Burger Night

The other day a few friends showed up at our house with some burgers and dogs, so I fired up the grill and we had a cookout. We ate, visited, roasted some marshmallows, and watched the kids - it was a nice, relaxing evening.

Adrian, Gwendolyn, and Anya dig in.

Aaron built a beautiful burger. I had to take a picture.

Nine Years for Anthony

I realized the other day that I hadn't pulled pictures from our camera since the end of March. Which meant that I'd forgotten to write about our April Birthday Boy. I guess we'll have to turn back the clock a bit...

Anthony turned nine in the beginning of April and somehow managed to drag his party out for most of the week. Our workers were with us on the actual day, so we had an ice cream cake and opened a few presents. He wanted to have some friends from school over as well, so on Friday he brought three of his buddies home with him and we had a small party then too.

The ice cream cake was delicious!

One of his more unusual presents. Mr Collection was delighted to have a set of shelves and drawers to fill with rocks and other treasures.

Andrea had a couple of activities planned for the boys on Friday, but they spent most of their time on the trampoline or chasing each other around the yard in some kind of imaginary superhero world.

The potential for Massive Disaster goes up exponentially when you add one four-year-old boy named Paxton into the mix of four nine-year-olds with paint brushes.

Supper was simple - hamburgers and hot dogs from the grill and some fruit - then we got a fire going to roast marshmallows. Yum!

Looks Chinese to Me

A little while back we were in need of some supper and wanting something a little different than our normal fare, so we decided to try a highly recommended Chinese restaurant in Champaign called Golden Harbor. It was packed, which was a good sign, and most of the clientele was Asian, which seemed even more promising. I don't really have any experience with 'authentic' Chinese food, but I know that what we get at the Panda Express, or wherever, isn't it. This place certainly looked, and smelled, more authentic.

If you can read Chinese then you can just pick what you want from the huge list of items plastered up on the wall as you wait in line to place your order. We don't read Chinese, so we picked up a bulging English language menu and found a table. We ordered a few dishes that we figured were safe and at least one that sounded a little more interesting. Rice and tea are included.

Chinese food isn't really my favorite, so I'm not sure I can give an unbiased opinion of our selections. It was good, but except for the more authentic looking dish - a beef and eggplant stew - it all seemed a little salty. Maybe we needed to dig a little deeper into the menu.

Of course you have to use the chopsticks if you are really going to eat Chinese. Paxton tries the two-handed technique...

 ...but finally gives up and just uses the tried and true Poke-It-With-The-Sharp-End method.

 Kenrick seems to be making it work.

 This is really an odd perspective of me.

 Anya also doesn't have any qualms about using the direct method.

 Anthony just used a fork.

Big Boy Toys

A couple of weeks ago I finally bit the bullet and sprung for a new riding mower. The hydrostatic drive on the old one was worn out and barely able to propel the tractor along the flat ground much less our sloping back yard, all its joints were starting to rattle loose, and the steering pinion was developing a troubling tendency to skip a few cogs at critical moments, so I decided that I'd pushed it far enough. In addition, the other little tractor that I'd bought from my father in law a few years back was sitting in my shed with a busted rod and a hole in the engine case, so it was a good time to turn a couple of pieces of well-used equipment into something shiny. The local Deere dealer had what I wanted.

The kids waste no time checking it out.

Did you know that they make lawn mowers now with cup holders, cruise control, four-wheel-drive and power steering?! Mine doesn't have the power steering or the front drive, but it still drives like a Cadillac compared to the old one. Hopefully it lasts as long.

Racing Pandemonium Part 2

Last Saturday Andrea and Kenrick represented the Pandemonium Clan in our town's 5K fun run. They both did fantastic.

Here they are, pre-race, ready to go!

It was Kenrick's first race ever so he was a mix of nervous and excited. It was Andrea's first race where she felt like she had a hope of completing it without feeling miserable, but even though she had been gradually building up her distances to get ready she still hadn't actually run the full 3.1 miles without stopping, so she was a bit anxious too. I wasn't nervous at all.

The cheering section.

Here comes Kenrick! He's telling us that Mom's back a ways - it didn't take too long before he pulled ahead of her.

Here comes Mommy! Looking good honey, only two and a half miles to go!

I tried to get a picture of Andrea at the finish, but missed it. She was still smiling. "I ran the WHOLE WAY!" she puffed happily as she trotted past, finish line in sight.

Kenrick finished the 5K in about 27 minutes, Andrea in about 37 minutes. Both beat their goals. Not bad for a first try. Well done guys.

A Princess Shoe Tower

"Happy birthday to meee! "

Ejected

This morning Kenrick and Anthony were supposed to be watching Anya while Andrea was in town and I was working in the garage.  Before too long I heard some kind of commotion erupt from inside, mostly from Anya's squawks of indignation - a sure sign that she wasn't getting her way or that she'd gotten interrupted while doing something naughty. The noise continued for a while, then rose to a crescendo as the garage door opened and Anthony, unceremoniously and without a word, dumped his little sister on the step and closed the door behind her.

I can't say I really blame him.

10K

On Saturday morning a small group of us joined 2,212 other shivering soles running the Christie Clinic Illinois 10K road race. The 10K was held as a part of the larger Illinois Marathon and Half-Marathon races which wound through the campus of the University of Illinois and the sister cities of Champaign and Urbana - an event that drew well over 15,000 runners from 48 states and numerous countries around the globe. The starting line was quite a sight.

It was my first 10K, and I'll have to admit to being a little nervous. I was sure I could go the distance, but wasn't so sure about the 55-minute goal I had set for myself. I had even dared to think about a 50-minute pace a couple of times leading up to this race, motivated especially by my dad's best 10K time of 42 minutes, but I knew that I just hadn't gotten the miles in to realistically expect that kind of performance. But the weather was perfect for running, the course was flat and fast and the adrenaline must have given me a little extra boost; I finished in 51:36, 16th in my age group, 179th overall. Not too bad.

In the chaos of the starting line crush we couldn't find the rest of our group and didn't think to get a before-race picture. Andrea did get hooked up with the rest of the 'support team' to cheer us on at the one-mile marker, and did get a shot of me (in the white shirt) crossing the finish on the 50-yard line of the football field amid the thunderous roar of the frenzied crowd.

 

Here's the crowd that really matters. Andrea and the kids braved the chill to cheer me on. Thanks guys!

 

Our group, minus Kyle, looking good after a nice post-race breakfast. From the left: Amanda, Stacy, LeAnn, Amanda, and Your's Truly.

 

Air Kenrick

Kenrick has been building ramps to ride his bike over ever since he could ride a bike, so a few weeks ago I built him the kind of ramp that I would have liked to have had as a kid. It seems to work.

I'm sure it won't be too long before he asks for a bigger one...

Summer Project #1: Done

I finished up the sandbox this week. Paxton digs in.

Buttered Lettuce

There was a little bit of Anthony's birthday cake left over, so last night after our usual supper snack I was in the kitchen cutting it up and Anya bounded in. "Cake! Cake!" she exclaimed happily.

I knew she hadn't eaten all of her food yet so I said, "Anya, do you still have some salad left? You can't have cake until your plate is all clean."

"Okay," she said, and zipped back around the corner into the dining room. I heard her brothers laughing, and about two seconds later she reappeared, beaming, clean plate in hand.

"Great," I thought, "she dumped her plate on the floor," and grabbed a handful of paper towels.

But no mess on the floor.

Instead, she'd climbed back into her seat and carefully scraped her salad into the popcorn bowl.

Buddies

Anya and Mouse the cat are best buddies. I caught them sharing a rare quite moment this morning while I was working on the new sand box.

Dinosaurs

Yesterday the boys and I rode the train into Chicago and spent the day at the Field Museum. Andrea wanted to do some shopping around Naperville, so we drove up Thursday night and caught the Metra there, then hopped on the 'school bus' for the quick trip from Union Station to the museum campus.

The Field Museum is a monstrous, stately old building full of intrigue, mystery and, well, history.

One of the most anticipated pieces of history was Sue, the museum's star attraction as the largest, most complete Tyrannosaurus Rex ever discovered. She never fails to impress.

The dinosaur bones are truly amazing. I'm not sure if Paxton is so amazed, or just ready to get back on the train.

The 3D movie about Sue was quite impressive, although too scary for Paxton. He didn't like the animated dinosaurs stomping around and roaring at him.

Walk like an Egyptian.

 Tired boys. Paxton's shirt kind of matches the tiger stripes, huh?

It was a beautiful day.

Paxton Ponders

Paxton had a riddle for me this morning.

"Dad?" he said, "what comes with wrong feets?"

"What, Paxton?"

"Shoes!"