Rachel Runs for Office

Yard signs are commonplace these days. Our yard has escaped the plague of these eyesores, or at least that's what I thought. I drove up to our house at the end of the workday this past week to find that Rachel has decided to run for political office. Well . . . not really, she's just noticed that yard signs are the hip thing to do these days and was in a creative mood.

If you vote for Rachel, you'll get real change; change you can believe in. She'll solve the energy crunch by giving everybody a pony, covering graffiti with pink paint, requiring all citizens to sing for at least half of the day and delivering copious amounts of salt (Rachel's favorite condiment) for use on their vegetables and french fries.

She's got my vote.

Dinner Conversations

We had some good chats at the dinner table this evening, so we thought we'd share some of the witty humor that was passed around.

Conversation #1 - Always
Jean: I've got to go Visiting Teaching at 6 tonight.
Danny: You have to go again?
Jean: Always. I go every month. I need to go visit people and make sure they're doing OK and help them if they're not.
Danny: Always?
Bob: Yeah, it's kind of like Wal-Mart.
Jean: (Rolls her eyes and smirks. 2 seconds of silence).
Danny: (Audible laughter). It is like Wal-Mart! Always low prices. Always.

There are two things that one can deduct from this conversation: 1 - Danny is a bright boy and was able to pick-up on his Dad's humor even when his mother didn't want to acknowledge that anything funny was said. 2 - Bob's humor is designed for 6-year-olds. Both are true.

Conversation #2 - A-B Patterns
Danny: Can I have some more cake?
Bob: No. You need to eat more dinner before you have more cake.
Danny: More dinner!?!?
Rachel: Yeah, Danny. It's like an A-B pattern. A, you eat your dinner, then B, you get dessert.
Jean: (Laughter) You're funny, girl!
Danny: I want to follow a B-B pattern. Eat dessert, then eat more dessert.

Here's an A-B pattern for ya - A, Rachel says something insightful and amusing, B everybody laughs. The end.

Aaron is 3!

Today is Aaron's "fake birthday". According to our kids the real birthday is when we celebrate with cake and presents the fake birthday is the actual date.

We asked Danny and Rachel what they love about Aaron and this is what they had to say:

Danny: "I love Aaron because he makes me laugh and tackles me."

Rachel: "I love Aaron because he shares his toys."

We all love Aaron because he's a live wire and always seems to be running his act from comedy headquarters. It's pretty common for Danny and Rachel to find something humorous that they've discovered in Aaron and bring him in tow to show their parents the new monkey tricks. He gets unanimous votes from our family for being the funniest member of our clan. He loves sports (he got the most out of our trip to watch the UNLV vs. Air Force football game last night - dancing when the band would play, watching the UNLV dancing girls in their glittery red dresses, etc.), rough-housing (ie thrown on the couch), monster trucks, running, his 'comfy' blanket and mounds of fruit snacks.

Happy Fake Birthday, Aaron!!

Aaron's 3rd Birthday

Halloween pumpkins

We painted pumpkins this week instead of carving them. We picked paint over knives for lots of reasons. The kids can do it all themselves, they hate to actually touch the slimy insides of the pumpkin, and because in the warm weather in Las Vegas, if you carve them too early they rot and cave in before Halloween comes.

And this is just a bonus picture of my Dad when they visited last weekend. Aaron took the picture and it looks a little halloween-ish.

Counting from 1 to 8

Jean's parents were in town this weekend to help celebrate Aaron's third birthday (more to come on that later).

Part of our action-packed Saturday included the obligatory trip to one of Danny's soccer games. This was the first time he has had spectators outside of his immediate family and he did not fail to impress. Final score: Danny - 8, Other Team - not enough.

Here's the highlight reel (special footage at the end):

See Danny Run. See Danny Write.

Danny participated in a mile-long run for PE today. He finished first out of two 1st grade classes and managed to clock-in under 12 minutes. Not bad for a six year-old. He said he didn't even break a sweat.

We also received a collection of short stories that Danny wrote recently. We've been learning all kinds of new things by reading his literary works. For example, ducks have water 'poof' feathers. Really though - he's got some decent spelling and grammar considering the fact that he wasn't pounding it out on a keyboard or using a spell-checker.

Candy Pumpkins

I live for these things in September and October. They sell out fast at lots of stores, so you have to shop early. Danny and Rachel both used to like them, but they had their fill after the first couple of bags I bought and now they don't touch them. But Aaron is right there with me. We both hunt the isles of every grocery store we go to in search of the Candy Pumpkins. Most stores now are just down to candy corns, which just are not the same. Today Aaron talked me into buying the "Autumn Mix" which has pumpkins and candy corns. The pumpkins are all picked out of it now. We'll have to make some halloween cupcakes or something to use up all those candy corns.

Policy Before Cooties

Danny confided in us this past week that he was tired of running during recess and before-school free time. He told us that he is having to run because there are two girls in his class that chase him around the schoolyard threatening him with kisses. You could tell he was appalled because there are obviously more interesting and pressing things he could be doing with his time, but he was most disturbed by the girls' disregard for school policy. "I kept yelling at them that they were going to break the 'Hands off Policy', but they wouldn't listen!" he exclaimed.

Danny is a by-the-book kid. Clearly he was concerned about his exposure to the dreaded disease known as Cooties, but he was just as worried that the girls would break the school's stance that there be no physical interaction between students & teachers. As a result of this incident and Danny's choosing to share it with his parents (keep 'em coming Danny), the phrase "Ahhhhh - stop it! You're breaking the Hands Off Policy!" or its variant has become a common refrain in our house.

Thankfully, Danny takes it in stride, just like his laps around the schoolyard.

Danny's Halloween Decoration

The kids were out of school today for a teacher in-service so Danny used his time to make some great Halloween decorations. There are three ghosts above his head. And the other picture is two mummies and a ninja.

Go Cougs!

A couple weeks ago we went to Utah so Bob could get a Cougar fix. We wanted to go to the Homecoming game, but apparently when the cougars are doing well, the tickets sell out earlier. So we got to go to the BYU vs Wyoming game. It was pretty warm and crowded. Bob and his friend, Josh loved it. Danny and I also went. We had fun, but we spent half the time wandering under the stadium eating churros and snow cones.

We also visited Janai and Jeremiah at their cute new house and the awesome little farm by their house.

We like Aaron's great poses.