Showing posts with label Just Dance for Kids. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Just Dance for Kids. Show all posts

Friday, June 28, 2013

The Hough's 300th Episode: The Last Grandma

Welcome back.

Days after Grandma Jordan flew back to Michigan, the Houghs up and imported yet another grandma - this time, my mom.  Grandma Renee would be staying with us for eight days this time around, sans Papa John, whose business is booming now and consequently he couldn't take the time off.

Here's some randomness from Grandma's latest visit - enjoy:


Tackling some writing and math on the back patio
I had to drive out to the Sanford airport (about an hour drive from our house) when Mom flew in, since she was coming directly from Jeff and Annie's place in Virginia. On the way there and back, I had to drive over a bridge spanning a swamp; in the process I drove - twice - through a cloud of large insects.  Kris' car was disgusting.
. . . so Grandma decided to put the girls to good use and wash the ol' Tactical Family Transport Vehicle.
Shouldn't be too surprising that the front-end required the most attention. . .
I don't have any pictures of it, but my lawnmower blade broke after I hit a tree stump in the backyard.  After taking it in to be replaced by the tool folks at Home Depot (I lacked the equipment to take it off myself), the mower was supposedly fixed.  Unfortunately, the engine was flooded with oil from being tipped up on its side, and after a day of employing starter fluid to start it back up again, the blade the guy installed fell right off.  Now, while we scout around for a place to fix my mower, I'm having to hire a team of lawn dudes to work on my yard.  Best of luck, fellas.
As you can see, I still haven't gotten around to replacing the tops of the workbench yet. . .
We spent a lot of time in the pool this week.  Florida's hotter than Hell, so that shouldn't come as a shock to anyone, I'm sure.

Clothes shopping in the Orlando Premium Outlets
Kris, sporting her typical 'mom' face. . .
As you can see here, Abby is able to consume an entire Wendy's Frosty before Alayna can get to the half-way mark.  That kid loves sugar like nobody's business. . .
At Eagle Park, our kids enjoy throwing bread down to the large snapping turtle (pictured above, measuring about 16 inches in length) and the ducks.  Lately, however, they've been joined by this guy (see above)- who, according to witnesses, is about four and a half feet in length.
As good parents, we let our kids gets as close as possible to the alligator.
Mid- wind-down routine with Grandma. . .
The infamous White Frog, who is routinely spotted throughout the backyard, usually by the pool.


. . . or sometimes in it.
Both our kids love the crap out of Memory. . . probably 'cause they routinely beat the bejesus out of me at it every time we play.  These kids have minds like steel traps. . . that, or I'm an idiot.  Either way.
Another match. . .
Mom was nice enough to let them win a few times.
Painting and scowling.
A trick Mom showed us - giving the kids choices definitely seems to help them eat better.  My kids can be tricked into eating a plate-full of healthy food when they think they're getting away with murder.  Consequently, they eat like this a lot now.
Almost every day of Mom's visit, it rained for a couple hours throughout the afternoon.  When this happened, once the kids woke up from naps, they generally played dress-up, games, whatever.  I had a lot of writing to catch up on, and like having background noise on. . . but the only thing on TV (rather, the one English-speaking channel we get clearly with our rabbit ears), is that George Zimmerman trial.
Haven't seen over-sensationalized legal drama like this since O.J.  Hopefully they wrap it up soon. . . I want my news back.
Candyland.  Which is a disaster every time it is played.
Electronic candlelit dinner, anyone?
Gettin' her nails did.  Again.
During one day's usual afternoon downpour, the kids were in the throws of cabin-feverish tantrums, so Mom and I decided to let them run around the driveway in the rain to burn off some steam. . .
We didn't think they'd take to it as well as they did (Abby had to warm up to it first)
Eventually, the swords came out.  After all. . . they're Houghs.
The duel begins.
Alayna isn't too shabby with a plastic sword, for a five-year-old girl. . .
. . . Abby still needs to work on her defense, though.
The vanquished. 
Breaking out the moves on the Nintendo Wii's Just Dance for Kids.  The Happy Birthday song - a fan favorite around these parts - makes me want to blow my own brains out. . . 
One of the older - and sluttier - songs my kids get into.
Taking in some Disney's Beauty and the Beast after Nap Time, shortly before Mom had to fly out. . .
- Brian

Wednesday, July 18, 2012

Snippets from Around the House

Yeah, yeah. . .

So, as I'm not wearing my 'witty' pants today (I'm actually not wearing pants at all - c'mon people, I'm on summer vacation, here), I'm going to just go ahead and skip my usual segue and jump headlong into the usual barage of pictures, videos, and snappy captions this week.

Behold - snapshots from around the house over the last week or so.  Enjoy.

Showing off fancy, new headbands. . . that are sure to be destroyed by morning.
(Kris didn't get one.)
Yes.  The 1998 Zelda classic Ocarina of Time.  Once again, Yours Truly is saving Hyrule from the forces of all things terrible. . .
Abby's First Haircut (and eleventh popsicle of the afternoon)

Super shades. . .
''Parental supervision is for douches.''
When I went to church as a kid, we never got cookies and cupcakes.  Only free views of the backs of old peoples' heads.
Not sure if I mentioned this before or not, but since we moved into our house, we've had a few ordeals with our refrigerator.  Nothing as crazy as the crap we had to endure in the last house (thank God) - just a few minor annoyances here and there.  For starters, about two weeks after we moved in - when Mom was down here visiting, actually - the freezer stopped working.  Not flat-out stopped working, mind you - rather it refused to freeze our popsicles.  Everything else was fine, except those damn popsicles would not freeze.  Not sure why my fridge hated them, who knows. 


Anyway, things with the freezer eventually got better, the fridge and the popsicles became best of friends, and things went on as before.  Our refrigerator is much larger than our old one, but we have a few new features in this one that we did in the previous one - a drawer for meats and cheeses, and egg shelf (seriously), etc.  Despite the fridge's larger size, with all these additional features, I found - much to my dismay - that I actually had less space for 'daddy's coffee.'

Basically this is where my head is at with the mini-fridge.
Yes, space was cramped, and Kris' sights were set on the beer.

I'd been looking for months for a secondary refrigerator to put on the back porch - something smaller than an apartment fridge but larger than the standard mini-fridge.  As it turns out, those things are pretty hard to come across, and there are a ton of lemons out there.  I had almost all but given up hope when, lo and behold, I stumbled upon a wholesale appliance dealer that was selling 4.2 cubic foot fridges for - get this - $80.

Daddy pounced on that.  Check it out:

Brand new, 4.2 cubic feet Avanti - fits well on the back patio sunroom
I've filled is since this was taken - you can adequately fit two cases of beer, a case of pop, and a few bottles of water easily.  Problem solved, wife happy, Yours Truly happy.
In other news, we've noticed upon moving in that our house is a huge hit with lizards and frogs.  It might have to do with our pool, or maybe our well-watered lawn, or maybe even the fruit trees. . . who knows.
The girls turn their room into an impromptu shoe store. . .
We've trained Abby to use Credit instead of Debit whenever possible to avoid faulty card swipers that could steal her pin info. . . like the good parents that we are.
Alayna still prefers to use cash, which earns her scorn often. . .
 
Sweaty and back from mowing the lawn, Yours Truly pictured here purchasing some sweaty, grass-covered flip-flops. . .
Abby.  Pissed.



The other day, we came out into the garage to see water trickling down towards the driveway.  Upon closer investigation, we discovered that it was seeping up from a hole in the tile underneath the washing machine.  What was strange was that the water was hot, and that the tiles were warm to the touch not only around the hole in the garage where the water was coming from, but also between the toilet and the shower in our master bathroom.

We ended up calling five different plumbers, and had four swing by our house to personally investigate the issue and give us their estimates.  Long story short, there was a pinhole leak somewhere along the hot water line, and they would have to drill underneath the concrete slab of the house's foundation in order to reach the pipe.  It turns out houses built over 20 years ago were built with underground copper pipes, whereas nowadays they're built with the piping in the walls to make them more accessible.

Bad news for us. 

Fortunately we didn't have any of this. . .
Some of the plumbers recommended we re-pipe the entire house, which wasn't an appealing prospect, seeing how it'd end up costing well over $1,200 to do.  There was a chance, however, that the repair could be done for under $400, if the pinhole was located and contained.  One of the plumbers we found was willing to try, so, rolling the dice, we decided to give it a shot. . .
They ended up having to clamp off a two-inch section of the hot water pipe that ran from the hot water heater to our master bathroom shower.  Fortunately, that meant the leak was contained to a small area, directly behind the washer in the garage.  We'll have to re-tile the above area, but it's not a pressing issue as the washer completely covers up any sign of damage.
They installed a 'bi-line' or something.  I guess that helps the hot water line somehow.  I don't know, I'm not a plumber.
The 'repaired wall' - I have yet to patch it up, as you can tell.  Thank God this shit happened in the garage behind the washer. . .
Returning to preschool full-time for the first time in months. . .
Alayna shows off her new nap roll for school
In an attempt to introduce video games to the girls, I recently bought Just Dance: for Kids.  Basically the jist of it is players have to mimick the movements of the people on the screen.  The more accurate their movements, the more points they get. . .
Both kids, as you can see, were more interested in watching the music videos instead of participating. . .
(these songs make me want to kill myself)

- Brian