Thursday, February 20, 2014

The One Where I Am Not Old

Yesterday, Kiff and I returned from a brief trip.

As I entered the car, he asked me a question about the way cars were parked in the parking lot.

I replied, "I have no idea, Bri," confusing him with our daughter. 

He laughed.

I followed up by saying, "Sorry Bri...I mean Kiff." I paused and groaned at my confusion. "Boy, I'm getting old."

And, out of the mouth of babes, he replied. "You're not old, Daddy. You're just tired."

Love it when you can count on them to make you happy.

Tuesday, February 18, 2014

The One With the Birds

Today, we noticed that we had a strange bird at our bird feeder. It seemed to be a rather robust bird and took ownership of the feeder.

It led me to realize that we have had our share of birds at the feeder this year.

These include:

male and female nuthatch
juncos
blue jays
male and female cardinals
male and female sparrows
a house wren
mourning doves
male and female chickadees
a woodpecker (these are fun to watch on the feeder)

Quite a haul this year...and what was the bird we saw earlier today

A European Starling!

Sunday, February 16, 2014

The One With The Goonies

We decided to show our kids one of those classic movies we saw growing up. We decided to show them Goonies.

Goonies was one of those quintessential 1980s movies that really reflects its time. So, we figured that we would have some fun with it and show it to Bri and Kiff.

However, what we forgot was that we haven't seen that movie in more than a decade. There were some scenes that we forgot were - to say the least - a little bit SCARY.  Ooops. We tried to watch it during supper time, which worked out okay, but also insured that one of us had to stay in the room at all times.

Luckily, they enjoyed it a lot, which was great...and each had a favorite different character. Bri liked Mikey and the girl with the glasses, while Kiff liked the boy with the things (Data). They also learned the age old lesson that some people - adults or teens - can be jerks.

Perhaps the most interesting was the special features. There were outakes that I had never seen, including a part at a convenient store which explains a lot - particularly why Mikey figures out where the treasure might be and why Tony holds onto Brad's hand when he is riding the kid bike. Also, there is the two part music video with Cyndi Lauper which totally caught the kids by surprise. 

"What's with her hair?" Bri asked.  LOL.

Saturday, February 8, 2014

The One With the Father Daughter Dance

Last night was our first Father-Daughter Dance. What a wonderful time it was.

It began by getting ready before we left. We dressed in our best. Bri was dressed in a purple dress, while I was dressed in my suit coat.

We left around 6:35 to get to the dance held at the high school. At first, it was a little overwhelming. There were already a ton of kids there...and trying to scope out what to do took some time. But, we settled in and started by making masks at a table. What fun. It took forever - after all it was a masquerade dance and the masks should look good. That help set the tone. We checked out a balloon game, then moved on to taking a picture together.

Then, we made a guess about how many candies were in a jar. We were way off...by about 700 pieces. Then, we moved onto doing some dances....including disco, "Hey Mickey", and a version of the Chicken Dance. We got a snack, a patch (it was for scouts) made a craft and another mask, and did one final dance...than it was time to go.

It was a great evening...and a fun first father-daughter dance.

Saturday, February 1, 2014

The One With the Spotlight

Yesterday, our daughter had the opportunity to take part in a school performance. And, it was great.

The morning started off a lot of fun with the house brimming with an extra excitement that radiated down the street. Flashing back to days of yore, she adopted her one familiar happy feet as she bounced around the house. She ate fast - put on a dress (she was excited to dress up) - and even asked if she could have a couple of curls in her hair, which Emmie eagerly did.

And was she ready. Because she feared being late, we went straight to school and hopped right in. 

Kiff and I went off then came back to watch the show, and met Emmie there. It was fabulous.   Bri and her class did a rendition of a poem about the months. Students started off reading together, then students month by month appeared in small groups (based on when they were born) to read their "Chicken Soup With Rice" monthly rendition. It was excellent and the kids - all of them - looked fabulous...they really were pretty special to watch...including one of the students who did fabulous with a solo.

At the end, we gave Brighid fives and "knuckles" and hugs. She was so excited about the performance that she asked..."Are we going out to dinner because I did so well?"

Gotta love it.