Posts Tagged Weekend

Swimming Weekend

We had a pretty good weekend!  My mom came down to watch Thomas’s swim meet on Saturday morning, but also got to see his baseball game on Friday night.  Thomas got two good hits but never really got the ball in the field.

At the swim meet, he demonstrated improved form in his freestyle, breathing on both sides and getting his arms out of the water, but his kicking is still pretty weak and not propelling him enough.  He ended up either fourth or fifth out of six in freestyle.

He was last in backstroke — we definitely need to work on that stroke — but in breaststroke he did great!  He was second place in his heat and his form looked great — if he hadn’t kept looking to the side to see how he was doing against his competitors I think he could have won.  He also had by far the best breaststroke form in his heat, so he should only get better with time.

The rest of the weekend was fun also, although Katherine had an upset tummy early Sunday that really made her miserable.  Fortunately, she had recovered by evening and had a good time swinging out back before bath and bed.  Before my mom left, we went to the new Fritz’s Railroad Restaurant up in Shawnee, where the food comes out on overhead tracks to your table.  That was pretty fun, and was a nice way to end up the visit.

Below are some movies of Thomas’s swimming. In freestyle, Thomas is second from the right. In breaststroke, Thomas is in the far left lane.

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A Fine Flood Weekend

This weekend we had some very heavy rain.  While we were running around town, we passed over a bridge on K-10 and saw that the creek below had completely overflowed its banks.  We decided to make a little detour and stop in at the Streamway Trails park near Northwood Trails, the neighborhood we used to live in, since the creek passes through there.  We suspected it would be high, but what we saw was pretty amazing!

The kids had fun stomping around some of the flooded trails, so we spent about a half-hour there just looking around and playing.  Katherine wanted to stay and play on the playground, but it was completely saturated so we decided to pass on that.

We also got some movies off Robin’s new jeejah, which functions as a pretty good speelycaptor.  (OK, I’ll quit with the Anathem references…)  I’ve uploaded them and linked them below.

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Family Gallery

Thought I’d share a selection of some of the best pictures from the last couple of weeks.  Here you go!

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Weekend Travel

For the third weekend in four weeks, we took it on the road up to Nebraska.  The event this week was my niece’s first Communion.  Thomas had a soccer game this week, and we’d missed last week’s already, so we decided to stay for the game and travel up after that, making the trip was pretty short.

Despite that, it was more pleasant than last time, particularly for Robin.  The last trip was great for me, but Robin was horribly sick.  This time Robin was healthy, so she could actually participate in conversation.  The kids slept well, so even though we had to get up at the crack of dawn to go to the church service, everyone was pretty much ready without major attitude issues.

We went to my brother’s house after the service for a great breakfast.  Brooke opened her presents and then challenged Thomas to a giant Super Smash Bros. tournament in the basement.  Watching her perform combos as Zelda with the Wiimote while wearing what looked like a miniature wedding dress was pretty funny — I wish I’d gotten pictures of it.

All in all, a good trip, but we’re looking forward to being in town for a few weeks so we can get caught up on home maintenance and geared up for spring and summer!

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On The Road Again…

… or at least getting prepared for it.  We’re leaving town to go see my parents and my brother’s family, a road trip we haven’t made since before baby Jonathan was born.  So I’m just going to finish up stuff at work and then head home to help pack, so no (extensive|interesting) post today.

Next week I’ll catch up on family pictures (there are some good ones), and there will be a multi-part review of Dragon Age coming as well.  Stay tuned!

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Sick Weekend

We had a pretty good start to the weekend; we met up with one of Katherine’s former teachers for lunch on Saturday and then took advantage of our Lifetime Fitness membership to swim with the kids.  I was feeling great before we got into the pool, but by the time I got out my nose was running and I was feeling like I had a cold.

When I woke on Sunday, I was miserable.  I got the kids downstairs watching TV so Robin could sleep a bit more (Jonathan had had a few bad nights, so she needed it) and crashed on the guest bed downstairs.

Unfortunately, while I was in bed and Thomas was distracted by the TV, Katherine decided that the fishtank needed to be redecorated.  Surprisingly, she didn’t get water everywhere, but many of the decorative items that we had removed she plopped back in the tank.

Later in the afternoon, Robin took the kids back to Lifetime and I crashed for a couple hours.  I got to bed early and slept late, and am feeling much better today (although quite a bit worse than baseline).  With any luck, I’ll be the only one with this cold — I’m not looking forward to Jonathan having it…

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Ferb, I Know What We’re Going To Do Today

I don’t really watch a lot of cartoons these days.  I’m pretty busy with 3 kids, plus I generally prefer to read or play on the computer rather than watch TV.  When we do watch TV it’s usually The Biggest Loser or American Idol — shows that Robin and I both like and that we watch together.

On weekend mornings, however, we usually turn the TV on for Thomas and Katherine, and what they generally watch are cartoons.  They watch a wide variety of different shows, but the one that always gets me to sit down and watch with them is Disney’s Phineas and Ferb.

This is a very cute show that combines kid-friendly situations and antics with humor that appeals to both kids and adults.  And unlike The Simpsons, the two aren’t really separate; there are not really two levels to the show.  If you’re laughing, your kid probably is too.

An episode of Phineas and Ferb is fairly structured.  The premise is that it is summer vacation, and the eponymous brothers are trying to find fun things to do to occupy the day.  Phineas (it’s almost always Phineas) comes up with a Big Idea, which they set about implementing.  This usually ends up being some mammoth construction or engineering project, such as building a giant car wash, rollercoaster, or day spa.  Phineas, the short redhead, is the “mouth” of the group and the idea man, and Ferb is the technical genius (although neither boy is a complete slouch in the other’s area of strength).

The major obstacle is almost always the boys’ older sister Candace, who plays Daffy Duck to the boys’ Bugs.  Early on, she catches on to their plan and tries (inevitably futilely) to “bust” them by dragging their mom over to see whatever giant construct the boys have put together in the backyard.

Depending on the episode, some of Phineas and Ferb’s friends might show up to participate in whatever the scheme might be.  The most commonly appearing are Isabella Garcia-Shapiro, the overachieving Fireside Girl and the ballerina to Phineas’s Harrison Bergeron; Baljeet Patel, an East Indian supergenius and geek; and Buford Van Stomm, a tough kid who oscillates between bullying and friendly behavior.

Candace, besides her obsession with “busting” the brothers, is even more obsessed with fawning over her boyfriend Jeremy, and she often ends up madly juggling these two imperatives (often failing amusingly) as the plot unfurls.

At the same time as this is happening, there is almost always a side plot involving the boys’ pet platypus Perry.  Perry is actually a secret agent known as “Agent P”, and gets summoned to his secret underground base under the kids’ backyard to receive a mission briefing from Major Monogram, the head of the Agency.  This mission always involves dealing with the nefarious schemes of Doctor Heinz Doofenshmirtz, a crazed evil genius who invariably hatches some grandiose plot rooted in one of his many childhood traumas.

In his agent persona, Perry sports a stylish fedora, and although he can’t talk, he communicates very effectively using eye rolls and other facial expressions.  As his struggle with Doctor Doofenshmirtz reaches its climax, whatever bizarre device the Doctor has created usually misfires and either inadvertently resolves whatever jam the kids are in, snatches victory away from Candace just as she’s about to bust the brothers, or saves the day for Candace just as she’s on the verge of doing something monumentally stupid in front of Jeremy.

It’s all put together with excellent comic timing, and the voice work is great.   Candace and Dr. D. in particular are excellently done — Candace constantly skates the edge of hysteria while still projecting a unique personality, and the Doctor delivers some incredibly bizarre dialog with feeling and humanity.  Another appealing thing about the show is that the animation is fairly normal-looking instead of the almost aggressively ugly drawings in some other kids’ shows.

But the thing that really makes the show shine is the message and the relationships between the characters.  Despite Candace always trying to bust the brothers, she really loves them and has worked hard to protect them when they needed it.  In turn, Phineas and Ferb always try to help Candace out when she’s distraught over something (usually Jeremy).  Likewise, Perry and Dr. D., even though they’re each other’s “nemesis”, have each gone out of the way to protect the other when something seriously threatening is happening, and in fact exchanged gifts during the Christmas special episode.

All in all, the show presents kids using their imaginations and having good clean fun while displaying positive personality traits and resolving conflicts in a healthy way.  And it’s freaking hilarious!

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Weekend Fun

neighbors0920[1]The weekend was pretty full — we did some Christmas shopping, I spent an hour or so disassembling and storing the trampoline, we extracted a heavy carpet remnant from the basement to give to some friends, and did a bunch of craft projects and playing with the kids at home.

And I walked around with Jonathan.  A lot.

He’s really good overall.  Unfortunately, at 2 1/2 months he’s at a place where he wants to be up and wants to interact, but needs you to cart him around the whole time.  So aside from naps (which are getting shorter) and short stints in the swing and play area, someone is holding him pretty much all the time, and on the weekends that someone is me.  Add him to the strain of lifting and dragging a huge carpet remnant and lifting boxes full of steel pipes, and I’m pretty sore today.

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Alton Brown Dinner Club

alton-brown-knives[1]The dinner club was a success — we started off with a mulled wine and a pear-walnut wonton appetizer, followed by a creamy leek and potato soup with fresh-baked bread.  The main course was ham, accompanied by Alton Brown’s creamed corn, and we had a tofu-based chocolate pie for dessert.

The ham turned out really well; I definitely recommend this method of preparing ham to anyone who is interested.  It involves layering the outside of the ham with mustard, brown sugar, bourbon, and crushed ginger snaps, and produces a glaze/crust that is very, very tasty.  We actually have a large amount of ham left over; I’m very glad I went for the 10 lb half ham rather than the full ham.  If I’d have gotten the full-sized one, we’d have filled the freezer with leftover ham.

I was particularly impressed by the tofu-based pie — unless you knew there was tofu in it you would never guess.  For dairy-sensitive people who still love chocolate, the “Moo-less Chocolate Pie” is a great alternative.  It’s very rich, creamy, and filling despite there being no cream in it.

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Night Ranger

sleepwalking-man[1]The Thanksgiving trip was pretty good; as good as could be expected, really.  Jonathan was awake for significant chunks of the car ride, and when he was up in the car he wasn’t happy, but other than that there weren’t major problems.  We got to see both sides of the family — there was a family reunion for Robin’s dad’s side of the family in Weeping Water, which we were able to attend.  We then ate dinner with her parents in Lincoln and then traveled to Blair to stay overnight.  We ate breakfast and lunch with my folks and then headed home — unfortunately we were not able to see my brother and his family, who were unable to come up while we were at my parents’ house.

Katherine continued her streak of night wakings; it’s now been about a week and a half since she’s actually slept through all night.  Things are improving just slightly on that front, however.  The last few times I haven’t needed to intervene — she eventually goes back to sleep on her own, but it takes hours in some cases.  I’m hoping that she’s retraining herself and that we’ll be out of the woods soon.  In the meantime, however, I’m pretty close to the bottom of the barrel on sleep, which is unfortunate as Robin is also.

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