Finally!

I wasn't sure it was going to happen this year, but we finally got at least one of the decent snowstorms that St. Louis tends to get each winter.  It was looking like we were going to bust.  The same system that dumped a foot or more on KC (..they always get the good weather..) managed to drop several inches on us yesterday.  The kids got a couple days off school and I got to work in the basement instead of at my office. 

Most importantly, though - Meyer had new snow boots to try out.

Meyer always has a ball romping around in the snow, but I don't think it tasted very good.

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.

Logan 10.0

A decade of holiday cheer, that's what we've had from Logan's birthdays. They do tend to get swallowed up a bit by the holidays, but we try to make birthdays at least somewhat special.

Logan only had a couple of presents to open this year on his birthday, since most of his gifts were received the weekend prior. He still got some nice surprises:


Everything he ever wanted to know about hockey - thanks Jan and Kathy



And an iPod Touch, a.k.a. "In Which Logan Will Spend All His Money In the AppStore"


Just for nostalgia's sake, here's Logan over 8 years ago. Hard to remember what it was like to just have one of them. He's a little younger than Meyer is now in this video, but it's remarkable how similar they are. Enjoy!

Happy Halloween!

There are a lot of pictures we took on Halloween this year. Cute pictures. Funny pictures. Blurry pictures. Too-dark pictures. However, I think this picture sums up Halloween with the boys better than any other:



Hope everyone had a good one.

Cliff Notes?! More Like Whiff Notes!

Overheard on the staircase tonight, as Liam prepares to watch a cartoon while Logan is doing homework:

Liam: "I'm going to watch the Bakugan show."

Logan: "Don't watch that, I'll miss it and I won't know what's going on!"

Liam: "Logan, I'll TELL you what happens in the show."

Logan (indignantly): "But you're not good at summarizing!"

Eureka!

...Springs, to be exact. Fall vacation this year was a 4-day weekend in Eureka Springs with family, and then a quick stop in Branson for a Silver Dollar City trip with some more family.

The boys took to the lake lifestyle fairly quickly, although there was still a bit of DS-playing and a LOT of Wii activity. "Relaxing weekend on the lake" ain't what it used to be.


Meyer made a mess of himself as usual. Give that kid a piece of chalk and he'll rub it over every exposed inch of clothing he can find.


We took a day hike to War Eagle Trail, which ran right by War Eagle Cave. The cave was closed or Logan would have gone spelunking.



Pretty sure Liam doesn't have a license for this.



Meyer was still feeling the effects of "Margarita Night".


Next time I am SO throwing them out on the lake on an inner tube. Mwahahaha.

(Dirty) Boys of Summer

Well, school has officially started. We've all been having a grand old time this summer, as is evidenced by having no time at all to do any blogging. Too busy, people!! Logan and Liam started 4th and 1st grade yesterday, and Meyer once again rules the house during the day.

We had a great time over 4th of July, with family coming out to St. Charles instead of us going back to KC. A bit more crowded packing everyone into our house, but the thing is...fireworks are completely legal here. We had an awesome time (and probably spent a bit too much money) managing OPERATION: SHOCK AND AWE - HOME EDITION over the course of two nights. Sadly, it paled in comparison to what our neighborhood does firework-wise on the actual 4th of July. Crazy.

They also do a neighborhood "parade", consisting of one fire truck and all the neighborhood kids riding along behind it. The kids had fun, though, especially when the firetruck turned its water cannon on them.



Logan went to his first-ever overnight Scout camp this year, although he wasn't too crazy about the lodging. They slept in official Boy Scout pup tents, probably issued sometime around 1953. During the day they got to swim, hike, go to the BB gun and archery range, and generally run around and play and act like kids. It was fun, although a huge storm prompted about half the kids to bail after one night. Ah well.

Here's Logan at the firing range, in the middle.



We had a couple of visits to KC, including one to drop off Logan and Liam for a week with their cousins. That gave us time to focus on Meyer, who honestly didn't miss his brothers at all. At least not for several days. Even then, it was more like "hey, where are they anyway? Not that I care much. Hey, what are you eating? That looks pretty good, let me try some..."



Our annual camping trip was not to be, alas, thanks to the Midwest trying to rival Venus for "Hottest Solar System Vacation Spots 2011". INstead we drove up to Chicago to visit the Lennings, and had a great time anyway. We still got to get out for some fishing, and Liam actually caught a bass, although I didn't get a photo of it. I was off taking Logan to the bathroom. Thanks, Logan's bladder.



We'll get some First Day of School pics up soon.

Roll Call!

This one's for you, Grandma Soup.

Almost Ready for the Jungles of Borneo

Logan graduated to the next level of scouting, the Webelos level. Officially, he is no longer a Cub Scout.



So far, most of the scouting activities in Cub Scouts have been pretty group-oriented, and not very outdoorsy. A lot of crafts, a lot of discussions about helping out the family, being a good students, that sort of thing. In Webelos they are supposed to move on to more individual activities that focus more on personal development and skill-building. It'll be interesting to see how he reacts to the changes and whether his interest continues. So far, though, he's been a good member of his Scout den and seems to enjoy it.

Congrats to Logan!

UPDATES! WOO!!

Our Garage Door Has Never Been Happier

The Fisher-Price basketball goal has been relegated to the basement, thanks to installation of this baby:



Part of Liam's birthday presents, thanks to Grandma Sue and Papa Jerry. Liam was a little skeptical at first, mostly because he can't get very excited about anything that doesn't have the words "Nintendo" or "XBox" on it somewhere. Within 90 seconds of the goal being officially approved for play, his verdict was a little different: "Dad, this basketball goal is AWESOME!!"

I am ashamed to say that Jill won the inaugural game of HORSE.

The Notification

We awoke one recent morning to find this taped to the inside of our bedroom door:



In Liam's defense, he's been having some issues and we DID ask him to let us know when he goes. I admire his adherence to the letter of the law.