Fair weekend

The kids were in bed last night at 8pm and in the care of my in-laws, freeing Bekah and me to experience the fair unencumbered. Date night at the North Idaho Fair.

Today was family day. We've been fairing it up since the gates opened. Four kids in tow (with my mother-in-law to assist). We wandered the animal showcases, rode a few rides, ate the obligatory fair food, and attacked the petting zoo.

Now we commence Operation Keep the Children Awake.

We want the younger Caseys to go to bed early so that Bekah and I can return for more fun (and possibly funnel cake). The kids have been awake since breakfast this morning. No naps. J has been a zombie for the last hour and he finally zonked out during the ride home. He is beyond waking. Since he's not quite two, we're not worried about an insomniac version of J. The other kids, however are a concern. If they nap now, they'll be awake all night long.

Summer cooking

The local Infant Toddler Program hosted a picnic/barbeque last night at Ramsey Park for families with kids in their program. Despite a couple brief spurts of rain, it was the perfect day to get the kids outside.

They provided all the food and drink.

They also offered some activities for the kids: bubbles, a water table, and books to give away. Zu spent her time like a nervous squirrel, running from the park’s playground to the picnic table to sneak a quick bite from her burger, then off to the water table, and back to the playground – never spending more than a couple minutes in any location. Christian was preoccupied with the bubbles until he found the water table. From there, he obsessed over filling the toy watering pot to water the park’s trees. All of them.

JJ wandered the park and braved the spiral slide, but his fascination focused on a long board one of the other parents brought.
He could not resist climbing onto the board (the board’s owner gave permission) and would not dismount willingly. I think we have a future skater in our family.

We’re heading to a friend’s house this evening for another barbeque. As much as my body despises summer, I am enjoying this lovely outdoor cooking weather.

Fresh Starts

Can I just say that the month of June sucks? Or do I have to admit that I sucked at the month of June?

First, the natural calendar is devoid of holidays (with the brave exception of Father's Day) or any rational cause for scheduled celebration. There is Red Rose Day on the 12th, and since then I've been idle.

June was a rough month. I've had a difficult time being (or even getting) excited about anything. My home life has been stressful with my son's transition out of school, my professional life has been as hectic as a mosh pit at a country music concert, and I've been suffering from a serious motivational drought.

But enough with the excuses.

It's July first. And while I'm at it, happy Canada Day to all my Canadian friends. It's a good day for a fresh start. Time to get back in the saddle. Time to think like Billy Corgan and say that today is the greatest day I've ever known. I can not testify to the veracity of that last statement, but if I say it enough, I might actually believe it.

This is going to be a good month, I can feel it. July's calendar is packed with celebratory goodness. In a few days, we get to celebrate America's independence from those crazy Brits. As the month progresses we'll enjoy days like National Fried Chicken Day, Vanilla Ice Cream Day, and my personal favorite - Embrace Your Geekness Day.

July is also National Hot Dog Month and National Blueberry Month (both are occasions I can wholeheartedly support). However the second week of the month is Nude Recreation Week; don't expect any naked recreating from this blogger.

I'll leave you with one final thought: today is also Creative Ice Cream Flavors Day. Before you crash for the night, indulge yourself in a nice scoop of fried eggplant ice cream. Or Dracula cool garlic mint ice cream. Or perhaps bay leaf ice cream (tastes like eucalyptus).

Happy 30th

My sister-in-law turns 30 today. In honor of her day, I'd like to point you to her blog. She's a fantastic writer, and has managed to build a charming community of readers that follow her.

Take some time to visit her. Read a while. And I'd encourage you to check back often. She posts with greater regularity than most bloggers I know.

Dancing with Dragons is Hard on Your Shoes

BBQn'... in the rain

Good day for a surprise birthday party. Bad day for a barbecue.

We were at a friends house this afternoon to celebrate the birthday of one of my wife's best friends. (I'll be nice and not divulge her age) Her son had strung tarps from their porch roof out into the yard to give all the guests a canopy under which we could socialize, and that tarp was soon an essential part of the festivities.

A tad cold. Slightly breezy. And a torrent of water pouring from the sky. We adults (those possessing sanity) remained under the relative dryness of the feeble improvised shelter. The children were not so easily contained.

We don't often let the kids play outside in the rain. They had the time of their lives.

Shhh, don't tell my wife

Bekah hates donuts.

Thankfully, the kids take after me.

In honor of a tradition started by the Salvation Army, we indulged in our donuts. Happy National Donut Day.

The missing week in the life of Party Nic

Where have I been? Thanks for asking. To be honest this past week’s been a blur but I can tell you that my activities and habitations over the past 10 days have not included writing.

If I had to pick a single week of May where celebration should have been easiest, that last week would have been it. How woefully wrong was I? When you last saw me, my sister-in-law and her husband showed up for our adoption weekend. Then I vanished from the face of the blogosphere.

That whole weekend should have been one big joyous occasion. Should have. I have an inner worry bug inside me that tends to derail my ability to relax and enjoy the moment. That isn’t to say there was no cause for celebration.

We got off to a rocky start. On Saturday (the 22nd) I was overwhelmed with the amount of house and yard work that needed to happen to prepare for adoption party. Dan also had the awesome idea of renting COD: Modern Warfare while they were in town. He and I have previously spent a couple of weekends blitzing through full games, including Left 4 Dead and Gears of War. I was looking forward to some good video game time. Problem one: the only copy that Hastings had in stock was scratched and didn’t work. We made a trip back to Hastings where they buffed the disk in an attempt to make it playable. Problem two: even after buffing, the game still would not load. Another trip to Hastings to get a different game. Most of the games that we wanted were all rented out of stock. He and I spent a half hour surfing game reviews on our iPhones before settling on Borderlands. Problem three: by the time we returned from our Hastings excursion, dinner was served. After dinner I had to go into the office to send out some reports; I spent an hour and a half at work (allowing me to take two days of PTO) and by the time I got home most everyone had gone to bed.

Sunday was a much better day, despite the kids being more on the stir-crazy side of life. Dan and I didn’t get much time to play Borderlands, and the night was devoted to family games. Dan and I challenged our spouses (and their youngest sister) in a game of Battle of the Sexes. After the first couple of rounds, Bekah’s parents were intrigued enough to join the festivities. The guys won.

We planned a bowling trip for Monday as my belated birthday party. The upside: we had Sunset Lanes to ourselves. The downside... There was a lot. The kids lost interest in bowling after the first few frames. I had problems finding a ball that fit my fingers. And Miriam found greater joy watching the kids than in whatever was happening on the lanes. After bowling, Dan treated me out to lunch at Wingstop, then we finally got some time with the Xbox. We spent most of the rest of the day killing bandits and aliens. Monday night was a Battle of the Sexes rematch. The guys won. Again.

Tuesday was adoption day. JJ is now officially and legally a Casey.

Since we were in Spokane for the adoption, we stayed in downtown for the morning. We walked all over Riverfront Park, rode the carousel, and had brunch at Olive Garden (where Zu liked pepper off her breadsticks and JJ stole his grandma’s after-dinner mint). Finally, the day was capped off with JJ’s adoption party.

Wednesday I was back to work; Wednesday, Thursday, and Friday were about nothing more than catching up with life. To be completely honest, I’ve blocked out 90% of those three days from my memory. All I know was that I needed to cram four and a half day’s worth work into three days and flirted with the brink of insanity.

Mother Nature tried her best to slaughter my Saturday plans, but I flipped her the figurative middle finger and ventured out to the Kootenai County Farmer’s Market with Christian by my side. This is the first I’ve been to the KootCo market in the six years that we’ve lived here. Christian has been promised a garden the summer that he’s six (which would be next year) and he was eager to tell all of the vendors about it. He asked what all of the different plants were as we walked by the various booths. All of the plants piqued his interest (except tomatoes, he was adamant in his distaste for tomatoes). The lavender lady gave him gardening tips that included talking to plants to help them grow. When we visited Almost Sunny (ran by Sunny and Bent of Bent's Beer Garden), Christian told Bent and Sunny that he was going to have his own garden with carrots and “other stuff.” Bent was so overcome by Christian’s excitement, he blessed us with a generous and unexpected gift of some veggie starts. Now Christian can get some practice before he gets his full garden next year.

We now have a cauliflower, broccoli, and cabbage starts sitting in the kitchen window waiting for a clear patch of dirt to be dug into the yard. And Christian spent two hours on Sunday afternoon following the advice of the lavender lady, repeatedly telling his plants, “I want you to grow.” My son isn’t much of a conversationalist. Yet.

Sunday was my day of rest and I indulged in all aspects of resting. Monday was the Day we should all be celebrating: Memorial day. Finally, yesterday marked my fifth anniversary as a blogger. My first blog post appeared on the tubes June 1st 2005. I’m posting a series of celebratory posts on my primary blog this week, and you can read the first two posts HERE and HERE.

Now we’re at today. And I’m exhausted.

Early arrival

My wife's older sister was planning on visiting us this weekend. We were expecting her and her husband to show up sometime before noon tomorrow.

But when Miriam's work day ended, she told Dan "I'm hyper, lets go now."

Now they're here. So until we all crash for the night, I'll be celebrating by hanging out with two of the coolest people in the world (and quite possibly the galaxy).

With apologies to my brother

My hometown was in strawberry country. Picking those berries was a first job for many of my peers. In fact, the City of Marysville throws an annual festival about this time of year - The Strawberry Festival. (I know - creative, right?)

This festival was (and likely still is) the most exciting thing to roll through town. A car show, beauty pageant, vendors market, parade, trike races, carnival... For some reason that still eludes any explanation, my favorite part was the giant strawberries that the city painted in the major intersections along State Ave. Nothing bolsters civic pride more than government endorsed graffiti.

As for the food options, those red berries received the center stage in every dish served around town. Strawberry milkshakes, strawberry shortcake, strawberry ice cream. It was the toppings for pancakes, elephant ears. Served in scones, on skewers. Dipped in chocolate, in whip cream, in yogurt.

My family was involved with the festival for a few years. My dad, brother, and I all worked the vendors market and volunteered as parade security. It came with perks. The guy who brought the go carts gave us unlimited or extended racing time, often after hours. We were given free carnival passes and an insane amount of free food.

Oh the free food. The food vendors understood that we were in control of their power supply and their access to ice. So they repaid us with goodies. This was greatly appreciated, but as it was a benefit it was also a curse. Remember how strawberries played a central theme in the festive foods?

After eating nothing but a variation of strawberries for five consecutive days, at the end of May, every year, you suffer something akin to strawberry burnout. At least that's what happened to my brother and me. For years, neither of us could stand to eat that infernal fruit. I'm not sure if Aaron has yet recovered from his strawberry aversion, but I have. Almost.



I have regained my taste for strawberries, but only in small doses - like a man building up an immunity to a lethal poison. It is a good thing, because today was Pick a Strawberry Day.

Zu, Christian, and I took a trip after dinner to pick strawberries. And there is no better place in Coeur d'Alene to pick strawberries than the grocery store.

Christian was seriously serious about his strawberries, but Zu was so excited I feared she might bounce out of her seat.

And of course, I savored my own bowl.

Stuff, lots of it

Happy Pack Rat Day. I am probably the first and only person to bestow that wish upon you today. I realize this. But if you're like me, you don't like wasting stuff. And it doesn't matter if it's food stuff or clutter stuff. Or time stuff. But you get that there are mathematical formulas to calculate stuff and scientific laws that govern the properties of stuff. (my father in-law posted a great list on this idea, READ IT.)

However, I know the life of a pack rat is one of stress, insecurity, worry, and overwhelming discontent. And yet there's irony in sharing my birthday with Pack Rat Day. (as most pack rats endeavor to throw nothing away, I forgot to take the trash out this morning)

How does one stop being a pack rat? Is it possible to be a rat that travels light? I'm sure it entails throwing and giving stuff away, but there is one thing I refuse to throw away - my friends. Thank you to all who wished me a happy birthday.

Mr. Mom

It's Fripay! (Friday + Payday - any sense of shame) This is usually one of the happier days for office morale.

And I was not in the office to enjoy it.

I stayed home.

Bekah had a work function to attend, so it was my turn to play stay-at-home dad. Today was a day for just me and the kids. This is not the first day I've spent home with the kids, and it won't be the last, but every occasion makes me appreciate my wife.

Here are a few reasons:

* We have too many clothes. The laundry beast has escaped the darkest chambers of hades and invaded out living room. I feel small when attempting to slay that dragon.

* The kids are bottomless pits, but they eat at varied speeds. While they will all want second helpings, they'll ask for round two at staggered intervals.

* Why do parents ask kids to clean their rooms? The moment each toy has been safely returned to its proper home, the kids turn into a savage toy-tossing force like a tornado in a trailer park. Their playroom was picked up three times today (and could have used a fourth cleaning).

* Christian is in his learning how to tell the truth phase, or as I call it - he lies a lot. This is frustrating but manageable in small doses, like the few hours between work and bedtime. But for a full day? It's a wonder more parents don't check themselves into mental health facilities when the kids finally leave the nests.

But it wasn't all bad. The younger kids had a wonderful nap time and Christian helped me clean the living room and kitchen. Days like today me me happy to have an office away from the house, and grateful for an amazing wife.

On a side note, Christian like to incorporate whichever adult is in the house into his art projects. Today, he colored a portrait of his daddy.

Upon completion, Christian ran up to me, grinning like a proud monkey. "Daddy," he said, "look, I drew a picture of you. And you have a BIG belly."

And this is why I go work out.

p.s. The laundry monster still has not been conquered.