Man, we’ve been having a heck of a time getting baseball season underway. The guys are really pumped to get onto the field, but thanks to some much-needed gifts from El Niño, we’ve been washed out of both practice & games for the past couple of weeks. While we wait for the skies to clear, here’s a micro gallery of the lads & their teammates getting into uniform for team photos. Hopefully pics from the field will soon follow!
Finn’s a big fan of both Ed Emberley drawing books & the iPad app Adobe Sketch. I kinda dig how he combined the two here. 🙂
Area ham approves of carbs. 🙂
Our big guy had a blast all day long. In this little gallery you can see him enjoying a cake topped with his Lego doppelgänger; getting The Dangerous Book for Boys from Grandpa Liggett; blasting Mom-O with a “High Eight”; and getting Captain Underpants from Grandma & Grandpa Nack.
Happy birthday to the marvelous Mr. F—cha cha cha! 😀
On Saturday evening the lads participated in their first Blue & Gold banquet. The theme was flight, and we had the pleasure of hosting a friendly (and incredibly patient!) real-live fighter pilot. They enjoyed trying on his gear, then participating in an “Angry Birds” sketch (see the flight theme?) for which Margot created fun pig noses, and of course scarfing down some amazing plane- and bird-shaped cakes. Here’s a gallery from the evening.
For the better part of twenty years, my dad has been rocking a jacket he picked up at Quail Lodge in Carmel. Looking for a little outing on Friday, we found ourselves down there, so we dropped by for lunch, then hit the gorgeous beach in Carmel-by-the-Sea. The boys made a little friend from China, whipped me with kelp, collected all the burned driftwood we could find, and built a couple of fine forts. Check out our little gallery from the day!
On Monday my folks joined us for a Caltrain ride to our first climb up Coit Tower. We followed the tower visit with a walk to Lombard Street, some refuelling with North Beach cannolis, a quick trip to City Lights Booksellers, and a quick jaunt through Chinatown (firecrackers! smoke! dragons!!). Check out our little gallery.
Henry was feeling really entrepreneurial last weekend, so he & Finn set up a little lemonade stand in front of our house. Despite awfully low foot traffic, we got some business, nice visits, and even tips from a bunch of neighbors. Long & his daughter Maddie schooled the boys in the art of haggling; Finn created & distributed some coupons; and both boys lured in small customers with the prospect of test-driving a few Legos as they drank. 🙂 Here’s a quick vid from the day:
G-Man was pretty taken with the 5-plane combo that tapped out messages over the Super Bowl on Sunday. It was especially neat to hear the Blue Angels streak overhead as the national anthem was starting, then to see them appear on TV a minute or two later.
🙂
The boys had a ball designing their Pinewood Derby racers, having them carved at a woodshop, applying paint & graphite, and then finally letting them rip last Sunday. Though we didn’t set any track records, we enjoyed the 3-second bursts of adrenaline. 🙂 Here’s a little gallery of the event, featuring their cars plus some of our favorites from other scouts.
Five years ago today, we introduced der kinder to Klaas the Duck. 🙂 Here’s the little gallery.
Throwback Sunday: G-Man splish-splashes around the sink, six years ago today.
The boys have long loved weird homemade YouTube videos in which Lego characters get into all kinds of adventures. At last summer’s Steve & Kate’s camp, both boys tried their hands at making similar vids. Here’s one from Finn that I just remembered to share. Fair warning: I have no idea what’s going on here, although it seems to involve periodic decapitations. 🙂
The lads’ fun, heartfelt correspondence with our Elf on the Shelf, Scout (see previous), continued all through December. The little gent really enjoyed his new house:
In fact, on Christmas morning he announced his plans to sleep there all through the year—which he’s commenced doing, though it appears he darts out periodically to nibble down a big marshmallow the boys left outside the door. 🙂
With “El Chivo” (The Goat, aka Dad-O) always on the prowl for tasty leftovers, the boys & their animal team get serious about defending one of their remaining croissants. I can’t say that I blame them. 🙂
Lately the boys—Henry in particular—have been especially hungry for our attention & have resorted to all kinds of button-pushing to get it. (Henry takes this literally, poking us & his brother until we react.) Smartly, Mom-O has opted to respond by giving them what they want—and then a whole lot more! Here she, Finn, and I bury Hen in all the attention a kid can take. 😀
Or if you prefer a version made even wackier by Google Photos, well, we can do that, too. 🙂
Feeling a touch stir-crazy by the end of vacation, we decided to take the lads down to Monterey on Friday for a quick overnight adventure. Highlights included:
Oh my gosh oh my gosh oh my gosh… You know what’s greater than great? Not only does Cousin Tony help hook us up with a Lego set that includes a miniature Lego Store selling even tinier Lego sets (!), he sends us genuine Lego Store aprons with “Finn” and “Henry” name tags!!
Unspeakably delighted, the boys are now filling their days creating & managing a store in the basement (“The Subterranean Brick Barn”), selling Mom-O & me every manner of daily special, limited-edition figure, and more. They’re dutifully keeping inventory, recording deliveries (“John’s perchess”), and more.
Check out a little gallery of the action, plus a pair of videos below!
