Back to School

Today I spent the day with my favorite kindergärtner as part of a dad's program at his school. I did some general work for the school and spent much of the day in and around his classroom doing things specifically with and for them.

Aidan has been talking about it for months and couldn't wait for me to lunch with him and play with him and his friends at recess.

Here's some of my other back to school projects...

I took down the Thanksgiving artwork and replaced it with the new Christmas stuff. I got to use the die-press to create the letters and after seeing my my patterns and layout work they asked if I could come back every season.

This Play-Doh Christmas tree was constructed as I oversaw one of the tables during the afternoon centers. The kids dug my tannenbaum and everyone decided to make their own.

Un-Bear-able

My Bears are not doing so well this season. In fact, it's been downright unbearable (yes, that's intentional) to watch them more often than not but we trekked out to Mall of America Field in the HHH Metrodome brought to you by the Wrangler Jeans Brett Favre Parking Lot (o.k. that part's not true) to see the legendary #4 battle our struggling Bears.

My seats were actually pretty good. Look how close I got to Favre...

Actually we were more like this close to the action (though the camera phone widens things out and makes it look like were are a county away)....

Before it all began the powerful purple men ran out of an inflatable boat...

...and after it all ended we shrugged our shoulders and headed for home.

10 Years

RETRO VIDEO: Newlywed Cribs

Have you seen that show where the big time celebrities show off their amazing Hollywood estates? Here's a couple of newlyweds giving you amazing inside access to their college apartment!

Black (Almost) Friday

I'm not a big shopper. Groceries and essentials...cool. Shopping malls...no way. I need to get in and out efficiently and would prefer not to be fighting a crowd of strangers when I do so.

Then I found out a national clothing chain was handing out free copies of a new edition of Rock Band...a game the boys and I like to play just a little bit. I decided I needed to conquer this Black Friday door buster deal.

Tonight at 7:30 I arrived at the front door of this establishment and was first in line. Thankful for balmy temperatures in the high twenties I sat on my blanket bundled for the adventure. Shortly after, a crowd had descended on the outlet mall. Two and a half hours later I was the first one in the store, out in eight minutes (remember I need efficiency) and home on the couch by 10:30. Mission accomplished...take that Black (Almost) Friday!

Here are a few photos of the winding line of several hundred people behind me.

The outlet mall by our place is very popular on the weekend after Thanksgiving. So popular they have shuttles from a nearby middle school and a full force of patrol men trying to guide the chaos. I was told the interstate that runs by is backed up for miles as everyone fights to get to this shopping mecca. I was very glad to to be away from the shopping craze so soon after the madness began.

Proud Pilgrim

Aidan loved his pilgrim hat so much he wore it to Applebee's last night. The wait staff agreed it was lovely and very festive. He's been wearing it all day today at home.

Classic Bird

Aidan told me he wanted to trace his hand today. I had a feeling this was coming.

Is there anything more classically "grade school Thanksgiving" than the hand print turkey?

Big Boys

Random Memory 6

It was a dark and stormy night…

Actually it was cold. Very cold. We all piled into the family station wagon and headed to Peoria,Iowa for a holiday gathering with extended family. I imagine the dash from the car to the site of our engagement was warmed only by thoughts of recreating with cousins as the Iowa winter chill swirled around us.

What happened between arrival and departure is not irrelevant but not essential to the most memorable part of the evening.

As we travelled home cold had become downright frigid. We sped down the highway hoping to return to the warmth of home quickly before Jack Frost took all feeling from our toes. It was so unimaginably cold in the car that it almost felt as if the winter winds were seeping through cracks in the vehicle and freely attacking us with their bitter chill. The 20 minute ride home was the most uncomfortable journey ever.

This was well before the advent of mobile phones but we were being followed back to Pella by another carload of family members. They seemed to be trying to get our attention. How could we think straight as near hypothermia started setting in? How on earth could it be this cold in the great white wagon?

Dad pulled over to see what they were trying to signal to us…and shut the back window that had been left unlatched. We then discovered that though the weather was still incredibly cold, it was far less body numbing with the vehicle completely sealed and without a mighty jet stream circling uninhibited around all of us.

Aidan Art

Ex-beard-iment 2

My follicle experiments continue as I look for cheap ways to entertain myself. Today my chin is naked for the first time in forever but I'm thinking that guy on the left might be the one for the winter season.

Perhaps some ex-hair-imentation can be my next project to keep me from getting bored.

VIDEO: Bible Verses

Aidan has completed his first six memory verses for school. The verses each begin with a successive letter of the alphabet (with an occasional "the" snuck in front).

Kellen also participates in the memorization as part of our bed time routine.

Here is Aidan reciting what he's learned so far and Kellen sharing his versions of the same passages. In his defense Thessalonians has to be tricky at two years old.

Ex-beard-iment

Word got out that I was experimenting on a face with heavier follicles for the winter. Some wanted to see the evidence. Here it is...