Block Party

We had our somewhat-annual block party on Saturday. Since Bode's birthday is always around Thanksgiving, meaning we don't really get to have a party with his friends due to the holiday, we decided to do something special for the little guy. We rented a bouncy castle (his words), and it was a huge hit (literally--the thing was huge). First, here's a shot of the castle in our driveway. Also note the Auburn flag is still hanging prominently.

Before the party started, Bode needed to give the slide a couple test runs. Here he is, first climbing up the wall on the inside, and then going down.

Soon it was time for the party. We had a great turn-out this year, and the weather was perfect. It was a little cloudy at times, but that kept the temps low.

In addition to the castle, we also had the pool out. I am amazed that in the presence of the montrous castle slide, the kiddos still wanted to play in the pool. Evidently water has Pied Piper-like qualities. Here's Bode and Estelle splashing about.

Bode's friend, Emma, and her Mom, Beth, were up for the party. The two of them adore Harley and spent the afternoon wearing out our little working dog.

The adults also enjoyed the slide. Here's an action sequence of Mommy. Note the perfect smile in both pictures--she's like a figure skater.

The inside of the bouncy castle was just as much fun. Mommy is getting some big-air. Look out X-games.

Finally, we have some pictures from Bode.

It was a wonderful day. We all were exhausted :-) Pleasant Father's Day to all.

Another Pool

We woke up today and decided to give Bode a second chance at the pool. We decided this before we saw the forecast was for a high of only 75. Even though it was colder than yesterday, Bode had no trouble getting into the water, which supports my theory that he wants to swim but prefers to not do the class.

We spent the majority of the day at the center water fixture. That's Ashley there on the left (don't confuse her with the woman on the right :-)

Here's an action sequence of Bode going down the slide.

Finally, here's a movie of Bode crawling in the water.

Below is a of picture of Harley and me. She's now almost four months old. I guess she's grown some, huh? To see a picture of Harley at six week, reference the April 2011 section of this blog.

We can't wait for next weekend--we are having our block party. There should be plenty of photos from that event. Pleasant week.

In the Pool

We had another swim lesson today. Temperatures were in the 90's all week...until last night. We had rain, more rain, and a cool down. When we got to the pool, Bode was willing to stand on the stairs. He refused to get in the pool and participate in the class because the water was too cold. It was a bit chilly, but certainly not as bad as last week. He was just being difficult. We tried to reason with him--told him there'd be no videos, no chocolate, no fun. His response: "I don't care." Stubborn little sh*t.

Needless to say, we were disappointed in Bode. We thought he'd want to swim, and I think he does. However, I don't think he wants to do the organized class. There are a lot of other things at the swim park that he'd like to do. Unfortunately, swim lessons are at 0930, and the rest of the park doesn't open until 1130. Here's hoping for good weather next week.

We had the camera out because we thought we'd get some good pictures. Instead, Bode took some time to take a self portrait, albeit one that is upside-down.

He really enjoys taking pictures. Most of them are blurry, but he gets the occasional gem. Sometimes he doesn't realize he's taking a movie, so instead of a picture, we get an action sequence. He's a good shot of me (and my butt), cleaning up the kitchen. You can also see Harley's profile.

Since we failed miserably at the public pool, we decided to try our luck with the inflatable pool in the front yard. This was a smashing success. In the pictures below, you will see Bode, Mommy, Daddy, Harley, and our neighbor's daughter and granddaughter (Beth and Emma). We had a lovely afternoon lounging by the pool.

Bode must have gone done that slide 100 times. Here's a movie.

Harley also seemed to enjoy the pool.

Finally, an action shot with a big smile.

Little fellow is/was exhausted. It's only 7:34 pm, and he's getting into bed, which is nice because even though we didn't play as hard, we are also exhausted :-) Pleasant weekend.

Nine Cubic Yards

Summer is here! To kickoff this fantastic time of year, we signed Bode up for swim lessons. The first one was Saturday, which seemed like a great idea. However, we chose the 0930 start-time. Overnight temperatures were in the low 60's and the pool's heater broke on Thursday. Suffice it to say, the water was C-O-L-D. You could hear many parents inhale deeply was we entered the water. Bode was not a fan of the cold, and cried for five minutes. He wanted me to carry him, and then we sat on the edge of the pool.

Sadly (fortunately), there was lightening in the area, and we had to prematurely end the lesson.

Today, we went to park just up the street that has both playground equipment and water / splashy stuff (Bode's words). First, we stayed on dry land. Bode is quite the little climber. Below is an action sequence of Bode getting to the top of the structure and taking the big slide down.

Next, we headed over to the wetlands. Bode is always a little tentative about getting wet, so he had to study the landscape before commencing.

He quickly loses his fear, and before you know it, he's sopping wet.

He even managed to get me to play a bit.

Yes, I am wearing a Mississippi State football shirt. We were working in the yard before coming to the water park (more on that later), and I am supposed to wear my "bad" clothes when working in the yard (Heaven forbid I get dirt on any Auburn attire).

Below are a few more action shots from the water park. He really loves it, and we enjoy not having to entertain him :-)

We then headed back to dry land. Bode wanted to do some teeter-tottering with Mommy.

Finally, the kiddo played on the smaller apparatus, climbing, running, and sliding.

We had a very busy weekend. We ordered nine cubic yards of mulch, and spent about seven hours spreading it around the yard. It looks great...if only mulch looked good for more than two weeks.

Harley is doing awesome. We think she must like it here. I left the fence open earlier this afternoon. We probably didn't realize this for twenty minutes or so. Ashley asked me if I'd seen the dog, and I said I had not. We looked around the house, didn't see her, and then went out back. Immediately I noticed the open gate, so I raced around to the front of the house. The little pup is just sitting by the front door, wanting to come inside. Such a good girl.

Yes, she is getting bigger. Pleasant week to all.

New Memory Card

Finally, the new memory card arrived. I even upgraded from 2 GB to 8 GB, so now I can take movies that are a lot longer (please contain your enthusiasm).

Here was a test run. Note Bode is suddenly camera shy. If you look close, you can also see Harley running around.

Very hot here...seems like we went from 60 to 90 in just two days. Oh wait, that is exactly what happened :-) Pleasant week.

Columbus Zoo

We had a great day today. Unfortunately, there are no pictures. Our camera's memory card has malfunctioned. It's a 2 GB card, but if I take one picture on the lowest resolution setting, I get an error stating the memory card is full. After trouble-shooting for a couple hours, I couldn't make it work. I went to the google, found a replacement card, and fired off an order. Sadly, the card didn't come in yesterday's mail, so it's going to up to me to color by numbers with words and illustrate our outing.

First, it was cold. Not Nebraska-winter cold. More like Seattle. Damp and misty. This actually turned out to be a good thing because if it had been steaming hot, the animals would not have been near as active as they were. We first checked out some bears. The black bear was puddling around in his water hole. He then got out, shook himself off, and waddled right towards us. I wondered how thick and strong the safety glass was--with a running start, Yogi could have smashed right through it. Instead, he ambled on, sniffing the same ground he'd walked on probably a thousand times.

The polar bears were a bit of a disappointment, as they were asleep. The brown bears were perched up on a big rock, looking like big dogs sitting in their yard. The grizzly bear was walking around. Huge, scary claws that wouldn't leave a mark if you got hit by them. Bode seemed to like them.

Next up was the elephants. They were outside, all three of them. Mama, Papa, and little baby elephant. He was so cute--reminded me of Harley. Their trunks are amazing muscles, the way they grab onto grass and feed themselves. The lions and tigers were all sleeping--do the big cats ever move in zoos? Bode pointed out the lions are supposed to go, "Roooaaarrr!" Darn those lions.

I loved the apes. There were scale models of gorilla and orangutang hands and feed. They have some big mitts--double the size of my hands and feet (although I wear a size 8, so maybe their hands are more like Shaq's...) One orangutang was climbing around. I wondered how many pull-ups he could do. The gorillas always remind me of people, with their facial expressions and quizzical looks. I'm expecting them to starting talking ("Get you hands off you me damn dirty human!")

The highlight for Bode (sadly) had to have been the play area. It was this immense climbing/sliding/tunneling structure. Kids were everywhere, running, jumping, yelling, and having a wonderful time. I'm always amazed there are so few collisions. Bode had never shown any climbing skills until today. We watched him try to climb up these levels. He got stuck, and we thought he was packing it in. Then, he saw another kid jump up and lean forward, getting his chest and stomach on the ledge and leveraging his legs up. Bode saw this, and he was off and ascending like a mountain goat. He got to the top and took the big slide all the way down. He loved it. However, as we left, he said, "I need a nap. I played really hard." So the little Jabba wanted me to carry him out of the zoo. This was cute two years ago. It's a horrific workout now :-)

All week, Bode has been having an accident at school. We know right away when we show up to pick him up if he's had one because he'll be in his backup clothes. Yesterday, Ashley picked him up, saw that he wasn't in the clothes he had on when we dropped him off, and said, "Did you have an accident?" Bode answered, "No, Jonah peed on me." Huh? Ashley thought he was confused until Miss Betty explained, "Bode was using the potty, and Jonah suddenly had to go, raced back, and, well..." So our boy was peed on (and all I could think of was Blackthorne and Shogun... :-)

We've no major plans for Memorial Day. I think we're all exhausted, so hopefully we can sleep it. Pleasant weekend.

Shortly

I can't believe we've had Harley for over a month. Since we see her every day, we don't realize how quickly she's growing. Friends that see her every couple of weeks are amazed by how much she's changed. Here are some recent photos. This first shot is from a few weeks ago. Note she still seems small next to Ashley, but she's a lot heavier than the 11 pounds she was when we got her.

Next we have me and the girl in a tug-of-war. I'm still able to win these battles.

Finally, here are some cute shots of Harley taking a nap. She'd been up and about all day, so poor little thing was exhausted.

Evidently she likes the pillows we have in the living room.

Despite the lack of photographs, Bode is still the jewel of the family :-) He's really becoming this little person, and we wonder where he learns to say certain things. For example, Ashley asked Bode for the camera. His response: "I'll give it to you shortly." It's also funny when he gets a bit confused. Ashley said, "Boy, Harley is pooped." Bode was very worried Harley had gone to the bathroom in the house. It took some time to convince him she hadn't. Ashley then tried to explain that words can have multiple meanings (i.e. homonyms). He's not quite there yet...

Four-day week for us, as we are taking Friday off. Pleasant week to all.