Finally some photo catchup

Summer is fully here, and lots of summer pics to show you.

AJ has been an awesome little buddy, and he's getting really sweet.  One cute quote is that he calls Angry Birds "Hungry Birds".  It's a cute enough saying.  Taylor is obsessed with My Little Ponys.  I'm tempted to take her to a show, but I'm not sure how I would explain Bronyism.

The kids love to play Gulo Gulo, and I fully intend to build gamers out of them.  I'll keep this update short, but here some pics

We have a first grader in the house!

Well, it finally happened.  Taylor's last day of Kindergarten was yesterday, and now she's no longer the new kid in school.  I can't believe how fast it went.  She finished the year with excellent grades, all 4's and O's (Outstanding).

Couple of things I want to remember about Taylor at this age:
1 - She is PARANOID about being late to school.  I was dropping AJ off at preschool, 8AM.  Taylor has to be at school at 10:25, and it's 15 minutes from AJ's school to Taylors.  She is literally paniced in the car that she is going to be late, and nothing I say can calm her down.  I appreciate punctuality, but what is this?
2 - She loves the website Club Penguin.  She plays Karate Penguin so much she has a Ninja Mask (which I helped her get).  It was pretty cool, she was having a rough time, and I showed her how to beat the other penguins.  Now she's a Ninja!  Go Taylor!
3 - It's hard to believe she's only 5.  She uses adult words, expresses herself so well, and understands what to do and not to do to get in trouble.  She calls me on my bullshit and when she thinks I'm sad, she's a great peacemaker.  Today, at Linda's house, I asked her what she was up to, she said "I'm thinking I'm kindof like a grown up baby, and I'm very special, so maybe you could take me somewhere to show me how special I am". She wanted Big Spoon frozen yogurt!

AJ is getting big too, and he now talks about 2 friends at school, Aaron and Owen.  Some things I want to remember about him:
1 - He loves riding his bike.  He puts his little monkey helmet on and pedals like crazy.  For only having 1 gear he makes it work pretty well, whether it's uphill, downhill, or flat.
2 - He absolutely loves playing video games on the tablet or my phone.  He can play the spider man game, and he plays Plants vs Zombies every chance he gets.  I'm excited to play games together with him, only he's going to beat me by the time he's 7
3 - He likes to play Bedtime Slipper, where he sits on my foot and grabs around my leg, and I walk around with him on my leg.  He's heavy as it is, but it's so cute, I can't help enjoy it.

Nicky promises she'll take some Pics soon so that I can post them.  Hopefully next update!

Let me get you a banana

So today, I'm getting up, getting ready for work and AJ is up with me.  As he sees me getting dressed, he says "Daddy, you need a banana to take to work with you" and he went to the kitchen and brought me a banana.  What a sweet kid!

I'm not the coolest dad.. (duh!)

So I'm sitting with Taylor in the Jacuzzi at the Gym.. actual conversation:

"Dad! my friend has a police-dad"
"Does that mean her dad is a policeman?"
"Yeah, that's so cool!"
"Am I a cool dad?"
"Yeah, you can swim in the pool and go underwater"
"What is the coolest thing you can think of for a dad to do?" (Maybe I'll get lucky and it will be something I can do or learn)
"You could spin around on your head and juggle at the same time"
.....
Random jacuzzi guy "Good luck with that, dad"

No kidding!

Short update today:
Aj helped me mow the lawn.  I was really impressed because I expected him to help me for 5 minutes and get bored.  NOPE!  He insisted on helping me push the mower through the entire lawn and the bag dumping that came after.  When I started on the back yard, he wanted to keep helping.

What a cool kid.

Just a trip to burger king

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Bike Rides and Karaoke Machines

The new hotness with the kids is bike rides.  We go out more often than not.  Sometimes Nicky and I walk to the park while the kids ride, sometimes we all 4 ride.  AJ loves to peddle his little legs off.  I'm personally impressed at just how good the kids are at peddling the little single gear bikes.  I can't do anything without 4 or 5 gears, and they do it all with 1.

I bought 2 new board games, specifically Magic Labyrinth and Viva Topo!.  Both are designed for kids ages 4-8, and I happen to have 2 of those.  Magic Labyrinth is a memory game and Viva Topo is a little cat and mouse push your luck game.  The kids request both of them daily, so I'm glad to hear they're a hit.

Last week I flew to New York for work, and was gone for 3 days.  It's weird, before I had kids, it would have been totally awesome.  It was still cool, but it isn't as cool as it could be, because I was thinking about hanging out with the kids and Nicky.  Weird how that happens.

Yesterday, I was rough housing with AJ on the bed and he did a little spin kick move.  I don't know where he saw that, or what gave him the idea but I'm always surprised by how much different AJ and Taylor are, when I don't feel like we parent any differently for either of them.  Everyone says that, but it's different when they're your kids.

No pictures this time, talk to Nicky's photography skills!