I had chosen for Jack's birthday party - a Star Wars sticker book and a Darth Vader Halloween candy bucket (super-hyper cool).



(In case you don't remember, Jack is a major SW fan as recounted here from last years party. Plus he's strong enough to pull the ears of a gondark. Jake and I worked on a special SW wrapping paper, which actually wound up in the Lemmonds collection.....but I digress.

The questions started flying fast and furious:

Who is that? Darth Vader.
Is he a good guy? No.
What is that? That's an X-Wing.
What is that? Wookie.
" " " ? C-3PO
" " " ? R2-D2
ad nauseum.....

Well, over the weekend I realized that my anxiety over when to let my children watch a movie that, while arguably the most influential bit of cinema for my generation, was still a movie for kids and that obsessing over it was classic Gen-X nerd foolishness.

I said enough already.

Popcorn. Lights out. Comfy blanket. Stereo loud.....

Episode IV of course.

I couldn't subject them (or myself) to I - III.

They were entranced....

enchanted...

until...

Five minutes left in the movie...Death Star attack...X-Wings ! T.I.E. Fighters ! Darth Vader ! Luke ! What ever happened to Han?

and...

the DVD craps out...

frozen...going nowhere....#&@*#%@ !

"What happens ? ! ? Is Luke OK? What about the Princess?"

I say, well, it's a cliffhanger, you'll find out tomorrow when we get a new disk at Costco.

Putting them to bed that night (we had let them stay up late watching it) I asked both kids, "so what did you think...?"

Lily: Is the princess pretty? Does she like Luke more? Does he love her? Does she like Han?

Jake: I liked the fighting.

Mission Accomplished.

Well mostly. We did get a new DVD the next day and they did learn that Han saves the day, Luke is OK, the Death Star blows up, and that Darth Vader gets away.

Course then Vader has to make that call....poor guy.

I told the kids that everything you need to learn, you can learn from Star Wars. Kim said "He's just kidding"....

Nope.

Lily Evans - Hula Dancer

Since we have a big screen tv, I film in widescreen. But YouTube and iMovie aren't really set up for that. So Lily gets a little tall and skinny, but it's still pretty cute nevertheless.

Word Girl !

Our new favorite TV show.

Has to be seen to be believed. Some of the funniest writing this side of the Simpsons and old Loony Tunes. Go to the Adventures of Word Girl on the lowerish left to see some episodes.

In one episode, mild mannered 5th grader, Becky Botsford (secret ID natch) meets one of her nemeses (nemesises? nemesi?) who mentions that only a family of imbeciles would own a television. She angrily replies that she does in fact know what imbeciles means and that her family are certainly not. Besides, they only watch PBS.

We're so deep in that Lily's planning on being Word Girl for Haloween. Jacob wants in too, so he'll be Captain Huggy Face, WG's monkey sidekick.

I'm psyched too since I'll be to be the COOLEST villain - The BUTCHER.

IL-2

One tough WWII plane.

Wanted to make this one pretty banged up.

My first Soviet plane.

Pretty blue

Visit with Dr. Jake

Scene: Morning, dad is putting on clothes, getting ready for work. Dr. Jake arrives for a house call with his big plastic stethoscope.

Dr: Time to check you out.

Me: OK. Do I have to take my shirt off?

Dr: No just lift it up. (Puts stethoscope on my stomach)

Me: OK. How's that?

Dr: OK. Hmmmm

Me (DEEP BREATH)

Dr: HMMMM

Me (DEEP BREATH)

Dr: HMMM. (Shakes head)

Me: Are we done?

Dr: No. I've got to check your piko (bellybutton).

Me (thinking) pleasenolint pleasenolint

Dr: Uh oh

Me: Sounds serious...AM I ok?

Dr (stage whisper) : CAVITIES !

No....way.

WAY!


Follow link. Too funny.

A Good Day

Yesterday may go down as one of the best days of my life. No exaggeration.

1. Played hooky with my son.
2.Went to the beach.
3.Watched jet fighters zoom by 100' off the water.
4.Watched perfect late summer swell at the best south shore spots.
5.Went for a swim and played with my boy.
6. Ate tacos.
7. Repeated steps 2-5.
8. Picked up Lily from school
9. Afterschool/Dinner/bath/bedtime/bookreading routine
10. Hour or two of Half-Life2
11. Hour or so of Patrick O'Brian reading
12. Lights out

Totally happiness.

My X-Athlete Children

So we were heading over the Pali Sunday to plan this year's Halloween Garage of Terror (aka the Carhole of Scariness) at Dave and Kristen's house. We didn't go on Saturday since the Lemmonds were at Waimanalo for 3 hours of kids soccer between Olivia and Jack's games. This was 24 hours too long for my kids since the Lemmonds now have everybody's favorite rodents as pets: guinea pigs.

Lily: Why didn't we go to their house yesterday?

Me: They had soccer games....I wonder when you guys are gonna start playing soccer....

Lily: I'm not gonna play soccer...

Me (momentarily crushed): OK. What sports are you gonna play?

Lily: Well....I could play dodgeball.

Me (aside): *snort*

Jacob: Or we could ride our tricycles upside down !

Me: Um....

Jacob: NAKED !

Dad and Lily Racing

Lily and I racing at Ala Moana the other day. My handicap is that Jacob is behind me in a floatie ring attached to the leash. Actually a very close race. She won the first heat.

And yes. Those are nice waves in the back out at Bamburra's. I took Lily on my board out to Tennis Courts and caught a couple. She was totally stoked.

Librations

OK. I've been a nerd for a while and seen all sorts of cool astronomy pictures, but this one made me say WOW.

This is an image sequence that shows how minor wobbles in the Earth/Moon system allow viewers on Earth to see about 59% of the Moon's surface, despite the fact that the moon is synchronously locked in orbit about the Earth. Which is to say, we SHOULD only be able to see exactly 50% of the Moon's surface, but in fact there are wobbles that allow us to "see around the corner".

Better explanation here.

Such a month!

Lily's princess party - Slideshow above

Three birthdays, an anniversary, the beginning of school, graduation parties, weddings,and visits from the mainland friends and family...all in less than 30 days!

July and August are always exhaustingly fun, and this one is no different.

First Day, First Grade

 

Only...let's see....28 more years of school to go...

Uncle Bump's first Deep Fried Twinkie

 

The first of many, I'm sure.

Ya snooze...

 

You going lose that twinkie

Under construction

 

1 Red Velvet Cake = 4 layers o' goodness.

The best possible cake for the WORST BIRTHDAY EVER. Ok. Yet. I'm sure there are worse ones to come.

Sigh. I did NOT handle turning 40 well. Sorry to friends and family who were shocked and saddened by my less than positive reaction...but damn...

WATERFIGHT !

 

Summer days means it's time for waterplay!

Lily get's Uncle Bump