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Showing posts with label Family. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Family. Show all posts

Wednesday, August 17, 2016

Fox Brook Lake - Sunday August 14th


With her brother and his two oldest girls in town to visit her sick stepfather, Lisa organized an outing to Fox Brook Lake for both families. 





Since he forgot a swimsuit, Mike was stuck with grill duty, firing up jalapeno burgers and brats. 



It was eerie how similar the second-oldest girls were physically, and in temperament. 





No pics of the swimming and diving this time, as I didn't want to risk the camera again. But we did go pedal-boating, with Mike and I taking turns taxiing the kids. 


This is FAKE outrage. Real outrage would have put the camera in the lake LOL











Sadly, as with every trip to the lake, a guest (this time Mike) dropped his phone in the water, rending it a brick :(

This is Samma, Mike's second oldest. 


Aside from the loss of the phone, I think everyone had a blast!



Sunday, July 28, 2013

Pregnant with YaYa - 2001

This is a famous photograph in our family, one that was in YaYa's room for a decade, until the frame broke and the pic wound up in a pile of dirt on the floor - such is life in the real world. 

Anyway, this was taken in 2001, when Lisa was pregnant with our firstborn, YaYa. The setting is the driveway of Lisa's Mom's house on 56th St, a house she has since sold. 


Sunday, June 16, 2013

Thursday (June 13th) was a good day for Team Slap.

Thursday  (June 13th) was a good day for Team Slap.

It didn’t start out that way, as befits any good tale – where’s the drama in perfection? At the last moment I checked my calendar and found that LuLu and Smiley had a dentist appointment at 9 a.m.  Oops. That was bad enough, but it turns out I was wrong about the time, and we sat in the waiting room for an unnecessary half hour.

Both kids were there to have cavities fixed, and LuLu went first. Within a few minutes the dentist called back to the exam room, where Lu was steadfastly refusing to open her mouth claiming (and this was the first I’d heard of it) a fear of needles. After briefly resuming the argument the dentist gave up and recommended I take her to a specialist in pediatric dentistry.

Since I can’t afford this, I wooed Lu and convinced her to continue. She reneged on her agreement,  and was promptly removed to the waiting room. Smiley then went in and conducted his business with unflappable English resignation, although I credit this simply to wanting to show up his sister, as he is normally quite afraid of the dentist.

Lisa later expressed her dissatisfaction with my failure to convince Lu.

Lunch and a nap followed, and then we gathered outside to take our bikes out of their winter quarters in the shed. The news wasn’t good. Of the six bikes we have for five of us (mine was stolen last June), one had had  a bad chain, two had cracked tires that wouldn’t hold air, one had a front tire that was loose and later found to be leaking air, and the sixth was too small for anyone.

I fixed up the small bike by raising the seat and handlebars so at the very least Junie could ride it around the alley, but it won’t do long term. I fixed the loose wheel and tinkered with the others, but all in all it’s a shambles, and I don’t know where I’ll find the money to fix or replace them all.

Here comes the good news though.

Last week, when I took the mower Lisa bought me for Father’s Day 2012 out of storage, it refused to start.  I was told I’d gummed up the carburetor by failing to remove the gas over the winter, which in my ignorance I had no clue was necessary. Lacking the funds to fix it right now, I made do with the awful rotor mower I inherited from my Big Grandpa.  On a lark I tried the power mower again yesterday, and it started! Oh, it belched black smoke for awhile, but it came to life with vigor and I mowed the lawn, then, feeling inspired, took out the trimmer and finished the job.

Hot dog!

Then even bigger news – Smiley learned to ride a bike!

Lu took him out to the alley and had him practice on one of the bikes, and like the Mother Hen she is she was calm and collected as she instructed him. Then, to our surprise, she let go and he rode down the alley. Lisa and I both let our a roar and threw our arms in the air! We’ve been trying for two years to teach the boy, and he’s always been too squeamish to master it, which was directly at odds with Lisa’s insistence that bike riding is a prerequisite for childhood. Again – hot dog!

Feeling all warm and family-ish, I grabbed our mitts and headed to the alley for a game of catch with Smiley. Lisa joined us for awhile, and soon Junie had designated herself as the ball girl, running after each missed ball as it traveled down the alley, which relieved me of the worst part of catch. Lisa then went and played some volleyball with Lu, but once I heard the kid start to whine I knew it was time to pack it in and go inside.
After a quick but improvised dinner Lisa and I cuddled on the couch and watched Dateline.

To finish off the night, while in the car the radio provided me with perfect driving music: Nine Inch Nails, GNR, Black Sabbath, Van Halen (Hagar),  ABBA and One Direction.

All in all, a great day J

Tuesday, May 21, 2013

The Spring Festival (First Communion Celebration)

First off here's a pic of my baby:



After the recital we treated Smiley and the girls to some time at our parish Spring Festival, something the kids love but I . . . well, I normally weasel my way out of it :)

Neither Smiley nor I like rides, so he spent his tickets on the giant slide.





Lisa and the girls preferred to spend theirs on the tilt'a'whril.









Meanwhile Smiley tried his hand at skeet ball and won a gold-ish chain with an "Ace" pendant.





To top off the evening my daughters wanted to ride, er - whatever THIS thing is called. Smiley and I wanted noooooo part of it!







Ain't they beauties?





They had a blast on the ride, and Junie made sure to wave each and every time it rotated past us!


.


They all had a blast. After this, it was the drive-thru at Taco Bell followed by an impromptu picnic/romp in the park, and the before-posted Railroad Walk!

Wednesday, May 15, 2013

The Railroad Walk

May 5th - the day of Smiley's First Holy Communion, was a grand day of many adventures. The others will be detailed in good time, but the final fling of the day was a stop in the park behind Pulaski High School, where we ate some Taco Bell and had the kids unwind by running around on the grass. I casually mentioned a railroad bridge nearby that I used to cross everyday walking to school. The kids wanted to see it, so what the heck - I took them across and down the tracks.  















To my knowledge, the bridge is no longer in use (I noticed the line was blocked off with gravel at the start of it, presumably by someone official-like), but the line that 'T''s with it is active. On the second trip over the bridge Smiley and Junie ran ahead and we heard a train blow its whistle. Now, let it be known that from MY vantage point I could see the train was headed down the track but if you were taking a photograph from where LuLu and YaYa were standing it looked like that train was a'barrelling down the bridge and right at the lil' ones who had nowhere to go. 

YaYa and LuLu screamed and screamed until the train went past, then ran to gather up their siblings. They (the older two) were clearly traumatized, while the little kids seemed perplexed by the attention. While it was terrifying for both of my oldest two, the incident made me fee warm inside - when push came to shove, they love their siblings and hated the idea of them being hurt. 

We may take that walk again, and soon, because the kids have expressed an interest in taking the tracks all the way to the road by our house (several miles) and to quote Lisa "they don't get as much excitement as I did as a kid. If you're with them, and its safe, I think it would be good for them."

What a great Communion day Smiley had!