Marching Band - Jan 30

Last week I showed you the guitar Chloe got and she has been making music with it ever since. It's cute and she really likes it and she likes me to make sure it's in tune and sounds good because you know, that matters. =)

Well, she also mentioned last week to me that she very much wanted to bring her Frozen guitar to school to show all her friends in class. I worked in her classroom last Friday and Chloe started talking to the teacher about her guitar which then got all the other kids talking about the various musical instruments they had at home. The teacher asked the kids if they would be interested in making instruments and doing a week in class on music to which they all replied yes so this week in the classroom they have been doing musical activities. On Tuesday Chloe brought in her guitar to "show and tell" which I stayed for but instead of taking photos I took a short video so I could show Heather. It was cute all the kids wanted to play the guitar and Chloe told the class about the different parts of the guitar then strummed them a song. American Idol here we come. Then the kids got to pick classroom instruments and they did a marching band lap around the back yard. It was cute and the kids loved it.

I thought this week I would just share a photo that was sent to me (from one of the teachers) of Chloe playing(with) a violin. It would be cool if she turned out to be musical. I guess now is the age they can start learning all sorts of things... we'll see what happens. =)

Have a great weekend, folks.

-B

Chloe Swift - Jan 23

Hey would you look at that....we found some "Frozen" junk we don't already have. =)

Funny story. For Chloe's birthday Heather's Aunt gave Chloe a Toys R Us gift card which we went today to see if we could find something she wanted to buy with her money. We walked the store from end to end and couldn't agree upon something she wanted VS something that wasn't a safety hazard in our house with a puppy lol so we were on our way to check out games for our "Wii" game system which she sometimes likes to play. As we cut through the isle Chloe stops dead in her tracks and says "DADDY!! I WANT A GUITAR! I was like, "um, okay?" She went on to tell me that she wanted a guitar like Hailey has which I guess at some point in her life she must have played with at our friends house. I thought about it and figured hey, why not? It's not super big, it't not super loud..it's a toy but it really is a musical instrument she can play or potentially learn to play so boom, DONE.

We get back into the car and the CD that Chloe got for Christmas and currently wants to hear over and over again, Taylor Swift plays and I tell Chloe "Did you know how that Taylor Swift can play the guitar?" She smiled from ear to ear and as soon as we got home wanted to play her guitar and sing Taylor Swift songs. By the photos, she almost could pass for knowing what she's doing. LOL. She'll need some...practice.

Have a great weekend. =)

-B










DAAAAAAAAAAAAAG

The Big Cheese - Jan 16

Last week Chloe had just turned the big 5 and was preparing for her birthday party. She has been asking to have a birthday party at Chuck E Cheese for probably the last 11 months and I have no idea why. I'll be honest it was not my idea of a good place for a birthday party but people kept assuring me "the kids love it" so I guess that's what matters. LOL

We had the party and it went as well as it could have but I can only assume the kids had a good time. If you have never been to a Chuck E Cheese before it's like a tornado of small children and ridiculous arcade games. It was impossible to pay attention to anything going on. Before I knew it we were eating pizza, cutting cake, and getting ready to leave. The kids all had a great time and more importantly Chloe had a great time and again that's really all that matters. I think the best part about it was not actually having to clean up when it was over! We have a small bucket of tokens leftover so I'm sure we will be making a return appearance sooner or later. Chloe, of course, wanted a "Frozen" themed party but there wasn't much we could do. We got her a "Frozen cake" which she loved and bought plates and table covers and stuff but again, not much we could do. It's fine though because after all is said and done, I believe we may actually own every single piece of Frozen merchandise ever created. =)

Have a great weekend, folks.

Brian!

Happy 5th Birthday, Chloe!! - Jan 9

Basically, 5 years ago on a Friday we would meet our little Chloe(little being an understatement). Fast forward 5 years to today and I cannot even begin to explain to you where the time went. Luckily, I can click back on my blog every week and watch this kid grow up right before my very eyes because right now I feel like we literally jumped from day one to now. I can say with 100% certainty that being a dad is far and away the coolest thing I have ever experienced. It truly is insane to think that as parents we are responsible for the safety and well being of another little human being but somehow we are and we are doing the best we can at it. We must be doing something right because after 5 years she is still alive any well!! lol.

People ask me/us all the time, "is she your only one?" and inevitably follow it up with "are you guys having any more??". I have no idea if we will end up having more kids but I know that we both have totally and thoroughly enjoyed our experience the last 5 years with Chloe and I am blown away every day by how awesome she is. Every year..heck..every month or even every week we see so much change in Chloe I cannot even imagine what the next year has in store.

This year, once again, we planned another little trip to Disneyland for Chloe's birthday. Heather & I agree that this was absolutely our best trip yet if only because it was the first trip that contained exactly ZERO Chloe melt downs at any point.. LOL. Yes, I tell people all the time Chloe is what I would consider an "easy child" but that in no way means she doesn't have her moments...her bright...shining...ridiculous moments. =)
Perhaps some of it had to do with the fact that Frozen has finally taken over Disneyland by storm(pun intended). We already had planned our trip but we found out after the fact that they would be opening up an entire new section of "Frozen" stuff in the California park the week of Chloe's birthday so we planned on staying an extra day to see it(it wasn't scheduled to open until the day we planned to leave). It ended up being completely open and not super busy so we did everything and then some! Below are some pics from our trip most of which are just random things seemingly but Chloe loves to go back and scroll through the pictures and tell us things about the trip. This kid has been to Disneyland more times in the last 2 years than most people do in a lifetime but she absolutely loves it and we love taking her. Win, win.

Happy Birthday to our sweet little girl, Chloe!!! We love you. =)





































































We did the "animation academy" and the teacher gave Chloe the master drawing at the end!