Labor Day Weekend 2010!

We kicked of our 3 day weekend w/ me taking a trip to the tattoo shop. I got a Google and a multi colored star. Both great, as always. We spent almost the entire morning playing. We played a game where she started off as a baby. She got older and eventually moved away from home. Her brother (Lionel) and father (me) visited her on Christmas. After discovering that her long awaited coupon to Build a Bear had come in the mail and tackling school for the day, we headed to Roger’s where she picked out and brought her Chococat to life. Her name is Choco and she is a police officer. Her police skills were put on display when we got home and discovered a multitude of robberies had taken place. Chococat and I, her Assistant Officer, listened to each victim and then successfully tracked down each and every bad guy, even the ring leader, and the stolen possessions using sharp police and detective abilities, including a precise sleep dart gun shot, questioning, blackmail, and disguises. Later Kelly, Lionel, and I were judges on the latest and greatest show, “Animal’s Got Talent”. Hehe.

Sunday was wonderful Church. She made another new friend in Sunday School. : ) When we got home we chowed and took care of some Math and Science. It was then off to the Springdale Aquatic Center to enjoy some swimming and slides on their last day of operations. We went last weekend and she went down the long slide into shallow water and two short slides into deep waters for the first time. She has progressed each year at the pool. First year staying in the “kiddy” part, the next to the bigger kid part (she could stand), and this year we added the slides because she can swim now. We had a lot of fun both last and this weekend. We will be back next year. After finishing up school later at home we played board games.

Friday and Monday are on Facebook.

What a great weekend w/ my Gurl. Her imagination and playfulness fuel our playtime, her smarts make school a breeze, and her love for life and her Daddy are purely wonderful.

Mission Possible!

Date: 08/28/2010

Time: Between 0700 hrs and 2100 hrs.

Mission: Capture and tame the wild Google.

Operative Webkinz began there training Saturday morning. The combatants underwent thorough training, ability analysis, profiling, and after a trip to the locker room they lined up and took a great pep talk by there leader, Beauty (grey horse). They were driven to there departure location, U of A bus station, by none other than second in charge, Coco (himalayan cat). As the soldiers neared the war zone some became very nervous and apprehensive, none the less they all pulled thru and entered ready for battle. At the point of no return the Webkinz, Lila (chihuahua), Cotton Candy (dragon), Caramel (doggy), and Chocolate (monkey), huddled up to review the game plan, locate and capture. At first the enemy could not be located, but when it was...well, who woulda thought...the Goggle was nice. Some of the team were suspicious of the Googles warm nature and believed it was putting on a show, only to attack them when they were off guard. They returned the captive to there world headquarters and began questioning and testing to determine whether this Googles words and actions were genuine or fake. Turns out the Google is nice! Her name is Coconut.

As you can plainly see from our smiling faces, Daddy and MaryJane's 3rd trip on the University of Arkansas transit was a great one!.

Celebrating MaryJane!

My Darling Gurl MaryJane certainly enjoyed all the fun of celebrating her Birthday. We had a big party Sunday afternoon at our sweet and stylish club house. A good turnout of Friends and Family were present to celebrate w/ MaryJane. She got lots and lots of nice gifts, had a cool and yummy cake, and had a blast mingling w/ her friends in and out of the water. : ) After the party we went thru her new goodies on our living room floor, colored a nice picture together, and played some DSi on the couch before bedtime.

We continued celebrating Monday w/ Daddy taking off work to spend the day w/ Birthday Gurl. We had a great time playing w/ Pokémon figures and Pokémon cards and playing DSi at the house. We Played Pokémon trainers outside. We made 2 trips to the pool; the second time we played Pokémon at the pool, and a trip to Cold Stone Creamery where we enjoyed sweet treats.

More celebrating came Tuesday, her actual Birthday, with her and I going to the movie theater to see The Sorcerer’s Apprentice. We both love magic and this movies has plenty of spells that are amazing. A great movie for sure. Can’t wait to see it again on DVD. Prior to the movie we went to eat. She showed me a picture she had taken on her DSi of her and her 3 friends at the Sitters…and the picture of them after she had drawn on all their faces. She was a cat, Madie was a horse, Devon was a clown, and Cameron was some guy w/ a mustache. So then she took a picture of us together and made me a clown and her SpongeBob. The artwork was great and the faces were funny.

Wednesday was more celebration w/ her going to Gator Golf w/ Mommy and Christian. She said they had fun time and that she got a hole in one on the first hole. That’s my gurl. Mommy also took her and C to eat at Lynn’s Garden; the most delicious Chinese buffet known to man.

We finished up celebration yesterday w/ me taking her to Wal-Mart to get her final gift, a Pokémon game w/ 2 bonuses for her DSi. She loves it of course. We also chowed some Subway and had a lot of fun at the park in Johnson, so much that she has requested w/ go back tonight. Looking forward to it. 

So excited for all the wonderful things that the next years holds for her and I.

One last “Happy Birthday MaryJane”!

Daddy Loves You!

: )

I Heart Moving!

You’d think so at least from as much as we move. Yes, Its tru…we have moved. We are back at Electric Ave...same building…same side…same floor…just the other end. We like it there.

(6/3) - We headed for Fayetteville after leaving the sitters to eat an CiCi’s. We usually go to the one in Rogers, but the Fayetteville one is better. It was yummy. Next it was over to Barnes and Noble to browse and read as we frequently do. They are having there summer reading program where you read 8 books and then they give you a book for free as a prize. She read a few while we were there and would have read more if we hadn’t had to get going in order to have some time at the park. We went to the Jones Center Park. I knew they had a park, but I didn’t realize it was so big, fancy and cool. On the way there we pretended we were Chinese and at the park we played in general and played a ton of short pretend games. It was much fun. On the way home a cheerleading bear kept turning into a zombie and eating my hair. When we got home MaryJane cured her of her zombiness by playing the Plants vs. Zombies song for her.

(6/4-6/6) - Friday was packing day, Saturday was U-haul day, and Sunday was more packing and more moving day. It was a loonnngggg 3 days. I was very happy to have MaryJane there w/ me the entire time. We did not enjoy the fact that we did not get much time to play, but understood what had to be done. We did play a little each morning and each night and a few time thru out the day Friday. She watched tv Friday and Saturday morning and did other things like making cool crafts. She kept me in good spirits. She made a bunch of fish have a singing competition while I was working on Sunday. It was nice. A HUGE thank you to Bill for helping me move on Saturday and to Gina for bringing us dinner. Sunday was also a trip to Build-a Bear Workshop where she made her new friend “Peace”. She is a bright blue bear w/ bright colored peace signs all over her. She is very cool.

Family Camp 2010!

Tuesday (5/25) After picking Gurly up from the Sitter’s we headed over to a Las Fajita’s in Bentonville to eat. She taught me napkin etiquette, played w/ Lionel, and she saw how many times she could bounce a semi-bouncy call and catch it. Next it was off to the Bentonville Library. She got a few book and Lionel got in a lot of trouble. At home we played the game where she is a girl who lives in a tree house located the Forest. This time I pretended to be a guy that lived in the forest too. We became friends and decided we would meet again. She read a chapter of her newest book series, The Bailey School Kids, while I read Judy Moody.

Thursday (5/27) Today we made a quick stop by Braums on the way home to get some vanilla ice cream and fresh cones. Once home we played outside for a little bit. We were kids that just wanted to rock out, but our dad made us husk 1000 ears of corn a day instead. While eating dinner and enjoying the cream we watched part of Shrek Forever After. Then it was back outside for a few minutes to play and then back inside to watch more Shrek. While watching she decided to give me a manicure and a pedicure. She is quite good at both. She learned how to hypnotize and part of how to be a babysitter and the Sitters today.

Friday (5/28) This was the final day for MaryJane to attend her art class at the Jones Center. She came to work w/ me in the morning where she drew a beautiful picture of flowers. I later took her to her class where she did a cool forest painting. After class I picked her up, grabbed her some Donald’s and dropped her off at the Sitters. We made a semi-quick trip to Wal-Mart after work to pick up supplies for our weekend trip to Family Camp.

FELLOWSHIP FAMILY CAMP (MAY 29-31)

5/29/2010 to 5/31/2010

THIS CAMP IS FOR K- 6TH GRADE (FALL 2010) AND THEIR FAMILES. OUR DESIRE FOR FAMILY CAMP IS TO PROVIDE YOUR FAMILY A TIME TO FOCUS ON HAVING AND INCREDIBLY FUN TIME TOGETHER. JOIN US AT NEW LIFE RANCH FOR A WEEKEND YOUR FAMILY WON'T FORGET. WE HOPE FAMILY CAMP WILL BE A GREAT TIME TO CONNECT MORE DEEPLY WITH FAMILIES AND FIND THAT YOU'RE NOT THE ONLY ONE WORKING HARD TO RAISE CHRIST-LIKE CHILDREN. MAY 29-31 AT NEW LIFE RANCH IN COLCORD, OK.

We then headed to pick up MaryJane’s present for her Mommies B-day and grab a bite at Arby’s where Lionel tried continuously to invade her and Kelly’s Girls Club to no avail. At home we played outside. It was a game where Lionel and I meet a girl (MaryJane). She told us about the legend of a wolf that scattered jewels across the land. No one had ever found one…and we were not about to be the first. It is said that anyone who finds them will be haunted by the wolf. Yikes. Hehe. We later finished of Shrek. Despite my perception from previews that it would not be good…it is good. : ) Bedtime; big day tomorrow!

Car time this week included school (even one of my fav’s; Healthy Class), playing with Shrek toys, good conversation, and stinky Lionel. Bed time recently I order a meal and she makes it in the form of gum. It’s totally Willy Wonka style.

Saturday (5/29) After a fast and Furious last minute packing frenzy we headed for Colcord. It just on the other side of Siloam (about an hour drive). We got there just before 11:00, got our picture taken, and got half unpacked before it was time to head to the Chapel for our first rally. The rallies consisted of singing songs, a short play, and a short lesson (in rallies 2-4). We had a lot of fun singing and doing hand gestures and she learned a lot from the lessons. We then got into groups of 4 families and went on a Scavenger Hunt. We were w/ the Halls, Archers, and another family we did not know. Brandon Hall leads our community group and the Archers are members of our community group. We never found out who won, but we did really good and had fun doing it. It was then lunch, followed by an hour of free time, and then they opened the creek, pool, and challenge course from 2-4. We spent our afternoon doing various things. She made a cute cup to drink out of, I went down the big water slide a few times, we made an attempt to scale the rock wall, and spent a lot of time canoeing. We started out together and by the end of our canoeing day she was powering her own kayak. Part of the time we pretended that we were lost and being watched and followed by Indians. It was a great time. After attending the cook out for dinner we headed to rally number two. As I said before there was a lesson at the end of this one and the next two. Someone would speak for about 5 minutes then we had Breakout. This was where we went back to our rooms and spent time together as a family doing an in depth lesson based on what we learned at the rally. Our lessons and the theme for camp were based upon 2 Corinthians 5:17 “Therefore, if anyone is in Christ, he is a new creation; the old has gone, the new has come”! At 7:45 we attended a Sock Hop. We thought it was going to be a sack race…hehe. It was a 50’s themed get together where there was dancing, games, activities, and more. We played w/ holla hoops and danced together, she got a strike playing bowling. She danced w/ some older girls, she participated in a “do the twist” competition and a limbo competition, we ate ice cream, and she colored a picture for her new found best friend Julia. At dark she got a glow stick and 3-D glasses and then we watched an awesome fireworks show.

Sunday morning we got up, showered, and headed down to get some breakfast. I don’t remember specifically at what meals we did this, but we would pretend that we were students eating at the school cafeteria. Before our 3rd rally and 2nd break out we made a trip around the big island; both in kayaks this time. Then us parents meet up at the Chapel for a parent seminar while the kids played outside. She said she didn’t really play anything; rather spent time hanging out w/ Julia. After lunch we went back to the cabin where we meet up w/ our group from the scavenger hunt. We were there to build boats. Sunday night at 6:30 we had a boat race. Each team got 4 big pieces of cardboard and 3 rolls of duct tape. Our team built 2 boats. One for adults and one for kids. The adults did the boat work while the kids played and did crafts. MaryJane made a beautiful pillow. We then made out final canoeing / kayaking trip and then headed over to the creek attractions. She spent most of her time sitting by the life guard watching people get wet. I made a trip down the big water slide, 2 trips down the fast slide (a really long, steep, metal slide like you see on an old school play ground), and got launched from the blob (a huge inflatable laying on the water. One person lays on one end while another jumps from a ledge, landing on the other end and launching there victim into the air). After a quick stop at the pool we headed back to the cabin where she finished a second pillow and gave it to Julia. We threw down on some supper, grabbed our boats, and headed for the water. Brandon’s Wife, Windy, drove the adult boat and Brandon skis, Reed, was supposed to drive the kid boat, but he backed out and Matt ended up filling his spot. There were a lot of cool boats there. The race was hilarious. Some, like our teams kid boat being driven by an adult, didn’t last a second, while others slowly sank, and other did quite well. One even made it across the creek and back. Wow. Following the boat race all families meet at the Chapel for games. It was a game show theme called “Minute to Win It”. You get the drift I’m sure. I competed against another guy in playing “Card Ninja”. We tried to throw cards into watermelon halves. He got 4 in a minute while I got a big fat 0. Yup, I was horrible at it, but it was fun none the less. MaryJane competed right after me against another kid playing “Magic Carpet”. Thee scooted on rugs across the floor in a race. MaryJane Won. She did awesome. Finally for the day we attended a basketball game. I watched while she worked on a third pillow and spent time w/ Julia.

Monday was breakfast, rally number 4, breakout, and baptisms in the creek. After packing the car we played at the gym for a little bit and then we were on the road headed out. We made a stop at Donald’s and at Wal-Mart to get a few necessities and some party supplies. She said we would have a party to celebrate the good time we had at camp. Great idea. When we got home we opened our goodies; Pokémon packs, traded, ate cupcakes, and then stuffed animals came out and participated in a game show like we had Sunday night. They won gold medals. Next we played a talking Pokémon cards game. The one where my guy has the stinky cards and her girl has the awesome cards. We made a quick trip outside, I ran her thru the bath, and then after dinner we went back outside. We played a game where she was a girl of ill trades. She sprinkled Lionel and I with soap to clean us and then made me a smoothie, main dish, and a fancy bunny dessert. Yum. Last we played more of our Pokémon game. What a great weekend. We will always remember it.

Attention to Detail!

Saturday (5/22/10) - So here it is Saturday and I’m blogging about Saturday. ; ) We started our day w/ Nature Class. We walked down Rainbow Drive. I was the teacher and a student and MaryJane and Lionel were students. She made a nice list with her new multi color pen, I drew pictures, and Lionel wrote down two things kept picking things that were not nature. 2 W+'s and 1 A+. Then it was Barbie’s. It was a story we have done before with a family of 4; Mom, Dad, Daughter, and Son, and a Sitter. The little boy is bad and wont clean his room aside from throwing away a piece of trash or two, so he has to stay home w/ the sitter while that rest of the family goes to Disneyland. This time the daughter grew up later, got a boyfriend, and went to college. She became a Vet and Doc and the boy became a Firefighter and Policeman. The girl ended up keeping her fist animal patient, a LPS puppy that later grew up and had a puppy that she gave to Cinderella. They end up rescuing a ton of animals and finding homes for them. We paused at 9 during Barbie’s for me to go mow. She played Peggle, her newest favorite Pop Cap game. She is really good and is close to beating it already. She is a Peggle Superstar. After lunch we headed outside where we spent a lot of our afternoon. We played where I was the father, Lionel was the bad son and she was the good girl. We then played a game where she was a good Pokémon. I was her owner that wanted to make her be bad and Lionel was in video she watched about being bad. Next we attempted to do water ballons but they wouldn’t bust so we just sprayed each other with the hose and had a lot of good wet fun doing it. We later used the water balloons in a game where she was a vet. We made her a clinic in front of the storage shed and a bunch of animals from our yard sale were treated there. I would deliver water balloons full of medicine and other supplies as the UPS man to her and she would use the medicine on the animals. She did surgeries, removed bad cotton and beads from animals, putting medicine in and on them, putting good beads in them, and she gave one of them stitches and some band aids. I was also the father of Lionel who acted bad and tried numerous times to get into the clinic so he could get yucky medicine and chocolate: things she didn’t even have. We then did school. She learned about the Hebrews going from Egypt to Israel in History and about Matter in Science. After dinner we headed back out for another round of Vet and Lionel feel in love w/ one of the patients, but she wouldn’t have anything to do w/ him. We also had a battle, her using strong Magic 101 moves and me using weak sword moves. After playing a little more where she was the Wizard girl and I was the warrior boy we headed in and called it a day.

Sunday (5/23/10) - Sunday started off w/ 2 games where we use Pokémon cards as our characters. In the first game two 3rd stage cards and their minions (me) picked on some stage 1 cards (her). Another card was a police officer that made my cards leave her cards alone and arrested my cards. Her cards evolved and defeated all my cards. In the second game her group of cards was new to my group of cards neighborhood. My cards picked on her cards and got in trouble. Her cards evolved and my cards quit being mean. Then it was off to Church where we meet up w/ Poppy and Grandma Gina. The Sermon on The Bread of Life by Robert was great. On the way there and back she was a girl that loved nature and music who was new to school. She used her snake instrument to make the areas nature grow beautiful. Me, the teacher, and Lionel, the cranky student, were in awe. After lunch we got outside to play. We played games similar to Saturday. The battle game, except this time I tried to use magic, but it didn’t work. The vet clinic game, except this time she started off as a young girl just practicing to be a vet and I was her cranky brother who wanted to be the manager of a Chuck E. Cheese. She later grew up to own her own clinic and I didn’t get to work at Chuckies. The game where she is a Pokémon, except this time she was a water Pokémon part of the time. Before heading in we filled up water balloons, poked a tiny hole in the tops of them and pretend they were ice cream as we drank the water out of them. Later inside we did school. She learned details about the Hebrews trip from Egypt to Israel in History, about Properties in Science, and numerators and denominators in Math. Before leaving for Community group we played another Pokémon card game. This time we both had a Pokémon Trainer card. Hers had lots of Pokémon that evolved and mine had few Pokémon that would not evolve. She came to Community group w/ me and got to play and watch a movie w/ and 8 year old girl named Bailey while we watched a play called The Beam Seat. On the way there and back she spent some time reading her Bailey School Kids book #2. We found it funny that both her book and friend both were named Bailey. Haha. When we got home we played outside. She was the Wizard Girl and I was her brother who couldn’t do good at being a warrior or wizard. After a Water Balloon Ice Cream we headed inside. She played Peggle before bed and is on the last character. She is really good at that game. Now I’m off to do my chores so I can get in a little Peggle myself before bed. An awesome weekend it was.

I didn’t really take notes for last week or this week so far. I’m going to start typing each night about our day. That way it will all be fresh on my mind, I can get all the good details in there, and I won’t get behind. I can tell you we have been having a blast. I will get a little something put together about last week and put it here… and include a tad about this week so far when I do my Monday post. Later.