Cinco de Mayo (feat. Yardwork)

Buenos Noches, niños.

So Cinco de Mayo isn't something the Houghs generally choose to celebrate.  While I have absolutely nothing against Mexican culture or Mexico itself (I've been there, I enjoyed it), I personally don't get any satisfaction from reminiscing about Mexico's fight for independence from France (yes, France - they used to own Mexico.)  I have no Mexican heritage, so I honestly don't care.

While that may sound harsh, I also don't care about Bastille Day.  Or Throne Day.  Or Czech Founding Day.  Let other countries have their days of independence and cultural heritage, I'll keep mine on the f***ing 4th of July.  'Cause 'Merica.

Other folks, however, seem to get a serious kick out of celebrating the independence of some other country, regardless of whether or not their heritage reflects it.  And while I can't say we have any friends that throw a bitchin' Canada Day party, we do have some friends that choose to honor their non-existent Mexican heritage by throwing Cinco de Mayo parties.

We have a lot of whatever these flowers are. . .

Because who doesn't like Mexican food and tequila, am I right?

(Time to step up your food game, Canada.)

Anyway, so as it turned out, we had ourselves a Cinco de Mayo party to attend this evening, and up until then Yours Truly spent the majority of the morning and afternoon re-mulching some of the garden beds throughout the yard.  'Cause Spring.

So here we go - cómo la familia Hough celebró el Cinco de Mayo.

Todos disfrutan. . .

A sound majority of our many, many garden beds had mulch that was in pretty rough shape, so even last summer Kris and I knew we were going to have to drop a small fortune on mulch in the spring.  I ended up buying 30 or 40 bags of mulch (Kris wanted black) from Lowe's that had gone on sale, so we actually got a pretty awesome deal on it.  After mulching the front garden bed, we turned our sights on the backyard's foremost garden bed - the biggest and most-cared for garden we have.

The black looks pretty sharp now, clearly, but as small animals, kids, and Watson tear through it for whatever reason, the lighter mulch underneath is sure to spill out and get mixed in with it.  I'm sure that's going to look like pure shit.

Before. . .

. . . and After.

Before. . .

. . . and After.

Before. . .

. . . and After.

It took me a couple hours to mulch the whole thing, which I did by myself while Kris had the girls working on cleaning up the inside of the house.

We're not going to mulch anymore of the yard, as the perimeter beds along the back and sides of the backyard we're thinking about doing in rock at some point (as well as the garden bed by the shed.)

Before heading out to the Shepherd residence for their annual Cinco de Mayo party, Kris whipped up a home-made jug of Sangria.  When in Mexico. . .

The Kentucky Derby just so happened to be taking place while we were all at this party, so everyone chipped in $5 and we all bet on a horse by drawing a name out of a hat.  We ended up with a real stinker (I forget the asshole's name, but he ended up in, like, fifth place or something). . .

So long, Five Dollars. . . 

Taco-shaped pinatas?  "Es muy bueno," says the Cannonball.

Someone else - not our kid, obviously - ended up smiting the shit out of it, and accordingly thereafter the entire backyard exploded in a frenzy.

She ate the majority of this plunder while still at the party, and declined to share any later with her little sister (who was away staying the night at a friend's house.)

Ummmm. . . . yoga?

There was a ridiculous amount of food on hand - everyone brought Mexican-ish dishes to share, so we all ate like a bunch of fat-asses.

There was also some of this done by the padres.

And then you have the Macarena.  'Cause it, too, is Mexican.

- Brian

A March Across Another April

That's seriously my only go-to when it comes to titling April's installment of monthly randoms. . .

Like March, this month was obsessed with snow.  As if Winter didn't last long enough up here in the Mitten already, April decided to play the part of clingy ex-girlfriend and dug her ratchety-painted fingernails deep into Winter's snowy arms.  The first week of the month, we had ourselves an onslaught of snow - inches worth - that didn't completely subside until half-way through the month.

How bad was it?  On April 16th, we had a f***ing Snow Day.

I'm serious.

I thought I'd be done with this nonsense in March.  Thanks, Michigan.

Snow and crappy weather aside, this month was pretty busy.  That's weird for April, since usually everyone's in Test mode, what with Michigan's huge, annual standardized test - the M-STEP - reigning over the month with an iron fist.  The lives of the girls and myself literally revolve around this test during April (the biggest testing month of the school year) so the focus these last few weeks has definitely been on that crap.  Aside from that, we found ourselves occupied with a slew of weekend activities this month, something that generally doesn't happen until May or June.

Anyway, while the first half of the month was dominated by January-ish conditions, the latter half focused more on the resurrection and rejuvenation of our yard (which, as you may recall, is more or less a small park.)  It'll be a long, love/hate battle with the grounds before it'll be back to where it was last summer, but it's truly a fight a hell of a lot more enjoyable than, say, preparing one's students for the M-STEP.

Let's do this.. .

The month kicked off with Kris texting me this picture one day at work.  Evidently, Abby 'accidentally' fell out of her chair while eating and it split apart.  After further investigating the matter - because solid-wood chairs don't just split in half like this on their own - it was determined that Abby had more or less been riding it like a bucking bronco, and therefore the damage was understandable.  Now, we weren't emotionally attached to this old set of chairs by any means:  Brian and Jill gave us the set along with a kitchen table (that we got rid of back in March of 2016) way back in 2005, when we got our first apartment, and even back then it was a hand-me-down.  We had only been holding on these chairs because our kids are still young and we didn't want them breaking anything expensive (judging by the picture above, a definite smart move on our part.)

We wanted to buy a set of six solid-wood chairs that would match the solid oak table we inherited from Granny Hough, but buying a new oak chair sets one back about $300 apiece.  The gods apparently favor the Houghs, though:  the same day Abby broke the chair, Kris learned of an estate sale in town where they were selling a solid-wood table and six matching chairs. . .  that just so happen to match our existing table.  All for $180.  She pounced on it.  The picture above shows our original chair type, in the middle, along with two styles that came with the table:  we got four chairs  that match the style on the left, and two that match the style on the right.

What about the new wood table?  We relegated that to the basement, where it has become our new arts and craft table for the kids (and where we placed the three, unbroken old kitchen chairs.)  Two birds with one stone, baby.

Our current dining room set (Kris deemed it necessary for the fifth chair to serve as her 'purse' chair.)

The sixth and final chair sits next to the piano, for Mr. Bill's weekly piano lessons.

To top it all off, the new chairs perfectly match the small rocking chair we picked up a thrift store last month.  Definitely a creepy coincidence.

The girls - Alayna especially - had been bugging Kris for weeks about dying their hair teal.  She finally relented.

Kinda-but-not-really punk rock.

One week into April.  Still snowing.

One Saturday, we drove up to Clare to hang out with Dad and Cindy.  My brothers and their families also came up, so we had some cousin time (the first time we'd done so in Clare since Christmas.)

One of my top three favorite beers.

Scarlett and Abby hanging out at the bar.

The Cannonball practices her ping-pong game. . .

Uncle Jeff, hilt-deep in cousins.

Story time with Abby, Papa and Scarlett.

Owen snags himself a new phone.

Magnaformers are like crack for my kids.

Nana, gettin' her hair did.

Our resident mad scientist tries out another experiment.

One weekend, towards the middle of the month, Kris and the girls met up with her coworker, Kim, whose daughter, Dani, is friends with Alayna.  I forget the name of this joint, but I think it's in Saginaw - has bumper cars (shown here), an arcade, a virtual reality thing, etc.

The girls fight off an alien invasion (virtually.)

Some updated shots of the kids' bedrooms, since they've evolved somewhat since last June.   This is Alayna's room.

 

(This may be the cleanest this room has ever been.)

Abby's room. . .

One day, while picking up Alayna from her girl scout  meeting (which takes place in her art teacher's classroom at Chestnut Hill), I stumbled across this literary treasure. . .

This kid's gonna go places in life.

Alayna was invited to a sleepover, 'mystery' party at her friend Dani's house.  Each kid that went had a custom identity, and they all dolled themselves up to play their part in the mystery game.  It was Hollywood-themed, hence the mini golden statues all these chicks are holding.

 

I'm soooo glad I didn't have to be involved with this - it looks like pure chaos.

My favorite craft brewery in Florida - Cigar City - finally made its way up to Michigan this month, which is awesome news.  As you may or may not recall, I had the pleasure of touring the brewery in Tampa with a couple buddies from work.

My brother Chris let me know about this lil' gem right here (we hit up Mitten Brewing in Grand Rapids a couple years ago, if you'll remember.)

Just in case you were curious, we still have snow on the ground.  Half-way through the month.

Watching the Winter from his trusted vantage point.  As usual.

Abby drew this 'birthday card' for her cousin, Blake (freckles and all.)  We had planned on going to Clare the weekend of the 15th, but the roads were so bad with ice and snow that the city ordered everyone to stay off the roads.  Seriously.  The party in Clare was postponed until the following weekend, and consequently the next day, Monday the 16th, all schools were called off on account of the shitty road conditions.  Gotta love Michigan.

The following Saturday, Kris and Abby met up with her BFF, Larkin, and her mom at the Midland Center for the Arts.  For something or other (I don't know, I wasn't involved in any of this.)

Puppet shows.

No idea.

Staying indoors on a cold, wintery Saturday (and yes, there's still snow on the ground.)

Our favorite family game, 5-minute Dungeon - the girls love this one (and it's pretty fun for us adults, too.)

One day Kris picked up a couple pairs of white shoes from the store, along with a pack of colored Sharpie markers, so the girls could decorate their own shoes.  A decent little craft activity that's also pretty practical.  Right up Kris' alley.

Finished products.

One Saturday, towards the end of the month, Kris and Courtney (her co-leader) took Abby's girl scout troop out to some local retirement home and cleaned up all the debris and crap that accumulated on their property over the Winter/Early Spring.

Look - no snow.  FINALLY.

Child labor = cheap labor.

Enjoying a rare lunch date (I had a half-day at work one Friday, so we enjoyed a short window of adult time before we had to pick up the kids from school.)

This happens ALL THE TIME.

I finally decided to start working on our garden beds towards the end of the month, once it started to heat up - tempting Michigan and Winter's fury in the process.  I drove out to Lowe's and bought 30 bags of black mulch, which, thank God, was able to fit in Kris' van.

(You can imagine how sore my arms were after loading and unloading 30 bags of mulch in the same hour-long time span.)

The front garden bed, re-mulched and ready for Spring.

Seriously, if it snows again, I'm just going to kill myself. . .

- Brian