Arial let me sneak out to see the late showing of Transformers 3.
It's been getting pretty bad reviews but I loved it.
It had Transformers fighting other Transformers; People fighting Transformers; Transformers transforming.
There were even scenes where there weren't Transformers, if you are into that sort of thing.
I had to see it in 3D since that was the latest show and I'm kinda glad I did. There were a couple spots where it was incredible but for most of the film, I didn't really care.
Where the 3D did help was during fight scenes. In previous movies, sometimes robots blended into one another during fights making it hard to tell what was going on. But the depth really helped sort out where each robot was. I never felt confused.
The only thing that took me out of the movie was the crazy amount of product placement. It was more than just noticing new guns that attach to Autobots for the express purpose of selling new toys. There were product shots everywhere.
For a little bit, I thought one of the companies in the movie was Lenovo. It wasn't until I saw another Lenovo computer somewhere else that it dawned on me that that was strange.
All in all, I had a great time. I'm glad I didn't take the kids though (it was pretty brutal).
mwz
Wednesday, July 13, 2011
Wednesday, July 06, 2011
T-Ball
Frances and Johann are getting so much better at T-ball.
At last nights game, they both hit the ball without using the T.
Johann showed a lot of guts. During his first at bat, he tripped on the plate on his way to first base. His knee got skinned up pretty good. But Johann got right up and ran to first. It wasn't until he got back in the dugout did anyone notice that he was bleeding.
Arial got him a big band-aid and he played the rest of the game (albeit with a slight limp).
I was very proud.
mwz
At last nights game, they both hit the ball without using the T.
Johann showed a lot of guts. During his first at bat, he tripped on the plate on his way to first base. His knee got skinned up pretty good. But Johann got right up and ran to first. It wasn't until he got back in the dugout did anyone notice that he was bleeding.
Arial got him a big band-aid and he played the rest of the game (albeit with a slight limp).
I was very proud.
mwz
Friday, July 01, 2011
Walking
So, Gwen took her first steps not too long ago and now she has started toddling all over the place. Crawling is still her long distance travel method but for short journeys it's walking all the way.
mwz
mwz
Tuesday, June 21, 2011
Gwen
For Father's day, Gwen gave me her first "high five for daddy".
Then, today while Frances, Johann and I were getting out team t-ball picture taken, Gwen took her first step. Or so I'm told...
mwz
Then, today while Frances, Johann and I were getting out team t-ball picture taken, Gwen took her first step. Or so I'm told...
mwz
Sunday, June 05, 2011
Weekend
This weekend, Arial and Gwen went up to Wisconsin. This left Frances and Johann with me.
I wanted to make it a fun weekend for the kids (since they would be missing Arial). The following is a recounting of yesterday's events.
Friday, I had shown them these little typing games (TuxType) on our netbooks (which are the perfect size for their small hands). Johann was terribly excited to try them out. (So much so, that he got up at 6am and wanted to play them. I made him wait until I got up at 8:30.)
The default word lists were too difficult for him but the game allowed me to add new lists of my own. So, I made a list consisting of "asdf", "fdsa", "jkl" and "lkj". Johann was able to do these and it emphasized the need to keep your fingers on the home row.
They both had so much fun that it kept them busy most of the morning while I did some work.
For lunch, I had a special "Things on crackers" meal planned. The night before, I had purchased several interesting things to put on crackers. The one rule that we had was that they had to eat one whole cracker with each item on top.
We started with little squares of Spam. Predictably, Johann liked the Spam and Frances didn't.
Next up was kippers. Also unsurprisingly, I was the only one that liked them.
Third was sardines. I figured there was no way that they would like sardines but it's a good thing to be able to say you've tried. Strangely though, they both liked them (I got a slightly upward turned thumb from Frances indicating that she sorta liked them).
Finally, I brought out the Easy Cheese. Actually, it was Hy-Vee brand, which was a mistake because Easy Cheese is better than store brand. They still liked it.
After everyone had eaten one of everything, then we could eat whatever we wanted.
The cheese got a lot of use, of course. Johann ate quite a bit of the Spam and they both ate a fair amount of sardines. I mostly ate kippers.
They liked the meal so much that, when given the choice for today's lunch, they chose it again.
After lunch (and after more work), Frances asked me to play Red Light Green Light on the deck. I agreed. But when she stepped out on the deck, she immediately said, "It's too hot" and came back in.
I decided to have them put on their swimsuits and run through the sprinkler. They did that until they started tearing up the yard. That's when I had an idea.
We have this yellow slide that came from a backyard playground thing. Sometimes we lay it on our hill and the kids slide down it. Yesterday was the perfect time to try it out as a water-slide.
I put the slide on the hill, set a running hose at the top and cleaned it off (it tends to collect dirt and grime). Frances went first.
There was a worry that this wouldn't be any more fun with water than it was without. That fear was alleviated when she hit the water that collected at the bottom of the slide with a big splash.
From then on they had a blast splashing down the slide. At the end of the slide, Frances tended to run right down the hill whereas Johann would slip and slide on the wet grass. Frances was the first to go down on her stomach feet first but Johann didn't like that because it was too scratchy.
While they were doing this, I made a poor attempt at weeding the garden.
They were fairly muddy, so they got rinsed-off in both the bath and the shower.
I wanted to make it a fun weekend for the kids (since they would be missing Arial). The following is a recounting of yesterday's events.
Friday, I had shown them these little typing games (TuxType) on our netbooks (which are the perfect size for their small hands). Johann was terribly excited to try them out. (So much so, that he got up at 6am and wanted to play them. I made him wait until I got up at 8:30.)
The default word lists were too difficult for him but the game allowed me to add new lists of my own. So, I made a list consisting of "asdf", "fdsa", "jkl" and "lkj". Johann was able to do these and it emphasized the need to keep your fingers on the home row.
They both had so much fun that it kept them busy most of the morning while I did some work.
For lunch, I had a special "Things on crackers" meal planned. The night before, I had purchased several interesting things to put on crackers. The one rule that we had was that they had to eat one whole cracker with each item on top.
We started with little squares of Spam. Predictably, Johann liked the Spam and Frances didn't.
Next up was kippers. Also unsurprisingly, I was the only one that liked them.
Third was sardines. I figured there was no way that they would like sardines but it's a good thing to be able to say you've tried. Strangely though, they both liked them (I got a slightly upward turned thumb from Frances indicating that she sorta liked them).
Finally, I brought out the Easy Cheese. Actually, it was Hy-Vee brand, which was a mistake because Easy Cheese is better than store brand. They still liked it.
After everyone had eaten one of everything, then we could eat whatever we wanted.
The cheese got a lot of use, of course. Johann ate quite a bit of the Spam and they both ate a fair amount of sardines. I mostly ate kippers.
They liked the meal so much that, when given the choice for today's lunch, they chose it again.
After lunch (and after more work), Frances asked me to play Red Light Green Light on the deck. I agreed. But when she stepped out on the deck, she immediately said, "It's too hot" and came back in.
I decided to have them put on their swimsuits and run through the sprinkler. They did that until they started tearing up the yard. That's when I had an idea.
We have this yellow slide that came from a backyard playground thing. Sometimes we lay it on our hill and the kids slide down it. Yesterday was the perfect time to try it out as a water-slide.
I put the slide on the hill, set a running hose at the top and cleaned it off (it tends to collect dirt and grime). Frances went first.
There was a worry that this wouldn't be any more fun with water than it was without. That fear was alleviated when she hit the water that collected at the bottom of the slide with a big splash.
From then on they had a blast splashing down the slide. At the end of the slide, Frances tended to run right down the hill whereas Johann would slip and slide on the wet grass. Frances was the first to go down on her stomach feet first but Johann didn't like that because it was too scratchy.
While they were doing this, I made a poor attempt at weeding the garden.
They were fairly muddy, so they got rinsed-off in both the bath and the shower.
Monday, May 23, 2011
Catching up
Haven't posted in a while. Here's a rundown of things that are going on with us.
- Gwen has been crawling all over the place for a while now. We're not terribly good at picking up the Cheerios and puffs (baby treats) that have dropped on the floor. So, she tends to crawl around scavenging for them. I'm pretty sure she likes having a snack available sometimes. We have to be quite careful not to leave non-edibles on the floor though.
- Sometimes at night while Ariel is putting the other two to bed, I'll let Gwen crawl down the hallway and into Johann's room. Frances is always happy to see her.
- Gwen can say "mamama" but it may just mean "parent" to her. She can also say "bababa" but I don't think that means anything.
- Both Johann and Frances have learned to ride their bikes w/out training wheels in the last couple weeks. We've been trying to teach them this spring because Frances will need to ride w/out training wheels in her triathlon. They were both very scared but moving them into the street (with me along side) helped a quite a bit. There they had enough room to weave a little. Johann had "Bike Day" at pre-school last Friday and so we made a big final push to get them to ride by going to parking lots. Apparently, it worked. He had a great time (I'm told). At one point he told me "I can't believe I was scared".
- Gwen still doesn't have any teeth.
mwz
- Gwen has been crawling all over the place for a while now. We're not terribly good at picking up the Cheerios and puffs (baby treats) that have dropped on the floor. So, she tends to crawl around scavenging for them. I'm pretty sure she likes having a snack available sometimes. We have to be quite careful not to leave non-edibles on the floor though.
- Sometimes at night while Ariel is putting the other two to bed, I'll let Gwen crawl down the hallway and into Johann's room. Frances is always happy to see her.
- Gwen can say "mamama" but it may just mean "parent" to her. She can also say "bababa" but I don't think that means anything.
- Both Johann and Frances have learned to ride their bikes w/out training wheels in the last couple weeks. We've been trying to teach them this spring because Frances will need to ride w/out training wheels in her triathlon. They were both very scared but moving them into the street (with me along side) helped a quite a bit. There they had enough room to weave a little. Johann had "Bike Day" at pre-school last Friday and so we made a big final push to get them to ride by going to parking lots. Apparently, it worked. He had a great time (I'm told). At one point he told me "I can't believe I was scared".
- Gwen still doesn't have any teeth.
mwz
Tuesday, March 22, 2011
Gwen Update
Gwen is now cruising.
Also, trying to eat bits of paper that the other kids leave lying around. She's getting better at her fine motor skills, so it won't be long until she's succeeding.
nwz
Also, trying to eat bits of paper that the other kids leave lying around. She's getting better at her fine motor skills, so it won't be long until she's succeeding.
nwz
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