Carp-e-Diem ! » Kid Antics

Cub Scout camping at Arroyo Hondo

matt — Sat, 14 May 2011 19:37:00 +0000

Spending Saturday afternoon at Arroyo Hondo Nature Preserve. We had an archery demonstration and a boomerang clinic. Then we walked down to the beach through a tunnel that was built under the freeway to allow the steel head trout to get upstream.
Near the beach there were 2 geocaches, so some boys and I climbed up to the top of a couple of bridges and the boys threw rocks down while I hunted for the geocaches. I found the first one and before walking the 1000 ft. to the next one, I told the boys not to play on the railroad tracks. I told them that all gravel was off limits. About 90 seconds later, a train came barreling down the tracks. Whew! Since there were no crossings near, the train didn’t blow the whistle, and I didn’t hear it until it was very, very close.
Dinner is tri-tip and hotdogs and stew. Good stuff.

Can you spot the boys in the trestles?

When not at climbing, the boys were swinging

The best part of camping, the food!

VBS 2010

toby — Sat, 17 Jul 2010 03:32:00 +0000

Gran and GranDon were amazing this past week as they made sure that each morning the kids made it to VBS on time. This allowed Toby to sleep in. She isn’t really falling asleep until 2 or 3 in the morning so being able to sleep until 9 or 10 is very helpful.

On Friday of VBS, the kids put on a presentation for the parents that showcases what they have done / what they have learned over the last week. As you can see from the videos below, Lucy loves being on stage. Max only tolerates it, but he did a good job this year.

Max at VBS from Matt Theule on Vimeo.

Lucy at VBS from Matt Theule on Vimeo.

A Girl On A Mission

matt — Tue, 26 May 2009 01:20:57 +0000

Lucy has been eating a bag of cherries for the entire weekend. In an effort to slow her down, I told her she could only eat 5 cherries and then she had to take a break. Over the course of the weekend, she’s been piling up her pits. After throwing away a bunch of piles of 5 pits, I told her she needed to throw away her own pits. She replied that she was saving them to make her name.

I just came inside from doing some yard work and saw the results of her cherry eating.

It looks like her next set of 5 cherries will complete her name. I guess this is ‘Pit Art’.

It’s a Finger Party

matt — Sat, 09 May 2009 22:19:08 +0000

Guitarist

Cowboy

Lucy-ism

matt — Mon, 06 Oct 2008 19:24:16 +0000

Our friend Kevin Callaway has a fun hobby in the Autumn. He has an apple press that he uses to make his own apple cider. He throws in the apples, grinds them up and presses out the juice. We are grateful to have received the fruit of his labors in the years past. This year, he brought over some fresh cider in a 2-liter bottle.

This morning, Lucy asked me for some juice to drink with her breakfast. I got out the cider from Kevin, and she commented on the bottle and how it was different from the normal bottle (TreeTop Apple Juice from Costco). When she took her first sip, her eyes opened wide and a big grin spread across her face. She said, “Dad, this tastes just like real apple juice!”

Praise in the car

admin — Tue, 18 Mar 2008 01:32:46 +0000

Well I pulled up to a seemingly crowded restaurant/park today (Padaro Grill for those who are in the know), I was amazed to find a parking space right in front. I parked and said out loud (not for the first time in these situations) “Thank you God!” Max exclamed, “Thank you Lord!” Lucy chimed in, “Thank you Jesus!” Then it took off from there: Max – “Jesus, you are so beautiful!” Lucy – “Jesus, you are stronger than a barrel of monkeys!”

Recent Blog Changes

admin — Mon, 03 Mar 2008 18:07:45 +0000

You most likely have noticed that posting has been light (non-existent) for the past month of February. This is because I have transferred the server and it took a while to set up the new server. I finally got everything working and didn’t want to de-synchronize, so I made the decision to wait on posting. I have some pictures and 2-3 posts rolling around in my head that I will try to post over the next week or so to catch up.

Bye Bye Binky

admin — Sun, 10 Jun 2007 17:26:01 +0000

We recently took away Lucy’s pacifier for good. We had been whittling it down for a while, only allowing her to have it for sleeping and car rides. But soon after her birthday (has Toby put those pictures up yet?) and our vacation, we had a mini party to cut up the ‘binky’ while Gran was in town. Then Lucy (with Mom’s help) took some scissors and cut up the binkies and threw them in the trash.

She’s happy now, but not for long

Toby made up a song for the occasion. >> Lucy has been crying alot at naps and bed time. She wants her binky, a lot. We talk about it and she knows that her binky is in the trash, but that is little comfort. Last week, I was putting her to bed and, as usual, she asked for her binky. I went through the whole rigamarole and she told me that her binky was in the trash. Then her face cleared up and she got a sly smile on her face as she said ‘Thumb binky’ and put her thumb in her mouth. Luckily the thumb was not a great subsitute and she only sucked it for a day or so. When we took away the binky, her naps went from typically 3 hours long to about a hour and a half long on a good day. It has been a rough transition for all involved.

A Question of Paternity

admin — Tue, 28 Nov 2006 08:00:03 +0000

Lately I have been wondering if Toby has pulled a fast one on me in that Max may not be my son. Over the last couple of months he has begun exercising on his own a lot. It started off with push-ups but has progressed. He does push-ups before AWANA meetings so that he can win at the games and he does push-ups before his AYSO soccer games so he can run fast. While visiting the Neinhuis’s for Thanksgiving he found a set of 5# dumbells and did curls and presses in front of a full length mirror. If it was just the exercise, I would be very pleased. But it has gotten to the point where he has become the health police in the family. Last week, I was having a grilled cheese sandwich and he told me that my muscles were going to get small because I was eating white bread. Someone (I suspect Toby) told him that white bread is not as good for you as wheat bread. He will only eat the brown bread because it has vitamins for muscles. I could even overlook this white bread thing as just some brainwashing by his mom or my dad. But this past weekend he decided he didn’t want to eat sugar any more. Now this is not something that any son of mine would ever do. He didn’t want any pie, he didn’t want any whipped cream. He didn’t even want any soda. What is the deal? The final straw occurred when we were at Denny’s for breakfast on Saturday and he didn’t want any syrup on his pancakes because syrup has sugar in it!!! I don’t think any progeny of mine could ever eat dry pancakes when syrup was available. (I got some honey packets and convinced him that honey doesn’t make muscles small, it was almost difficult.) On Sunday morning, as I was getting Lucy out the door, Max was doing sit-ups (crunches, really) in the living room while waiting for us to go out the door. I know he is my son, but where is he getting these wacky ideas, especially about our friend sugar?

Yogurt Beard

admin — Mon, 10 Oct 2005 04:28:54 +0000

Look Ma – a spoon! We gave Lucy a bowl of yogurt and let her have at it – and she did great! Here’s a little movie – *warning* – it’s a little messy.