Mural Time

Adam and Thai Phi are expecting in the next 13 weeks. I offered to paint their baby's room when they get it situated. They wanted something like what I did for Jacks room, silhouettes, but a different theme.

We decided on a nice light blue for the background and a few shades darker for the actual silhouettes of the sea creatures.

It went really well, thanks to the help from Adam who did the fill-in work. It took me about 7 hours to paint Jacks room alone, but with Adams help, it went much quicker, more like four hours.

Thai Phi and Kate took Jack and went shopping and when they got back, we were done. It worked out great - Thai Phi and Adam seemed to like it, also.

Good Luck, Kenny

Well, I read that Kenny, Christy, Mon and Dad all made it back from the big apple this past week for Kenny's big moment. He was chosen to be on "Who Wants to be a Millionaire?" which was taped for a future airing date. From what I know, its around September 12th.

Even though he already knows how well he did, the rest of us have to wait because they made him swear he wouldn't tell (and made him sign papers to ensure that).

Anyway, good luck, brother, I hope you do (did) well.

Happy Birthday, Ally

We spent most of Saturday over at the O'Briens to celebrate Ally's birthday.

It was the first time we were in the neighborhood since one of Bills neighbors house caught fire. Apparently, he was making homemade fireworks (the source of the burn material) and decided to also do some grinding (ignition) and then tried to put it out himself with a garden hose after calling the fire department.

The end result is that the house has 100,000 dollars of damage, he is looking at some serious charges from the feds and his brand new government (complete with security clearance) job is in jeopardy.

Anyway, I digress. Ally's birthday was celebrated this weekend and so we got her a little digital camera we found at Target (very reasonably priced) and a video game. She really liked the camera, I knew she would cause she always liked to use my camera and liked to take pictures with it.

We had food from Baja Fresh, so nobody had to cook, too. I like Baja Fresh, but there isn't one that is very convenient to us, so we don't go much.

We all had a great time, as usual. Next week we celebrate Colleens birthday and she liked the digital camera, too. So maybe she will get one.

Cute Pics

Jackaroo being cute:

Visiting with Frank and Debbie and Maddy

We went over to see Maddy for a belated birthday a few weeks ago and caught up with the Witcheys. Frank grilled up some mean burgers on the grill and Jack got a chance to try out the pool. He got in up to his thigh, but wouldn't go further. He did get more comfortable the longer we stayed near the pool and liked having his legs dip in.

Bobbi and Cocoa were fast friends. Cocoa liked Bobbi alot - so much so that we had to tell him not to "hug" Bobbi a few times. They jumped in the pool to fish out tennis balls that we threw in and really liked to run around. Those dogs got their exercise that day.

Jack Visits Grandma in South Carolina

Jack and Kate went down to Charleston last week for a visit. Grandma loved to have Jack and Kate around and Dad got some time to work on a few projects and catch up on his sleep.

Meanwhile, Jack got to pal around with his Mom and Grandma; he "played" the piano, took a swim in the kiddie pool and got some quality time with Papu.

On the trip back, Kate and her Mom stopped off in North Carolina and had lunch with Abbie and Ellie. Ellie just wanted to touch Jack, but he wasn't having any of that.

I liked the freedom for that week, but boy, it was good to have them home.

The Fourth with The O'Briens

After the parade, we each took a shower and let Jack get his nap on and then headed over to Jim and Reets for a barbeque and see the family. Grandma was there as well as Mrs. O'Brien and later the nieces showed up, fresh from their trip from California.

We got in a game of croquet on the lawn before the rain started. We spent the rest of the time up on their porch, which is a really nice way to relax. Jack made the rounds by walking around a bit and showing off this new skill. The nieces like to see him and are interested in stuff that he does - he is more and more interactive each time they see him, so he gets more attention each time.

The burgers were great and we all had a good time. We left about 8 cause Jack goes down about then, and didn't watch the fireworks in the city. Probably a good thing cause apparently some went off in a crowd in Vienna and injured a few people. It was a quiet fourth, but next year, we will take him out and see how it goes.

Fourth of July Parade

Val and Barb came over to join us for the parade downtown, so we set out and found a place to sit and watch, along with about 8,000 others. We sat just about one row back, but people constantly shifted and after a few minutes we had a view that was undisturbed.

There were firetrucks, color guards, little motor cars and horses, balloons, bands and politicians. The hogettes were there (ugh) along with the Washington Redskins Marching Band as well. I was really impressed with the National Firemens Association, part of the AFL-CIO, which had a few hundred firemen in their dress blues show up and march. The whole parade lasted about two hours.

Afterward, we went to Noodle, a few blocks away and had lunch and then stopped by Starbucks to get Kate and Val a cool latte.

Jack had a great time and even caught a short thirty minute nap in the middle of the parade and then woke up and was good for the rest of the time. It was a little hot, but did very good in the heat and we were sure to keep him hydrated.