teeing off at the 17th hole at tpc sawgrass.

and while i hit the green on this shot, a few holes earlier i lost the grip of my six iron and it went sailing in to a lake.

so, i may have played on a course designed for the pros, but i played anything like a pro…

for a couple of weeks after logan’s surgery it was all ice cream and jello for dinner and we indulged her doing mostly what she was up to doing.

we’ve been paying for that now, now that we are only at baseline spoilage. if this is a taste of what’s in store when she becomes a teenager we’re doomed.

i was joking with a neighbor that i thought i was still a few hours away from thinking sky blue and pin stripes were a good look for me.

i think i was right, but now i’m worried about my wife. she came in to my office this morning wearing the loudest, striped blouse i’ve ever seen her wear. on the plus side, she did ask “too bright”, but still there had to be a few minutes in the store when she was trying it on that she thought it was not “too bright”…

to complete this little fashion show, she was also sporting some sickly green cosmetic mask that had the producers of batman seen would have inspired a female companion for the joker in the next movie for sure…

the way my kids relate to time passing, i’m pretty sure they don’t know if school is hours or weeks away from ending.

but we have been hearing that the “kids are going crazy” with the school year nearing summer break.

i have a different theory, the kids are going crazy from field trips every other day, movie and popcorn parties and forced quiet time to allow their class mates to focus on their eogs (end of grade tests).

for the second year in a row, ethan has volunteered to assist with “neighborhood cleanup day” this is when a collection of adults, and ethan, get together to trim back trees, weed and generally clean up common areas in the neighborhood.

the neighbor who organizes the event sent this to me afterwards:

ethan is such a nice boy. it is always a pleasure to have him join us. and it is very nice that his father includes him. it is very apparent that you and natalie are such good parents to both children.

both natalie and i were asked to come down to the school to have a discussion about an “issue” with ethan in his class.

over the past week while our house has been painted, logan has built a gallery of photos like the following.

guess its time to re-evaluate our parenting strategy…

in case you’re unsure, it reads “once upon a time”.

hopefully its a testament to her mother’s curious accent and not how she will perform in future spelling bees…

yesterday was “demo day” at logan’s gymnastics.

the kids all get to show off their talents on beam, bars, floor and the parents get to ooh and aah. like every other children’s event, when its all over a prize is awarded. a gold medal with an olympic torch on it.

natalie told logan when she was a little girl she would have to demonstrate some level of proficiency in an event and then she would be given a star that could be sewn in to her leotard.

logan laughed at this and said “i just have to be there”.

a few of my own ideas…

“i’m only stepping on 3/5ths of the constitution”

“you can’t expect me to clean up every mess you leave behind”

nothing upsets white, middle-aged men like minorities or someone down on their luck crashing the party…

we surprisingly came in to two baseball tickets last night and so i took ethan to the game.

of course logan was disappointed she couldn’t come too, but worse yet, she tried to stay up until we got home, because in her words

two people aren’t enough for a family

she was elated in the morning when we were a family of four again.