Friday, May 29, 2009

Wrapping Up May Birthdays

Today is the day we celebrate my cousin Jon's birthday...as I blogged about before May is a busy month for our family and extended family as far as birthday's are concerned.

Jon's, which is today, puts the end to our run which averaged about 2 per week.

So Happy Birthday to the guy that was basically the brother I never got from my parents. Jon and I have stories upon stories to tell our boys about things we did when we were young.

Here is one...I don't even know if Jon remembers this or not...we must have been about 10 or so, and I saw the Lone Ranger movie, and in the movie the Lone Ranger and Tonto cut their hands and shake hands to become blood brothers (long before the HIV epidemic). I always thought it would be cool to have a brother...Jon has 2 so this wouldn't have been a big deal to him...so my only alternative was to have a blood brother.

I don't remember the circumstances of how both of us were bleeding at the same time, (which probably happened more than once), but we both had little tiny cuts on our fingers and we mashed the tiny splattering of blood together to officially become brothers of blood.

So Happy Birthday to my Blood Brother...how's that for an obscure childhood memory?

Thursday, May 28, 2009

Memorial Day Weekend

We had a great Memorial Day weekend as our friends from Sioux Falls came to the lake for a little Summer Kick Off party.

The kids lived on the trampoline and had a blast...I think 11pm was the average bedtime for all of them.

This picture below of Brecken pretty much sums up his Memorial Day Weekend...I have 4 or 5 pictures of him from the weekend and he has a soda in his hands in each picture. He has been cut off and is now going through withdrawal.


Monday, May 25, 2009

Maxim picked today's video...

Maxim loves Ben 10 Alien and he wanted to choose today's video post, he chose this video from youtube.

Someday I'll make him type something into the blog...sorry it's been a while. Lots of travel and a super fun holiday weekend.



Tuesday, May 19, 2009

My Little SDSU Cheerleader...and another birthday.

Steph sent me this picture of Kolby in her SDSU cheerleader outfit today...I'm in Nebraska and she broke my heart that I couldn't give her a big hug and kiss.

I'm not sure she'll be the cheerleader type, but with Brecken and Maxim for brothers she might be the cheerleader that is always the one to be thrown up into the air doing cool stunts...we just have to make sure that they don't practice with her until she is at least 10.

OH YEAH...and Happy Birthday Uncle Lynn!

Friday, May 15, 2009

Spray Paint + Brecken = Graffiti

I was marking the ground where we are going to build a retaining wall the other day, and must have left the neon yellow spray paint sitting on the steps.

On Thursday Steph was in Sioux Falls and I was on vacation to babysit the kids...Kolby was crying and needing to be fed, so I sent the boys outside for a few hours. I hadn't seen them run by any windows so I was a little bit nervous as to what they were up to.

Then like clockwork I saw Maxim and there was Brecken right behind him carrying the spray paint...and before I could figure out what he was doing with it, he started to paint the outdoor fire place.

I jumped up and yelled at them to stop, and lucky for me I caught him before he did any damage! I said, "Brecken, no, no, no, you don't play with the paint."

Then Maxim the consummate professional big brother said, "Yeah, dad I told him to quit painting everything."

So my walk around the house started. You know those Family Circus cartoons where they show the neighborhood and the path that Billy took to do something...well, we have that path in neon yellow.

Concrete steps, landscape timbers, sidewalks, grass, landscape rocks, a bench in the front of the house, and the thing that took the most beating was a little car that the kids can wheel around in...all of it, tagged by the great graffiti master Brecken.

He didn't hit the house or his sister, or anything real noticeable...so we got lucky. I have a feeling we might find a few other things that were tagged. I did notice this morning, when I was cleaning out the dog kennel, that my scoop shovel is now a lot easier to tell from other people's scoop shovels thanks to the yellow paint.

Some people write their names on their property, Brecken just color codes his property.

Monday, May 11, 2009

Another Birthday...Cassidy Bay.

Cassidy turns 14 today...that means she can somewhat drive a car in Kansas...in South Dakota I think she can test for a CDL to drive a semi...we make kids grow up a bit quicker in SD.

Happy Birthday and now you can get a Facebook page right?

Here is a little video of me basically being mean to Cassidy while we were on vacation over Christmas.

One thing folks might not know about Cassidy is that she is pretty quick with her tongue, and very funny...she keeps me on my toes and I like to mess with her.

I so want to fly on this guys planes.

I guess it was only a matter of time before someone realized that nobody pays any attention to their flight attendent's little manifesto prior to take off, so this guy gets it and I am sure everyone got the point.

Friday, May 08, 2009

Kindergarten Graduation

Maxim's kindergarten graduation ceremony was last night, held in conjunction with the spring concert. He wore the little cap and gown and everything...I'll post pictures later.

This morning when Steph went to wake him up for school, he thought she was joking. "I don't have school anymore mom, I graduated."

She tried to convince him that it was a ceremony and that he has school for another few days. He wouldn't buy it. I was still in bed, and he comes in and jumps on me and says, "Mommy says I have to go to school today...tell her I graduated."

I then explained to him that he has to go until Wednesday...he cried.

I dropped him off at the playground and he was surprised to see a bunch of kids at school, so he grabbed his backpack and said, "I guess I'll see you later."

Yeah Maxim, like the last week of school for a kindergartner is real tough...ice cream parties, field trips, recess...just wait until summer vacation starts, I have a job for you hauling landscaping rocks around our yard, that I want done before Memorial Day Weekend. Oh wait, it was kindergarten graduation not 8th grad graduation, I got ahead of myself there.

Thursday, May 07, 2009

MAY this be birthday month...

I was talking to a good friend of mine yesterday, and I asked him his when his daughter's birthday was...he thought for a moment, whipped out his BlackBerry opened his calendar and then told me.

I was glad to know that I'm not the only one that needs a BlackBerry to remember important dates, like your wife and children's birthdays.

May is a busy month for our family as far as birthday's go. It starts with Roger and ends with Dr. Jon...Here is today's big celebration.

Happy b-day to my niece Avery!


Tuesday, May 05, 2009

Cinco De Rogero.

Happy Birthday to my father-in-law...59 again?

Here is a photo that I took of Roger last year...a man, a dog, on his land...and his shotgun is not pointed at his son-in-law.

Saturday, May 02, 2009

The Blog About Bob.

My dad got blogged about by the President of his Alma Mater...read about it here.

He claims he's really famous now that he made the Tabor College blog site.

Friday, May 01, 2009

BPM

I heard this story on National Public Radio about a bird that dances to the actual beat of a song by the Backstreet Boys. If they speed it up, he speeds up his routine, and if they slow it down...he hears the tempo and slows down his routine. It made me wonder, if a plain and simple bird, a Cockatoo can keep the beat to a song, why can't all humans?

As a drummer I often watch how the music I'm playing moves people. I would say, as a general statement, that the majority of mid-western men can't keep a beat. I would also say that most women can instantly recoginize when they should clap or at what speed they should dance/or bob their head. Which makes me wonder why more girls don't play the drums...Kolby will be forced to play the drums...because if you remember from a post back in 2007 Maxim wants to play the flute.

I worry about Brecken playing the drums...I have a feeling it would end up being a rerun of Animal from the Muppet Show...anyway here is the video.