You Did Ask...

Meyer's gotten to an age where a lot of really amusing stuff comes out of his mouth.  Words, I mean - not bizarrely hilarious substances.  The other day we were sitting on the couch and he came running up after a nap to curl up on my lap.  He started jabbering about something or another, and then said something to the effect of "Daddy - you're a GIRAFFE!"

"No, I'm not a giraffe."

"Yeah you have a long neck!"

"Well, I'm not a giraffe."

"Are you a...frog?!"  No.  "Are you a...lion?!"  No.  "Then what are you?"

"I'm a human."

Meyer looks at Jill sitting next to me and says "Oh, Mom, Daddy's a HUMAN!!"  As if this were some sort of amazing surprise.

She laughed and said to him, 'What are you?"

"I'm me.  I'm Meyer.  I am what I am."

"No, but what ARE you?"

He thinks about it again for a second, then gets very solemn, and with perfect seriousness says, "I...am....IRONMAN."

After we all stopped laughing, Jill says "So what am I?"

Again, with perfect seriousness:  "Oh, Mommy, you're a HIPPO."

Ooooooh.  Walked right into that one, honey.  

Camping! And Eating! (Mostly Eating.)

Last weekend was our annual weekend camping trip with the Bonsteads, Carmichaels, and Lennings over in Illinois.  Last year's camping trip was altered to a Chicago visit due to the average 120F temperatures.  This year's trip was prudently scheduled at the end of September to hopefully avoid that.  Weather turned out to be fantastic, although a little chilly at night.

Oddly, I don't have any photos that show actual camping activities.  I guess there's nothing particularly photographically riveting about a bunch of folks sitting around a campsite.  The kids did have a lot of fun with other activities, though.

Josh brought his homemade bottle rocket launcher, which uses regular 2-liter bottles and a bit of water.  The kids had a blast shooting these off, the bottles were easily reaching 40-50 feet in the air.  Side note - it's extraordinarily hard to capture the bottle immediately after launching, they shoot out of the frame in a fraction of a second.  At least you can see the water stream in the second photo.

Even Meyer had to give it a try. 

Logan and Liam really wanted to go fishing.  You can just see the excitement oozing out of Logan once he finally had a line in the water.

Next year's goal:  to arrive at the campsite with enough time to set up our tent BEFORE dark.  So far we're not very good at that.

He Shoots, He Scores!

No new photos unfortunately, but we did enjoy a fantastic soccer game over the weekend with M'amy and Grampa Phil visiting.  Liam had a game Saturday right around lunchtime, and the weather could not have been more perfect.  Crisp blue skies, cool breezes, and lots of sunshine.

Liam's team was down a couple of goals in the second half when they set up for a corner kick.  Their coach had been pushing them all game to spread out and get open, and Liam set himself up perfectly right in front of the goal.  The corner kicker sent the ball sailing over almost everyone mobbed together in front of him, right to Liam - who settled the ball and then buried it in the upper left corner of the net.  Seriously, it could not have been a more perfect setup and shot.  Sir Alex Ferguson would have clapped.

Return of the Cob

I'm going to ignore the last umpteen months of no posts and pretend like we've been doing this all along. Which I have, in my head.

Logan and Liam had their first soccer games of the season this past weekend, and the weather blew in a cold front and cleared out the heat just in time. We had sun and cool breezes all weekend long which made for perfect soccer weather.

Both boys had fun in their games and got some touches on the ball. Logan had a shot at a goal, but was caught a little flat-footed and it went wide. Liam had some good defensive plays, and was often one of the first on the ball. Here are some of the better action shots I got during the games.

Venutian Transit!!

Yes, I realize it's been almost 5 months with no updates. More photos are on the way, but in the meantime, here's a photo of today's transit of Venus in case you missed it.

The Green Snivy

Liam's first entry in the Pinewood Derby. He did fairly well, given that it wasn't our first time building a car. I was gratified by his design when one of the other Tiger Scouts saw it during check-in and yelled "Cool! It's a Snivy!"

The Green Snivy

Cheering on the racers - at least Liam is. That other kid looks rather troubled.

Liam's first race - nice job!

Den 9 Tigers

Batmobile

Logan's derby car this year was the Batmobile!

Sleek. Stealthy.

Ready to race!

Speeding toward the finish.

Den 2 Mini-Webelos

Another competitive car built by Logan! Way to go!

D-E-R-B-Y. What's that spell? Snacks!

The Pinewood Derby is two weeks away, and the boys (it's plural now) are working on their cars. Logan has a sweet Batmobile in the works, and Liam has been creating the automobile version of the Pokemon Snivey. It's working out quite well, actually.



Liam was pretty excited to be making his car this year. He wanted to get right down in the workshop, and he was very fastidious about us always wearing our "sawdust glasses".


I asked Logan what he remembered from last year's Derby. He said "What, you mean like what snacks they had? Airheads, hot dogs, popcorn. I think a couple years ago they even had hamburgers!"

I admit, I didn't see that coming.

A Blues, Blues Blues Blues Christmas

Okay not entirely a Blues Christmas, but I'm pretty sure the biggest AHHHHHHHHHHHHHH!! of the holidays came when the boys opened their new Blues jerseys.

We spent a week and a half visiting family in KC for the holidays, which always seems to go by much quicker than you'd think. You set up a few get-togethers, make the rounds of friends and family, and before you know it 5 days have gone by, Christmas is over, and vacation's half done.

It may go fast, but everyone enjoyed themselves immensely!

Now THAT is a happy Christmas face.

This is actually how Logan smiles for the camera.

Based on smiles, Liam's favorite gifts were stuffed animals.

Shocked joy? Stunned outrage? I can't tell.

Meyer's at his most hilarious after a cup of joe.

Hope everyone had a great holiday! Here's looking forward to a great 2012, at least until the Mayans ruin everything.