Tuesday, January 22, 2008
Dressing Anna
This morning, after a quick round of karate training, I came home and got Pierce and Anna ready for school. Both kids are at the age that this is a pretty easy task, with Anna needing just a hair more assistance than Pierce.
Its been very cold out this way. I think this morning's temperature was about 18 with a windchill of 0, so I put Anna in her old short-sleeve soccer t-shirt, then layered on a thick, cableknit zipup sweater (with hood). She seemed to like it.
Nora took Pierce to school this morning, so Anna and I had some quality around-the-house time. Then I drove her to school. On the way she read a book to me (one of the books she brought home for homework over the weekend: "Fun with Mud"). She's reading exceptionally well.
When we got to school she proceeded to take of her jacket... and sweater ("I'm getting too hot Dad!"). After reluctant agreement from me, she paraded around the class asking incoming parents and students how they liked her soccer shirt.
If I had known she wasn't going to wear the sweater, I'm pretty sure I would have picked a slightly warmer, long-sleeve shirt...
-Eric (Dad)
Its been very cold out this way. I think this morning's temperature was about 18 with a windchill of 0, so I put Anna in her old short-sleeve soccer t-shirt, then layered on a thick, cableknit zipup sweater (with hood). She seemed to like it.
Nora took Pierce to school this morning, so Anna and I had some quality around-the-house time. Then I drove her to school. On the way she read a book to me (one of the books she brought home for homework over the weekend: "Fun with Mud"). She's reading exceptionally well.
When we got to school she proceeded to take of her jacket... and sweater ("I'm getting too hot Dad!"). After reluctant agreement from me, she paraded around the class asking incoming parents and students how they liked her soccer shirt.
If I had known she wasn't going to wear the sweater, I'm pretty sure I would have picked a slightly warmer, long-sleeve shirt...
-Eric (Dad)
Labels: cold sweater dress soccer shirt
Monday, January 21, 2008
Movies
Over the last couple of days, I shared a couple of my favorite movies with Pierce and Anna: Ghostbusters and Star Trek II: The Wrath of Kahn.
Ever since I started building the proton pack, Pierce and Anna have been very interested in all things “Ghostbusters”. Last week, VH1 ran a “family-friendly” version which I taped. So Saturday night was movie night with the Ghostbusters. Both kids seemed to enjoy it, though they both were a little bothered by the scene where arms come out of a chair and grab Sigourney Weaver’s character. There favorite part: Pierce – the Ghostbuster car, Anna – all the scenes with Slimer. They’ve asked if they can watch Ghostbusters II another day.
The Wrath of Kahn was a mixed bag. Over Sunday’s lunch we were talking about something (I can’t remember what it was), and the subject of Spock came up. When I mentioned there was a Star Trek movie where Spock died, both Pierce and Anna asked if we could watch it. Anna was very excited about the prospect, but Pierce, one he’d had a chance to think about Spock dying, wasn’t so sure. He chose to watch and read a book at the same time.
While the movie’s not too graphic by today’s standards, there was a lot in there that sparked questions from Anna. The scenes where the “worms” were put in the characters ears (yuck), and the scene where the worm comes back out of Chekov’s ear, accompanied by a little blood (double yuck), the scene on the space station where Captain Kirk is lowering the bodies of the slain station’s personnel down from the ceiling, and the final scene, where Spock died in the radiation-flooded engine chamber were all topics of conversation while we watched. No nightmares resulted, so I guess we’re ok. There is an Anna-submitted request to watch The Search for Spock, where Spock is returned to the land of the living.
The funniest was while we were watching, a Mom/Daughter team came by to drop off Girl Scout cookies (made from real Girl Scouts), Anna invited them in to come and watch the movie with us. She went on to describe the movie’s plot to them, as well as Spock’s pivotal role as an alien and science officer. The look on the Mom’s face was priceless.
We had snow on Thursday and Friday, so Pierce and I got a little sledding in on Saturday morning. I piled up some snow on our “sledding trail” and built up a little ramp. It sent Pierce flying almost every time (I thought it was fun too). Nora and Anna added a new curtain rod and curtains to one of the rooms in Anna’s doll house. A beaded, straightened paperclip, some Anna-cut fabric, and a clue gun and, voila! curtains. I think the process exhausted Nora, but Anna’s ready for more.
Closing out the weekend, Nora and I watched a sci-fi classic: They Live, a John Carpenter film starring the wrestler Roddy Pipper. It fell under the category of “It’s so bad, its bad.” but it was nice as couple time.
-Eric (Dad)
Ever since I started building the proton pack, Pierce and Anna have been very interested in all things “Ghostbusters”. Last week, VH1 ran a “family-friendly” version which I taped. So Saturday night was movie night with the Ghostbusters. Both kids seemed to enjoy it, though they both were a little bothered by the scene where arms come out of a chair and grab Sigourney Weaver’s character. There favorite part: Pierce – the Ghostbuster car, Anna – all the scenes with Slimer. They’ve asked if they can watch Ghostbusters II another day.
The Wrath of Kahn was a mixed bag. Over Sunday’s lunch we were talking about something (I can’t remember what it was), and the subject of Spock came up. When I mentioned there was a Star Trek movie where Spock died, both Pierce and Anna asked if we could watch it. Anna was very excited about the prospect, but Pierce, one he’d had a chance to think about Spock dying, wasn’t so sure. He chose to watch and read a book at the same time.
While the movie’s not too graphic by today’s standards, there was a lot in there that sparked questions from Anna. The scenes where the “worms” were put in the characters ears (yuck), and the scene where the worm comes back out of Chekov’s ear, accompanied by a little blood (double yuck), the scene on the space station where Captain Kirk is lowering the bodies of the slain station’s personnel down from the ceiling, and the final scene, where Spock died in the radiation-flooded engine chamber were all topics of conversation while we watched. No nightmares resulted, so I guess we’re ok. There is an Anna-submitted request to watch The Search for Spock, where Spock is returned to the land of the living.
The funniest was while we were watching, a Mom/Daughter team came by to drop off Girl Scout cookies (made from real Girl Scouts), Anna invited them in to come and watch the movie with us. She went on to describe the movie’s plot to them, as well as Spock’s pivotal role as an alien and science officer. The look on the Mom’s face was priceless.
We had snow on Thursday and Friday, so Pierce and I got a little sledding in on Saturday morning. I piled up some snow on our “sledding trail” and built up a little ramp. It sent Pierce flying almost every time (I thought it was fun too). Nora and Anna added a new curtain rod and curtains to one of the rooms in Anna’s doll house. A beaded, straightened paperclip, some Anna-cut fabric, and a clue gun and, voila! curtains. I think the process exhausted Nora, but Anna’s ready for more.
Closing out the weekend, Nora and I watched a sci-fi classic: They Live, a John Carpenter film starring the wrestler Roddy Pipper. It fell under the category of “It’s so bad, its bad.” but it was nice as couple time.
-Eric (Dad)
Labels: ghostbusters movie star trek khan spock girl scout cookie sled they live john carpenter roddy pipper
Saturday, January 19, 2008
Happy Weekend (Pictures!)
Between work, business travel, and too many projects, I'm afraid I've been pretty bad about keeping our blog updated. To catch up:
I made a quarter-scale version of a convertible coupe. It came out ok, but got destroyed pretty quickly. Here's a few pictures:
With Pierce being in cub scouts (he's a tiger scout) we're approaching our first pinewood derby. Pierce picked a Matchbox car that he really likes as a model for his car. We got a couple of pieces of paper and designed his car together. Then Pierce used his "blueprints" to draw the cut lines on the car. To save time, I used a jigsaw to cut the car, then we both took turns with a hacksaw to add some detail. Pierce had a great time. For safety, he wore leather gloves and safety glasses and he just thought the whole outfit was "cool" (sorry, no pictures).
The race is scheduled for next Saturday. Pierce is very excited and "hopes he wins". Having grown up entering blocks of wood painted blue, I figure he's already way ahead of the game. But I'm glad he's got a competitive spirit.
I took the picture of Nora holding the new album right after she got out of bed after a late night of scrapbooking. Doesn't her natural beauty shine through? ;) (thanks hon, your the best).
We've been getting a lot of snow this winter. Most of its been on the weekends, so there hasn't been too much missed school or work. And we've been able to enjoy it. We've had multiple sledding expeditions to the local community college (lots of hills). We even found our "super-secret" place, a bowl-shaped depression that allows us to sled in from all sides.
So far, our biggest disappointment has been that every snow has been very dry; great for sledding but not good for snowmen. Anna's been desparate to make a snowman, and I've been wanting to make a new snow car -so we've been a little disappointed. Out of desparation, I used a snow shovel to make big piles of snow to "mold" into stuff. Anna and I made a "sleeping" snowman lying prone on the ground (Anna made the face). Here's a couple of pictures:
I made a quarter-scale version of a convertible coupe. It came out ok, but got destroyed pretty quickly. Here's a few pictures:
With Pierce being in cub scouts (he's a tiger scout) we're approaching our first pinewood derby. Pierce picked a Matchbox car that he really likes as a model for his car. We got a couple of pieces of paper and designed his car together. Then Pierce used his "blueprints" to draw the cut lines on the car. To save time, I used a jigsaw to cut the car, then we both took turns with a hacksaw to add some detail. Pierce had a great time. For safety, he wore leather gloves and safety glasses and he just thought the whole outfit was "cool" (sorry, no pictures).
Finally, I took my brand new dremel (Nora's folks gave it to me for the holidays) and added detail to the car. I got some scrapwood for Pierce and me to practice on (even with me holding his hands and the dremel, I'm still not sure how smart I was to let him handle the tool). Anna and Pierce both, with my help, got to spray paint the car with primer and high gloss black paint. Pierce nailed the wheels on (with a little assistance from me). Here's the final result:
The race is scheduled for next Saturday. Pierce is very excited and "hopes he wins". Having grown up entering blocks of wood painted blue, I figure he's already way ahead of the game. But I'm glad he's got a competitive spirit.
Anna and I added another "piece" to her dollhouse. She's been lobbying for a fireplace for awhile. Much like Pierce's pinewood derby car, she and I got a couple of sheets of paper and designed it together. Its modeled after the fireplace in our home with some adjustments to make it a little easier to cut and build. Anna has named the fireplace (course I've forgotten the name). Its currently painted only with primer. Anna said she'd like to handpaint it, but we haven't gotten there yet. As we (I) was building it, Anna told me not to worry about making the fire or lights for it, that she'd do it herself. Once we got it finished she cut "firesticks" (firewood) and fire out of construction paper. The fireplace place has taken up residence in the dollhouse's attic (her horses have been moved out of the attic to a nearby Nora and Anna-built stable. Here's a few pictures:
I'm still working on listing the Ghostbusters Proton Pack I made on eBay. Lizz and Mike came over and took some fantastic pictures that I'll use in my listing. I'm a little paranoid about listing the pack after Christmas for fear of not getting the kind of bids the packs were getting earlier. Given the amount of effort that went into the pack, I want to try and maximize my price -so we'll see what happens.
Nora's been very dedicated to scrapbooking lately. Her goal has been to get all of our Hatteras/Corolla pictures completed and assembled into a book. Last weekend she pretty much hit the mark. She "claims" that she still has a few pictures she needs to add, but from my perspective the book she's assembled looks fantastic. And here's some pics:
I took the picture of Nora holding the new album right after she got out of bed after a late night of scrapbooking. Doesn't her natural beauty shine through? ;) (thanks hon, your the best).
Like most kids, Anna and Pierce's interests ebb and flow. Teenage Ninja Mutant Turtles (Anna), Trains (Pierce) and Legos (all of of us) have been big in our house in January. Here's some of the results:
Nora and I had a nice Friday night out with a couple of friends/neighbors. They had invited us to join them for a movie on a night we had season tickets for a play at American Heartland. We had a couple of complimentary tickets to share, so we counter-offered with those. We had a very nice time with Rita and Tony, but the show was a real stinker. The cheesecake we had afterwards was pretty good though...
-Eric (Dad)
Tuesday, January 08, 2008
Happy New Year
Happy holidays and, hopefully, a wonderful New Year to everyone.
Sorry for the long break between postings. For those who know me, you'll probably not be surprised to find out that I've started on one of my projects -it became a bit all consuming. The latest project? A replica of the proton pack used in the Ghostbusters movies for sale on eBay. I should be listing it in the next couple of days. In the mean time, I've created a video on YouTube.com to help showcase the proton pack. You can see here:
Hannucha and Christmas at our house were the usual wonderful holidays. As always, we stayed local, spending Christmas morning together as a family and having Christmas dinner at Nora's parent's house. The kids made out like bandits and Nora and I didn't do too bad either.
Anna has developed a few new interests: Teenage Mutant Nija Turtes and the Virgin Mary. Anna has already asked if she can be Mary for Halloween next year and, when referring to my Dad's girlfriend (Mary), Anna makes sure to clarify that she's referring to the "Mary that didn't die".
We went to visit my Mom in Virginia Beach after Christmas and were able to visit with Doug and his family while there. Unfortunately, my other brother, Scott, came down with the flu and he and his family were not able to come up from South Carolina. A couple of my fraternity brothers were also in Virginia Beach over the holidays and we had a chance to catch up. We had a great day where all the Dads got together, with their respective kids, and spent the afternoon at Mount Trashmore. We had unseasonably warm weather and were actually able to leave our jackets at home during our day out.
As has been mentioned in previous posts, Pierce and I have been working our way through the Harry Potter books at bedtime. We're on book 4, The Goblet of Fire, and Pierce is turning into a real Harry Potter junky. As a family, we've watched the first 3 movies. I was concerned that Pierce and Anna would find them frightening, but that hasn't been the case. Interestingly, whenever Anna started to get "a bit concerned" Pierce would reassure her by telling her the next bit from the book. He pretty much gave away the entire book...
Anna started reading a few months ago and her proficiency level is improving exponentially. She's not quite the enthusiastic reader that Pierce is, but she takes great pride in her in reading to us. Rather than picking up books to read, she likes to sound out signs wherever we go. In the mornings when I'm working with Pierce on his spelling words, Anna requests that I give her words to spell also.
The problem with having such a large span of time pass between postings is that I've forgotten more about the past month than I remember. I'll add more postings as more stuff bubbles to the surface.
-Eric (Dad)
Sorry for the long break between postings. For those who know me, you'll probably not be surprised to find out that I've started on one of my projects -it became a bit all consuming. The latest project? A replica of the proton pack used in the Ghostbusters movies for sale on eBay. I should be listing it in the next couple of days. In the mean time, I've created a video on YouTube.com to help showcase the proton pack. You can see here:
Hannucha and Christmas at our house were the usual wonderful holidays. As always, we stayed local, spending Christmas morning together as a family and having Christmas dinner at Nora's parent's house. The kids made out like bandits and Nora and I didn't do too bad either.
Anna has developed a few new interests: Teenage Mutant Nija Turtes and the Virgin Mary. Anna has already asked if she can be Mary for Halloween next year and, when referring to my Dad's girlfriend (Mary), Anna makes sure to clarify that she's referring to the "Mary that didn't die".
We went to visit my Mom in Virginia Beach after Christmas and were able to visit with Doug and his family while there. Unfortunately, my other brother, Scott, came down with the flu and he and his family were not able to come up from South Carolina. A couple of my fraternity brothers were also in Virginia Beach over the holidays and we had a chance to catch up. We had a great day where all the Dads got together, with their respective kids, and spent the afternoon at Mount Trashmore. We had unseasonably warm weather and were actually able to leave our jackets at home during our day out.
As has been mentioned in previous posts, Pierce and I have been working our way through the Harry Potter books at bedtime. We're on book 4, The Goblet of Fire, and Pierce is turning into a real Harry Potter junky. As a family, we've watched the first 3 movies. I was concerned that Pierce and Anna would find them frightening, but that hasn't been the case. Interestingly, whenever Anna started to get "a bit concerned" Pierce would reassure her by telling her the next bit from the book. He pretty much gave away the entire book...
Anna started reading a few months ago and her proficiency level is improving exponentially. She's not quite the enthusiastic reader that Pierce is, but she takes great pride in her in reading to us. Rather than picking up books to read, she likes to sound out signs wherever we go. In the mornings when I'm working with Pierce on his spelling words, Anna requests that I give her words to spell also.
The problem with having such a large span of time pass between postings is that I've forgotten more about the past month than I remember. I'll add more postings as more stuff bubbles to the surface.
-Eric (Dad)
Labels: ghostbusters proton pack video youtube christmas new year virginia beach harry potter
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