Come What May

May.

This has been an insane month, if that wasn't already obvious from the abundance of posts you've seen in the last few weeks.

May always is a tornado of social events, end-of-the-year school stuff, Girl Scouts, and whatever hell else our family has going on, so the fact we had practically had every day and evening of every weekend booked didn't shock anyone.  It's the end of the year gauntlet, and by now we're all used to running it.

We had plenty of other random stuff happen to us between those previously-discussed, noteworthy events, so I'm going to leave you now with a somewhat lengthy post about all the other randomness that befell the Hough's this May.

Behold. . .

Alayna's Girl Scout troop organized a Garage Sale to benefit Guatemalan children (somehow.)  So here we have members of the troop decorating a sign in our basement, to display while they host the garage sale over at the Davis residence.

Morning of the Garage Sale. . .

Of course the Cannonball is doing this. . .

This one has been hanging out in my beer fridge for years.  Finally got around to it towards the beginning of the month.  Not bad, but probably not worth the wait.

We didn't have any ice cream when Alayna wanted dessert, so she improvised.  Frozen whipped cream, blueberries, and chocolate syrup.  So she took a pic with Kris' phone and somehow wrote on the picture (something she's fond of doing.)  Absolutely disgusting.

Noticed this in the side yard, between our driveway and the neighbors' house.  Showed it to a few friends and they all said the same thing:  probably skunks, digging for grubs.  I hadn't treated the yard for bugs this year (d'oh), but fortunately after a couple weeks this disappeared.  I'm hoping they ate 'em all, but that's probably not all that realistic.  I hate yard maintenance.

Hanging out at the Collier residence one evening, Alayna took Kris' phone and snapped this.  Can't say I disagree with her.

The girls' Mother's Day card for Kris this year. . .

Kris let the girls dress up in some of her old bridesmaid dresses one afternoon.  They got a HUGE kick out of this.

And of course this spilled over into wearing a bunch of Kris' other clothes.  And make-up.  Whatever.

I had to get a new Driver's License last month, and my new one finally came in the mail this month.  Believe it or not, the one on the LEFT is the newer one.  About ten pounds lighter, more tan, and - what can I say - significantly younger.  I'm like Benjamin Button.

Watson has been sitting on the couch like this lately. . .

Our dog has problems.

The things my kids are willing to do for money these days. . .

Kris and Abby's Girl Scout troop (or Alayna's, I don't know) had some random outing at that one Chippewa Nature Center across town one night, during the school week.  Not sure what the point was, as - per usual - I was not at all involved with any of this.

Out on a hike on the trails.

Checkin' out some chicks.

Contemplating the mysteries of life.

Came back from a Sick Day and found this nonsense left by a sub on my desk.  I was not happy.  Mt. Dew is disgusting.

I had high hopes for this one right here.  I was super disappointed.

Mr. Buff.  The legend continues.  One of my students got a hold of some spray paint.  Figures.

The culminating event of Fifth Grade in an IB-sanctioned school is Exhibition:  a middle-school level research project that requires students to form groups and research a problem the world is facing and come up with a solution to remedy it.  They have to cite their sources, create a series of visuals, and present their findings to parents, teachers, and their fellow students in an evening showcase.

Alayna and her good friend, Christina, along with this kid here (I forget his name) that they sit at a table with in their classroom, selected Endangered Species as their focus problem. . .

They took turns presenting their background information, statistics, and their proposed solution for saving Endangered animals. . .

They had a few different solutions for addressing this problem, namely fighting pollution and deforestation, combating Climate Change (good luck in a Republican administration, kids), protecting water sources, and - of course - donating to non-profits like the World Wildlife Fund.

Alayna, who, as you all know, is a supporter of the WWF, brought in a bunch of the notecards, pictures, and stuffed animals she's earned by donating to the organization over the years. . .

After their presentation, they took audience questions, and called on various adults - and fellow students - in attendance to address each and every question.

They did a really good job with this - we were pretty proud of Alayna's hard work.  Of course, it helped having a topic she was super passionate about.

Bought a few dresses for Alayna for her upcoming Fifth Grade Graduation ceremony.  That'll be Friday, June 7th, but unfortunately Yours Truly will be down in Cedar Point while this is happening, so here's hoping Kris gets some good pictures and video that I can later share with all of you. . .

- Brian

The Rest of October

May this haunt your dreams.

Happy Fall, America.

This was a pretty insane month, folks.  Halloween took up a sound portion of our spare time:  buying things and decorating for (and ultimately hosting) our Halloween Party, then Trick or Treating a couple days later.  There were also several school activities we had to juggle around - fundraisers, parties, parent/teacher conferences, etc.  Factor in Girl Scouts, piano, gymnastics (yes, we're doing that again), and social gathering on top of the existing school and work, it goes without saying that the month of October is right up there with December and June as a pure wash.

. . . and did I mention the f***ing leaves?  'Cause we had our fair share of those, too.

Anyway, here's some of the stuff we undertook on the side throughout the month.  Enjoy.

Kris bought a bunch of crap for our house 'fall' display.  You can imagine how excited I was to come home and find that scarecrow standing in front of my frickin' house. . .

Clearing out some leftover summer offerings from Short's Brewery while playing poker over a friend's house.  The beer was good, my poker skills were not.

Some pictures via Class Dojo that were shared by Alayna and Abby's respective teachers.  It's a nice app that let's you catch a glimpse of life inside your kids' classroom (and also allows you to see how they're behaving.)

Writing stories - one of Abby's favorite school activities.

Some sort of presentation thing going on in Alayna's classroom.

(Alayna is in the long-sleeve teal shirt.)

One school night, while Kris was away at a PTO meeting, I let the girls finish up some ice cream after dinner and let them watch the Twilight Zone.  Because that's how awesome Dads roll.

We have a ridiculous amount of maples in our front yard.  They all turn a bright yellow, which is pretty awesome (until you have to rake them all up, of course.)

(From our side yard.)

Another rainy day on Alayna's Safety Patrol beat. . .

Kris was one of the first ten Midlanders to utilize Kroger's new ClickIt feature, and so she won a free Selfie Stick (which the girls demanded to play with.)  Essentially, you go online or use the Kroger app and enter in all the grocery shit you want to buy (minus booze, sadly.)  Then, you select a pick-up time at least an hour or so into the future.  During your allotted time, you swing by Kroger, park in a designated spot, and the employees bring out your frickin' groceries, free of charge.  This service costs nothing.  Kris is sold.

More selfie stick.  Couple pics aren't the most flattering after a full day of work.

We had some friends over for a few drinks on a whim one Friday, a couple weeks before our big Halloween bash (hence the decorations scattered about in the background.)

My beverage and glass selections are on point, Internet.  Try and convince me otherwise.

Watson stands guard over the garage while I take a break from raking the leaves.

One Saturday, half-way through the month, while Yours Truly was hilt-deep in yard work and paper-grading, Kris and the girls met up with her friend, Kim, at that one pumpkin patch in Beaverton that we've frequented a few times before (2015, 2017, etc.)

Folks, meet the smelliest animal in existence.  I've snuggled with them before on many a night, I know what I'm talking about.

I hate goats.  I won't get in to it here, but just rest assured that they're probably the shittiest animals on the planet aside from mosquitoes and cats.

Is Alayna doing a Trump impression?

Heading back to the van after a long day of pumpkin farm shenanigans.  I haven't heard otherwise, so I'm assuming that's Kim's kid Abby's carrying, and not some random kid she found in the petting zoo or something.

A rare moment of tranquil, sisterly imaginative play.  We try and document these rare occurrences whenever they happen, lest people not believe that, on occasion, our kids will actually act civil with one another.

Kris asked if she could take back some of the cans to Meijer so that the girls could use the collected money for their school's big fundraiser.  I thought she was talking about a small bag in the garage, not my big bag of beer cans I was saving to put towards future booze purchases.  I wasn't very happy about this.

I put a lot of effort into drinking all that money, Chestnut Hill.  You better appreciate the hell out of it.

The big school fundraiser this fall was the Walk-a-Thon.  I forget what that all entails, all I know is that every frickin' kid in Midland was trying to raise money throughout the entirety of October.  It got real old real fast.

Abby tears ass around an orange cone.  No idea why.

More mom-and-kids selfies. . .

I assume this is the Walk-a-Thon itself, as Alayna and her friends are clearly walking here.

Noah and the Cannonball.

The kids who raised the most in their classrooms got to hit the principal in the face with a pie.  Alayna, at left, raised more than the rest of the kids in Ash's class, so the honor was hers.

A little lackluster, to be honest.

Brady winds up. . .

While Abby didn't get to hit the principal in the face with a pie, she did win a prize for the ridiculous amount of money she raised for the Walk-a-thon:  a f***ing DRONE.

This was our test flight in the backyard, the following morning.  It's super tricky to fly, so we're going to have to try and practice a little more before we do anything super tricky with it.  There's an app I downloaded on my phone that connects to the drone's camera, so I can control the camera optics right on the drone controller.  A pretty cool feature.

Coming in right on the heels of the CHE Walk-a-Thon fundraiser, comes yet another Girl Scout Cookie campaign.  I hate these more than anything else in existence.

Shameless.  That's what this is.  Unfortunately, every other person on Facebook has their kids doing the exact same thing.

Time for another rip-roarin' October Girl Scout Glow Dance.  This time around, I made it a point not to show up.

I'm not entirely sure which of these three ladies looks the craziest, here. . .

Abby and her friend, Allie.

Trying on some winter coats.  We decided to just say 'screw it' and drop a few hundred dollars on new winter coats for the whole family. . . then we added on new boots, gloves, and hats.  'Tis the season.

Hanging out in a Gamestop in Saginaw and killing some time on the Nintendo Switch while Kris continued to shop for outfits in a neighboring clothing store.

STEM Night at Chestnut Hill.  Now featuring robots.

Alayna and a high-fiving robot.

Kris tries out the photo backdrop she set up in the basement for our Halloween Party.

The Kid Zone.  Having a fully-finished basement to where you can banish all children makes ALL the difference when it comes to hosting parties, folks.

I told Kris I didn't expect these balloons to last more than twenty minutes after kids started to arrive to the party.  In reality, they probably lasted a full hour before they were all ripped down in a sugar-induced fury.

The Living Room, all set for our Halloween Party (this was actually taken the night before, but that's how it looked during the festivities. . . just with a fog machine as well.)

Alayna created a Christmas List towards the end of the month.  She's going to be a really, really sad girl on Christmas Morning. . .

Gretchen Whitmer, the Democratic candidate for Michigan's Governorship, visited my school to speak with our dozen or so students who are members of our school's Michigan Youth in Government chapter.  I'm co-advisor of this club, so I was able to sit in to this Q & A and take pictures and video of Whitmer's exchange with the students.  The students wrote their own questions and got to read them to her, and Whitmer, in return, answered the kids' queries in a very polished and predictable manner.  It was a pretty cool 45 minutes, but I didn't upload any of the pictures from that meeting due to students being in them (FERPA.)  I did, however, snap a quick, crappy picture of their tour bus in my school's parking lot. . . so you got that, instead.  Enjoy the hell out of it.

Alayna smuggled her camera to school one day, and snapped off a series of pictures throughout her day.  Here she is during  a Girl Scout meeting.  No frickin' clue as to what she's supposed to be (a Mexican pirate, perhaps?)

Again.  No idea.

. . . aaaaaand here's a random picture she took of her little cousin, Scarlett, during Before School Care at the girls' school.  Why not.

- Brian