Three years ago the lads spun themselves silly on the teacups at San Jose’s winter carnival:

And the year earlier, we railroaded through Santa Cruz with Santa and Sir Topham Hat! (gallery)

Three years ago the lads spun themselves silly on the teacups at San Jose’s winter carnival:

And the year earlier, we railroaded through Santa Cruz with Santa and Sir Topham Hat! (gallery)

Having developed a taste for Lego-based filmmaking at camp this summer, the boys have been enjoying setting up my little GoPro camera & filming all kinds of adventures (what Finn calls “clips”) beneath the Christmas tree. Here’s a random little set of moments that Google Photos stitched together for me:
Though we’re bummed about the outcome, we got to see one heck of an ND-Stanford game yesterday. In the video below you can see Finn & Henry rocking out to the sounds of the ND alumni band at the pep rally preceding the game. Also, here’s a little gallery of the boys giving a thumbs-down to the Stanford band, kicking a tree (the Stanford mascot), and fashioning a couple of sticks & fingers into an “ND” (see if you can spot it). Goooooo Irish!
Oh, kids these days: They just get harder & harder to force into dinner! 🙂
With some camerawork help from Mom-O, the boys & I re-created some silliness from five Thanksgivings ago; see below and click for larger. Stay tuned for the 2020 installment, in which 12- and 11-year-old boys team up to stuff the The Old Man In The Bird!
Happy Thanksgiving, everyone! Our little jive turkeys join us in wishing you a joyous & restful holiday. Here’s a peek (gallery) at the lads as they looked five years ago today.
Observing me lingering at home instead of hopping on my bike the other day, Finn asked, “Hey Dad, can I call you ‘Dingleberry,’ because I notice you keep hanging around.” :-p 
The boy has been on a tear lately, working on puns for his classmate & periodically disappearing into his room to write jokes that he emerges to test out on us. Some recent faves:
Thank you, he’ll be here all week! 🙂
One man’s trash is a smaller man’s fancy headdress. Witness our style icons two years ago today. 🙂

Why hello there! Fancy a fistful of soggy leaves? 🙂

Not content these days just to draw (which they’ve been doing a ton!), the gents have lately tried their hand at papercraft, constructing little buildings & vehicles. Here you can see their latest cityscape, home to numerous Lego minifigs:
After weeks of anticipation, Saturday night finally arrived & brought with it Finn’s first sleepover at a friend’s house. Henry & I biked with him to his buddy Gavin’s & dropped him off for an afternoon of pizza, movies, and horseplay.
To make Hen feel a bit less left out, Margot suggested the great idea of staging a little sleepover/campout in our room. We rigged up a little blanket pup tent & transported in some favorite Richard Scarry books, Legos, and even some candy corn popcorn (!!) found & sent by our pal Maria. I love seeing the photos of Hen & me reading together, as I’m reminded of reading the funny papers with my dad. (I’ll have to dig up & juxtapose the photos!)
Here’s a little gallery of our sleepover.
The guys have been patiently waiting over the last month to finally carve the giant pumpkins they picked out. (Unlike in the chilly Midwest, pumpkins out here tend to rot about 5 minutes after they’re carved, so we had to bide our time.) Henry designed a pretty solid owl, though as you can see in the gallery, he spent much of his time eating himself under the table—literally—with all kinds of corn (pop & candy). Finn meanwhile enjoyed breaking out the little carving kit we bought and fashioning some kind of diabolical weirdo. Mom-O reports that both were a hit with visiting trick-or-treaters. 🙂
On Saturday our intrepid scouts & I headed off to build & launch model rockets at “Rocket Into Scouting.” Together with their buddy Emiliano & his dad, we (well, largely I) knocked together a few rocket kits while alternately wolfing down tacos & gluing our fingers together. Finn also tried his hand at a slingshot, firing dried beans into the great beyond, while Henry constructed a duct-tape wallet. Here are some shots of the day out.
Hen’s traffic cone prayers have been answered: through Mom-O’s help he’s been transformed into a giant orange cone for Halloween! Finn is equally happy to have gone over to the Dark Side & become Lord Vader; Mom-O is resplendent in Dia de los Muertos make-up; and I’m discovering just how unforgiving a tight Star Trek tunic can be. ;-p Here’s a little gallery from today’s costume party at our friend Ella’s house.
18 months old & licking a batter full of cookie dough? That’s what we call getting a late start around here. 🙂 Finnster & Dad-O during Grandma Nack’s visit in 2009:

Henry Nack, traffic cone enthusiast, gets himself into the zone for his upcoming Halloween stint as a giant cone. 🙂

It’s football season, and the guys have been cheering on the Fighting Irish right alongside Dad-O! Thanks especially to Grandma & Grandpa Nack for keeping them outfitted in blue, gold, and green. 🙂
Other Irish-y bits from history:
Oh, and let’s hear it from the (much younger) guys themselves: Go Irish!
On this day, seven years ago, Finn tried a little bit of pumpkin (specifically the stems) while hanging out with our brand-new neighbor Maddie. Check out the shots below, as well as in this old gallery from the day.
The boys are sad, as we all are, at the passing of their beloved Grandma Liggett this past week. They keep mentioning the good times they had with her, so I thought it would be nice to show a little gallery compiled from Finn’s arrival onward.
On Friday Willow Glen’s cutest zombies stage a flash mob outside the yogurt hut. In addition to the video below, here’s a little set of photos I snagged before running back to work.