Caroline: The Sixer

Caroline Paige.  The quiet and shy Holman. 

CP turned six on Friday the 4th but we decided to celebrate the occasion on Saturday due to my jacked up travel schedule.  

I managed to make it back late on Friday night to find C asleep in our bed.  Luckily, CP is easy to please at this stage.  I asked her what she wanted from the bayou and she, without hesitating, said, "Skittles, daddy.  Skittles."  

I love this child.

Boys, if you are paying attention, the girl's love can be bought with high fructose corn syrup and some snappy packaging.

I manged to do a little better than Skittles, though.  We had a birthday party with family and friends on Saturday and Caroline had a blast!  

Little Erica circa November 2005.

Caroline enjoying a Disney show in June 2011.

I said quiet and shy, right?

Joey nervously anticipating the singing of happy birthday.

The crew ranged from 10 months to 11 years old.

Surprisingly, Josie is apparently unphased by the singing of happy birthday now.  Another sad reminder of how fast kids grow up.  I guess there's always Will to traumatize for the time being.

His birthday is in roughly one month and judging on how bad I sing the song, the kid is going to be in tears.

Henry: The DC Lobbyist

There is little doubt in my mind that Henry's career as a K Street lobbyist in Washington, DC began on Wednesday, November 2, 2011.  You see, that was the date that Henry was asked to appear before the Twinsburg Board of Education to be recognized as the top second grade fund raiser for their annual read-a-thon.

Sure, he could aspire to be a doctor or a lawyer, but those people are morons. 

After all, I should know.  I once played doctor with a girl from Terre Haute and someone once handed me a license to practice law.  The real money is in PACs and campaign bundling.  Those scags in DC and Columbus are ridiculous and are practically untouchable.

Don't think Henry is a natural for fuzzy accounting and fundraising, check him out in the video below and listen to him tell you how much money he raised for the second grade: 

That's right, $230,000.60!  Eat that Koch Brothers!  Put that in your pipe and smoke it, George Soros!

The bundler before his big moment.

I read.  I raised cash.  I conquered.

Henry and Mrs. Johnson, his principal, after he told her he could raise $1.5M for a new facility.

For those still reading this post, I hate having to point out the obvious, but to the kid who allegedly read over 3,000 minutes in 12 days?  I have to question the validity of that. 

I mean, c'mon now, son.  That's more than four hours per day of reading!  Put your book down and go play outside.  Ride a bike.  You have your whole life to waste on the sequel to "A Diary of a Wimpy Kid".

But that's just sour grapes from the parent whose son just raised nearly a quarter million dollars for Twinsburg schools, baby! 

Get some.

Halloween

Two posts in a little over two days? Is everything okay in Poogieville?  We think so.

In the interests of time, I'm dispensing with the formality.  Halloween firsts this year: Will celebrated his first trick or treat and Josie did her first pre-school show.

Let the pictures do the talking, Poogie. 

The dragon and his very hairy father.

The Bills discuss griffin magic and strange looking Halloween decorations.

Equal lap time.

The kids pose with Jake the Boston Terrier (not the one on the right...the one hidden in the middle).

Darth Vader and the Real Housewife of Tattooine.

Will and the Mayor at Phineas and Ferb show.

The crew after the live Phineas and Ferb show.

Will showing off his Elton John hair.

The kids pose for the obligatory Halloween shot on our stairs.

Like I said, equal lap time.



Vignettes

Yeah, we know.  Long time, no bloggie. 

We're raising a decent sized litter here.  Baseball games, baseball practices, basketball games, basketball practices, PSR x 2, tap lessons, jazz dance lessons, cheerleading practice, homework, school, after-school programs, birthday parties, two naps a day, and a ten-month old who is nearly walking.

Josie wants to add a gymnastics class.

I want to add an undocumented alien with a knack for housekeeping and soft hands. 

I'm not so sure about the housekeeping part.  (Wink).

Anydoodle, here we are.  We do stuff.  Lots of stuff.  We also take pictures -- occasionally.  For our 11th wedding anniversary Erica and I took a kidless trip to Chicago and snapped a grand total of four pictures -- all clean.

Well, maybe not "all" clean if you dig interpretative art. 

I'm sure someone [Bill] will be able to interpret the artist's eye on this random shot outside the Chicago MoMA.

Light as a feather...

Tall building = easy comic sequitur.  Oh and by the way,before anyone goes, "Rob, you're such a juvenile," the building shot was Erica's idea. 

I'm sure there's a joke there too.

Here's another of the four pictures from Chicago.  This one was a timer shot off of the overpriced wet bar in our room at the Drake Hotel.  It cost us $9.37 to take this picture.  Apparently, unused wetbars run nearly ten bucks in Chicago.

Go figure.



The 11th Anniversary Gift is the headlock.

Going back a ways, the kids helped Mom (Nana) celebrate her 27th birthday back in Terre Haute.



Photogenic pair, if you ask me.

Funky Holmans Hoffman.

When I get my act together, I'll pull some of the Traverse City pictures out.  In the meantime, here's a cute shot of the newer brothers Holman -- Henry and Will -- in Michigan.

"We can't overlook the role of the full moon."

-Wolfman Apologist

Henry's first day of school was in August.  I'm just now posting picture of it.  How pathetic is that?

Don't answer that.

Henry's bus on the first day.
In other news, the Mayor of Poogieville needs a hairpiece.

Jim Thome's homecoming game at Jacobs Field.

Caroline's first (second) day of school.

Caroline and Caroline cheering for Twinsburg.



Five Good Minutes in Chicago

From one of the best time-lapse artists on the planet.     

Good Morning Chicago - Your daily sunrise for the month of June from Craig Shimala on Vimeo.