Monday, July 07, 2008
Fourth of July Weekend
I hope everyone had a fun, and safe, holiday weekend. Ours was pretty good; here's the rundown:
Friday
Ahhh, sleeping in -at least Nora and I did. Pierce and Anna were up pretty early.
We went to the pool for several hours (we had perfect weather), then had dinner with Mike and Lizz across the street. Mike smoked Kielbasas, Brisket, and hot dogs for the kids; then we caravanned out to the Great Mall for the Olathe Fireworks. Pierce and Anna are huge fireworks fans, and this year's display did not disappoint. This was the twins first experience with fireworks and Ella took to them immediately. Alex was a little scared at first, but warmed up to them about half-way through the show. Not bad for a couple of 10-month olds.
Of course we got home pretty late. Both kids fell asleep in the car. About 10 minutes into the ride home Anna said she wished she had brought something soft to lay on, and I told her just to put her head back and close her eyes. She was asleep less than a minute later.
Saturday
Nora and I spent a fair amount of the day cleaning house. I'm happy to report that our carpets, stairs and bathrooms are the cleanest they've been in a long time.
After lunch we went to go see the new Pixar flick, Wall-E. Pierce and Anna were lukewarm on the whole idea, but Nora and I were pretty insistent. I think they both liked the movie "OK", but it wasn't one of their favorites. Nora felt much the same way -it didn't live up to her expectations (based on the previews she'd seen). On the other hand, I loved it. Whether anyone else wants to see it again or not, the DVD is definitely going to become part of our collection.
Saturday evening we went to the library. Pierce checked out an armload of books on cars (surprise!), and Anna got several fiction books on horses. We also checked out the movie, The Apple Dumpling Gang (we'd watched the sequel a couple of months ago). Nora and I enjoyed it (Nora doesn't remember seeing it before), but I think Pierce and Anna found it a little slow. Oh well, so much for sharing my childhood memories...
We also checked out Season 2 of the original Superman series with George Reeves. I remember watching the show when it came on in the afternoons. We watched a couple of episodes and Pierce and Anna are definitely fans.
Sunday
Unfortunately, the downside of having a thriving wedding videography business, is that you ultimately have to spend time editing all that video into something watchable. With the exception of some lawn mowing, I spent most of Sunday editing video from the wedding we shot last week. I'm attempting to use some automated software to speed up the process. I got all the video transferred to my computer and organized by content. Hopefully by the end of the week I'll have most of it done. We'll see how much of a "time saver" the software is. I'm cautiously optimistic.
While I did video, Nora and the kids went to the pool for a couple of hours. Pierce and Anna came back brown as berries. This mid-West summer sun just burns right through sun block. Pierce was so excited about a new friend he'd made, he came running into my office buck naked to tell me about it. Apparently there was a three-year old at the pool who likes boats and cars, and the two of them became fast friends.
The highlight of Sunday was in the evening. Sally, one of our neighbors with 13-year old daughter, Natalie, invited Nora and Anna to join them to go see Beauty and the Beast at the our local Theater in the Park. Theater in the Park is an amateur production done under the stars, and is usually a very nice show. All the girls packed picnic dinners and headed out of the house about 6:00 pm. Anna LOVED it. She had vivid descriptions of the story, the set design, everything. Without prompting, she enthusiastically thanked Sally for inviting them to come. Next month's show is "Titanic, the Musical" and I think the whole Lindenberg family will go out for that one.
Taking advantage of the girls absence, Pierce and I went to PowerPlay for the evening. PowerPlay is like a Chuckee Cheese on steroids. It has a dinner buffet, bowling, go-carts, video games, and small amusement park rides.
I was very proud of Pierce. For the first time, he handled his buffet dinner setup by himself; including getting a plate and silverware, serving himself, and getting his meal back to the table without spilling anything. He even went back for seconds, and later on dessert, unaccompanied.
Pierce was able to do a "mini" go-cart by himself with me watching from the sidelines. We played a LOT of racing video games (he's pretty good), and played enough "ticket" games for him to go to the redemption store and pick out a few things for himself. He even bought Anna a pink whistle, which he presented to her on Monday morning (she was very excited).
The only downside of the whole 3-day weekend was how hard it was to get up for work on Monday.
-Eric (Dad)
Friday
Ahhh, sleeping in -at least Nora and I did. Pierce and Anna were up pretty early.
We went to the pool for several hours (we had perfect weather), then had dinner with Mike and Lizz across the street. Mike smoked Kielbasas, Brisket, and hot dogs for the kids; then we caravanned out to the Great Mall for the Olathe Fireworks. Pierce and Anna are huge fireworks fans, and this year's display did not disappoint. This was the twins first experience with fireworks and Ella took to them immediately. Alex was a little scared at first, but warmed up to them about half-way through the show. Not bad for a couple of 10-month olds.
Of course we got home pretty late. Both kids fell asleep in the car. About 10 minutes into the ride home Anna said she wished she had brought something soft to lay on, and I told her just to put her head back and close her eyes. She was asleep less than a minute later.
Saturday
Nora and I spent a fair amount of the day cleaning house. I'm happy to report that our carpets, stairs and bathrooms are the cleanest they've been in a long time.
After lunch we went to go see the new Pixar flick, Wall-E. Pierce and Anna were lukewarm on the whole idea, but Nora and I were pretty insistent. I think they both liked the movie "OK", but it wasn't one of their favorites. Nora felt much the same way -it didn't live up to her expectations (based on the previews she'd seen). On the other hand, I loved it. Whether anyone else wants to see it again or not, the DVD is definitely going to become part of our collection.
Saturday evening we went to the library. Pierce checked out an armload of books on cars (surprise!), and Anna got several fiction books on horses. We also checked out the movie, The Apple Dumpling Gang (we'd watched the sequel a couple of months ago). Nora and I enjoyed it (Nora doesn't remember seeing it before), but I think Pierce and Anna found it a little slow. Oh well, so much for sharing my childhood memories...
We also checked out Season 2 of the original Superman series with George Reeves. I remember watching the show when it came on in the afternoons. We watched a couple of episodes and Pierce and Anna are definitely fans.
Sunday
Unfortunately, the downside of having a thriving wedding videography business, is that you ultimately have to spend time editing all that video into something watchable. With the exception of some lawn mowing, I spent most of Sunday editing video from the wedding we shot last week. I'm attempting to use some automated software to speed up the process. I got all the video transferred to my computer and organized by content. Hopefully by the end of the week I'll have most of it done. We'll see how much of a "time saver" the software is. I'm cautiously optimistic.
While I did video, Nora and the kids went to the pool for a couple of hours. Pierce and Anna came back brown as berries. This mid-West summer sun just burns right through sun block. Pierce was so excited about a new friend he'd made, he came running into my office buck naked to tell me about it. Apparently there was a three-year old at the pool who likes boats and cars, and the two of them became fast friends.
The highlight of Sunday was in the evening. Sally, one of our neighbors with 13-year old daughter, Natalie, invited Nora and Anna to join them to go see Beauty and the Beast at the our local Theater in the Park. Theater in the Park is an amateur production done under the stars, and is usually a very nice show. All the girls packed picnic dinners and headed out of the house about 6:00 pm. Anna LOVED it. She had vivid descriptions of the story, the set design, everything. Without prompting, she enthusiastically thanked Sally for inviting them to come. Next month's show is "Titanic, the Musical" and I think the whole Lindenberg family will go out for that one.
Taking advantage of the girls absence, Pierce and I went to PowerPlay for the evening. PowerPlay is like a Chuckee Cheese on steroids. It has a dinner buffet, bowling, go-carts, video games, and small amusement park rides.
I was very proud of Pierce. For the first time, he handled his buffet dinner setup by himself; including getting a plate and silverware, serving himself, and getting his meal back to the table without spilling anything. He even went back for seconds, and later on dessert, unaccompanied.
Pierce was able to do a "mini" go-cart by himself with me watching from the sidelines. We played a LOT of racing video games (he's pretty good), and played enough "ticket" games for him to go to the redemption store and pick out a few things for himself. He even bought Anna a pink whistle, which he presented to her on Monday morning (she was very excited).
The only downside of the whole 3-day weekend was how hard it was to get up for work on Monday.
-Eric (Dad)
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