Naples Grape Festival and Soccer

The weekend summary:

On Saturday morning we went to Seton soccer practice. I've been hanging with Mary Grace and letting William venture on his own. Every week during the scrimmage, Mary Grace can be found in the middle of the field, all alone either looking up at the sky, down at the ground, or admiring her finger nails. She does great during the warmups and drills, she just does not like the scrimmage part.

This week she started crying. Alone. In the middle of the field. I went and got her and talked her into trying again, which she did, until one of the kids kicked a ball that glanced off the top of her head (she wasn't looking, thankfully). That was enough for her. As Mommy says, maybe Mary Grace is not an athlete.

I think next week I'll switch it up.

Today we went to the Naples Grape Festival. It was a long ride there, but I told the kids to watch out for the bear at the side of the road where I have always stopped for grape pies in the past. Here are the kids at said bear.



William decided to frisk the bear and found a bunch of tools in his apron. Thankfully he didn't ask if he could keep them. And here's the deliciousness that we bought this year.



The grapes were sooo sweet and tasty that we upgraded to the large basket so that Anne could try making a homemade grape pie or two.


We proceeded to the festival and scored a decent parking spot on the main road then walked to the festival. It wasn't very far, but the crowds made it take forever.

We immediately went for food and decided to keep it simple with hot dogs all around (Zweiglers, as my mother-in-law calls them)

As I stood up from our shady picnic spot behind the vendors, I saw a look of horror on Annes face, then she says "THERE'S A GIANT BUG ON YOU". Now I don't dig bugs. When there's a bug on me I usually swat it away, and run away screaming, but this message was confusing. What kind of bug? Where exactly is this bug? So I stood there. Looking at my wife looking at me with a look of fear and disgust on her face. Then she swatted it off my shirtsleeve, screaming the whole time. What was this horrible pest that was about to consume me you might be wondering? Here it is:



Yes, a cute caterpillar. Lets just say the people working the booth that we were picnicking behind definitely knew we were city-folk. :)

After all the commotion, William entered into a single-minded goal to get some cotton candy and Mary Grace scored some new doll clothes. We walked the festival for a little over an hour, then made our way back to the car.

On the way back, we stopped at our favorite scenic overlook in Naples, looking down almost the entire length of Canandaigua lake. Here's my favorite girl enjoying the view with me



After we got home, the Regan kids came over and everyone got to play while Daddy worked on the basement. Continue on to http://rickdidit.blogspot.com for more on that.

Best dream

Mary Grace has unfortunately acquired her back-to-school virus and is home sick today. I'm working from home while mommy is working. So far she's slept, then watched "Night At The Museum". She just told me "Daddy, I had the best dream ever last night!" I asked what the dream was about and she replied "Mommy was hiding all my birthday presents in my closet and I saw all of them! There were two American Girl dolls and a bunch of pretty outfits!" Now she's watching American Girl doll stop-motion videos on YouTube using Darrick's Android tablet.

End of summer, 2011

It was a whirlwind end of summer for us. It started in July with our wonderful family from Arizona visiting. The kids had a great time with their cousins. They looked forward to the visit all spring and early summer and when the day arrived, they were uber-excited.

The "kids"

Crazy swinging on the kids new swingset!

The girls enjoying time at the big summer family reuinion

After our visitors returned to Arizona, we had another cousin come stay with us for almost a week. Sarah was a great guest and the kids had an awesome time playing with her. She even babysat the kids one day so that Anne and I could (independently) go to work. Here are some photos of a little summer marshmallow roasting we had one evening:

Not sure who's expression is better in this shot!

Cousins!

Next, we took a trip to Boston and Deerfield to both visit the American Girl store and to visit the Thiels. The American Girl store was a huge hit with Mary Grace and Anne and William and I lasted about 15 minutes there, then we went off in search of miniature golf. We met back at the store a few hours later and had a nice dinner at the restaurant right in the store!
Then we headed to Deerfield, fully aware that hurricane Irene was approaching. We spent a night and a day both enjoying our hosts company, their beautiful house and their wonderful kids. We saw the Eric Carle museum, a cool dinosaur museum, then attended a tomato festival! After a great dinner, we checked the weather. We had hoped for the best, that the storm would dissipate or veer off to the ocean, but that was not meant to be. So we sadly packed up and left that night at 9:00pm, returning to Rochester a little after 2:00am. In retrospect, it was the right decision as there was a LOT of rain and flooding and our return trip would probably have been 10x worse the next day.
And that brings us to the final week of summer and the first day of school.
The kids had plenty of time to consider the end of summer and the coming school year. Mary Grace was excited to start a new year and William was a little anxious to have a new teacher and new friends. All-in-all, it was a painless first day. The kids were up early because of the excitement. Mommy had everything in order and ready to go, and off we sent the kids on the bus. Mary Grace was a great big sister, showing William the ropes and even sitting with him on his first day.
Mommy followed the bus to school and took some more photos when the bus arrived. Here's our memories of that day.

All ready to go out and wait for the bus! Looking so beautiful and handsome!

William looking slightly nervous	The expressions tell it all!
Mama came to help out!	And off they go. Let the tears flow!

Private screening of "Tangled"

This weekend, William was all about playing his Scooby Doo game one the Wii. He loves watching Scooby Doo, and add in an interactive component and he's all over it. It's actually a pretty well done game and I enjoy it too!

Anyway, suddenly, I notice that Mary Grace is nowhere to be found, so I pause the game. I go to the second floor and call "Mary Grace?" No response. Again "Mary Grace?" "I'm in here Daddy."

So I got into her room, which is empty, and open the closet door. Way in back of the closet, behind all of her clothes, a little head pops out. "What are you doing back there?" I ask.

"I was just playing on the iPad." "Ohh, What are you playing?"
Umm. I was... Ummm".

At this point I'm sensing some potential deception coming my way

"I was watching something." "Oh, what were you watching?"

"I was watching Netflix." "Oh, Netflix. What were you watching on Netflix?"

"Ummm. I was watching...." "You don't remember?"

"Well, there's this movie that I've always wanted to see"

"So I saw it on Netflix and I was watching that" "Oh, what movie is it"

"Umm... Umm... It's Tangled"

Anne had been scanning that movie to make sure it was appropriate for the kids, since Disney movies cannot be trusted blindly. Mary Grace must have launched Netflix and that movie came up to resume.

Long story, I know, but it was just so cute that she went to such lengths keep us from knowing she was watching a movie that in the end was target marketed to her

The chessboard incident

Anne was recently organising some things in the basement in preparation for the upcoming basement remodel when she came across something disturbing.

I had gotten a beautiful marble chess board as a gift in college. It had a nice marble base with black/gray marble squares and carved marble chess pieces. I had kept it safe ever since, placing it out of harms way and storing it in the upper shelves of closets when I wasn't using it. I've had it for nearly 26 years.

Well, it got organised from it's safe resting place to a shelf along with a bunch of kids toys in the basement. And this morning, Anne discovered the base cracked into 7 pieces, hopelessly ruined.

Anne asked Mary Grace and William what happened to it and both denied any knowledge, both equally convincing.

I got home from work and upon inspecting the damage, Mary Grace stepped up and admitted she broke it a few weeks back while taking a different toy off the shelf. She also got hurt when it happened, with a little cut to her shin but kept that to herself too.

She took the pieces and stacked them in the back of the shelf, then put a bunch of other toys on top of it, obviously hoping that nobody would find it. But mommy finds all.

I'm proud that she admitted breaking it, and her only punishment was a hug and a kiss for Daddy. I'm also a little disappointed that it's gone, but not disappointed enough to replace it (right now).

So we have some lying, some shame, some confession, some forgiveness and some gratitude for a good lesson learned.

Mary Grace's photos

Here are a bunch of photos from summer 2011 that Mary Grace took

4th Friday off in July

This week was a wash. Plans started forming for a fishing outing after William woke up on Monday morning telling me that he dreamed that he and I went fishing and he caught a big fish. I asked some of my friends about fishing in Rochester and got some good information, but ultimately, my lack of experience and lack of any sort of fishing tackle shot down that plan.

Then I had another plan to take the kids to a canoe rental place near Genesee Valley Park, but after discussing it with Anne, we decided that the kids are probably not mature enough to be trusted on a boat in deep water.

So, we opted for a morning at home playing on the swing set, doing some gardening, and playing some games. Mommy came home at around noon and then we all did something or another. :)

3rd Friday off in July

This week we all did what we intended to do last week, that being going to kirshaw park in Canandaigua! I somehow managed to get the kids out of the house by 9:30 am and we arrived there at around 10:10.

The parking lots were still empty, but there were a lot of parents and kids heading in to the park to set up. We paid our dues ($3) and found a nice spot under the pergolas that was somewhat shaded and somewhat sunny.

Although we had just finished breakfast 1 hour ago, the kids demanded a snack before swimming. Pretzels and popcorn consumed, we headed into the water. It was smooth and clear as glass, and stayed somewhat shallow almost the entire swim area. We headed to the deep part and practiced our swimming for a while, then moved back and played beach ball catch. Some other kids joined in, so that was fun in the sun.

Next, we returned to the beach and built sand castles for a while, a very long while for William. I had sun screened him, but he was hanging out at the beach aso long after Mary Grace lost interest that i had to keep returning to add more clothes and a hat.

Aftere finally prying William away from the beach, we relaxed in the sun/shade for a while, then grumbling tummies directed us to McDonalds for happy meals and fish sandwiches. After lunch we drive to DiDi's house and spent several hours there playing with old school toys.

Finally homes, we chilled for a little while, then took the wagon to Park Ave to have dinner at Collies, followed by ice cream at Abbotts.

The kids are sleeping now, hopefully dreaming up a plan for my next Friday-daddy-adventure! Two more to go, making the most of it!

Second long weekend in July

This was my second 3-day weekend in July.

Working backwards, we had a campfire tonight with toasted marshmallows and/or smores. Before that, we spent the afternoon at Seabreeze amusement park and water park with the kids and Nate and Jon. Lots of fun.

Before that I weedwhacked and cleaned up the hill.

Saturday we all went to Lyons and unfortunately missed the Peppermint Festival festivities but had a nice relaxing afternoon on Maple Street instead.

On Friday I had a date night with Mary Grace while Anne went to a swim birthday party with William (where he "crashed and burned"). Before that we went to Durand Eastman park and played on the beach for a few hours.

Before that, and to kick off the weekend, I took the training wheels off of the kids bikes and started the learning process! They both did a fine job, taking a few revolutions on their bikes themselves. I think it'll be a quick job getting them riding, but I think Mary Grace is a little more anxious than William about it.

And Bob's your uncle.

Mary Grace's dance recital 2011

I've finally successfully uploaded one of Mary Grace's recital performaces (out of two). You can't miss my little dancer right in the front center at the beginning!

She did very good and we were all very proud of her!

You're a GRAND OLD FLAG!

Part of Mary Grace's kindergarten celebration was the singing of "You're a Grand Old Flag", and it was very cute. Afterwards she adopted the philosophy that whenever she sees a US Flag, she will sing that opening verse of the song. And every time she sings it, it gets stuck in my head too!

So I was just looking at a picture that Mary Grace drew on my wall in my cubicle and noticed that I was humming "It's a Grand Old Flag" to myself. I guess my brain has become conditioned now!

EDIT - After writing this briefly this morning, I thought it would be prudent to include the picture. Background: She drew this at the Midtown child care by looking in the mirror and making facial expressions then drawing what she saw.



I can't decide if I like the pictures or the misspellings more!

William and "Break The Ice"

I'm sure some of you are familiar with the game "Don't Break The Ice", where there's a platform of little plastic cubes held up by pressure One of the ice cubes has a little skater guy attached. You tap on the ice cubs with a little hammer trying to knock out the cubes without knocking out the guy.

Ever since William got the game from Santa, he has cried ever since he won, because the other person got to break the ice (make the remaining ice cubes fall down, resulting in the guy falling). Our attempts to explain that he actually won were useless. If anyone broke the ice, William had a mini-tantrum! In response to this, we renamed the game "Break The Ice", since that was the new objective.

Well, he finally come around some time ago and now plays the game like a big boy. Little things like this remind me that my boy is becoming all grown up.

William is cracking me up.

He just referred to Saran wrap as "Plastic Ratburn". I think he's mixing up "plastic wrapper" with "Mr. Ratburn" from the TV show Arthur.

He also just instructed me to go catch the spider in the basement to release him outside. He added "I'll be hiding in the corner of the basement behind the garbage can".

Fathers day = Strawberry picking

36 holes with my son

Today William and I had a boy day as Anne and Mary Grace had both dance recital photos and a baby shower. I gave William the opportunity to choose anything he wanted to do, and while his initial choice was for Rochester Museum and Science Center, I convinced him that an outdoor activity might be more fun.

So he chose miniature golf. We drove to Henrietta and played 18 holes. During those 18 holes, William got two hole-in-ones. In fact, he had so much fun that we played a second 18 holes! That's right, 36 holes of (miniature) golf with my boy today. And it was fun!

After golf, we came back home for a quick lunch, then off to the Midtown swimming pool for an afternoon of fun in the sun Mary Grace and Anne joined us for the last hour or so, so it turned into an enjoyable outing for the family.

Also, "in fact" is something that William says frequently, as he has been since he was 4. "I like summer. In fact, it's my favorite time of the year!"

William's mis-hearing

Heard William utter the term "eyebulb" instead of "eyeball". He's combining eyeball and light bulb.

When he was a few years younger he also thought I was talking about a thunderstorm when I uttered the term "undershirt".

I remember having a lot of these growing up. I encourage the kids to ask questions, but for some reason they've already got it into their heard that learning is what goes on at school and fun is what goes on at home.

Photos by Mary Grace

I was luckily enough to score a "Bag Of Crap" during a Woot-Off on woot.com a while back. One of the items I got was a cute little caribener digital camera with a whopping 640x480 resolution, no on-screen preview, and no flash.

Mary Grace recently rediscovered it and here are the photos she took (all pictures were run through Picasa "I'm feeling lucky" filter due to lack of flash).

Anne suggested I tell you that there are 2 decent photos out of the 45 in this slide show. :)

Waking up to a spanking.

Last night William climbed into my bed at about 5:00am. Since I was awake, I almost started to wake up and start my Sunday super early, but the prior day work got the better of me and I decided to stay in bed and snuggle.

That lasted about 45 minutes, at which point I was awakened to William rapidly spanking my arm, probably 10 times. I asked him what he was doing at which point he opened his eyes and said "I'm spanking you...". If there are any social services folks reading, please trust me when I say that we've never spanked our kids.

Next I asked why he was spanking me? He turned over and went back to sleep.

Bet when you read the title you didn't think Daddy was getting a spanking, right?

Internet savey Mary Grace

Talking with Anne about my upcoming bike ride, and suddenly I hear "Friday" by Rebecca Black start playing on the ipad, followed by Mary Grace, with a beaming smile, saying

"I did that all by myself!"

Yes, she went to YouTube, typed "Friday" and played the video.

Straight up with a chaser!

After coming down with a pretty mild case of Strep throat, Mary Grace had to go on antibiotics. Since both Anne and I have a penicillin allergy, I should have figured that Mary Grace was a candidate too, but I didn't. Well, don't you know after a week of being on it she developed hives ALL OVER.

Freaked us out a little, so much so that we took Mary Grace to her pediatrician who pronounced judgement. Benadryl at such and such an interval. Duhh.

So the brave little thing decided to take it without any mixers, as have always been a requirement for medicine in the past. And she's done well with it. Tonight I gave her the dosage and asked if she wanted it "straight up".

Mary Grace: "What does that mean?"

Daddy: "It means, you don't mix it with anything"

Mary Grace: "OK, I'll take it straight up with a chaser"

My little daughter, tossing around the big girl bar terms. Too funny.

BTW, the chaser was apple juice.