Well, for the second straight year we hosted Easter Dinner @ our house. The most important part of the day? Not the ham or the German Potato Salad – but the Easter Egg Hunt for John & Stephanie. Aunt Alicia brought approximately 12 plastic eggs, while Jen and I hid exactly 14 real eggs around the house. Both Stephie and john found their designated allotments and both seemed to really enjoy “competing” with each other. Here are some pictures from the weekend’s festivities: (Click on the image to see the larger version of the picture)
Well, after 1060 pieces and over 2 months of effort, John-John and I completed the assembly of the Lego AT-ST Walker set. As many of you know – we would tackle 30-60 pieces a night, once or twice a week. All through this project, John successfully learned to identify all the different types of lego pieces and was very astute in following the directions outlined in the instruction booklet. He has already asked me what the next project is going to be (I haven’t decided yet). For now, the Walker and the Tie-Interceptor models sit proudly on the top of his bureau in his room. As you can see, he was ready excited about placing Biggs on top of the Walker! By the way, this set was rated at ages 14+, and he really did assemble most of the pices by himself.
Well, I just completed the upgrade of the site to WordPress version 2.3. As usual, these types upgrades are pretty straightforward. For more information please see the following:
http://wordpress.org/download/
For information on the features and improvements made with the new release, please see the following:
I know it sounds corny, but this was one of those “parenting-firsts” that I was eagerly awaiting! After determining 4 years ago that John really needed to be close to 5 before I would take him down to see the Flyers in person, I jumped at the opportunity to bring him to the first pre-season game of the 2007-2008 season. Of course, I had been pumping him up for this for a few week now, and he was SO EXCITED. I picked him up early from school on Monday and we went down to the sports complex to watch the Flyers and my hated New Jersey Devils battle it out. It didn’t take John to pick up some of the key elements of being a life-long Flyers’ fan:
- He learned (much to my initial dismay) to shout “SHOOT” during the continuously poor Flyers’ power play opportunities
- He learned how to join in on the traditional “LETS GO FLYERS!” chants
- He even witnessed his first hockey fight – after which he promptly declared – “And Now Off to the Penalty Box!”
Oh and did I mention the gargantuan amount of food he had @ the game?
- Chickie and Pete Chicken Cutlets (a whole order)
- Chickie and Pete Crab Fries (he thought they got a little spicy towards the end)
- 3/4 of a large soft pretzel
- 1 chocolate (shell) covered ice cream cone
BTW – he was also so enthralled by the “Gigantic Escalator” that took us up to our seats in the 2nd level ….
And the best part of the night? Well, he expressed (no less than 5x) how this was one of the best times that he & Daddy had spent together!
(insert proud parent emotions here) …
Well, after over one month of working on this in small chunks, John and I just finished the first half of the Star Wars At-ST Walker Lego Set (#10174). This set consists of over 1000 pieces and John has really improved with his abillity to handle even the smallest of Lego pieces. At about 45-60 pieces per session, we have 2-3 construction sessions per week. Next up (according to John) will be the “contruction of the cockpit”. John built approximately 85% of the bottom half of this model all by himself. I am so proud of him.
591 pieces down, 477 to go
Today we took a day trip to Ocean City, NJ with Am-mom, Pop and Aunt Alicia (“She-sha” as Stephie says). First we drove down to Am-mom and Pop’s house. Stephie proceeded to tell Pop “we’re going to the beach. To Ocean City.” He found it humorous to take directions from a 2 year old. When we got there little John was so excited to get to the ocean. He wanted nothing to do with the sand, just right to the water. He stayed there splashing in the waves for so long that his fingers and toes got all wrinkled. The adults had to take shifts going into the water to watch him. We had to bribe him to come out by telling him we were going to the pool to have lunch. Even then he only wanted a few bites and it was back into the pool. He loved swimming with his noodle and swim vest. He even met a little friend “Matt” and started teaching him how to swim with the noodle in the kiddie pool.
Stephie didn’t care too much for the water. She only wanted to play in the sand and make mud pies. She kept telling everyone to go get her more water with the buckets. She was more interested in lunch but then enjoyed splashing around in the baby pool. She liked throwing her bucket into the adult part of the pool and then saying “uh-oh, my bucket fell in the water”. Then we would have to rescue it. This was cute the first few times and then it got old.
Then after a much needed nap we all went to dinner. At the restaurant rest room, little John met a friend Jacob. They had a very long conversation between the stalls as they were both doing their thing. We heard all about Jacob’s kindergarten class and John’s new classroom pre-school 5. We also heard about both John and Jacob’s soccer teams. It was quite humorous.
After dinner we went to the boardwalk. There we were surprised to see Max and Jack from preschool who were also in vacation in Ocean City. We rode many rides including the carousel (Stephie wanted to “ride the horsies”), train, antique cars, helicopters, pelican log flume (Stephie didn’t care for), dragon whirl (Mommy didn’t care for), and balloon ride (both Am-mom and Stephie didn’t care for). Then we went back to the hotel to sleep. It was a very busy and fun day. But John-John said “it is a shame Daddy was not here. He really would have liked it.”
Last night, Jen & I decided to take her sister Alicia out for her upcoming birthday. Jen decided on a fondue restaurant called the Melting Pot. However, we wondered how our 4 1/2 and 2 year old were going to respond to this environment. As we got closer to our reservation, our worries increased. Normally, they are pretty good @ restaurants (assuming that chicken nuggets, grilled cheese or hot dogs are on the menu). This would be a real test (especially for John).After arriving at the restaurant and learning that there was not much of a children’s menu, Jen & I decided to put everything into terms that John & Stephanie could understand:
- Dipping small items of food into either cheese or chocolate.
- Being able to dip & cook small pieces of food into a pot of soup.
Much to our surprise, John-John really loved this. Despite never eating anything other than white American cheese, John managed to try the mildly spicy cheddar blend that was made at our table. John dipped bread, chips & apples into the melting pot of cheese. He also did pretty well during the main course of chicken, steak, potatoes, mushrooms & fish. However, John’s eyes (& Jen’s) really lit up when he heard about the dessert menu. A big pot of melted chocolate (with Oreo cookie chunks) was made in front of him. We had the chance to dip brownies, cheesecake, marshmallows, strawberries, and bananas into the “yummy” chocolate pot. As we were approaching the end of the second plate of dessert items, John looked into the pot and cried (loud enough to be heard by the other diners): “Oh-no, we’re running out of chocolate!”
All in all, we had a GREAT night out and the kids were perfectly behaved for over 2 hours. (Oh, did I forget to mention the 3 Luna Frescas I had?)
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