Randoms from the Month of. . . (I Forget Which Roman God 'February' Stands for)

Hi America.  How we feelin' this evening?

Time once again for your monthly installment of all things Random, the February Edition.

Enjoy, folks.

Kris gets crafty with the Cannonball, whose 1st grade class was creating t-shirts in preparation for their 100th day of school.  They had to create a t-shirt with 100 things on it, so her teacher suggested to her classmates that they draw 100 individual things on their shirts.  This, to Kris, was blasphemy. . . especially when there was the chance to Bedazzle.

In addition to the 100-random-crap shirt, kids were also encouraged to dress up like an old person. . . 'cause, you know. . . sometimes old people live to 100.  Probably not me, though.  Here, Alayna demonstrates how to operate a 'walker' (converted from the frame of one of Abby's baby doll swings.)

Getting ready for school.

Abby demanded her picture taken as well.  As usual.

See the old timer on the left?  According to multiple six-year-old sources, that guy is Alayna's big love interest.

Getting schooled.

(Old ladies carry umbrellas, too. . . right?)

February 2015 could very well be remembered as being the month that both of my kids became obsessed with Star Wars.  As you'll be so good as to recall, I successfully introduced them to the greatest cinematic franchise on Earth using the Machete Order, and they've watched a lot of the movies ever since.  However, it wasn't until I allowed them to play with my old action figures that they really grew fanatical about it (you have NO idea how hard it was letting them touch my sacred toys, too - they were under intense supervision, and they weren't allowed to play with any of the weapons, as I didn't want them to get lost.)

Shit like this started appearing on their homework.  Here, Abby shows us Things That Begin with the Letter 'Y.'

After a few days of allowing them to carefully play with my old Kenner toys from the '80s, I decided that they should really just own Star Wars toys of their own (more or less 'cause I didn't want my vintage ones messed up, but let's just pretend that I'm a good parent and wanted them to have nicer, up-to-date toys instead.)  Alayna picked out an Anakin Skywalker toy from Target one day while we were out and about, which I'm not 100% cool with (seeing how the Prequels are horrendous at best), but at least its Episode III Anakin and not the retarded kid from Episode I.

Seeing how individual action figures run around $6 - $10, I realized the financial implications of getting my kids in Star Wars toys.  Eventually, after spending waaaay too many hours in front of my computer researching Star Wars action figures, I came across three sets of figures available on Amazon.  What was cool about these sets - which I got for about $15 apiece - was that you got six free-standing figures (each came with a base, so young kids can play with them easily) from each of the movies.  They're more mini-statues, too; there's no moving limbs and no removable weapons/accessories, so the likelihood of breakage - a major selling point for me - is considerably diminished.  Long story short, for $45, my kids now have a wide variety of sturdy, high-quality figures from the original Star Wars trilogy.  Bad-ass fatherhood defined, Internet. 

Speaking of bad-ass fatherhood - the other day Alayna came up to me and asked to watch Episode I.  I never told her about this cinematic abortion, but I guess she figured it out that there had to be a first movie seeing how I refer to the Prequels as Episode II and Episode III.  I tried dissuading her, describing its utter terribleness, but she said she just wanted to 'watch it and get it out of the way.'  Ten minutes in, she wanted to turn it off, but I refused - she was going to watch the whole damn thing.  Just like back in the day when parents used to sit their kid down and make them smoke a whole pack of cigarettes if they were caught smoking one, my kid watched the entirety of Episode I.  And hated it.  I'll be expecting a medal in the mail.

Yeah, we own this.  It's not nearly as fun as you remember.  For out of shape parents, it's pretty brutal.

Divvying up plunder.

Alayna's new musical obsession?  The Who.  She likes their weirder tracks, obviously - 'Cobwebs and Strange,' 'Boris the Spider,' ' Heinz Baked Beans,' etc. - but she also likes some of the tracks off Tommy, which is awesome.

(They're watching a kids' yoga DVD.)

Found this on one of the white boards in my Studio at work.  Pretty much sums Mr. Hough up.

We grew some tangerines this year.  Sort of.

Showing Alayana how to draw maps for a school project.  I wish she had more homework like this and less 'write the definition of this word three times'. . . Common Core is straight up destroying the fun in school for this generation.

(Not sure what's in her hand, but she wanted a picture with it.)

Having a Manhattan for dinner?  Must be a Friday.

Getting ready to walk Watson around the subdivision. . .

Alayna usually spends her weekends playing with two of the neighbor kids (and sometimes their younger and older siblings -   Three houses down on the left and the house immediately on our right, respectively.)  So there's always tons of toys littered around the front of our house.

The Cannonball, really getting into piano practice.

Abby, posing with a new outfit she picked out.

Bunny ears are hilarious.

Alayna had to write a page using ten of her Spelling Words for the week (words with the 'oi'/'oy' sound, as you can see.)  Remember the grandpa-looking kid from earlier (see above)?  Apparently our first grade sources were on to something. . .

Sugar, without any of that bothersome 'food' to go along with it.  Abby's ultimate snack.

Make-up time in a tent.  Yes, we set up a tent on our back patio.  And it has been up for a couple months now.

She wanted a picture of this.  'Cause this is really important.

Showing off some new winter coats.

- Brian

Janus Randoms

The Christmas decor resiliently stays up in this house. . .

Welcome back, everyone.

So January tends to be a pretty chill month (no winter pun intended) - it takes nearly a full thirty days to decompress from the two-month, holiday juggernaut that proceeds it.  We Houghs tend to not do anything during this period in time besides getting readjusted to the Grind, as it were.

With that in mind, here's another installment of around-the-house randomness from the Roman god Janus, their god of new beginnings, transitions, and doorways.

Yes, doorways.

Enjoy.

After years of suffering from listening lackluster radio stations and meh segments on NPR, following the untimely demise of my mp3 CD player in my car, I finally got around to installing an old CD player a buddy of mine from work handed down to me.  Nothing fancy, of course, but it does have an auxiliary jack (see above). . . which means now Yours Truly can finally listen to his iPod in his car, and proudly join the 21st century.  Of course, I won't go into the fact I've had this radio for about a year, and haven't gotten around to doing this before due to my own laziness. . .

You know you work at an awesome school when crap like this is allowed to happen. . .

Fortunately, this turned out to NOT be an alien invasion akin to that shown in Independence Day. . .

Alayna has been having to write short stories in her class lately, using a set of her weekly spelling words for each one (usually ones that have the same vowel sound or word structure - you know how first grade rolls.)  This one here, as well as the one that follows, are apparently about Papa. . .

I don't know about you, but I think these things have Wes Anderson written all over them. . .

Another piece of writing from Alayna - this one found in her backpack.  Clearly a love letter to a boy in her class (I'm glad she  changed her mind and scaled it back a little bit in the revision process - guys hate clingy chicks.)

Following the success of the girls' introduction to Star Wars via the Machete Order, they've since become hooked fans, and we watch the movies on a regular basis (all except Episode I, obviously.)

Thankfully, the originals still get more viewing than the prequels - the girls like the main characters in those movies much better than the cardboard cutouts from II and III. . .

Alayna, not-quite-enjoying her celebratory ice cream and pizza from a week of good work at school. . .

No idea what's happening her.

Or here.  Kris took these.  Obviously has something to do with Girl Scouts, since she's wearing her vest. . .

Yes, we're at that age now.

Playing at the neighbor kids' house.

Everyone in my family is lazy.

Everyone.

Bubblebathin

Alayna playing - and apparently acting out - the Mighty Morphin Power Rangers for the SNES.

16 bits of awesome

You'll be good to note that my Study (shown here) looks a hell of a lot different than in previous posts - over the course of the last few weeks, following the Holiday season, Kris and I (well, just me, really) have been been boxing up crap around the house for the upcoming move back to Michigan.  While the garage is basically full of stuff to take in the first truck to head north (the first week of April), some items have to be stored inside - like the boxes full of vinyl records shown here.  I don't want any of the records warped from sitting in the garage, and you can't stack them either.  I'm still not sure if I'm sending these boxes back in April or June. . .

Target practice

- Brian