April 28th! Caleb RongBo's Birthday!!

Happy Birthday Caleb!

The little Chinese lad turns 7 years old today and he couldn't be happier.  We've sang happy birthday to him several times, including once when I was at work this morning.

We opened presents and had cake and opened presents and ate supper and opened presents... you get the idea.  

I'll do a more proper post soon but the pool table and G'pa are calling.  I must answer!

This is the lad with a tummy full of Chinese food and having Happy Birthday sung to him for the 42nd time of the day.  Happy boy!

The cake that G'ma Marlene made for him.  The purple guitar is a nice touch!

B4 & After...

Slide Boy! Slide!

Just a quick fun update.  Caleb had his second baseball game tonight and his team won 13 - 5.  That's not the good part, although it was good.  

The small Chinese Boy (who is not so small anymore) had two hits and scored off of both of them!  Not only did he score, but he slid into home plate both times.  

Oh sure, there was no need to slide either time, but after hearing people cheer the first time, I'm guessing there will be a LOT of self-gratuitous sliding in his near future.

I took no pictures tonight because I just wanted to watch the game for once.

I will include a picture though. Why?  Cause I like'em!

This is a shot of full-contact teeth brushing and laundry in our house.  Note, Robby has a pair of underwear on his head.

Until next time...

Happiness Is... A Warm Puppy

Caleb had, what I would consider, one of the greatest animal moments of his life the other night. He was tucked into bed, waiting for his big brother to go up into his bed (he doesn't like to go to sleep without Robby, at the very least, being in the room with him) when Rosey jumped up onto his bed, burrowed under the top blanket and snuggled with him.

The look on his face in the picture makes it seem like he was scared or worried, but he was really asking me if she could sleep there all night with him.  

Little does he know that she's a bit of a pain the proverbial shorts at night time with her over the blankets, then under the blankets, then sometimes in between the blankets routine.

Regardless, she snuggled with him for 3 or 4 minutes and he went to sleep a happy little camper.

The next day, he was doing some "family hunting" armed only with our camera (he broke his at the Grotto in West Bend the weekend before...) when he captured me, both of my unshaven chins,  and the beast.

If you can't read Rosey's face, she's thinking, "Get me away from this guy!!".

My theory on what Calebber McCheese chooses for a career path when he grows up?  Veterinarian.  He was deathly afraid of any living creature other than humans when we got him and now he's quite fascinated with most of them.  Still a bit weary, but fascinated.

A-Pie, Apple-Bo and Baseball

ARE YOU READY TO RUUUUUUUMMMMMBBBBBBLLLLLLLLEEEEEEEEE?????????

Okay, I was more thinking about kicking off the local kids' baseball season than boxing or wrestling, "professional style", that is.

But as it were, it was a cold night, windy as the backside of 1000 head of cattle, and quite frankly, cold.

It was about 65 degrees at the start of game time but I wore my winter coat, hat and gloves just as well because there was a constant wind of rougly 30mph with gusts up to 45mph during the game. Not fun.  I would hanker a guess that the the temp was roughly 50 - 55 by the end of the game and most parents were quite keen on gathering their offspring and getting the lake of burning sulfur out of there!

The China boy at bat. He eventually got a hit and I'm not sure if his coach was more excited about it than we were, but needless to say at this point, we were both quite happy with his performance.

The Chinaman waiting for some action in the "narrow" outfield.

I had him warming up as he was the next batter up.  Problem is, he swings like his daddy, a bit stiff and slowing down in the follow thru.  I told Momma about it so she could work with him. I'm out of my game here...

Chinaman swinging at the perfect pitch!

And who was watching in the "wings"?  It's big brother Robby!

Batter UP!

Caleb is playing baseball again this year and is moving up to the level where the kids pitch the first two innings.  

Is that a good idea?  Who is to say, but it is what it is?

The first practice we had was at an indoor training facility in Pleasant Hill, called the Batters Box.  It has a small field in the building where the kids learn to run the bases along with batting cages.  There are probably 8 or 9 different batting cages differing in that in some of them, people pitch to you, and the others have machines that launch the balls out. 

There is a 40mph, 55mph and a couple of 70 mph boxes.  

Caleb's coach recommended putting the kids in the 40 mph hour one a couple of times prior to the first game where some kid is launching a 3lbs "rock" at them.  Since the balls in the cage always go over the plate, they tend to be much less terrified during the real games. 

Makes sense to me.

He batted that night of practice and I took Robby and him back up there one night last week.  It's not a cheap thing, but they had fun and it also revealed to me that Caleb needs to swing the bat at home everyday to get his muscles and stamina up a bit!

This is one of the times that Calebber actually connected with the ball.  He did pretty good his first time in, connecting with the ball probably 6 or 7 times out of the roughly 15 balls that the machine throws for a token.

Hippie boy Rob got in there next.  He had about 4 nice hits and connected with an additional 6 or 7 balls that ended up in various area's right around where he was standing.

I like this shot because you can actually see the ball coming in... that is, if you know where to look.  Caleb would hit more balls if he'd move in a little closer to the plate, but he wasn't about to!

W.W.C.K.D. - What Would Clark Kent Do?

On Saturday, we drove up to the Grotto of the Redemption in West Bend Iowa.  We took Aunt Molly with us and met G'ma & G'pa Bushman over there.  

There will be an upcoming post or three about that after I get thru the hundreds of pictures we took, but on the walk from the parking lot to the Grotto, there was an actual working phone booth. 

Robby asked, "What's a phone booth?" and he was dead serious! 

Caleb was amazed as well once he realized what it was.

Oh the times, they are a changin'...

Sing Me A Sweet, Sweet Song...

It is Spring, and along with Spring comes Spring Concerts.  Well, the first one wasn't really a concert but it was the kids doing special music at worship last Sunday.

They did a fine job at both services.  I tried to take pictures at the first service and video at the second, but I can't get the video to upload, which is not a surprise.

What was a surprise is that Robby and Caleb actually stood in the same area as each other, I think for the fist time ever at such a deal!

A wide shot of the whole conglomeration of young'ins.

Proof that the boys were by each other!

Then on Thursday night, we were joined by Grandma Schmitz and Aunt Molly for Robby's 3rd Grade Spring Concert. It was good. He said that practices today at school were a little rough taking nearly twice as long as the concert should be.

I have a suspiscion that it was due to jacking around, but that, I do not have any proof of.

Somehow, I managed to snap several shots when Robby wasn't turned around jacking around with his friend Matt behind him.

The exercise song...

Don't remember the song, but they had a jazzy little dance going on.

Small girl with huge aspirations to be a singer one day herself.  I had to include this photo as it reminds me of the a cartoon in the paper back when Jim Henson of Muppet fame died.  The cartoon was a sad, slumping Kermit the Frog standing in a dark room with the door left open.  Kermit's sillouette was in the bright light shining in from outside the room casting a long shadow of him.

Caleb RongBo taking a breather from his Kindle game during the big rock n' roll show.

A wide shot to show how many kids were participating.

And that pretty much wraps up "concert week" here in Pleasant Hill.

S-A T-U-R D-A-Y Hey!!

Sadly, we are not reliving the oft mocked and derided Bay City Rollers song here, although we could if you really want to!

No, I am referring to this past Saturday when the stars, planets and two random pencils on our dining room floor all aligned and dropped a whole pile of stuff to do on one given day.

The morning was rather laid back.  Mom got home from work about 8am and went straight to bed.  Me and the boys played some Wii, some basketball, cleaned a little and various other stuff until about 11:30 when Robby and Dear ol' Dad headed out to birthday party #1.

That was at Incredible Pizza out in Urbandale.  I underestimated how long it would take to get there by roughly 4 minutes and as a result, Robby was the last one to arrive and was approximately 4 minutes late.  Whether the Mom was just being polite or not, I don't know, but she said that only one person was early and the others had just arrived as well.

I didn't know if I was required to stay there or not, so just in case, I packed my Bible and the Kindle to take with me.  The mom said I was welcomed to stay but didn't need to.  

I didn't.  

You see, there is a very fantastic store that also happens to be located in Urbandale and is roughly one mile from where I found myself.

That wonderful, fairly-land-like place is called Beer Crazy.  I went and started my 2014 NFL Football season stash of odd beers on Saturday. They are somewhat neatly tucked away in the storeroom downstairs although not in a fire safe where they should be...

I'm drifting...

So Robby had a good time at the party and I returned to pick him up with about 10 minutes to go before his departure time.  He wanted my big butt to get into one of the go-carts and have him drive during the race.  I was feeling pretty spry and aloof after my beer acquisition so I agreed.

Turns out, the boy grew too much from last years trip to Incredible Pizza and can no longer ride shotgun, he must drive one of the "slower" cars by himself.  I was sort of bummed but also relieved the my aforementioned big butt didn't have to wedge down into the seat and then have some danged smart alec high school aged employee have to pry me out with a 12' 2 x 4 after the race.

So I watched and Robby was bummed.

He climbed into the white, #18 Snickers sponsored craft and drove up to the pole.  They gave the green flag and off he went.  Like a shot out of a cannon!  

I was stunned!  A. by how fast he was going in one of the "slow" cars and B. that he was starting to lap the field!

Need proof?

That' him just to the left of center in the white car.   The next closest car is back making that corner off the left side of the photo.  Note that yellow car at the back of the pack...

He caught him on the next lap and probably should have waited until they were coming out of the corner to try and make the pass.  As a result, they crashed and stopped the race for a bit while the smart alec looking high school aged employee came out and dislodged the vehicles that were connected in error.

The birthday party go-ers.

After that birthday party, we had a request from my sister Doris to visit Snookies malt shop on grand opening day.  You see, Frank, her hubby who recently passed was a BIG fan of Snookies and had it on his calendar that he would be returning home from the hospital after his treatments.  Sadly, he did not make it.  My sister was going to the Twin Cities to visit Franks Mom and wouldn't make it either, so she put out the request that if you were able to, please stop by Snookies in honor of Frank and take your pic in front of the joint enjoying your frozen creation.

Robby and I did just that!  I had never been there before but it turns out that Doris and Frank had taken Robby and Caleb there last year during the Beaverdale Fall Festival. 

And then...

We headed to the second birthday party, this time back in Pleasant Hill,  where we would now meet up with Momma and Calebber.

This is Jack's (birthday boy) dad commanding the troops and organizing them for their obstacle course challenge that they're about to embark on.

Robby awaiting the go-ahead to do his portion of the course.

For cake they had purchased about 200 very large donuts and had ice cream in a cooler.  Robby looked a little bloated after finishing this since it was about 45 after Snookies.

Then once the kids were all amped up on sugar, they had a paper airplane contest.  All of the kids had airplanes and they threw them with the wind to see whose would travel furthest.  This was a cool idea and occupied the kids like crazy!

Looks a little bit like Lenny Dykstra telling the world where his baseball, or in this case airplane, is going to go.  That's probably not a good joke seeings what Lenny's been up to in recent years!  Yikes.

Robby and Caleb with birthday boy Jack!

And if you think that I was exaggerating the big day, I'm not.  We had to leave this party a little bit before it was over because we had to go home and get ready for a wedding out in Granger at Jester Park Lodge.

We returned home from that at about 8:45pm with two youngin's who were SPENT!!

The final post on Robby's birthday & a little other stuff...

So what's been going on? Lot's of stuff. More than I've been able to document in a relatively uniform way.

Grandma & grandpa Bushman came down a couple of weekends back with Robby's last present for his birthday. We did various things and then opened his last present.

Other than that? Caleb's starting baseball, we've been working and toting kids around.  Above and beyond that,  I don't really remember!

Here's little Calebber playing with the Kindle on our bed where he's not really supposed to be.

Don't remember what this photo was taken for but I like it.  I believe that Caleb's sweater is the one that I wore during my kindergarter year.   The bow tie? I think that is something that my Mom made me back in 1974'75.

Aunt Molly bringing Robby his final 2014 present while Grandpa continues to enjoy a "squeaky door".  What's a squeaky door?  Wouldn't you like to know!?!

Robby hitting the final gift.

Again, however this time under the careful and watchful eye of the China boy!

Things have taken too long and Grandpa has decided to take action!

It's a globe.  It has a bulb in it so that you plug it in and glows.

Hence the glowing!

Class Character Caleb... Redux

Caleb was awarded the Class Character award from his teacher.  This time for the awards ceremony, Dear ol' Dad got to go.  I got a few extra hours in earlier in the week so I took off early on Friday to attend. 

I apologize for the photos as it seems that someone with good character had been messing with the settings again, unbeknownst to me!

This is the Principal putting the dog tag necklace on Caleb while Mrs Juhler (sub for Caleb's teacher Mrs. Sanders on this day) read what Mrs. Sanders had written about Caleb.  It's blurry, hence the comment about the settings on the camera.

Mrs. Juhler is quite fond of Caleb having worked with him quite a bit last year, so she was more than happy to assist in his award.

And this is the write-up that Mrs Sanders did.

Again, I have a family well beyond what I deserve and I'm very proud of both boys!!