where I talk with my inside voice
Well, okay, it might not be our last one. But our piano teacher is getting married next month and moving away, so it will be the last one with her. The kids both did very well, considering the difficulty of the pieces and the fact that they both memorized them and didn’t use their music while playing. We are going...
We did a overnight campout at Roaring Spring Ranch. The place is beautiful — it’s about 2600 acres that is owned by one of the families in Noah’s Cub Scout Pack. The kids got to ride horses, go on a hayride at night, and hike through the woods. The ticks were unbelievable, but it was still a good trip.
Yeah, I had never heard of it either until last fall when Noah and I went camping with the Boy Scouts. Then Noah told Dixie about it and they bought the game for Noah’s friend Graham for his birthday. At that point, Dixie became obsessed with it, even though she had never played it. Then it turned into a trip...
I’m proud of my little girl. Her arms aren’t quite long enough to hold the rifle properly, but that hasn’t stopped her from hitting the target. She finished up the requirements for her Shooting Sports badge for AHG by hitting 10 water balloons. Way to go, Josie!
If you couldn’t tell, we’ve got a thing for birds around here. For Josie’s birthday, we went to the World Bird Sanctuary to celebrate World Eagle Day. We got to see a Bateleur eagle, which is native to Africa, and this one happens to be the only one of its kind in North America. Pretty awesome creature.
We spent today celebrating our little girl turning eight years old. It’s hard to believe she’s eight already. She wanted a bird theme so Dixie decorated the cake with pictures Josie took on her camera, along with several other bird-themed snacks that were all yummy. We spent the morning at the World Bird Sanctuary because today also happened to be...
I headed to San Diego this past week for a two-day conference called the Global Diversity Summit to learn more about how we can use diversity in the workplace to make our business more successful. There were some interesting break-out sessions and a few of the keynote speakers were inspiring. We didn’t get much time to sightsee, but luckily I’ll...
It was with a sad heart that we said goodbye to our flock this week. Princess, along with a couple of the others (we suspect) had developed a taste for their own eggs, so we were only getting a couple of eggs per week, and the rest were getting eaten. Couple this with the fact that we plan to be...
At Noah’s Blue & Gold Banquet last night, we had a special presentation from Serengeti Steve. He is a local herpetologist who does shows for birthday parties and other events. We chose to sit right up front, and I’m sure this is a decision that Dixie now regrets. But she stole the show! More photos are in my album.
I took advantage of the unseasonably warm weather to install a pair of new LED headlights on the car. It involved removing the entire front fascia, but it still didn’t take as long as I thought it would. I’m happy with the results.
I have begun construction on the Notre Dame de Paris (to scale) in our Minecraft world. This is the largest building I’ve built so far. The real cathedral took almost 200 years to complete. I certainly hope this project doesn’t take me that long.
Noah had his annual Pinewood Derby race in Cub Scouts today. He didn’t win, but I was proud of all of the work he put into building his car this year. I can’t believe he only has one more year before he moves onto Boy Scouts. It doesn’t seem that long ago that he was a Tiger.
We enjoyed our first snowfall of the year today. It was probably less than an inch, but it was enough for the kids to get outside and build some mini-snowmen, and have a ball, and for Dixie to get a few great shots of the birds. Photos are up in my album.
It was time for our annual Minecraft marathon, where we spend the better part of a day immersed in our “world” building things. They say Rome wasn’t built in a day, but I built a Mayan pyramid! It is on an island far to the west of my kingdom, unspoiled by the whimsical constructions of my children. I think that...
Hey, what do you know? The kids got Legos for Christmas this year. Even though this is the first year they no longer believe in Santa, it certainly doesn’t diminish their enthusiasm for the little plastic bricks. This was a big set too – almost 2500 pieces – but they did a good job working together. Noah was also happy...
There are a number of reasons that I chose to cleave my blog in two. I won’t go into all of the gory details, but if you are reading this it’s because you went to my old domain, and didn’t find what you had come to expect (since 1996), and contacted me to ask why. Welcome to my new home...
