Why I Oughta...

Back in April, I posted a photo of the Jedi Training badge that the Bird was given after participating in the Jedi Training session at Disney's Hollywood Studios earlier this year.  This was the first time that we were able to do the training, but wasn't our first time trying.  The timing just worked out.  But, since it is May the Fourth, I figured it was time to show off some of those Jedi photos. She donned her robe, grabbed her lightsaber and listened to the master trainers.  "Sabers up!" She even took on the Seventh Sister .   For those keeping track at home, this is the 2nd time I've posted on May the Fourth.   Last time was when the Big Ten shop came out with a bunch of Star Wars-themed gear, but the Illini got left out .  Checking that campaign today, and the Illini still don't have any Star Wars gear .

The Bird scored this "Future of the Force" badge after she went through Jedi Training.  Her older sister?   Not interested.  Well...that's not true.  She *was* interested.  If it was a private exercise with no one looking.  And on her own terms.  If that was the case?  She'd be all over it. But this should not come as a surprise if you've been following along.  This is the same exercise we went through when I posted about our visit to Raglan Road at Disney Springs .  The Bird danced on stage.  The Babe?  Not so much.

(image removed by me in late 2022 because it showed kids faces) Six years ago today, I posted her on the blog about our friend and neighbor Dannee Polomsky winning her first seat on the Elmhurst City Council and I showed a photo of the then 2-year-old Babe who came with us to vote.    Fast forward those six years and you'll see this animated image above of me and all three kids outside of our polling place from Tuesday.  We didn't get to vote for my sister (she's up north from here), but we did have a handful of races that were contested. Glad to have brought the kids along and they got to wield their own dry erase ballots to vote between the Cubs and Sox and Leno and Letterman.  I think we've brought them to the polls every time we've gone, so we're doing our little part to do as Neil Steinberg called it yesterday : our little 'act of faith' in democracy. My little sacrifice of time, some drops of routine life sprinkled on the altar of democracy

The Bird traded for this Stormtrooper Disney "Easter Egg" pin.  Turns out it is part of a six pin set that includes the usual crew that you'd expect in a Star Wars starter set . The retail price is $34.95 for the six pin set. Available early March 2016. Below is a closer look at the six different character pins featured.   1. Darth Vader 2. Stormtrooper 3. Boba Fett 4. R2-D2 5. C-3PO 6. Chewbacca And here's a photo ( from the Disney Pins Blog ) showing all six of them below.  That Chewy one is pretty awesome, isn't it? Via Disney Pins Blog

Well...actually from my daughters.  But the sentiment sticks.  Maybe I'll wear it around the parks on our next trip, but hopefully I won't run into any of the guys from the Mandelbaum clan . "You think you're the #1 Dad??!?" "I'll show you who's #1." "It's go time!"

Our middle child picked out this little early wooden horsecart at the Lake Geneva Antique Mall on a trip up there.  I'm not sure exactly how it went down, but I think Nat told the girls that they could pick out something small - a 'treasure' - to reward their patience while we wandered around the place.   Now that they're not in strollers, it is a lot harder to wrangle them at places like antique malls where they don't go crazy. The Bird picked this little wooden horse and cart.  The tag says "Early Japan" and the bottom is stamped directly on the piece, no sticker: Kind of a sweet little treasure, isn't it?  It is super brittle, so I know it won't last long. But, one of the horse legs was busted off already, so it wasn't perfect in the first place. Just like my Dad did to me, we're (I think) doing to our girls:  encouraging them to love old things. The trick, however, is something that I'm not quite *there* with that

The Babe scored this little bonus pack that includes The Mini Batwing from the Lego Batman movie as the VIP Club 'free' gift along with a recent Lego purchase.  I say 'free' in quotes because while it *is* free, that's because we bought the sets directly from the Lego store, which gives us VIP points and little free sets like this.  They don't, however, have the best prices.  You can go on Target and compare prices on just about any recent set and see that Target has it a few bucks cheaper.  But...you don't get the points and the little things like this.  So, since the kids are so young and it seems like we're just entering our Lego years, I've decided to play the long-game and go with the VIP points program.   See this brickvesting post for some details .  (btw...brickvesting?  Like investing in Legos???  Seriously?  Maybe that's how I can convince Nat to let us buy more!   Honey....we're investing in our future!! ) The Babe seems to be

That's the "Alien pig Queen" on the top courtesy of the Bird. A scribbled-on two-eye and a heart (drawn by his sister) guy faithfully sawn based on some of the drawings of the King of the Ball Tossers. And....a masked guy as created by the oldest one - The Babe. Unlike in past years, these have stayed inside our front porch, not on the outside porch.   Here's a post from back in 2014 showing the ways I have kept them free of squirrel bites .

Late in September, I posted a few photos of a special Lionel/Disney Dumbo boxcar that I picked up for one of the kids this year and just this week I received another Disney pre-ordered boxcar.  This time it is the 50th Anniversary of Winnie the Pooh in O-Gauge boxcar form. And just like with the Dumbo car, this Pooh Bear car comes in a pretty nice "Disney Railroad" box.  Took pics of the front, a close-up of the photo of the car on the back of the box and the product listing on the side label that you can see below. As I mentioned in the Dumbo car post, I wasn't quite sure who that one was destined for (amongst my kids and nephews), but this one?  The Pooh Bear one?  That's for the one and only Pooh Bear lover in our family:  The Bird.  She sleeps with a Pooh Bear every night!  He's her favorite.   Well...Ariel might be her true favorite, but Pooh Bear has been there through it all! Have to say that I'm a sucker for Disney/Lionel crossovers.  There&#

Those of you that follow the technology world like I do likely heard about/read about the new Pixel and Pixel XL phones that Google announced last week along with other things like Google Home and Google Wifi.  Being an Android guy and owner of every Nexus phone (and a few tablets!) that have come out, I couldn't wait to get in line to buy a phone.  But, as part of the marketing for these new phones, Google has been doing a lot of talk about the camera.  And how it is, by at least one regard, the *best* camera to ever be put in a phone.  That's nice, right?  They also talked about a feature called Smartburst.   From their post : Pixel’s camera lets you take stunning photos in low light, bright light or any light. Catch action shots as they happen with Smartburst, which takes a rapid-fire sequence of shots and automatically selects the best one. Use Lens Blur to achieve shallow depth of field and bokeh effects, making your subject pop. You can capture dramatic landscapes

On the same trip to the Kane County Flea market where we picked up that rad Chipettes glass from Natalie's childhood , we also gave each of the girls ten bucks to buy whatever they want.  The Babe bought some dollie cloths that fit her American Girl doll, but the Bird?  She went all-in on toys.  And specifically, she dug though a few different zip lock bags of vintage fast food toys to find these three Fraggle Rock toys from McDonald's.  Turns out, after looking on the web just now, this isn't a complete set.  There was a fourth . But we do have Gobo Fraggle in the carrot car, Red Fraggle in the radish car and Wembly Fraggle along with Boober Fraggle in the cucumber car.  We're missing Mokey Fraggle who was, apparently, in an eggplant car.   Full details of the set and even more about some special Doozer cars can be found at the Muppet Wiki site . But, I have to tell you, that seeing her select these guys - amongst other things like My Little Ponies and Barbies a

Thanks to our good friend Dannee down the block, we were not only alerted to this awesome White House cookie kit - she also gifted one to us after one of her trips to Trader Joe's!  And guess what?  The girls loved putting them together.  Of course they did, right? What's more fun than a gingerbread house?  Nothing, I tell you.  Nothing. This is a pretty fun, seasonal item, that is a great way to do something fun with our kids, but also, kinda, sorta talk to them about the White House and the president and the upcoming election.  Did they listen to any of it?  Probably not.  But, still...frosting!  cookies!  Candy! And, from a business stand point, the person at the gingerbread factory who came up with this idea is pretty clever.  I can hear it now.... "Hey, Bob!  Fire up the ovens!  I have an idea." "But...it isn't Christmastime yet.  We have months to go until the public wants our stuff." "You're right...it isn't Christmas, bu

 Just like in year's past, I took the girls to check out the recently put-up Halloween section at Menards.   Here's the post showing the Babe in the 2015 Halloween section and here's a post from 2012 showing both girls .  They've both grown up a lot, eh? Here's The Bird doing her best 'scary' face and I'm not sure what the Babe is doing on the right.  With Back-to-School out of the way, we are now entering my favorite time of year at Menards: seasonal.  They quickly moved out the backpacks and highlighters in favor of ghosts and witches and it won't be long now for Christmas stuff to creep in.   Last year, we spotted snowmen and Santas as early as October 6th , so brace yourself, folks.  Christmas Creep is coming.

Another weekend, another stop at a few garage sales.  And...another vintage book added to the collection here on the blog .  This one is a Golden Book titled "Walt Disney's Winnie-the-Pooh and the Honey Patch".  It has a 1980 date printed on the inside and with Pooh Bear being The Bird's favorite (or all time!) and him being generally a big deal in our house, I couldn't pass this one up.  This will make for some good bedtime reading together!

Not a better crew to be rolling with on the shopping cart escalator ramp at Menards than these three. I mean....What more could a guy ask for?  And with Momma gone for the weekend, there's no place we'd rather be than Menards early on a Saturday morning.

We've had these silhouettes done of the kids over the years and the same woman who did the first ones of just the oldest two, did these three.  If you know the kids in real life ( Is this real life?!? ), you'll note that these are *really* good.  How 'bout those 'lashes?!? We had these done down in Florida earlier this year and I shared them on our family blog a bit back, but figured I should post them here for diary-keeping sakes. How these are done is pretty amazing.  The kids sit for a woman who uses some tiny, super-sharp scissors and she looks at the kid for maybe two or three minutes while she cuts.  And in no time, she pulls one of these beauties out and we're all amazed.  We had the old set hung up in our house, but...since we have no house...these are sitting in a pile of stuff awaiting our next move.  Life on pause is great, isn't it?

That right there in the photo is the *only* child of mine who was brave enough to go up and touch/pet this Peregrine Falcon that was on patrol at the Beach Club down at Sea Island .  The Bird - as we call her - wasn't afraid to touch this bird that is part of the falconry program at Sea Island .   Her older sister?  Not interested. As Nat will tell you, I have a fascination with all-things birds of prey.  When we're driving, I will always point them out when they're soaring above the highway or sitting on fence posts. Sea Island keeps their falconry program for two reasons.  The first is for hunting.  That part is something that I'm totally unfamiliar with, but it seems that you can 'hunt' for squirrels and such with these hawks . The other way these Peregrine Falcons are used is what you see above.   They have a guy who is in their Falconry program standing watch in the pool area of the Beach Club.  After talking to him, he said that the mere presence of

"Dad...I wanna be on the Dark Side!" The Bird here was the only one to be brave enough to confront Darth Vader on our visit.  He was VERY tall and VERY imposing.  He startled us when we arrived.  The queue is set up so you don't really see him until he kind of jumps out at you.  I jumped back a bit.  The Babe wouldn't come out from behind Nat's leg.  Totally different reaction from when we all met Chewy. They have Vader and Chewy (and now I think Kylo Ren??) set up in Tomorrowland at Disneyland in a place called the Star Wars Launch Bay that has various artifacts from the seven movies (helmets, sabers, vehicles, etc).  It is a nice little way to bring Star Wars into the Park at Disneyland while they're busy building the new Star Wars land.  Which...can't get done soon enough.  Pandora (Avatarland) is coming online sometime in 2017 and unlike some folks, that has me really excited. I'm a big Joe Rohde fan (even follow him on Instagram ) and he&

 Over the weekend, I took the girls to see the  Lego Train Show out at Cantigny which is put on by the Northern Illinois Lego Train Club .    As you can see from the shots here, it was pretty awesome. Who knew that (first!) Lego trains and (second!) that a club for them even existed? The show took over the biggest room at the Cantigny Visitor's Center and had two big main loops set up.  There were a few guys behind the setup that were members of the club and had built this whole thing.  It was impressive in scope but also really neat with various details.  They had set up little towns/sections like Paris and Springfield. And I'd be lying if I told you that I haven't given a lot of thought about trying to figure out a way to incorporate these Lego Trains into our existing O-Gauge Lionel setup.  Thinking we need to give these a try, right?  Besides the trains, just the idea of the buildings/town structures via Legos seems to be a good gateway, right? The Babe is jus

This is the ONLY way to fly, amirite?  Check out The Bird all dolled up in her Princess Anna dress rocking a big pair of can headphones watching Paw Patrol on her tablet.  We were lucky it wasn't a full flight and we got to spread out a bit.  We were, however, in the very last row, so there was the constant bathroom traffic to contend with all flight.  Still...a happy and content Bird makes for a very stress-free flight.