Category Archives: Life

Party in the Neighborhood and Chores at Home

Does your neighborhood have a social (or any kind of) committee? Ours has a social committee, which Going Mom is a part of, and they planned an awesome summer kick-off party for all our neighbors to attend.

Being the husband of a committee member, I, along with a few other husbands, had the pleasure of helping out with the event. I loadedĀ Avery’s Fisher-Price Basketball goal to bring Ā (it ended up being a “slam dunk”) and helped with the kid’s fishing station. We didn’t know so many kids livedĀ in the neighborhood until our big party. It’s great knowing there are so many playmates right in the hood.

Hopefully they won’t become hood-lums as the get older and terrorize all of us parents. Just like I (never)Ā did when I was a kid. Sorry, Mom. Not that I’m concerned our little angel would cause any trouble when all she want to do is play with bubbles.

Bubble Play at Neighbhorhood Party

The bubble machine was THE highlight of the party for our little girl, and many others. Then there were the piƱatas. Ā Going Mom was in charge of buying these, and she chose the coolest turtleĀ piƱata for little kids…

….and a giant flip flop for the older kids.

I’ve been part of aĀ piƱata massacre before, but never a turtle; it hurtĀ to watch.

Pinata Party Meme - Stop the Violence

No pictures of the abuse, but if you’ve seen an mob of zombies hovering over a fallen human on the The Walking Dead, it’s basically the same thing. Only kids are the zombies and scattered candy is the fallen human.

Avery has yet to taste candy or anything that’s basically pure sugar, so she didn’t care much about what came out of theĀ papier-mĆ¢chĆ© vessels. I know the day will come, but until then, we’ll enjoy her not begging to satisfy her sweet tooth unless it’s something we Ā ourselves.

The party was a major hit for the neighborhood and we’re all thankful for an awesome committee. I suggested another party with a Midsummer’s Night Dream theme. Sounds cool, but I guess I wouldn’t be the one doing all of the hard work, so I won’t push it.

The rest of the weekend was low key with us just taking care of chores around the house. Avery made sure to help when and where she could.

party, cleaning with mommy, parenting, toddlers
I’ve got Mommy’s back….literally.

My wife continued her paint everything beige project around the home and enlisted the help of some non-toxic finger paint from Alex Toys to keep our toddler’s wondering hands busy.

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And guess what? It worked!

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After finishing in the kitchen, I sat down and painted with her to make sure she kept busy. The paints are nothing great, but they are inexpensive and colors go on paper. That’s all toddlers care about! I still have yet to help with the actual painting.

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Sorry, wife. Hope you still love me!

That’s about it for our weekend of fun, cleaning, and projects. This time next week, we’ll be living it up in North Carolina at the Outer Banks. It will be Avery’s first trip to the ocean and we’re excited to play in the sand with our beautiful girl. The sleeping arrangements, on the other hand, are something we’re not quite looking forward to. We’ll be in bunk beds with me on the top and Going Mom on the bottom with Avery. Sounds simple, but from what I posted on Instagram the other day, well, I’ll let you know afterward.

Star Wars, Something Hit, and A Family Trampoline Trip

Going Mom made useĀ of Memorial Day and extended the already extended weekend by taking additional days off to spend with the family. As always, time flew by, but it was well spent with lots of love from Mommy.

family, love, parenting

My wife loves making our home better and more “homey” and she constantly has a running list of 10+ projects to do. Mainly replacing light fixtures, hanging shelves and pictures, and painting. The project du jour for her time off was to paint every area where the walls were beige, another color. Oh, that’s about 75% of our house, by the way.

As if I expected anything less, she got right to it with the painting while simultaneously rocking motherhood. Avery had to be around everything Mommy was doing, and Going Mom would stop to read, play, and kiss boo-boos as needed. I’m ashamed to say I did not lay a finger on a paint brush, but for what it’s worth, I kept busy in the kitchen making good food for the family. Or I hope it was!

Since “everything beige” includes the ceiling, that will probably be left to a professional since my shoulder issue would make it hard to help, and it’s just not a fun or easy task to take on with a toddler running rampant.

One of the days, my wife took some time for a nice hair appointment, so Avery and I held down the fort by going on the longest ride she’s ever been on with her WOOM 1 Balance Bike. We ventured around the new construction in our neighborhood and said hi to the construction trucks we saw. Just as we made it home, the rain started coming down, so we took it inside for her second Star Wars experience.

family, star wars, daddy's girl, love

Episode V: The Empire Strikes Back. I can’t wait for the next one where she will see the Ewoks! I’m not sure, but I think she enjoyed watching with daddy.

daddy, daughter, family, star wars

For the last day of Mommy’s time off, we planned on going to Urban Air, a local trampoline park and stopping at Costco for our weekly store trip. We left home and stopped at our neighbors to celebrate the capture of the masked bandit killing their chickens, then took off for some jumping fun together. But something happened right before we could get there….

Subaru Front Driver's Side Damage

Yep, a freakin’ fender bender. Some smoker mom with her kid in a car seat in the back of her car dismissed a stop sign and pulled in front of me on a main road. That had me already not a fan of the lady, then, as we both entered a left turn lane with a yellow flashing yield arrow, she started to go since there were no oncoming cars. I proceeded to follow (albeit maybe a little close, but still), and then she suddenly stopped as she was attempting a u-turn instead of a left turn as I thought. A screech of the brakes and our bodies lunging forward later, and my poor “blue rocket” as Avery calls it, made contact.

Luckily, we were going pretty slow and hardly any damage occurred. Just some bent plastic and scratches. The woman made a huge fuss and her dad (who was not even there) decided to call the cops. We exchanged info and said we wanted to go, but she whined that we’d get in trouble if so. I left to drop Going Mom and Avery off so they could start their jumping fun, and then came back. After sitting around longer, it turns out, the cops never showed, and we finally parted ways.

Not sure what will happen with the wreck at this point. Most likely it’s on me since I rear-ended her. Damn. But, the good news is that I made it over to jump with my favorite girls. They were already busy, um…..jumping?

family, trampoline park, fun

Whatever it was, we ended up having a great time. I think we stayed a little too long as Avery wore herself out and started getting cranky by the time we made it home for lunch. Crankiness aside, we enjoyed having Mommy home and now we have her again for the weekend!

Have you ever been in an accident where you swear it wasn’t your fault but because of how the law works, it was on you?

Are you a Star Wars Fan?

Winner Winner, Chicken Dinner No More

The mystery of our neighbor’s wrangled chickens has been solved! This little ring-tailed bandit won’t be saying “Winner winner, chicken dinner” anytime soon.

winner winner, chicken dinner, raccoon, rodent, animals
Ummm, I’m sorry?

Yep, our nice neighbors who let Avery pet their chickens on our daily walk, and would give some of their eggs to us for months caught animal responsible for killing all but one of their chickens. A raccoon, of course, it even has bandit as a nickname!

They set a trap before, but the sly guy would reach his paws into the cage and grab the food without going inside. Then our neighbors outsmarted the night raider and rigged the trap to finally catch him. As you’d expect, celebration soon followed.

raccoon, wiinner winner, chicken dinner, kids, celebrating

That’s Avery in the middle with our neighbor’s two year old boy, Bexar (pronounced Bear) and five year old gymnast, Taylor. She was the only one up for facing the camera, Avery and Bexar were having too much fun playing….or celebrating.

Kids posing with Racoon

They also have an older boy, Brazos, but he’s suffering through the last few days of school before summer starts. Taylor is the girl who usually caught a chicken for Avery to pet and is always happy to show her cools things she has.

Looking at chicken
RIP, Rose the Chicken

Being the kind folks that they are, they released the crazy bandit back into the wild, just away from their home. Hope it learned its lesson to stay away! With only one chicken left, they plan to restock their fowl soon.

I gave them a little money to pay for one just so Avery could name one of them. So far, when we ask what name she wants to give a chicken, she says “Yellow”. I keep asking at different times, but she keeps the same answer. Guess our neighbors will have a chicken named “Yellow” soon…..even if it’s black.

As for the other crime in the neighborhood, we have a break in the case. They haven’t been caught (yet), but were captured on video as they attempted to use a stolen credit card at a 7-11. Here is the report and some pics, maybe you’ll see them and can help trap them just like the raccoon.

Police Report
Police Report
Bad Guy Vehicle
Bad Guy Vehicle
Bad Guy 1
Bad Guy 1
Bad Guy 2
Bad Guy 2

Hopefully, with the raccoon trapped, the criminals exposing themselves, and an awesome neighborhood on high alert, our little crimewave will vanish. Once the replacement chickens arrive, I’ll be sure to share a pic of “Yellow” and the others soon after.

That’s it for now. Avery and I are going to go patrol the neighborhood to maintain order in the community!