Happy 11th Birthday Derek!

Derek at his 4th birthday party in 2003 - it seems like it was maybe a few years ago, but not 7!

Now he's a big pre-teen - roughhousing with his friends

Pizza for dinner

Loading into the van

Piling out in the arena parking lot

Watching the hockey game

Florida Everblades vs the hometown Gwinnett Gladiators


Hoping the blimp will drop free stuff our way

Score!!! Gladiators win 4-2

Playing PictoChat on their Nintendo DS's

Cake time

Derek, Gavin, and Christian. Gavin made a card with a picture of his fro fully extended.

More roughhousing in the morning

It's hard to believe that our oldest son, Derek, is 11 years old today. It goes so fast.

On Saturday night, Derek had a birthday party where he invited some friends over for a sleepover. We had pizza for dinner and then went to a Gwinnett Gladiators hockey game. One of Derek's friends canceled at the last minute, so rather than waste a ticket we let Adam invite his friend Ryan to the game. Derek wasn't thrilled, but conceded after crashing and burning on calls to some of his other friends to see if they could go.

The kids were into their Nintendo DS's and mp3 players. One kid had an iPod Touch, which is what Derek is all hot on now. He still likes Lego's, but is telling everyone he wants cold hard cash so he can get his Touch. I'm still not so sure about it, but you have to appreciate his enthusiasm.

After the game we came back home for cake and ice cream and presents. We all stayed up until after 1 am watching the Blind Side. The movie was good and we were kind of in an exhausted haze and weren't really paying attention to the time, so it was good that the kids actually decided on their own to stop the movie and finish it in the morning.

Lulu Centric

It's been almost 3 years now since we adopted our pet dachshund, Tallula (aka Lulu, Jabooboo, etc). It's hard to believe how much the boys have taken to her.

When the boys were born we had 2 big labs - Bailey a black lab and Madison a buff colored lab. The boys were more or less ambivalent towards them. The dogs were around but there was no real bond. We put Bailey down several years ago and Madison a year or so after we got Lulu.

Since then Lulu has become front and center in the boy's lives. They fight over who gets to sleep with her each night and they're constantly searching her out to cuddle. When we go away they talk about how much they miss Jabooboo. It seems strange how they never really bonded with the other dogs like they have with Lulu. I guess it's a combination of Lulu being more their size and the fact that they are a little older and more aware.

As a rule, Helen and I don't much care for smaller dogs, but for some reason we have always liked dachshunds. Forget about schnauzers, shitzus, or any of the other more foofoo dogs.

I'm definitely not happy that Lulu still pee's in the house sometimes, but I love the fact that her accidents are so small compared to our labs who's waste was more like that of a horse.

There's a dog park next to where the boys play hockey. Big dogs are in one section and little dogs are in another. We were in the small dog section with Lulu the other day longingly watching the big dogs play in the other section when Helen made a great observation - "I think I like big dog people better than little dog people." I had to agree.

Lulu is a great little dog and has been a welcome addition to the family, despite the fact she's somewhat of a little princess. I take her with me when I walk the boys to school and when I'm walking back with Lulu on the leash I want to somehow let everyone else know that I'm really not a little dog person, but oh well.

Hockey Is It

Adam tries out his new hockey skates

Me trying to organize the closet to make room for all the hockey equipment

Sunday February 21, 2010

Hockey is "it" now. Derek loved his first season of roller hockey this past winter. Adam wished he had played hockey instead of basketball and they both ditched baseball this spring for hockey.

Before hockey, neither Derek or Adam showed much interest in skating. They would skateboard and ride their scooters, but were always somewhat timid with the skates. Even when Derek knew he was going to be playing hockey, he didn't really put much effort into learning to skate beforehand. Luckily, they picked up skating pretty quickly once they started playing hockey.

Adam went from barely being able to stand up a couple months ago to whizzing all around now. I even got a pair of roller blades to skate around with the boys. Adam took me all around the park the other night. I almost busted it a couple times. Helen still has a knot in her butt from her first experience with roller blades when we went in Piedmont Park about 15 years ago so she doesn't show much interest in getting any skates.

Our kids have also inspired a bunch of the neighborhood kids to start playing hockey. A couple of the kids are on Adam's team this spring. It's the first sport that all the kids seem to be really rallying around. For some reason, the neighborhood kids rarely ever get together to play any sports. They will run around doing other things, but (much to the disappointment of Dad's) never seem to get any sports activities going. Now, with hockey, they seem to be out in the culdesac almost every day playing hockey. Even several of the preschool kids are into it.

Adam's Clubhouse

Adam and some of his gang

Adam shows me where his gang built a pit and covered it with brush in order to catch outsiders

Saturday February 20, 2010

Adam and his friends have had various clubhouses over the years. The latest one is an area along a creekbed that runs behind some neighborhood houses.

A couple years ago Adam and his friends had established a clubhouse behind some of the cedar trees that run along our backyard fence. A sewer like smell tipped us off to the fact that they were digging holes and peeing in them.

Adam has always been into the clubhouse thing. I don't think Derek was ever into it. Adam's club rules can be very elaborate. Once Adam spent hours devising a code sheet with symbols that were tied to each letter of the alphabet. Adam painstakingly made 6 or 8 copies of the code sheet by hand for the other club members and then led a training session for them to learn to write in code.

One time I caught Adam and his friends hazing one of the younger brothers. They were having the kid stay under a laundry basket for a lenghth of time in order for the kid to gain membership into the club. I told them not to do that, but they insisted (and the kid confirmed) that the kid liked being under the basket. I saw that there was plenty of air holes so I let it ride.

Helen and I aren't much into belonging to organizations, but somehow I think Adam is a future fraternity kind of guy.

Old Slow White Guys

Early in the game we're still in it - only down 7-2

All clear on my side

It looks like I jumped at least a few inches

Adam and Derek like to shoot around after the games

Only lost by 20 - that's one of our better games

Saturday February 6, 2010

One of the guys on my tennis team talked a bunch of us into joining an open men's basketball league this winter. I went in with the lowest of expectations and I was still let down. I suck - they suck - we all suck.

I'm exaggerating somewhat. I've enjoyed getting back on the court. From 1990 to 2000 I played a lot of basketball. I worked at the Concourse office complex and played basketball almost every day with a great bunch of guys at the Concourse Athletic Club. I have some friends from back then that work with me now and we always talk about those days as the "good old days".

We didn't know how good we had it. We were young, in better shape, had no kids, had stock options worth something, and the biggest issue of the day was presidential blow jobs. It's hard to wish away all that's transpired, but those were the days.

Derek's Science Fair Project

Derek checks the temperature of the ice water

Adam's first impression

Derek's reaction

Saturday February 6, 2010

For some reason, this year Derek decided that he wanted to do a science fair project. He's never done one in the past. We usually mildly encourage that he try and then privately wipe our brow when he decides not to do one since, inevitably, it would mean work on our part.

Derek's project was to determine whether or not people could be distracted enough to tolerate pain. His experiment was to have us put our foot in a bowl of ice water, distract us with a video game or a movie, and then measure how long we could stand it.

All the reactions were pretty funny, but we had to do it a number of times so it was kind of pain when we were trying to get things done. In the end we came to the conclusion that 1 out of 4 people are wimps. Everyone felt the pain, but could stand it enough to make it through - except for Helen who caved quickly each time.

After subjecting us all to the experiment, Derek decided a few days later that since we were already crunched for time with all the activities, school work, and trying to get ready for our ski trip, it would probably be better if he didn't enter the science fair. It was a little annoying since I felt that he could have gotten it done had he applied himself, but again, since it would impact us to some degree, we let him drop out. I guess it's probaly safe to assume at this point that Derek, like most of us, does not have a Noble Prize in his future.