A Real American Hero

Kimberly has been wanting to add a peat gravel play area near our play structure for years. In July when I made her go to Menard's for other landscaping materials, she picked up a few bags of peat gravel.

One nice Saturday afternoon, we decided the "rock quarry" should go under the play structure. After we poured in the gravel, I decided the middle boys needed some motivation to try out the new play opportunities. So, I brought out the top-secret containers that have been hiding in our basement for years. By some people's standards, these containers would be nothing short of a jackpot:



That's right! Most of the G.I. Joe toys that Nick and I adamantly collected as kids were saved for years by our mother. Then, while cleaning out the basement, she decided to make the collection my problem. I couldn't just throw that stuff out!

The boys went crazy and commenced playing non-stop for several hours.





While some of the stuff looks "newer" (late 80's versus early 90's), there are still a few of my original figures and vehicles from when the 2 1/2" toys first came out. I won't name names, even though I could. It's crazy that those guys are pushing 30 years old at this point.

Bike Train

It's been a crazy busy/fast summer here on the farm (when we were actually here). Baseball season consumed the first half of the summer, and weekend driving trips seem to have consumed the second half.

We were home on a hot Sunday morning three weeks ago when I finally told Ethan we could ride our bikes to Homer. Of course, his brothers wanted to come too. A quick trial revealed that Owen and Aidan could fit in the trailer together...and they looked like sardines.

I hooked up the Trail-a-Bike and forced Owen to ride down the driveway against his will. I finally convinced him it was safe by holding the bike up and letting him try to push it over. Fortunately, he couldn't do it. After that, he was really excited about the Trail-a-Bike.

All that was left was to hook up the Burley to the Trail-a-Bike and we were ready for town. It was a nice ride, but really hot on the way home. We were all a bit pooped. My arms ached the next day from counterbalancing Owen's haphazard balance.



Here we are, finally back in the shade. Ethan is posing here, trying to take credit for being on the bike train. He was actually our scout

Baseball Season

Baseball season is upon us! It seems like nearly all of the families in Homer both look forward to and dread baseball season. It seemed like we were at the ball fields a lot when just Ethan played. This year Owen started t-ball, and now we really are at the ball fields all the time. Next week, there is at least one game every night, except one.

Ethan is doing awesome in baseball this year. Something happened during pre-season practices that changed him from a mediocre player to a confident ball player. He has hit two in-park home runs this season! And, he loves to play, which makes it that much more fun to watch. This is his second season in coach-pitch. Next year, he steps up to the big leagues.

Owen started t-ball this year. He's playing in full Owen-style. For his first at-bat, he came high-trotting up to the plate with his bat over his shoulder. I only wish I could have gotten it on tape. He frequently pulls his shirt up while trotting from third to home base and makes a funny sound. His skills still need some work, but he hit his first pitch last week, which was very exciting.

However, nothing can beat his t-ball picture that he insisted posing for:

From Misc

And, of course, here's his older brother:

From Misc

Like Son, Like Son

This picture of Ethan was taken in June, 2002, possibly on Father's Day. He was almost 8 months old.



This picture of Atticus was taken May 2. He was 7 months old.



Sadly, we don't seem to having matching pictures for the other boys.

First Home Run

Last night, Ethan's baseball team played a late (7:30) game in Tolono. Ethan has been hitting really well this season, compared to last. On his first at-bat, he hit a solid double. However, due to infielder errors (commonplace in coach pitch), good attention on his part, and fast running, Ethan stretched it into his first home run! He also brought in one or two runners.

It was really awesome. He followed that at-bat with two more doubles and a single, all of which were eventually converted to runs.

He played in the pitcher position the entire game and made several nice plays, including catching a line-drive.

As many of you know, I'm not Mr. Baseball. However, I love watching those kids play. They really get into it. It's fun to see how much the kids have improved in the 3 years since they started t-ball.

Sorry there aren't any pictures. Maybe next week.

On Owen's t-ball front, he had practice tonight and was super excited to catch a ball while they were playing catch.

Take Your Child To Work Day

Take Your Child To Work Day was celebrated last Thursday. For the first time, we decided to participate. Included in Ethan's were his Cub Scout binder, and his Nintendo DS. Much to his chagrin, I informed him that if he was going to miss school to come to work, he would be doing some learning!



The main accomplishment of the morning was earning his Cub Scout computer belt loop and academic pin. This involved studying the inner workings of a PC, using software to write a report, learning about Ethernet networks (sadly, just the 100 Mb/s that we use, not the 100 Gb/s that we build), learning about servers, and visiting the Boy Scouts website, where he discovered some games.



Next up, we decided to do some Snap Circuits projects. Handy enough, I stumbled over their introductory logic circuits. Ethan learned about AND, OR, NAND, and NOR. I explained the logic portion, and how charge actually flowed to make the circuits work. He predicted the truth tables for NAND/NOR and tested his hypothesis. Finally, we discussed how NAND is itself a complete logic set and that, in theory, you could make entire computer from NAND circuits!



All-in-all, we had a fun morning and I think Ethan learned a lot. I even got some of my own work done on the side!

When his brothers came to pick him up, they decided to extend some of the logic truth tables.

Now and Before

I just received my freshly-renewed passport. I'm wondering how many "watch lists" I am now on due to my new photo. It looks like I've gone from grimy college student to "international trouble-maker."


BEFORE


NOW