Stacy…

I try to be an equal opportunity ‘mean’ dad, but sometimes it is just harder being mean to Stacy…especially when she looks like this:

Dodger Blue…

Aya went to the Dodger game with coworkers and brought the kids back some cotton candy:

I don’t think this is what the Dodgers had in mind for Dodger “blue”.

Swimming…

Stacy is now water safe…again.  She was water safe last year when we ended swim lessons.  I guess since she was so young they made her take so repeat classes and then tested her again to see if she was water safe:

The test seemed different than before.  I remember clothes being optional and most kids taking the test in their bathing suits.  I also don’t remember them being tossed in the air, but Stacy loved it:

Yay!

Duck Dynasty…

I happened to be flipping channels a few months ago and came across a show on A&E called Duck Dynasty.  The show has been out for 2 seasons but I didn’t start watching until the 3rd season.  I have now seen all the episodes.  I think the show it hilarious and who would have thought they were multi-millionaires.  Even from watching the show I couldn’t figure it out for a while that they were really rich.

In any case, when I want to laugh I just watch this clip.

Happy Friday…and have a great 3day weekend!!

WLA–Game 3

This is a game to remember.  Again, a victim of bad referee’s.  The team we played was aggressive and I have no problem with that, but the ref didn’t call any fouls and/or just got tired of calling fouls against the other team.  I know, sounds like sour grapes, but if we get beat we get beat.

This team grabbed our players every time we went past them and then when they had the ball the travelled A LOT and/or double dribbled.   It was like the ref refused to call anything.  I just gave up and decided to let it be a learning lesson for the kids and that you have to play thru regardless of the calls.

They were a good team but if they tracked personal fouls and/or made calls I think it would have been a different outcome.  Nevertheless, we played well and the kids were happy to get trophies:

We played some good teams this coming weekend in the Tigers Tournament so hopefully we do just as well:

WLA–Game 2

Game 2 was payback.  We played the WLA that killed us last year.  The reason why they beat us….they had a kid that travelled the ENTIRE length of the court and then shot it.  He was a fast little kid too.  Their coach just looked at me like…’what…he travels a bit’.  Last year I even said something to the ref and they said they were told not to call travelling or double dribble. 

So, that stuck in my head and this year with fast break, travelling and double dribble supposedly going to be called, we BURIED this team.

Sure, they were bigger than us but we were tough.  We ran them up and down the court until even *I* felt bad.  Sadly I didn’t feel bad to really late in the game.  We won 39-8.

I sort of felt bad after because the bad coach last year was forced to quit so we had to beat the team with the new coach and he was a nice guy. 

WLA–Game 1

The Pirates played in the WLA Tournament.  There were two brackets upper and lower and luckily we played in the lower bracket.  It would have been nice experience for us to play in the upper bracket but the teams in the upper bracket are a lot better than us. 

We played WLA in the first game and we jumped out to a big lead in the first half.

Unfortunately for us the big kid in front of Jack (in the picture above) got red hot in the second half and was hitting some far jumpers.  They cut into our lead but with fast breaks part of the rules now, we pulled away late in the second half and won 26-18.

Jack got a cold a few days before the tournament and he had trouble catching his breath.  Sadly he didn’t play great in the tournament but he did okay.

Dawn’s Birthday…

Woo-hoo!!  Dawn’s pregnancy does have an advantage…no Sakura for birthday dinner.  Instead we got take out from Tito’s!!  Perfect…right up my alley!!

Someone (Jack) jumped the gun on the goofy picture and ruined what would have been a good family picture:

Apparently Uncle Bryan also wanted in on the action (it was still suppose to be GOOD picture time):

Way to go Uncle Bryan…AGAIN:

Now we got…PERFECT:

Shrinky Dinks…

Stacy got some Shrinky Dinks in a party bag.  We decided to make some shrinky dink art for Aunty Dawn and Uncle Su-Chan:

It actually came out pretty good.  They shrank to a nice size and came out smooth and not all curved and curled up like I expected:

 

iPod Touch…

Jack and Stacy started arguing over who can play the iPad.  We actually have two iPads, but one is for Aya’s work yet I never see her use and even she uses the family iPad to play games.  I then realized I had an extra iPod touch that I never opened so I decided to give it to Stacy.   She was so happy to have her own.  I accidently interrupted her playing and she gave me the old stink eye!

Hmm…I think this girl is going to be like me.

Cameron’s Birthday…

We headed to Pump it Up in the valley to celebrate Cameron’s birthday.  Jack had so much fun:

It was like Under the Sea for older kids:

Happy Birthday Cameron!

Art…

So just when I was saying Jack has ‘ZERO’ artistic ability, this is what comes home from art class:

 

Fart, Poop and Pee.  Then a banana and poop picture.   At least he has ‘air’ for the fart, the poop is brown and the pee is yellow.  I got a nice chuckle out of the drawing but then I told him it was not appropriate for him to draw that at school.  I then told Jack to show Mom his picture.

I was in the next room when I heard Jack tell Aya that this is what he drew in art class.  Aya didn’t like the picture either but then Jack messed up.  He told Aya that he didn’t draw it but someone else put his name on it and stuck it in his folder.   He was making a nice story out of it for Aya and then I walked in.  BUSTED.   Jack tried to hold up his story but when I grilled him about it he had to say he was lying. 

Needless to say, Jack was not a happy camper and he got no video games for two weeks.

Farragut Art Festival…

We headed out to Jack’s school for his art festival.  This is what Jack made:

I have no idea what it is.  A container or pot of some sort.  I will chalk it up a funky ashtray.  This kid has ZERO artistic ability.  I can’t say much, neither do I…but he seems to think his stuff is ‘quality’ art.

At least he got to help paint a mural outside his classroom wall:

Basketball…

I have been taking Jack to a club team practice for a few months now.   Man by Tuesday’s are long.  I am out of the house from 7:45 am and I come back home around 9:15 pm.  Not the ideal way I like to start my week but Jack is getting better:

I am just waiting for the light to ‘click’ in what he does at practice so he can apply it in a game:

With the WLA Tournament coming up it will be nice to see if Jack does well:

Anniversary…

Aya and I celebrated our 14 year anniversary by going to our usual spot, Café Del Rey.  We got every year on our anniversary:

Jack took a good picture of Aya and I:

I think the kids like the anniversary more than Aya and I.  The kids like to go out to eat and Café Del Rey:

Since Café Del Rey does not have desserts we like so the kids picked their favorite dessert place..Menchies!

14 years has gone by so quick….can’t even believe it was 17 years ago that I met Aya.  Time sure does fly by when you get old.

Dodgers…

With all the changes to Dodger management, we decided to stay in our season ticket group.  We got a few more games than last year and it is working out well.  We still have enough games to take the kids and Aya is using some of the games to take staff and management from work.

The best part about our tickets is that we are under the roof, so we can go to day games and we are in the shade.  The kids just go to eat and ruin the pictures:

We went opening weekend and the Dodgers won 6-2.   The stadium was packed so we didn’t stay to run the bases but we opted to take a picture next to the LA logo:

California Science Center

I am back!  I took last week off from updating just because I was too lazy to sign in an upload the pictures.  Actually, I update the blog in batches so I will do a few weeks at a time.  I didn’t realize it until mid-week that I didn’t have any updates and then I was lazy.

So back to the updates.  Aunty Dawn took the kids to the California Science Center:

Of course the main attraction was the space shuttle:

Jack messing up the pictures with his FACE:

 

Look, two of these kids are not like the others:

Thanks for Aunty for watching the kids on her day off!