July 5th, at one of Conner’s baseball games, I wandered around and took pictures of things that I thought were interesting, because the score was 22 to nothing… and while I love my nephew very much, and I can’t underline enough the importance of seeing a game through to the end even though you’re losing… it was uh… less interesting than this multilayered paint. See this image larger.
The kids gather round one screen for a video. I think it was something about Jack Frost. See this image larger.
July 12th, one of the best feelings I’ve had as a father came from the summer reading class that Melissa signed Ian up for. The smaller class size really resonated with Ian, and he picked up the pace on his reading skills in a hurry. He was so happy after class that he skipped alongside me on the way to the car. See this image larger.
I thought about all kinds of fancy solutions, but in the end it was one of two blocks of wood that completely stopped an influx of nesting birds from trying to build under our deck. Up until this point I’d been having to take down partial nests every couple of hours! See this image larger.
July 16th, and Melissa’s job hold an annual Garden Gala for vendors, clients, and family of the people that work so hard. Ian can be shy sometimes, but when play is involved, he warms up quickly. Particularly when somebody does him the service of asking him if he would like to join. This girl thrilled Ian by spending a little time with him. It is worth looking at this one larger so that you can see how happy he is. See this image larger.
July 18th, this is what it looks like when you have a large party at Jester’s Court. I think this was for Jake’s birthday, but there weren’t too many other quality pics. See this image larger.
July 20th, I couldn’t get a picture of the actual mama in this pic because she was busy, but here’s Melissa holding Norah, Brandon’s daughter. See this image larger.
July 22nd, that blur is Ian going for the gusto on a major dive. He did well! See this image larger.
July 23rd, picking Ian up after reading class each day was a real treat; he was always so happy to see me, and yet also so happy with what he had learned. See this image larger.
July 24th, Nina marching around pool-side, pretty much owning the place. 😉 See this image larger.
https://outoftheirminds.com/wp-content/uploads/2022/02/ootmd-logo-dark-wings-3Asset-15.svg00vrbfwhttps://outoftheirminds.com/wp-content/uploads/2022/02/ootmd-logo-dark-wings-3Asset-15.svgvrbfw2014-03-15 09:22:362014-03-15 09:22:36July 2013 – Take Me Out To The Ballgame, and More
July 1st, and the motorcade arrived, complete with secret service agents and officials. See this image larger.
Ladies and gentlemen, the President of the Excited State! *Hm hm hmm-hmmmmmm hm hm-hm hm hm-hm hmmmmmm-hmmmmmm* See this image larger.
Yes, today is field trip day and we’ve arrived at Boulder Ridge Wild Animal Center! Here, pet a wallaby! See this image larger.
Pet this creepy lizard thing and then go running back to your seats, hurry! See this image larger.
This was my first real look at Nina’s water bottle and backpack that we had to pay for as part of her classroom fee. It was hilariously overpriced to begin with, but to have the first glance show a completely mangled bottle (albeit from Nina chewing on it) made it all the more hilarious. See this image larger.
I asked one of the other parents in the group to watch Nina temporarily, so that I could run over and buy her a souvenir sweatshirt. It was amazing how cold it was that day for July, very cold, and windy. I won “good daddy” points from the various moms on the field trip for doing this, as well as the teachers, Melissa (through the phone) and most importantly, from Nina. See this image larger.
One of the most nightmarish things I’ve seen in my life was this alligator. All it did to inspire this fear was submerse itself. The pond could not have been more than two to three feet deep, but this monster completely and silently disappeared about three inches under that water. (What I mean to say there is, the pond looked completely safe to the unwary.) See this image larger.
For some reason, this chicken wire didn’t seem like enough; maybe I’ve seen Jurassic Park a few too many times. See this image larger.
Look at you, you big lug. Maybe they keep them so fat that they can’t move fast or climb or something, who knows. I’m not a alligatorologist. See this image larger.
She didn’t really want to eat much of her sandwich, so I asked her to at least take a bite out of each half. So she did. It is always hard, during these field trips, to say good bye. The kids don’t want to go back to school or day care, you don’t really want to go back to work… there’s usually some tears involved. Nina at least made it to the bus before crying this time around, but it didn’t make it less hard. It was an awesome trip, though, we both had fun! 🙂 See this image larger.
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VIDEO, June 9th Click here to see and hear Nina doing her best to read a book. She’s working from memorization, of course, but still pretty cool!
VIDEO, June 24th Click here to see… Nina and her class playing at Java Gym! This one is large because I wanted you to be able to make out her face as she bounds by. She’s so excited! Sadly Java Gym had to close its doors, so we can’t go there anymore.
VIDEO, June 24th Click here to see… another video, this one will be blurry, but it gives you the general idea.
VIDEO, June 29th Click here to see… Nina makes her own obstacle course at Jester’s Court, a different play area I’ve mentioned several times.
AUDIO, May 6th Click here to hear an mp3 that is another one I’m recording just for kicks. The kids have a lion toy that they both played with as new borns and infants… it plays these songs when pulled. We thought the batteries died, but it turned out that it just need a tug in the right direction. That said, I could tell the batteries were failing, so I recorded this so that the kids could hear these songs again later in life.
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July 2013 – Take Me Out To The Ballgame, and More
Next entry, a Nashville Wedding!!
July 2013 – Nina’s Boulder Ridge Field Trip
June 2013 in Audio and Video