CNE 01/09/2017

Dad – The boys and I went to the CNE, and we took a friend. It was the first time for all of us (yes, even me).

Jayden – Show the pig picture first.
Dad – Why do you want the pig picture?
Jayden – Because Marlon’s a baby piggy, and I’m a baby piggy, and we’re cuddling the momma piggy.

Dad – How about the one where you get to be a farmer?
Jayden – Yes. I’m the boy farmer and Marlon is the girl farmer. That’s why I have a sad face and he has a kissy face.

Jayden – Then I got to be a police dog, and Ethan got to be a police officer. He doesn’t have police officer glasses though. He has soccer glasses. You can tell because they’re not shiny. Police officer glasses are shiny.

Jayden – The best part was the army part. We did an obstacle course, and I had to do push ups. Then I cut dad’s hand with a poster [which is true], so an army lady had to get him a bandaid. Then we got to see a big cannon.

Jayden – Marlon got to put the army stuff on, but I couldn’t. The army man said it was too heavy.

Jayden – But I got to go in the jeep and Marlon didn’t. In the jeep, you turn this thing, and it makes the top go around. It’s for turning around a gun, but they took the gun off so that kids can’t, like, kill people.

Dad – So the army part was the best?

Jayden – Yeah. And the drum dancers. And the trampoline guys. And the icecream cones with the cookies and the bacon. And the backwards ride. Oh yeah, and when we lost the friend.

Dad – Losing a kid was a good part?

Jayden – Yeah, you were, like, freaking out. We should go again next year.

Thanksgiving and Christmas in Spring 10/03/2017

Dad – I know it’s already March, but here are some pictures from our trip down to Waycross, Georgia for American Thanksgiving. It was the first time that Marlon and Jayden had met their Great Grandma James, seen here with Aunt Chandra.

Dad – While we were down we went to the Okefenokee Swamp and the Jacksonville Zoo, where the boys got to pate some stingrays and hang out with Aunt Chandra, Uncle Cory, and soon-to-be-Aunt Brandi.

Dad – The highlight of their trip though, was getting to sit in the cockpit with a Captain’s hat.

Jayden – Maybe, if the pilot wasn’t looking, I could fly the plane, but there’s too many buttons.

Dad – The thing about American Thanksgiving is that it’s so close to Christmas, so it felt like we went right from one to the other. Ethan’s favourite gift of the day was a new football (do you get more down home America than a new football for Christmas?).

Dad – Jayden nabbed himself a Fart game. (good fun for the whole family, let me tell you.)

Dad – And Marlon had the reaction of the day for a bottle of body wash. (I kid you not. He was more excited for that than his video game.)

Marlon – Hey, you gotta smell nice for the girls.

Dad – Mom and Dad mostly just relaxed, which is the sign of any good Christmas in my opinion.

Art from the Boys 08/12/2016

Dad – I’m getting some books of pictures together for the grandparents for Christmas. This involves photographing some art the boys have done over the course of the year. I thought I’d post some of it while I was at it.

This one is by Jayden.

This one is by Marlon.

And this one is by Ethan.

Phone Pictures 09/11/2016

Dad – I never bother to upload pictures from my phone, but I did today, so I thought I’d post a few. Some of these date back to last Christmas, and there’s a little bit of everything along the way.

This is Maya at our Christmas bowling party last year.

Marlon at the Christmas bowling party, guns ablaze.

Marlon and Jayden at Jayden’s soccer game.

Jayden rock climbing at the Grotto.

Marlon and Ethan in Tobermory.

The boys and their friend Leo hanging out at the quarry in St. Mary’s.

Marlon’s shiner after wiping out on his scooter.

Marlon’s executing Ethan with the decorative guillotine in Value Village.

Simone Is Here! 29/06/2016

Dad – The boys’ baby cousin Simone his here, visiting from Louisiana.

Jayden – She’s little so I can hold her on the couch, but she can wiggle.

Marlon – It’s cool, because when they’re just babies, you can take care of them, but they’re too little to pester you.

Dad – We also found some pictures of when we went to The Museum in Kitchener with our friends. It was almost three months ago, but hey, better late than never.

Ethan – In this picture we were making it so that all the water had to go through the middle, which makes the current faster, and then we raced the boats. Basically, the start was the most important. Whichever boat made it to the middle first always won.

Jayden – My boat always won.

Marlon – You didn’t even have a boat.

Jayden – Yeah, but the beaver was my friend, not yours, so there.

Spring Is Here 24/04/2016

Dad – We’ve been doing spring-ish things lately, like going for a walk with friends.

Jayden – There were ducks but no turtles. And I found a snail, but it was empty. A bird pecked it right out.

Dad – Jayden’s class sang a special song at his school assembly. Jayden took it very seriously, practicing daily in the week before the performance.

Jayden – Some kids don’t like to sing, though. They just stand up there because the teacher says.

Dad – Grandpa Art and Grandma Marg took the big boys to a bug festival. They got to eat three kinds of bugs.

Ethan – My picture looks like I was grossed, but I ate all the bugs. Marlon has histhumb up, but he didn’t eat any.

Marlon – That’s because bugs are gross. Why would you eat bugs? There’s this stuff called real food.

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Poems with the Kids 22/03/2016

Dad – I made up a fun little poem with the kids. Check it out.

Jay-Jay Gillicuddy,
my, my little buddy,
dinglehopper, bee-shoe,
he’s a cutie coo-bee-do.

Mar-Mar Marmalade,
guaranteed the highest grade,
Marm, Shmarm, on the beat,
coolest Marmo on the street.

Eef-Eef, Beekaroo,
top bird, cockledoo,
always on a winning streak
does it all with beak-chic,
.

Dad – Marlon and I also started working on what he hopes will be his first big rap hit. It goes a little something like this.

I’m little Mo-Mo,
I’m a one man show.
I know I still be low,
but my poetry flow.

Dad – Watch out world.

Winter Doings 13/03/2016

Dad – We’ve been doing lots of fun things this winter.

Ethan – At my school basketball tournament, we won two games and lost one.

Jayden – I sang a song with my class. It was the amazing song. It’s about you’re different and amazing.

Marlon – I sang too, with the choir. Mom and dad didn’t even know I was in the choir, so they were like, “You’re in the choir?” and I was like, “That’s why I’m singing.”

State of the Family Address 18/01/2016

Okay, so this is an old fashioned family update. Get a coffee and make yourself comfortable.

Jayden (now 4) is in Junior Kindergarten and loving it.  He’s made a bunch of new little friends.  His favourite pastime at the moment is playing in his “office”, which consists of a broken cell phone, a plastic toy phone that actually plays the radio, an old computer keyboard arranged on an open binder to look like a laptop, and whatever pens, pencils, tape, paper, folders, staplers, hole-punches, or other supplies he can get a hold of.  He actually has to be restrained from creating these offices in every room of the house.  He claims that he needs several, because some are for being a firefighter, some for being a police officer, and some for being a spy.

Marlon (now 8) is in Grade 3. He’s been taking guitar lessons and can now play a bunch of chords and strum a few songs. He practices with his uncle’s old electric guitar on Rocksmith almost every day. He’s also learning hip hop dancing at a studio just down the street from us. He first recital was lots of fun (evidence below).

Dad – We’ve also been putting up more usual Christmas decorations with the help of our homestay student from Japan.

Ethan (now 10) is in Grade 5, and he’s chosen to attend public school this year. He yells, “Freedom!” each day after he leaves school, but he actually seems to be enjoying himself. He’s been taking the rep soccer training program this winter, planning to try out for the team this summer. He’s also playing Magic cards more seriously, going to tournaments and even winning some matches. He fills his spare time doing drawings of battles between zombies and soldiers, or ninjas and knights, or whatever else he can imagine.

Jaya has taken a six month self-funded leave to run the Refugee Sponsorship Forum full time. The forum supports the 70+ sponsorship groups in Guelph by organizing volunteers, offering information sessions, and connecting people to community resources. She’s really enjoying the opportunity to use her administrative talents doing something that she finds worthwhile and fulfilling. She’s also planning a new Adoptive and Foster Parents Week at Camp Hermosa this summer, which will be the first of its kind in the area.

Luke is stilling working away at Vocamus Press, publishing books and building literary community in the Guelph area. A little chapbook of his poetry called These My Streets was published this year through Fenylalanine Publishing, and he’ll shortly be sending out the most recent draft of his novel to publishers.

Grandma Kathy spent the fall with her new grandbaby in Louisiana. She was back for a few weeks over Christmas, but she’s down in the States again until summer. her plan is to spend the hot weather up here where she can go to her trailer and the cold weather down south where she can ignore it.

Getting Ready For Christmas 01/12/2015

Dad – We’ve been getting ready for Christmas like we normally do, but we’ve been doing some special decorating to get ready for Grandma Kathy coming back from Louisiana — having our contractor redo her bathroom top to bottom. The final fixtures aren’t in yet, but here’s a peek at the getting-close-to-finished project.

To celebrate they all got fancy haircuts.

Dad – We’ve also been putting up more usual Christmas decorations with the help of our homestay student from Japan.

Dad – We got everything ready just in time for Nana to come down and enjoy them. She and Marlon got all dressed up and went to a production of Jacob Two-Two and the Hooded Fang.

Marlon – It was pretty awesome. The bad guy was just someone in a suit, like in Scooby Doo.

Dad – Next up is Christmas baking — the most wonderful time of the year.