Farm Camp

Since Nana is out of town, and we’re already going to be off on Friday, the 3rd of July, K and I both decided to take off the rest of this week.  We enrolled the kids in a morning day camp at a County facility that maintains a working farm atmosphere.

Now, our kids could be considered homebodies (I guess their parents could too).  They are still fairly reserved in new situations.  We figured a “parent independent” (aka “drop them and run”) 3 hour camp would be good for them (and didn’t you just love it when you heard that as a kid?  Phrases like “good for you” … “a learning experience” … “builds character” strike fear into the hearts of children around the world.)

In light of this, we’ve been prepping them for this for a week or so.  We talked about the camp,visited the camp, talked about the camp, got special snacks for the camp, talked about the camp … and still we expected bedlam when we dropped them off.

So, the big day comes this morning.  We introduce them to their “camp counselors” (who I’m positive are young enough to have been attending this camp last year.  Maybe that’s how they do it … come to camp one year, lead it the next.)  Once the kids are sufficiently distracted, we slink away, hoping not to make eye contact as we leave.

Foolishly, we turn back for one more look.

Bye Mommy! says A, who then returns to her craft.  J doesn’t even bother to look up.

Whose kids are these?

Obviously, some alien species stopped at our house in the middle of the night and replaced our children.

K’s response to the brush off.

Tomorrow, I’m hoping the aliens will replace our kids with ones who eat vegetables.

Flying without a net

Well, Nana took off for a week long trip to see family.  So for this week, it’s me and K vs. J and A.

Mano a mano.

No backup.

Pray for us.

Friday Catch Up, 2007, age 2

Since about age 2 (I guess when they started talking) we’ve been writing down some of J and A’s  funnier sayings into a book (yes, an actual book.  Soooooo 20th century).  In order to play a little catch up in this blog, I thought I’d provide a sample, by year (with a couple of pictures thrown in for good measure).

J always wants to go to the “cat, dog, fish store” aka Petco

Spent their 2nd birthday at Disney World!

Of course, it’s not a vacation until somebody gets hurt, so J obliged by breaking his leg on a slide in MGM Studios.

Seriously, he broke his leg AT DISNEY WORLD!

A likes to say “buffaluffaluffaluffalo” instead of buffalo.

A is already fond of fancy Easter dresses

When A tries to order J around, we remind her that we are the parents.  Her response?  “No, me parent.”  Great.  I can just imagine what we’re in for in the years to come

Nice shades, A.  J hasn’t quite figured out the concept.

While talking to K on the phone one afternoon, A asked “Mommy home?” to which K replied “No, mommy’s still at work.”  After thinking about it for a second, A responded “No, mommy golf.”  The jig is up.

The girl has style.

J is fond of exclaiming “Yeeee hawwww!” complete with a swing of his arm.

For Halloween, since A has red hair, we went with Pebbles and Bam-Bam.

Right before their 3rd b-day, A states “J is my brother.  He is my best friend.”

We’ll end on that one.

Belated Father’s Day

A belated Father’s Day report is due.   Since both K and I spent our childhoods moving around the country due to our fathers’ jobs with the Federal Government, I never expected to live around so much family as an adult.  But pretty much all of our immediate families live withing 20 minutes of us.  So holidays are always spent with lots of family around.

This Father’s Day, we had everybody over to our house for lunch.  Fairly simple meal of burgers and hotdogs.  But what makes these type of gatherings special is the time after the meal when everybody just sits around and talks.  Luckily the weather cooperated, so we all spent a total of 4 hours out on our screened in porch.

Of course, for me, the highlight of the day was opening the kids’ presents to me.  This year, Nana took the kids out to purchase their own Father’s Day gifts for me.

Did I mention that my kids are 4?  I think you can see where this is going.

I guess J took my love of T-Shirts into consideration

Yes, that’s a McDonald’s shirt, complete with faux-grease stains.  I think J’s propensity for chicken nuggets and french fries colored his decision.

And what was A’s gift?

I’ll let that sink in for a second.

…

Yes, that is fringe.  And those are rhinestones.

In the shape of a skull and crossbones.

When she purchased it, she said “Daddy will love this.  It’s sparkly!”

It now occupies a place of honor in my closet.

And we’re off.

OK, about time we got on this new-fangled blog craze.  And we’ve been inspired by the blog of our good friend the Carpoolqueen.

For those wanting to score at home, here’s a quick rundown.  Our household consists of me (with that wacky moniker of imnotned), my wife K, our twins J and A, and K’s mom, Nana.

Tri-generational household, baby!

K’s an Operations Manager for a local office of 70 people, part of a multinational corporation.  I’m a part-time IT Project Manager, part-time stay at home dad.  Nana is home with the kids the rest of the day, and, in general, takes care of everybody (which is a short way of saying she provides K and me the sanity we so sorely need).

Hopefully, if nothing else, this blog will act as a way to document life for the kids to look back on in 20 years.

Better make it good, I guess.  No pressure.