Ice Skating

During our wonderful Thanksgiving trip to Arkansas, we decided to take advantage of a REAL ice skating rink in downtown Bentonville.  That's right--real ice!  Pretty impressive for an Arizona dad and Texas family that's not used to seeing frozen stuff outside.

Maisy and Wilson both took to the ice like pros.  They started out skating with the assistance of little skating helper thingies (technical term) , but soon were gracefully cruising with no assistance.

Speaking of grace, that is something that I (Brett) completely lack when I have any type of skates attached to my feet.  You can chalk it up to a lack of experience, lack of enthusiasm, or maybe lack of coordination.  I just know that I'm funny on ice.  Kasia, on the other hand, is a cross between Dorothy Hamill and Kristi Yamaguchi.

I was actually starting to improve on the ice toward the end of the night.  I felt like I could get going, keep my balance, and slow down enough to not endanger myself or any 5-year-olds.  So when it was almost time to end, I decided to skate a couple of solo laps to see what those blades could really do. 

I got going faster than I had previously in the evening, and was enjoying the cold wind rush through my hoodie.  I was racing an imaginary Anton Ohno when I realized I was going kind of fast, and I that I really had no idea how to stop.

So, I panicked a little bit and decided to give stopping a try before I hurt somebody.  As I angled my skates and prepared for a tumble, I ended up doing a miraculous double spin move, complete with awkward arm flail and grotesque head gyration.  I happened to do this incredible maneuver right in front of a group of about 30 people waiting to get on the ice. 

Not sure if I had really been noticed, I began to gingerly and slowly make my way toward my family.  I thought all was well and unnoticed until I saw Kasia Yamaguchi doubled over with laughter.  She could not stop recounting and imitating my little adventure to anyone who would listen. 

All in all, it was a great night.  The kids learned to skate, I didn't die, and Kasia now has something to tease me about for the rest of our lives.  Nice.

Yamaguchi, Cousin Olive and Aunt Kressyda

Here's Maisy helping me, I mean me helping Maisy.

Halloween is a Circus

This is Brett typing.  Kasia assumes no responsibility for the content of this blog post.

So, this Halloween Kasia had a great idea.  "Hey everyone," she gushed.  "I have the greatest Halloween idea ever!"  I thought to myself, "Here we go again.  She's going to try to get us to dress up all together as a Halloween theme family."  She then said, "We can all dress up together as a circus!"  I thought to myself, "I know her sooooo well."  So the circus theme was born, and after a little coaxing, everyone was on board, and the plans were set.

Wilson chose to be the motorcycle daredevil (because he saw an awesome helmet at the costume store that he HAD to have), Maisy the tightrope walker (appropriate because of her life's acrobatic balancing act between boys, school, and extracurricular activities.  Yes, she's six years old.) , Me the circus freak (no comment necessary), Kasia the popcorn vendor (because of her vast experience in food services), and Ace the clown (because we already had the perfect pants for that).

Finally, the day of the neighborhood Halloween party arrived, and we made our final preparations.  I got all freaky, Kasia got her pop on, Wilson imagined himself riding through blazing hoops of fire, and Maisy got her face painted and imagined what her boyfriends would think of her costume.  Ace was then jostled awake from his nap, and our perfect theme was about to come crashing down.

Trouble under the big top.  Actual conversation as I remember it:

"Ace, are you ready to be a clown?"

"No. Batman."

"But Ace, we're going to be a circus.  Don't you want to be a clown?"

"No. Batman.  Ace.  Batman.  Now."

"Ace, listen.  We are a circus family.  Batman is not in the circus.  Let's get you into your pants and suspenders."

" (Toddler swear words)"

So, I forced Ace into his clown pants and wrangled him into his suspenders.  Not sure where this came from, but Ace has recently figured out that he can take off the clothes that we put onto him.  So he promptly took off the pants and suspenders and literally THREW THEM AT ME.  At that moment I knew that Batman would be accompanying 4 circus people to the party.

So, we went and had a great time as the freak, the popcorn vendor, the daredevil, the tightrope walker, and Batman.

 The Freak and the Vendor

 The Daredevil and the Tightrope Walker

Batman and Friends (Click photo to see Batman)

Restaurant Review: Hard Eight BBQ

So it's been a while since we've done a restaurant review.  We've got a great one for you this time:  Hard Eight Pit BBQ in Coppell, TX.  We loved it!

We were meeting up with Brett's old college roommate and friend, Chris Wayne, in the Dallas area, and we had heard of the greatness of Hard Eight, so we thought we would give it a try.

The first thing we encountered when we got to Hard Eight was THE PIT.  It is nothing less than a HUGE PIT OF MEAT.  Ooooooh yeah.  It was so hard to decide what to get.  We finally made our decisions and got ready to munch on some good stuff.

As you can see, our BBQ was served to us in the down home good ol' country style.  They slapped some meat on some waxed paper, gave us about a loaf of white bread, a tub of sauce, and let us go at it. Kasia is the loved the ribs, Brett went for the brisket, Wilson devoured the pork and pickles, and Maisy nibbled everything here and there.  Ace, as usual,  ate whatever Daddy was about to eat, snatching the morsels right off Brett's fork.

Some action shots of our little carnivorous family.

So, if you're ever in the Coppell area and you're looking for a feast, hit the pit!  Hard Eight BBQ will give you all the meat you want!

Just me and Ace now

Wilson and Maisy have started school.  They started last week and our summer fun is over.

However, I think everyone is enjoying their new schedule.  Maisy started Kindergarten  and Wilson started 3rd grade.

Of course, we sent Daddy off on his first day too.  This year he didn't lose his voice after the first day like he has on past first days.

That leaves Ace and me and this is what we have been doing: POTTY TRAINING!  He's doing really good with it.  Of course the first thing he asks me when I get him up in the morning is, "Where's Wilson?" and then, "Where's Sissy?"  We do miss brother and sister.

Here's a funny story about the first day of school--unrelated to the "first day," however.  After I sent the two older ones off to school, Ace and I discovered there was a unusually large flying bug in our house.  It would come out of nowhere and dive bomb at our heads and then buzz in our ears.  I'll admit, I did scream a couple of times out of merely being startled which in turn put Ace on edge.   One time it went straight for Ace and he was so frightened.  He ran away saying, "No bug! No bug!"  Then he went right into the office and peed in his brand new Buzz and Woody big boy underwear.  I'd had it with this bug terrorizing us and now I had to clean up pee.  So, I grabbed the Windex and started spraying the bug.  It took more aiming and spraying then I expected, but I did finally annihilate him after he flopped around a little more and buzzed pathetically.  That's a picture of the bug in a pool of Windex.  Ace kept going over to look it and he would say, "All done, bug.  All done."

So, overall the first week was great and everyone is happy and adjusted. Yea!

The Roller Rink

The summer is quickly coming to a close.  How it did fly by, right?  We tried to get out and do some fun family activities this summer.  Ya know, the whole family bonding-creating memories-embarking on adventures-premise.

So we ventured out to Sherman where the rink was having family night.  The whole family got in for $5 and that included skate rental.  We had a blast!!

I was so so proud of my children.  Maisy picked it up pretty quickly and was a little dare devil out on the rink.  Wilson struggled at first, but he stuck with it and conquered those eight tiny wheels by the end of the night.  And well, I think if you asked Ace, he would tell you he liked the video games best.  BUT, he still was a good sport as well.

They played all our favorite pop songs (this place was so family-friendly--no bad language or anything.)  And we sang, danced, and skated the night away.

I must admit, my back was a little sore from holding 3 children up on roller skates all night--BUT I didn't not fall down once.  Brett only wiped out a couple of times, he he.

We all felt like crashing on the floor by the end because we were so tired.  I just kept telling the kids how proud and amazed I was with them.  They came; they looked roller skating in the eyes; and they conquered it head on.  It was great. 

This video is of Maisy doing the limbo out in the middle.  I loved how adventurous she was being.  I know, I know, we are one crazy family! 

Happy Birthday Kasia!

We love Kasia on her birthday!

We love the little girl . . .

We love the college grad . . . 

We love her impeccable taste in men . . .

We love how beautiful she is . . .

We had a few people make some movies to wish Kas a happy birthday, and here's the one from Daddy and the kids . . . 

Happy birthday Kasia, we love you!