Winter Pool Fun

On another cold day, we went to the heated (more or less) gym pool again.
Aaron jumped from the edge with no hands for the first time today.

And Alex dove into the murky depths for some diving balls.

Smashing the Pins

Today we went back to Southwyck Lanes, the bowling alley where we had Alex's 7th birthday party. Ohio passed a statewide public places smoking ban this election cycle which made the air more tolerable this time (still a stale smell of tobacco in the air). Aaron's feet are too small for their bowling shoes, so he bowled in his socks. Becky and I got a regular lane and the boys bowled in a lane with bumpers.
Alex bowled by cradling the ball in his arms and running up to the line and letting go of it. The momentum would fling it out of his arms and down the lane. He got some spares by planning bank shots off the bumpers.


Aaron couldn't carry the balls at all, so we'd carry them up to the line and he'd squat and push the ball toward the pins. The balls rolled really slowly, so often we had to give them an extra push in the direction he aimed it. He even got a strike! (in slow motion, but still a strike if they all fall down)

Cheerios Krispie Treats

Alex asked for and received a Cheerios recipe book that had this recipe for Marshmallow Melties that the kids have dubbed Cheerios Krispie Treats (after we told them that Cheerios Rice Krispie Treats just didn't work). Becky melted a 10.5 oz. bag of baby marshmallows in the microwave with 3 Tbsp of butter. The kids helped measure 5 cups of Cheerios into the bowl and becky stirred them together. They helped press it into the pan and after cooling for 10 minutes, we all enjoyed a tasty snack.

Plastic Bag Box Building at Home Depot

Becky wasn't feeling well this morning, so the boys and I went to Home Depot for their Kids Workshop so she could get some more rest. Today we built a box for storing and dispensing plastic bags. We try to reuse what we don't recycle, typically for carrying a few odds and ends to the van or to line trash cans (not when company is coming over :).

Aaron usually sits in the shopping cart and has snacks if he comes, but with just the three of us there it was easier to give him a turn (with Daddy helping of course). Alex took this picture without chopping any of our body parts off.

Here it is. Note the cool safety goggles (we'll need to find tiny ones for Aaron) and all of the pins he's gotten on his builder's apron for all of the projects he's built.

Our Year in Pictures - 2006

Baked Eggs and Potatoes

On New Year's Morning I got up a little later than I planned and made breakfast. Everyone was patient thankfully because this took a lot longer than I planned. I modified this recipe slightly from a Food Network Favorites cookbook I got for Christmas.

After preheating the oven to 400 degrees, I cooked 1 1/2 lbs. of diced red-skinned potatoes and 1 diced onion in 3 Tbsp of butter in our large cast-iron skillet. After they were browned (about 15 minutes), I stirred in 2 minced garlic cloves, 1/4 cup of chopped fresh parsley, 1 tsp. of kosher salt, and a generous amount of black pepper. Off the heat, I pushed the potatoes around to make 4 nests. I placed a cooked sausage patty at the bottom of each. Then I cracked 2 eggs into a bowl (to check for shell pieces) and then poured them whole into one of the nests, repeating that 3 more time for a total of 8 eggs. Then I put the whole skillet in the oven and baked it for 10 minutes, bringing it out long enough to sprinkle with shredded colby/jack cheese and then popping it back in for another couple of minutes to melt the cheese.

New Year's Eve 2006

Finding Metal

Alex took advantage of the mild winter we are having to test drive his new metal detector that he got from Uncle Mark and Aunt Melinda. Here he's digging up a quarter that Grandpa Hardage guided him to. He must've had a good feeling about that spot.

Alex's technique got better as he found more things. He started way too fast, but when slowed down, he found a piece of a bolt, a nail, and a section of a corrugated metal garden border that had been covered over the years by at least 2 inches of dirt. He can't wait to take it to the beach. He'll have to though - the weather's not that mild.

Build-a-Bear (Dog, Frog) Workshop

The kids got gift cards for the Build-A-Bear Workshopfor Christmas. We wanted to avoid the post-holiday mall rush, so we looked them up online last night to find out that they opened at 7 AM. We said, "Forget that!" and showed up at 10:30. First the kids got to choose the type of bear they wanted, so Alex chose a frog and Aaron chose a puppy. While it appears that the next step is impaling their new friend on a big metal tube, this is actually the stuffing machine that they got to control by stepping on a big pedal.

They each got to pick out a heart and gave it some of their love, smarts, and energy (you had to be there) and then stuck it into their backs. The helper sewed them up and sent them to the next station.

Here they gave them a bath - technically a shower - OK, technically it was a vacuum that might have snatched some lint from the air above them, but they enjoyed it. I think they were trying to figure out how they could get in on these waterless baths.

They then brushed them, which likely did a better job cleaning them than the "bath", and it made their fur glossy. By the way, if you've never felt newborn glossy frog fur, you're missing out. Until today, I didn't realize they had fur. They're quite hairy actually.


They each got to name them - Aaron calls his puppy Ruffles and Alex's frog is Toady. Toady has a Cleveland Indians baseball outfit, but in his downtime he dresses like a skateboarder. Ruffles has his doctor scrubs on, but in his downtime he's a firefighter.

Christmas Day 2006

Merry Christmas! Alex and Aaron woke up before we did, but they were very good and let us get ready to go downstairs with them.


Alex got the Cars video game from Santa and Aaron got what he asked for - candy in a little Santa hat. They also got a lot of presents from family and friends. As usual, they wanted to stop and play with what they opened instead of opening more, especially Aaron. Instead of fighting it too hard, we let them have a play break in the middle before coaxing them to finish it.


Alex learned how nice it is to give gifts in addition to receiving them. He bought this gingerbread necklace for Becky at a school fair with his spending money. She loves it.

Instead of a traditional holiday meal (the local purveyor of Honey Baked Hams had a Listeria contamination recently) we had Becky's Chili and Jason's Tortilla Soup. We prepped both of them the day before and so it was mostly a matter of throwing the ingredients into their respective pots. They were delicious. The next time we make them, I'll get a picture and post the recipes.

We hope everyone had a safe and happy Christmas. We are truly blessed and lucky to have such wonderful family and friends.

Christmas Cookies

Monkey Jump

The kids have been getting a little bit stir-crazy, so we took them to a new indoor playground - Monkey Jump - with inflatable pieces to get out the energy in a constructive way. Aaron's favorite move is to get to the top of the slide to his left and jump off of it. He's a climber and a jumper, and here he can do it safely. We're looking at this kind of place for his birthday party, but this location only had 2 pieces he could get on. We're looking at the Party Heroes people who are supposed to be getting an indoor area set up soon for just that.

Best Santa Picture Ever!

Children's Wonderland 2006

Each year at the local Rec Center they set up a Children's Winter Wonderland that is mostly about Christmas themes, including a life-sized nativity. They had a huge metal snowman outside and since we haven't had any real snow yet this winter, the kids posed by it.

Aaron got a big kick out of it and this face was made while watching a mechanical clown do flips on a horizontal bar. The place is loaded with animatronic figures that show various realistic and fantasy Holiday scenes. The kids always love a tree stump with a face that moves and is wired inito a guy with a microphone who tries to engage passersby and get them to sing carols.

They always love riding the train which takes them around a polar bear playground and through a snow tunnel. We topped it off with a visit with Santa who happened to be there posing for pictures.

Playdough Cars

Alex and Aaron have really been enjoying the Cars movie from this summer, and since it came out on DVD, they've watched it 3-5 times a week and both of them have many lines memorized. Alex can act out whole sequences with multiple characters in different voices. His art lately has been centered around the various vehicles, for example, he's been coloring small poster-sized line drawings of the Cars cars (guess how many times a week we say Cars cars) that his Grammy Hardage drew and has started a book with his own original story and artwork about them. So its no surprise that, when faced with several cans of new playdough, that he'd come up with this.

After we got a shot of the art, he wanted to pose with his art. Since it was fresh playdough laying on a table, he bent sideways/backwards and layed the back of his head on the table.

This is a playdough Lightning McQueen that he made last month.

Winter Concert 2006

Today was Alex's winter concert at his school. It involved the whole primary school and each grade level had several songs so it was a long concert. Aaron came and enjoyed Alex's class's performances which were thankfully first and watched an iPod movie for the last 30 minutes. Alex did great and is getting more comfortable up on stage. We think he's got a great singing voice and his music teacher agrees, but he's not entirely comfortable singing in a group on stage, but this year was the best.

As part of the concert, he got to play a part on the xylophone and did a great job. (Our best camera angle included the cymbal covering his face, sorry.) In between taps on the xylophone bars he swished the hammers back and forth like windshield wipers to the beat of the music. If I can figure out how to isolate this on the video we made of the concert, I'll post it because it looks great.

Muffins With Mom

This morning Becky and Alex got up early and went to school. They put on a special program called Muffins with Mom. For breakfast they had...wait for it...muffins! They also got a chance to hear a history lecture. It sounds boring, but they made it interesting by using historical re-enactors to describe their life. Alex and I got to do something similar in October, but it was Donuts with Dad and a lecture about one of the local Metroparks. They enjoyed the time together and look forward to a new tradition at the school as it was a huge sucess.