King Kong Brodie

We had some friends over for dinner the other day, looked in the backyard, and saw this out the window.

April Fools' Day

It's been a while since posting, so here is a video from last month. On April Fools' Day, the kids were told they were going to have a special surprise for dinner. They were each given their own bag of chips to eat. What they didn't know is that Christi had carefully opened each bag, took out the chips, inserted carrots, and sealed the bags back up. Unfortunately, I didn't have the video rolling when they first opened the bags - the looks of shock and disappointment on their faces were priceless. As you see in the video, they are still quite distraught (note Ava in the background). Everyone eventually found some humor in this (even Ava) after we handed out the real chips and explained why we had just put them through this cruel ordeal.
Note that Brayden and Brennan are in their normal spaghetti-eating attire - no shirt. This makes laundry a whole lot easier :-)

Sous Chef duties (and blowing-out-the-candle dance)

Each day, the kids have specific jobs for helping out around the kitchen. The most coveted job of all is that of being Sous Chef (helping prepare the food and bring it out). In this short video, it was Brayden's day to be Sous Chef. Here he displays the perfected art of one of the most important duties of this job - the official "blowing out of the candle" at the end of a meal. The kids also exhibit the finer points of the little known, but highly acclaimed, blowing out the candle dance (with Brayden as the lead). For some silly reason, we have started lighting a huge candle that sits in the middle of the table for every meal. The kids can hardly wait for two things: one, when the candle gets so low in the bottle it sits in, a huge anticipation as to whether the candle will fall in the bottle before or after the light gets snuffed out; and two, the ceremony of blowing out the candle. Yes, we are a bit strange, but love it! :-)

Train to Chicago

While playing outside today, the kids decided to make a train. Brodie, the train engineer, announced they had arrived in Chicago. Ava thought she was on a roller coaster, and Brayden was surveying the situation from the caboose.

Purple Poop

For Aliyah's Birthday, we all had cupcakes with dark purple frosting. Everyone was quite excited to show off their tongues in a deep hue of purple. But, the highlight of the evening was when Daddy changed Brayden's diaper. Wow - that stuff looks radioactive!

Valentine's Day Dates With Daddy!

All three girls had dates with Daddy for Valentine's Day. Mommy was first, of course, the day before. :-)


Here, Ava is waiting at the door for her breakfast date to arrive.


She opens the door, and there is Daddy, ready to head to the Waffle House! Ava had her first taste of hash browns and absolutely loved them.


Next, it's Aliyah's turn for lunch at the Golden Corral. She and Daddy put a huge dent in the buffet.


And finally, Anna greets her date for a scrumptious dinner at her choice of fine-dining establishments - McDonald's!

Let it Snow!

Like most of the country, we too have had a mild winter as you can see from these pictures. Everyone had a blast playing soccer in the snow, including a few of the neighbor kids. Blaize, Brodie, Ava, and Brennan had never seen snow before. Now they are proficient at building snowmen and making snow angels. Of course, they think this is a normal occurrence during winter time here :-)