Gone Fishin'

Over Thanksgiving weekend, we did a little fishing at one of the lagoons that is just a short walk from our house. Osten got to try out his new fishing pole. He did a great job toting his own tackle, which consisted of his sippy cup and a hot dog for bait.

Nathan had a real pole, whereas Osten's pole allowed him to make his first catch before we were anywhere near water!

Jack fished, too, and of the three boys, he was definitely the most experienced angler. Tom still remembers all the fish he caught when he went fishing for the first time after his third birthday.

While the boys fished, Marci had a ball walking along the bridge with Aunt Chandra.

Gone Fishin' - Part Two

The good thing about having a bright red, plastic fish on the end of your line is that it's easy to spot in the murky water.

On the other hand, you miss out on the fun of baiting your hook.

However, when you fish with your own catch, you can travel with a lot less tackle.

And when you're Marci's age, you don't even need a pole to have a good time fishing!

Peeple Persuasion

Meet our "elf on the shelf" who has taken up residence with us during the weeks leading up to Christmas. Osten named him "Peeple," and he will be with us until Santa comes to take him back to the North Pole on Christmas Eve. While he's here, he keeps tabs on Osten and Marci and is in direct communication with Santa each night. While we sleep, he uses his elf magic to dart back to the North Pole to tell Santa if Osten and Marci have been naughty or nice. Usually while he's there, he picks up a little surprise for Osten (and sometimes Marci, although she's not as impressed by him as Osten this year) as a reward for good behavior. When we wake up in the morning, Peeple is hiding somewhere in the house waiting to greet us. When he first came to us, we found him on this shelf in our living room. There's just no telling where he might be! But so long as Peeple is here, he's watching and providing new incentive for Osten to be on his best behavior.

Pool Gear

During our blog hiatus, we finished our family swim classes. We were never quite able to streamline the production of getting everyone in their gear and out the door. Here are a few pictures from a typical Saturday morning getting ready to go to the pool. For starters, getting Osten into this get-up is no small task. Meanwhile . . .

Marci, who has been in her suit and coverup since right after breakfast, decides that ransacking her brother's cars is more fun than swimming any day!

"Marci's playing with my cars??!! Forget the boots and goggles. I've got to protect my fleet! Um . . . So, like why do you think they made us wear our bathing suits again?"

The Many Faces of Spiderman

If I told you that Osten was the only one who enjoyed his Spiderman costume, I guess I would have to keep the next two pictures to myself.

Here's Spiderman sporting the corporate look.

And here's Spiderman having a little girl time!

Just a Swingin'

Marci loves the bucket swings at th e playground in our neighborhood.

She loves the back-and-forth motion, and I love trying to capture the gamut of her emotions as she glides through the air.

Here's my favorite shot!

Fit to Be Tied

Osten has recently become a big fan of wearing a tie. Here is his very first foray into neckwear. He was so excited that he couldn't wait to put his pants on before running outside to give the new tie a test run in the driveway.

Osten ran all over that driveway in his new tie. Ties must make little boys run faster because he darted all over that driveway.

And it was quite a struggle to convince him to take it off before going to bed later that night.