Sports All-Star

Apologies for not updating the blog sooner, Daddy has been away for the Pocono NASCAR race. More on that later. First, last week Mommy signed Malin up for the Pee-Wee All-Star Sports Camp at the Lion's Den. The camp ran for four days from 6:00 to 8:00, and the kids focused on a different sport each night. Monday was Basketball, Tuesday was Floor Hockey, Wednesday was Baseball, and Thursday was Soccer. We had to buy here a ball glove and shin guards, everything else was provided. She came home completely sweaty every night, so they must have worked her pretty hard. Of course, the 90 degree weather with no AC helped. Also, there only ended up being 5 kids signed up (Marina and Briley were 2 of the other 4), so with 3 instructors, they got lots of individual attention. Malin's favorite was Floor Hockey, followed by Basketball, then Soccer, and Baseball last. Each night they took a picture, which were made in to 'trading cards', which are what you see below. (Apologies for the bad scans - the real pictures are much better). Also Thursday night there was a short award ceremony where she received a Certificate of Completion. She said that "[The camp] was GREAT", and wants to do it again next year. Gavin (once again left out of the pictures I see) was very curious about each sport, and is hoping to go when he's old enough.

 

We Love You, Gavin!

Daddy feels like he's always tacking a picture of Gavin on the end of posts about Malin, so here's a blog entry dedicated entirely to Gavin!
First, one of Gavin's latest ways to entertain Mommy, Daddy, Malin, and whomever else might be at the house is to stand up on the hot tub with the piano song book and sing, 'Rain, Rain, Go Away'. I think this was taken in late April.
Next, crawling through a tunned in a moonwalk-type thing at the big Zimmerman Truck Lines open house. (Mid-May)
This third picture was taken in Brenda P's mom's back yard, on the waterfront in Salem, MA during our most recent visit. (Memorial Day weekend)
Last -- don't ask. (Okay, if you must--that's the skirt to a cheerleader costume that he's using as a 'Superman' cape.)

 

Catching Up!

Daddy hasn't been very good at keeping this up to date, and since there's nothing exciting going on here tonight other than a rather severe thunderstorm, Daddy will take the opportunity to catch up on some older pictures.
	The local corn isn't quite ready yet (although it should be good this year with all the rain), but Mommy's been picking up the 'Carolina' corn whenever she sees it at the supermarket. The kids really get in to huskng it (although Daddy wishes they would do it outsidse), and REALLY get in to eating it. It's not uncommon for Gavin to eat an entire ear, and Malin usually eats at least two!
	This picture was taken a month or more ago at the American Cancer Society's 'Walk For Life', held at Kish Park. They had a hot air balloon there available for rides, something Daddy's always wanted to do. Unfortunately because of the weather they didn't give any rides, but they did blow up the balloon and let people check it out. Gavin was really intrigued -- until they fired the 2,000,000 BTU propane burned while he was standing in the basket under it. That was about 10 seconds before this picture was snapped. It took about an hour to get him calmed back down. [Did anyone know that the air temperature at the top of a hot air balloon is more than 250 degrees? Daddy thought that was interesting]
	This was taken during Malin's school field trip to Lake Tobias, which we blogged about back when it happened. It was a rainy, messy day, but she had fun anyway.
	At her field trip, Malin was allowed to choose one small item from the gift shoppe. She chose some sort of wierd gooshy ball. Of course, she (or possibly Marina) managed to get a small pinhole in it before they even got home. When Daddy got home that evening, he tried to patch it with some contact cement. BIG mistake -- green goop everywhere! Daddy managed to catch most of it in a bowl, and of course allowed Malin to play in it a bit before throwing it away. Daddy had more fun with the goo than he ever would have with the ball!

 

Pink Princess!

Okay, so here's the reason that Daddy hasn't had time to blog during his vacation. Malin has been asking that her room be a little more 'girlie' ever since we moved in, so Daddy made that his project for the week. Malin was involved in every part of the process, from picking the paint at Lowe's (Note that the final color is a couple of half-shades lighter than what she originally picked, and we only did two walls with the bright pink -- the other two are a much paler pink), to steaming the wallpaper, to scrubbing wallpaper glue, to spackling holes, to sanding spackling, and eventually doing some of the painting. (The only thing we didn't allow her to help with was the oil-based primer) The size of the room made it a much bigger project than Daddy anticipated, but I think the final result met her goal. She was so excited. Tonight is her first night sleeping in it.
Oh, and not to let Gavin out of the pictures, here he is enjoying a piece of 'Death By Chocolate' cake at one of our picnics.

 

Blogackers?

Not sure what the proper computer term is for people who have blogs and are slackers at updating it, but I am sure we qualify for whatever it is. Daddy took a whole week off of work and still didn't find time to blog. (More on that later)

Let's see...our week started out with all the holiday picnics. Saturday Mommy and Daddy headed to Cory and Colleen Snooks for their 'wedding reception' (They were married on the beach in Florida during the Penn State Bowl Game) while the kids stayed with Aunt Christie.

Sunday we went to Nana's in the afternoon. She had lots of good stuff on the grill, and lots of salads and side dishes. We had a full day of swimming and eating there, then went to Aunt Christie's in the evening. Aunt Christie did ribs on the grill, and Uncle Billy made home-made french fries in his deep fryer. Malin wanted to stay overnight there, but then had a melt-down just before Daddy went home, so she went home with him.

Monday we took a breather, staying at home and doing some yard work. Stacie went to the doctors to get some medicine for the cold she's been fighting. The kids are still not completely over it yet, either.

Tuesday we had a picnic at Tonya's. We had campfire food there -- mountain pies, hot dogs, bratwurst, smores, and broom handles. The hit of the night was Todd's water balloon launcher.

After all the late nights and with everyone under the weather, we pretty much stayed around the house for the rest of the week.

Saturday night we headed to Nana's again for an afternoon dip. Then the kids stayed overnight (Gavin's first time), while Mommy and Daddy went home and rented a couple of movies.

Today, Nana and Pappy Tom took the kids to Del Grosso's Amusment Park near Tyrone. They had a good time, but were exhausted. They are just getting settled, which is good, because Daddy has been sleeping in until 9 every day, and needs to go to bed to get back in to his work routine!