All kinds of fun

We've had some good laughs lately so I thought I would share...

This is from a couple weekends ago when we were out raking leaves. Kahlil is wearing his ear protection because Jay was using the blower. We had fun that day, but the real Fall fun was just a couple days ago. There is a big pile of leaves in the street just down from our house. I didn't really grow up in places where there are seasons and you can have a true 'Fall' experience, but my kids are and Kahlil did. He was literally jumping head first into the pile. He would kick his feet and make the leaves go up into air while yelling "I'm a leaf volcano!". I was cracking up. Unfortunately I didn't have a camera on me.

Here is Langston putting in some serious time at the work bench:




Sometimes we make faces at each other. Kahlil was a little overcome with winking:



Kahlil and the kittens were having a good time tonight:



One of the kids at daycare, Leo, had his fourth birthday party this weekend. We went to his place to celebrate with Leo and his friends and family. There were about 30 people there including about 12 kiddos. The big activity for the kids was making their own pizza. They got to wear chef hats, roll out the dough, put on the toppings and eat it once it was cooked. It was really cool. In between chef-ing, the kids ran around, wrestled, and generally had a great time. The gift hit-of-the-party was a new firetruck. While Kahlil was finishing his lunch, Leo was pushing the truck around making siren noises... Kahlil told me Leo is the fireman but that he needs a fireman sidekick. I asked if he had any ideas who would make a good fireman sidekick... he thought he would do a good job. A few minutes later, Kahlil and three other kids were running after Leo making siren noises, I think the were all good fireman sidekicks. This picture was on the car ride home. I think the mark of a good party is how quickly your kids crash in the car.

Halloween and Checkup

Halloween was a lot of fun again this year. Since March, Kahlil has said he wants to be Buzz Lightyear for Halloween. I said that was fine and the Toy Story theme started to grow on me. By the time all was said and done we had Buzz, Woody, Jessie (the cowgirl), and Zurg (the space villain). I guess months to plan got me in a crafty mood and I made most of Jay, Langston, and my costumes. I was pretty happy with how they came out, but I wouldn't let a real seamstress take a close look. We found the Buzz costume at the used clothes shop and I had a special pair of Buzz boots made... it was perfect! Langston also got a new pair of boots out of the deal.

Once we all got done-up we hit the streets of downtown Corvallis for a little trick-or-treating on Friday afternoon. Kahlil was all over asking for candy... Langston was a little unsure at the start and wanted to stay in the wagon. But by the end, he was jumping out and leading the way into the stores - regardless of crowd size. As usual, the town was loaded with kids and great costumes. It was so fun to participate. Once we got back to Soft Star the boys both dug into their bags and had a little snack. Kahlil told Melissa he was going to give her some candy since she doesn't trick-or-treat... but his bag was empty by Saturday afternoon. When Melissa asked about the candy he told her he didn't get enough chocolate to bring her some. (We went to the store tonight and bought her a chunk of chocolate for him to give her tomorrow :-)

I forgot to give the update on the boys checkup last week - Kahlil had his 4 year and Langston his 18 month. They are both doing great... generally healthy and thriving. K is in the 75th percentile for height and weight while L is 50th percentile for both. K got a couple shots and didn't shed a single tear. The nurse was VERY impressed and said it took four people to hold her daughter down for those shots.

The kittens are doing great and I'm SO happy with how they are with Kahlil. It's been a little heart breaking the last year or so when Kahlil tried to make friends with Bubba and Bubba would have nothing to do with him. I'm sure that is why Kahlil started tell us he likes dogs better than cats and wanted us to get a dog. But now the kittens love to play with him, let him pet them, and will spend some time with him in bed at night. He loves to feed them and is gentle with them (most of the time). Of course he's still learning when to give them space and how to keep them happy so they don't run off, but the mom-can-we-get-a-dog mantra has stopped. Good job Egon and Ray!

Hoop Dreams

The nice people at Hewlett-Packard gave me a pair of tickets to the opening game for the Oregon State men's basketball team. If you're not from here, you may not know that the OSU coach is the brother-in-law of Barak Obama. Coach Robinson looks like his sister, Michelle Obama, but taller, heavier, mannier.

Anyway, the tix were for the first game, an exhibition game against Southern Oregon. One of those warm-up games where a major university is supposed to crush a smaller (literally) opponent. They're usually a bit boring, but hey! it's a live basketball game, and the seats were awesome -- center court in the first tier.

Oh yeah, I gave the second ticket to Kahlil.

The game went according to plan. I spent some timing thinking how if I could get Coach Robinson to learn my name I'd be two degrees of freedom from the leader of the free world. Gave my son some cogent explanations regarding the difference between a cheerleader and an OSU dancer (miniskirt versus hot pants.) And for balance, I showed him the band: See? You can be cool even without having and baring those awesome abs...just in a geeky band member sort of way.

Kahlil is four. He's inquisitive and talkative, and he likes games so I was interested to see how much of the game would be of interest. With our seats, dunks should look spectacular. And against Souther Oregon, I expected there to be a lot of dunking by OSU players. It started off great -- Kahlil was an enthusiastic clapper. That was pretty much his peak though, basketball-wise. Mostly, he would wait for a quiet moment to say something like: "Daddy, I have to tell you something! If you drink too much Gatorade than you have to spend the rest of your life on the potty!" Think I'm making it up? Ask Michelle Roeser, my co-worker who happened to be sitting right behind us. He also spent significant minutes under my seat playing a game he called 'pop-up toy'. He elbowed the lady sitting in front of me. I guess that was a baller move.

Benny Beaver, the OSU mascott, was a hit. Kahlil was stoked to run up to him and get a high five. It's a terrible picture, but you get the idea. That was the one thing that would keep Kahlil interested in looking at the court -- Where is Benny? Interestingly, Kahlil understands that the mascott isn't a giant, bipedal, speechless beaver. He casually referred to Benny later as a person in a beaver costume. I don't really know what he knows and doesn't know...

I guess the game itself should get a mention. Let's see: 40+ point blow out, maybe a one-third capacity crowd, two new giant TV screens on either end of Gill Arena, ruthless OSU defense that made me feel compassion towards the overmatched Southern Oregon squad, and a blindfolded free throw shooting contest that organizers must now understand is a bad idea.

After the game, it was a sunny, late fall afteroon. Those days are to die for around here. Walking back, the sky is blue, stunning yellow and gold trees, dry crispy maple leaves crunching underfoot. The onset of the Gloom here is heralded by these days that can make a sensible man cry. And this day was spiced up by the buzz of the victorious ball game, flag football games raging on the wide intramural fields, and students all over the place jogging, laughing. It's the kind of day you see on a university catalog.

Next month, not so much. Won't be sunny, the carpet of leaves will be brown and slimy, the trees bare. But I get ahead of myself. It's still early fall, and Kahlil was charged up. Here he is scooping up leaves...

and throwing them at me!

And finally throwing himself amongst the fallen foliage...

See that stick in Kahlil's hand? He picked that up along the way and informed me that it was simultaneously his exhaust port and it was the pump with which he drew 'cold solar energy' from the ground. You don't get 'cold solar energy' (CSE) from being in the sun, but rather from sticking the pump (stick) into the ground near a tree or a bush.

The walk home was continually interrupted by the need to get some CSE to charge up the 'ol batteries. I walked along slowly, and Kahlil would sprint past me, spraying his exhaust at me, then leaping toward the next tree or bush to charge up again.

Eventually, he became a very bold little energy explorer. He has Exxon potential: not much respect for the environment if gets between him and energy.

I guess the CSE is for real. He was charging around like this all the way to the car, all the way home, and all the way to bed. Where he finally ran out of gas, and since I made him leave his CSE pumping stick outside, he passed out.

jay

Muddy Pumpkins

Quick kitten/Bubba update... Bubba has decided the kittens aren't so bad because they came with kitten food. The kittens mostly just ignore Bubba and do their own thing... which often involves getting into things and places they aren't suppose to.

We went to the pumpkin patch with Melissa this week. Along with James, Leo and Annika's dad, I got to be a chaperon on this trip. Kiddos in tow were Sean, David, Leo, Annika, Cruz, Kahlil, and Langston. We rode in a trailer behind a great tractor though DEEP mud to get to the pumpkin patch. The rule of the patch was that you can only take a pumpkin that you can carry by your self... our pumpkins were pretty small. Back at the farm the kids got to use an air cannon to launch ears of corn across a field. It was pretty loud, but the flying corn was exciting enough that nobody seemed to mind the noise. Then it was off to the rubber duck races which seemed to be the favorite activity of the day. It was a great setup where you put your duck on a gutter-track then pump a hand pump to get water to flow into your gutter and push the duck. Kahlil was awesome at it and won several of his races... Langston may need another year and a few more inches before he's competitive. We also spent a little time in the hay bale maze. The bales were just tall enough to define the maze, but not so tall that the kids couldn't see over them. It was funny because even though Kahlil could see everybody and everything, he got upset a couple times because he was 'lost'. Luckily we were able to point him in the right direction. Despite the chill and the mud, or maybe because of the mud, everybody had a great time.



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The Feline Ghostbusters

We picked up a couple kittens at Heartland Humane Society yesterday. YEA!!! All of our cats have been named after scientists and we saw no reason to change that. But we went a slightly different direction this time... meet Egon and Ray!

Egon (pronounced E-Gone) is 3 months old and he came out of the crate and moved right into the family. He has been here less than two days and he has already been seen chasing Kahlil up the hall, rolling around with Langston on a sleeping bag, getting pulled around the house in a laundry basket, and slipping into the bath with Kahlil and Langston. He also makes it hard to work on the computer as he is a total lover.

Ray is five months old and a little more reserved, but I think he is just about to burst out of his shell. He has mostly hidden in the kitty room since arriving, but he has gotten easier and easier to coax out. This evening he had a mini love-fest with Kahlil and me. We followed that up with some serious play. He may always be a little skittish, but I think he will fit in just fine. And, no, his eyes don't have laser beams in them. I don't have good red eye software and this was the best picture I got that shows what a cool color he is.

You may ask how Bubba (i.e. Kepler, remember the scientist thing?) is with the new additions. Bubba seems to be dealing very well. He and Egon have touched noses and Bubba had a small growl but nothing serious. Since then they have crossed paths several times and nothing more than a sniff has come of it. Bubba hasn't meet Ray so it's possible there will be trouble, but I think it will work out. I think any real trouble will come when Ray and Egon are given free range of the house and think Bubba looks like a fun toy.

The Birthday Party

Kahlil's Big Bounce House Birthday Bash was last weekend. But even before the party we were having fun with our first sleep over! Tivi and Cruz spent Saturday night with us. After lunch on Saturday, while Langston napped the three older kids helped me to bake Kahlil's strawberry coconut cake. Once the cakes were out of the oven, we headed to see Toy Story 1 & 2 in 3-D.

I was a little worried a double feature would be too long to sit still, but all three did great. Cruz was getting a little antsy by the end, but all in all a good moving going experience. The only part of the sleep over that was a little dicey was at bed time. I had the three older kids all on the floor together, but Tivi and Kahlil kept pestering each other. So once Kahlil went to his own room, everybody settled in and slept just fine through the night.

The next morning we all got up and had breakfast. The kids helped me make the frosting and frost the cakes after a few super heroes (and a monkey) ran around the house for a little while.

Then we loaded up and headed to the Bounce House. It was a well attended party by Valerie (w/Andrea), Jack (w/Heidi, Grace, and Mark), Anaika & Leo (w/Jennifer), and Sean & David (w/Priscilla and Brad).

The best thing about the Bounce House is that the grownups get to play too - including crazy Grace! Heidi, Mark and I watched her nervously, but she was fine and really enjoyed her walk on the wild site. We all had a great time, the cake was yummy, and Kahlil did very well on the gift side. I think it will be a fourth birthday to remember.










Langston was VERY excited about the cake and kept moving down the table to get closer.





















Heidi, Jack, Cruz, Tivi, and Kahlil hanging out on the jungle inflatable.


















Tivi, Sean, Kahlil, Leo, Larkin and Langston at the top of the slide.
















Valerie in action.





















Jennifer, Anaika, Tivi, Sean, and Priscilla at the top of the slide. Anaika was fearless on the slide and loved going down all by herself.

















Dad, Little Brother, Birthday Boy, and Mom.

The feverish birthday week

Kahlil turned FOUR on Sunday... but it was a rough week running up to his birthday.

Starting the Sunday before his birthday he started running a fever. It got up to just over 104 so we made a quick trip to the doctor on Monday. His ears and lungs were clear, but he had swollen, spotty tonsils. They tested the tonsils for strep but that was also negative. In general he was healthy - no chest cold, no runny nose, no cough - but this fever just wouldn't go away and he was pretty emotional (nice word for GRUMPY). To control the fever we were medicating every few hours. He would have moments of happiness, but most of the time he was not happy at all. So by Friday we are all on edge and went back to the doctor. She was about to order a blood draw when she notices a light rash on his chest... yea! that meant it was a virus that had pretty much run its course.

But Kahlil's birthday is on Sunday and he had be in a bad mood for a week... what to do? We decided to delay his party for a week which was a good call as the Grump was still around for a few more days. On Sunday we did have cupcakes and presents here at home so there was a bit of a party.

From Grandma and Papa he got a garbage truck which has been a HUGE hit. He has been emptying every toy and drawer he can get to and has constructed a landfill in the office (check it out below). He has spent hours loading stuff into the little trashcan, having the can dump into the garbage truck. Once the truck is full it's off to the landfill!

At Melissa's he got cool a Buzz Lightyear / Woody / rocket ship toy. It's been in his bed with him every night.

He also got a new bike from Mom and Dad. This is a special bike without pedals (they will be added back on later). The lack of pedals lets kids use their feet to push and balance. Once they get the balancing down, you put the pedals back on and they are good to go! He is still a tiny bit small for the bike, but he should be in business next year when we are back in good biking weather.



After the rough start, Kahlil's birthday has been pretty good so far... and we haven't even had the bounce party yet!

The Holavarri Guestroom Landfill - bet you can't wait to come visit and sleep next to this!