Danger Boy takes it up a notch!

When you are a thrill seeker like DB, sometimes you have to push yourself. Having conquered so much earth-bound, he decided the sky was no limit. He enlisted his faithful sidekick "Paranoid Dad" in this endeavor. (He will show case all of this tomorrow for the "Transportation Parade" at school.)

Wanting to go back to the roots of flying, he insisted on a propeller airplane.
Here is the the propeller, cockpit windows and fuselage waiting painting and assembly.


Here is the tail and tail fin.


"Nothing says danger like red!" says Danger Boy. ("Brush, not rub." says Paranoid Dad to DB.)


Of course, his partner in crime, Kid Catastrophe, was on the scene waiting for her chance to defiantly spit in gravity's face.


Initial tests look good.


Finished product with his call sign.


Side view w/landing gear. (DB wondered why he needed such trivial things!)


DB insists on quality detail work.


Well see how his first flight goes at school. (Sources say the non-box construction was a major innovation over the boat, helicopter and ambulance made out of... uh... well... boxes.)

(Everything was made out of a 42" x 42" piece of cardboard scavenged from work. The "propeller" was hole cut out for DB's cockpit. Everything else was cut out or used from cut outs for some other part. Add paint and voilà!)

Shoe Fetish

Kid Catastrophe loves shoes. I always see her walking around the house in my favorite pair of shoes. Every time we go to Granny's house, she finds a pair of shoes Granny meant to give her (someday) and demands to take them home. She knows they're hers if they're pink, no matter how big they are and how not ready her feet are to wear them.

The other day I took a break from painting to find out that she had taken all the family shoes off the shoe tree by the back door and done this with them. Further proof that my super kids are super weird ;)

Adventures in Chuck E. Cheese

Strangely enough, we have never taken the kids to Chuck E. Cheese until Saturday. It had been 20 years since I had been anywhere near it, actually. We found a coupon for a large pizza, four drinks, and 30 tokens for $18.99. What a deal! That's about how much we pay just for the food at other fast food places we have been to. We had the perfect opportunity to see how well the kids liked Chuck E. Cheese. The parents had a fun time trying to figure out what it was called before it was called CEC. Showplace?

Tired Mom was feeling under the weather, so Paranoid Dad was mostly in charge. What fun! The kids had a blast, and the parents had fun watching them.

Ahhhh, Brain, let us all worship the Big Cheese!

Danger Boy ate his customary two bites of crust (he's cutting off the crust in this picture), and Kid Catastrophe at her belly full of pizza.

Then, it was on to the rides! Woo hoo!

More Notes about the Super Cats

Nut meg has some interesting super cat powers. He likes to lay, well, like a guy. He splays his legs and lets it all hang out. I've never seen a cat that let's it all hang out quiet like this one ;)

And here's Periwinkle Dustbunny in one of her many hiding places. If you can't tell, this is right under the TV. Hiding in plain sight is one of her many forms of disguise!

And here we see Slinkerton Spycat at her most deadly, when she's looking sweet and innocent. This is one of the world's few "attack cats". Yes, the doberman pincer of all cats, she will attack anyone outside her family, usually by pretending to be nice. And then! She takes their hand for her trophy wall. Oh, the carnage!

She's also pretty good at "covert ops" as you can see from this picture where you can only see her glowing (demon like) eyes.

Dorafest 2009 (aka Kid Catastrophe's 3rd Birthday)

The decree went out to all of Puckettland to come pay tribute to your queen on her 3rd birthday by bringing Dora books and other assorted Dora things.

The queen gave mommy the charge to drape everything in pink!

The queen also decreed mommy must decorate with assorted Dora placards, plates, and napkins!

And the queen said, "let there be cake!" (hmmm)

Two cakes!!!

Then the queen was temporarily distracted by shiny things....oooh pretty shiny things...

But then she got back to it, and said, "let them fly kites!"

(which was silly willy fun fun except for a few tangles)

Of course, the queen was the only one allowed a pink barbie kite ;)

Then, there was much rejoicing throughout all of Puckettland as the Queen opened her many gracious gifts (warning from her most faithful servant--this video is pretty long and may only be of interest to immediate relations!)


The celebrations ended with some fun in Danger Boy's inflated castle with the cousins. Birthdays are the best!

My friends, the skies will open, light will come down, and celestial choirs will be singing...

Right before my wife left to go swimming Vance was playing w/ my hanbo (3' staff.) (That just happens to be about the right size for him.) He asked me if I wanted to play w/ it. I was thrilled. I first had to get him to stop trying to tap on everything in sight.
After that, I managed to show my son and daughter some staff techniques. I had them block up, down, and on each side. They also did downward-inward strikes. I tried to show them thrusts, but they just kept swinging.
All in all, it was maybe 10 minutes, but it's a start. :)

Super Hopscotch

I love it when the kids invent their own little games. It's so much fun to watch their little minds work, and to watch them play together. You don't actually see the hopscotch game I was trying to record until about a minute and a half into this video. Why is it that kids will never keep doing something the minute you turn on the camera?

I thought it was cute how they counted to ten at the same time, and then both jumped. Vance calling it "hopscotch" just made it funnier. I guess they play hopscotch at his preschool?