Showing posts with label feeding ducks. Show all posts
Showing posts with label feeding ducks. Show all posts

Tuesday, September 23, 2014

As the Dust Settles

It ain't the Dairy Phil, but it'll do. . .
Hi again, readers.

We've been back in the grind of School/Work/Shittiness for about five weeks now, and so the weekly routine is beyond established.  Our day-to-day around these parts basically revolves around getting ready for school/work, going to school/work, coming home from school/work and trying to cram feeding, bathing, and getting ready for bed in a two-hour window.  We do this for five days, take a half of Saturday sitting around the house in our pajamas in a dazed stupor, attempt to go out and 'do something' in the afternoon/evening on Saturday, take care of yard work and/or go to church Sunday morning, work on house chores/lesson planning/keeping kids entertained Sunday afternoon/evening, and repeat.

Thug life.

So, consequently, we don't update this blog very much.  But, 'cause I'm nice, here's some pictures from over the course of the last few weeks.

BAM:

The Cannonball is on a mission to feed ducks. . .
The pond at Eagle Park is beyond disgusting.
Eagle Park's new playground renovations.  The cushion-y rubber/padded ground is cool (it used to be sand), but they got ride of the canopy that shielded all us lazy parents from the scorching Florida sun.  Damn you very much, Eagle Park Association.
This picture would be really, really alarming if you saw three creepy guys standing behind Abby with paint-covered hands.
At Twisty Treat, down the road from our house.
Kris tried asking for a Boston Cooler, but the lady working the window had never heard of it.  Kris then tried explaining how it's made - with Vernor's and ice cream - but the lady didn't know what Vernor's was, and probably thought Kris was on drugs.
. . . so she more or less just finished the ice cream Alayna ordered and ate two bites out of.
Alayna's big enough to sit in a booster seat now, which she's pretty excited about.  I'm pretty excited about this, too, 'cause now - with two seats in my car - I don't have to switch vehicles every time I pick the kids up from school.  Cowabunga.
Attempting to teach Alayna how to ride a bike without training wheels. . .
(. . . it didn't work.)
Abby, brushing her teeth.  She's been making attempts at brushing better 'cause she has her second appointment at the end of the month. . . and we may or may not have been using the dentist's fictional stern demeanor as a way of motivating her to spend more time at the sink.
Went in to Alayna's classroom at John Young Elementary for Open House and found a bunch of these things hanging on her teacher's door.  This one's Alayna's (obviously) - I guess on the first day of school she was supposed to write down things that describe her personality.  Not sure why she didn't include words like 'loud-mouthed,' 'diva,' or 'drama-prone.'
Sassy bakers.
Posing before school.  Again.
You don't see many cars like this down here in America's Wang.
Yes, we bought our dog a Lions jersey.  Yes, we know we're 'those people.'  Shut up.
It's rare the local Fox affiliate broadcasts a Lions game, but they were today (probably 'cause we were playing a 'real' team like the Packers). . . so I actually got to watch a football game for once (first time since last Thanksgiving, actually.)  Alayna wanted to watch, too, once I told her it was Michigan's home team playing.  And to top it off, Detroit (surprisingly enough) actually beat Green Bay.
Alayna really wants a Lions shirt now. . .
It's still raining like a motherf***er down here.  And showing NO signs of letting up any time soon. . .
When you ride in Kris' beast of a van, you're guaranteed a stop at Dunkin Donuts.
So I taught Alayna how to play Chess the other day, on a whim.  She asked me if we could play Checkers - as she had learned it at Clubhouse after school awhile ago - and I told her that while we didn't have Checkers, we did have a game called Chess.  Once she saw the pieces, she was intrigued.  Over the course of an hour, we played a game and she not only memorized all the pieces' names and moves, but also picked up a little bit of strategy along the way.  She needed some help organizing her pieces to put me in Checkmate (which ultimately she never did, despite me obviously letting her win the entire time - we ended up in a stalemate), but besides that she did really well.  Abby?  Not so much.  She just wanted to play pretend with the pieces.
And here's some random guy screwing around with Garageband.  There may or may not have been a picture of him in a blog post some months back, I'm not sure.

- Brian

Saturday, October 26, 2013

Pumpkins, Parents and Princesses: Part III

Hey everyone,

Today was a pretty Halloween-ish day, for sure.  The girls got to spend the morning playing around Dad and Cindy's resort before Kris and I swung by to pick everyone up for a series of pumpkin-centric family activities.  After everything was carved and cleaned up, we loaded up into our trusty Tactical Family Transport Vehicle and topped off the evening with a steak dinner at Longhorn.

Enjoy:

Some of Alayna's iPad artwork. . . depicting her and what would appear to be a dancing skeleton wearing a tophat.  I imagine he grants wishes.
Dad takes the girls to feed the ducks at one of the resort ponds. . .
The Sheraton Vistana Villages
Dad and Cindy's building
One of the pools that the kids didn't get a chance to swim in due to the cold weather (we used this one a lot back in May, last time Dad and Cindy were down here. . .)
Another pool the kids didn't get the chance to take advantage of. . .
The girls get ready to feed the ducks. . .
At one of the resort playgrounds. . .
Morning snack break, prior to our arrival back at the hotel. . .
Coloring
Kris and I eventually picked up the rest of the crew and we drove over to Kris' church - Peace United Methodist in Hunters Creek - in order to pick up pumpkins.  Last year, these things were dirt cheap, and so we decided to skip over Celebration all together. . .
. . . you can imagine our horror, then, when we realized that a pumpkin that should've cost  $6 was $25, and pumpkins that should've cost $12 were $55!
Long story short, we wished them luck selling pumpkins at a 500% mark-up - those idiots are going to love disposing of a whole field of rotting pumpkins.
Not wanting to let our trip be a total waste, we let the kids play around in the pumpkin patch so we could take a bunch of pictures. . . while the annoyed pumpkin vendors looked on.
This thing probably cost $20.   Seriously.
The Cannonball points out a rotted pumpkin that was melting into the ground.
Thousands of dollars of pumpkins, courtesy of Jesus.
Abby bum-rushes a ghost.
Who knows. . .
We had passed another church with a pumpkin patch on our way down Central Florida Parkway over to Kris' church, so  we decided to double-back and check that place out.
The other church's pumpkin patch.
These pumpkins were also somewhat on the expensive side, but the smaller ones were definitely more reasonable. Since the volunteers working this 'patch seemed not-so-douchebaggish, we decided to pick up a few smaller pumpkins and then pick up the bigger ones at good ol' Publix.  Like gangsters.
Gross.
This thing was pretty popular. . .
Attempting to take pictures of the kids. . . always a grand ol' time.
The girls with Papa and Nana
The Houghs, ca. 2013
Post-Abby wipeout.  One of the volunteers was nice enough to share some chocolate with her  to help calm her down.
Yeah. . . THAT will happen.
Checking out.
Stickers!  I see this generic sticker set every damn year.
Leaving Publix, armed to the teeth with reasonably-priced pumpkins.
On the way back to the house, ready to carve the shit out of some pumpkins. . .
Back at the house, waiting for lunch before jumping headlong into pumpkin guts.
She-Ra and the Secret of the Sword, featuring HE-MAN?!  Hell yes, my kids watch this.
Enthralled.
Festive.
Commence gutting. . .
Alayna wanted to draw her own face this year.
Abby. . .  yeah.  Not so much a face, per se.
Ol' Reliable.
Nana gets creative. . .
I always make mine up as I go along.  Plans are for suckers.
We gave our five-year-old her very first carving knife this year. . . 'cause we're those kind of parents.
One of many pumpkin-induced mini-tantrums.
Ranger IPA and Ol' Snotty
Who knows. . .
When all else fails, throw a bunch of cheap-ass stickers on the vegetable and call it a day.
The girls opted to paint the remaining gourds/mini-pumpkins (whatever the hell you call those things.)  Hell, I don't even know if those things are carvable.
This year's pumpkins.
For dinner, we decided to go to LongHorn Steakhouse on International Drive.  As you'll recall, we went there five months earlier, last time my parents were down here, but our orders were messed up.  Thanks to my Dad's nigh-superhuman ability to skewer establishments for shoddy service, the restaurant had sent him over $90 in coupons/vouchers for his 'terrible dinner.'  Needless to say, our six-person meal this time around was dirt-cheap.  Like, $4 dirt cheap.  Can't beat that.
Lit up and ready for rotting.
- Brian