Making A Racquet! - Jun 30

Years ago one weekend Heather and I (probably just Heather) got this idea to buy some cheap tennis racquets and a tube of balls and go play some tennis. We probably did that one time and the racquets have hung on the wall in our garage for a long, long time. Within say the last..year or so we have since removed said tennis racquets from the wall in the garage and made a few trips over to Central Park with Chloe to attempt some TENNIS! Lol. The first time or two the racquets were a bit big for Chloe to handle and she got a bit frustrated. As time has gone on she has gotten more confidence and ability and this week while trying to find things of interest for Chloe to do, the suggestion was made that maybe we hit up Central Park for some tennis so on Thursday, we did just that. =)

We spent some time playing tennis then we went and had lunch and actually came back to the park and instead of tennis, switched to basketball. I am not good really at either of those things however it was really fun to see Chloe enjoying herself and for once not getting extremely frustrated and upset while doing either of those things(as she usually does). She won't admit it, but I think she has gotten better at both tennis & basketball as a result of doing various sporting activities at school during P.E. Either way, annoying dad decided to bring his camera along and make a blog post about it!

Have a great weekend, folks~

P.S. I could not find our "regular" tennis balls but in my search for them I happened to find a couple colored tennis balls I bought for Penny (that she doesn't care about). lol DADLIFE


B

Every Day is Father's Day! - Jun 23

It's been a busy week, it's been a slow week.

Another week of summer has quickly squeezed by and this week was, so far, the HOTTEST. Since we last talked, I made a long trek up to Tahoe over the course of a few days to photograph a wedding which then had me actually driving back home on Sunday. Sunday, as you probably know, was Father's day which we spent some time with our families and ultimately just sort of laid low.

I actually wrote a fairly long thing here but after proof reading it several times, I have decided that it's purpose was to be funny but kind of came off as negative so in an effort to be positive, I have deleted it! LOL. This week was a busy(feeling) week of heat and frustration. Our air conditioner has been giving us problems as it likes to do when the days are their hottest so we spent much of our time trying to cool off. I am happy to report it appears after some research and a few trips to home depot, I believe I have fixed our A/C problem. That certainly improves life around here. =)

The above photo was actually taken on Heather's birthday last week but I thought it sort of represented Father's day pretty well (for me). First, I haven't been on the "Boomers" go carts since I was probably in high school(and even then I can't remember it that well). We have been to Boomers a few times with Chloe but this was the first time we actually got to do the go-carts together and I was really looking forward to it. I have clear memories of being a kid (not sure what age) wanting desperately to drive a go cart..all I ever wanted to do was have a vehicle and drive it. Chloe, at 7 years old is probably not quite that passionate about it but, she knows I love stuff like this so she was excited to ride. We started as the 7th or 8th car back and I told her very directly, "we are going to win". As we got out on to the track, 1 by 1 I started making my moves, passing each car until we were right where we said I would be in the front of the pack! Chloe was screaming weird things out the side of the car at the other cars as we passed and I know she was super excited to get to race with her dad. It will certainly be a lasting memory for me and this picture will remind me of how much fun it was. =)

Have a great weekend, folks~

-B

Climbing For Cherries - Jun 16

This last week was an important one. On Tuesday, Chloe's amazing mother and my beautiful wife Heather celebrated her 38th year of life. Happy Birthday Heather! LOL. She actually took off Monday & Tuesday so she could have a long weekend and as luck would have it, Chloe woke up Monday with a bit of a sore throat which kept us home most of the day. Her actual birthday being Tuesday we spent the morning out playing mini-golf and actually got to run a round of go carts(Chloe was my passenger) which was really fun. Overall a nice long weekend off and Heather now gets to be as old as me. =)

This week has been heating up day by day with the hottest part of the week starting by the time this is published. This week our favorite "Cherry trees" (which are actually plums as I have mentioned in the past) finally have been producing fruit that isn't sour and crunchy. LOL. Every day Chloe and I walk the dog we have to spend at least a few minutes to let Chloe climb the trees and pluck some delicious fruit. This year, the trees certainly have not produced as much fruit as they have in the past however this year Chloe is much more capable of climbing and picking so it somewhat balances out. If I could bring out a ladder and not look like a giant weirdo I could certainly get to the best plums on the tree. The biggest and best plums that cannot be reached by the squirrels and whatever critters eat these things are out at the end of the branches that we cannot otherwise reach. I don't think we will be doing that but don't think the thought has not crossed my mind.

Just a few snaps this week as summer trucks on. Have a great weekend, folks~

B

The Book Of Scraps! - Jun 9

As week one of summer vacation draws to a close I can say that things are off to a bit of a slow start for sure. It was only really warm on Monday so I took Chloe over to my parents house to swim and then the rest of the week it has been pretty overcast and on Thursday we actually got a few minutes of rain. I checked the forecast and it looks like by the end of next week we will all be melting and wishing for temps in the 70s to come back and visit. In an attempt to start an ongoing summer project for Chloe last weekend and this week we worked on sending some photos of Chloe's choice to Costco so she can work on making a scrap book. This has been something off and on Heather and Chloe have worked on but Chloe seemed to have a new motivation to build pages with some new background pages they recently acquired. It has been a particular tough project for me because I want so badly to "help" her and basically tell her what to do(and what not to do) as far as cutting out the pictures and stuff but then I remind myself, IT IS HER PROJECT. It's all about letting her be creative and making it look however she wants. When she's older, we'll concern ourselves with design elements and things like that. LOL.

Armed with some regular scissors as well as some fancy ones, Chloe went to town on a ton of photos that she picked out from things like her Birthday and our trip to Disneyland, to our trip last year to Hawaii, to the Zoo that we basically just went to. Hey, chronological order is for those that care about...chronology. KID'S DON'T CARE. =) With a dozen rolls of decorative tape and themed background pages, Chloe has been putting in work designing and building the pages in her scrapbook. I guess you can loosely call it a custom made photo album of sorts. She's having fun and that's all that matters!

Just a few pics as per usual, have a great weekend, folks~

-B

School is...OUT! - Jun 2

Bada-bing, bada-boom. FIRST. GRADE. OVER.

I say all the time that people say kids grow up fast but lately, life seems to be accelerating at a ridiculous pace. I was just talking to someone (what felt like)the other day about how school was halfway over and then immediately now the school year is over. Chloe is moving on to 2nd grade and summer break starts TODAY. I also know that summer is sort of short and will certainly be over just as quickly as it started. It's certainly going to be an adjustment for me as it pretty much took me half the school year just to get used to her being gone for a longer part of the day. Trips to the store and various things like that, yep, Chloe's going to be coming with me again. I will be making lunch for her every day and of course trying to find various things to do on a daily basis to keep her/us entertained. =)

Last weekend was Memorial Day weekend so lots of people I'm sure took the opportunity to head out of town. Not us! LOL. We did find time to take a day trip to the Oakland Zoo for the first time in a couple of years(spoiler alert: It's exactly the same) which Chloe was actually quite excited about. She kind of remembered being there before but..it was kind of like going for the first time. She was especially excited to see the tigers and against my suggestion, carried her stuffed tiger around everywhere. Then, the same weekend was also the "Wind Festival" which takes place every year at Central Park in San Ramon. I took a few photos there but for the sake of workload, I'm just going to include some pictures from our trip to the zoo and some first day/last day pictures of Chloe from her first grade school year.

Have a great weekend, folks~

-B