May, the month of graduation and fun

We didn't know where to look, but it looks like the kids got it right. Graduation at the Naples Philharmonic, does that mean that I get a dual degree? Law and music composition?
At least Alicia looks good. I look like the Purple Pie Man from Porcupine Peak. A Strawberry Short Cake reference...not that I watch that....anymore.
Elle put her head in this alligator's mouth upon my insistence. What a good influence I am on my children. The biggest shocker is that she actually listened to me.
Beck visiting the manatee park. I guess the manatees had a day off, because we didn't see even one. Lamest manatee park ever.
It was Colonel Mustard with a sweater vest in the stroller! Dun, dun, dah!
Elle is Bo Derek in "10." I never actually saw the movie, but this reminds me of the movie cover. O.k., I give up...it's one of my favorites. But, really...just kidding.
Elle fishing on the Naples pier. We met an old man fishing off of the side. He would throw this chicken wire into the water, which had a red string on it. He would pull it up and there would be a few fish on it. Elle told me, "I love to fish, Dad." When I go fishing I never catch anything, she's 4 and she caught several.
It was funny to see the fish flop around in her hands, she got so excited. When we told her to throw the fish back into the water she wound up for the pitch and threw the fish into the railing of the pier. She tried. The fish, stunned, sunk into the turquoise waters of the Gulf to "sleep" with his friends. Happily ever after of course.

I looked in the bathroom and what did I see...

Beck IN the potty. Elle never really played in the toilet, but Beck sure does. It doesn't matter if the water is clean or ...well, not so clean.

Disney World for Real This Time

Some of you might remember that we went to Downtown Disney and "told" Elle that it was Disney World - how mean of Alicia to have suggested that. But, we caved and decided to go to the REAL Disney World. Look out crowds of Europeans and Northerners, here we come!
The tea cups were pretty wild. Usually Alicia is the one to get sick on these rides, but I think that Beck's experience would rival any that Alicia had, at least on the tea cups.

They thought they were pretty cool riding on the horses. They followed the mantra of Mickey, "may all your dreams come true."
I guess the carousel disappointed their dreams' expectations. Yep, they don't make rides like they used to - they're better now.
Elle loved Thunder Mountain. She came running out and said, "I wish Beck was big enough so he could go on Thunder Mountain, too." We didn't get any pictures of Elle on Splash Mountain, because Beck threw his bottle on the ground at the exact same time that Elle and Josh went down the big drop. Alicia was distracted and picked up the bottle. Thanks, Mr. B.
After Thunder Mountain Alicia said we should go to "_____." Josh understood "......." And naturally we got separated. Beck and I went to Buzz Lightyear's ride and Alicia and Elle headed to Pirates of the Caribbean. I tried calling Alicia, but she had lost her cell phone. Beck and I took some pictures by the castle while they were lost. Alicia finally found her cell phone on Thunder Mountain after I had called it so many times that someone turned it in to the "cast members."

Elle on Pirates. She had fun, but said that she was "a little bit scared, but not too scared because the pirates looked real." Ah, it is always fun to celebrate pillaging and plundering.
Calling all Space Rangers. That's us! Buzz needs our help to defeat the Evil Emperor Zurg!
Elle is the left gunner and Josh is the right gunner. Beck is the pilot controlling the rotation of the space craft. His controls - the lever that says "spin." So, need I say it, we spun the whole time. I still qualified as a 1st lieutenant or something with 71,000 points. Not bad for spinning the whole time. I think the little Asian lady behind us was worth about 5,000 points each time I shot her.
Beck and I waited for Alicia and Elle to finish the Lilo and Stitch walk through. We saw plenty of space creatures outside of the rides as well. Well, at least some unearthly tight pants.
Beck got to see one of his favorite things - birds. He LOVES birds. So, when he saw Donald Duck's posse he flipped out.
What would a visit to an amusement park be without a trip to the first aid station? Not a trip at all. Beck was running a fever, because he is getting another tooth. I must say they were extremely nice there!
The happiest place on earth? Elle will be the judge of that. I think she was mad that the castle wasn't pink - how demanding!
Elle, look quick! The castle just turned pink! We were told that there would be fireworks at 9:00pm, but there weren't. There was a neat parade with glowing characters and freaky floats, but no fireworks. The kids fell asleep and we hopped the ferry back to the "less magical kingdom" called Orlando. We did get to see the fireworks from the car, but Elle was too tired to watch them for more than a minute. We got home about 1:30am, which was magical in my mind.

Three if by Beck, Two if by Elle

She did it! She finally rides a bike! No more training wheels for this real go-getter. Josh chased behind her holding the seat of the bike for a little bit and then the next day she was off and riding on her own. I think that is pretty good for a four and a half year old. We're so proud of her.

Easter!

It's Easter time again and that means forcing my children to wear bunny ears and scamper all over the house like a bunny to collect eggs. Like a rabbit actually does that, but I find it hilarious. Here is Elle telling Beck how to find eggs. He doesn't really need help finding things, but it's better than his usual "Easter egg hunt" of finding tampons in the bathroom.
A nice close up of "Mr." He's not sure what is going on with all of this candy that he can't eat yet.
I couldn't find the white ears for beck, so he had to wear pink ears - sorry bud.

Finally found the white ears and once again forced the kids to do something they didn't want to do...hug dad.

A not so subtle metaphor - Elle WILL burst your bubble.
Ok. We re-enacted the nativity scene during Christmas and Elle loved it, so naturally I thought it would be a good idea to re-enact the resurrection. Alicia cautioned me that it would be better than the crucifixion, which after reflection I would tend to agree with her. You can see the fort on the left is the tomb and the Ottoman is the stone. Elle is Mary and the baby car is...still just a baby car. Beck is in the tomb waiting for the Angels to roll back the stone.
The angel (Dad) came and rolled back the stone to find a sad Jesus inside. I think he was sad because I had him in there for three days.
Elle loved this, if you couldn't tell. Beck not so thrilled about wearing a towel with a hole cut in it. Don't tell Alicia I did that. I don't think that the sweatpants are period typical, but do sweatpants ever go out of style? No.

The World of Sea

I know it has been a long time since I've posted, because I've been lazy when it comes to family time and such. Here are some brief highlights of our "recent" vacation to Sea World.

To start this week's "the smoking gun" mugshot roundup (a favorite of mine found at http://www.thesmokinggun.com/archive/years/2010/0402101contest1.html) is a flamingo near the entrance of the park. This very well could have been Beck's favorite part. For some reason he LOVES birds. "No, Beck. We can't bring this home. Could you imagine the cage and the bird seed mess?"

We got to the orca show sat down for a few minutes and then Beck got scared. But WHY?
Tillikum the "Killer" whale was back out and on the prowl. This whale had just killed a lady trainer the less than one week before we were there! Beck is like a dog when an earthquake is about to happen. He's got, like, 5 senses, man...whale attack detection.
One cool thing in the orca show was that my niece was the featured "future whale trainer." She's the second from the right. I can never tell the difference between boys and girls these days. They all have long shaggy hair, so I think they are all just girls - like Justin Bieber.

There was a big tank of rays swimming around and we got to pet them as they swam by. It was cool and they were slimy. Elle even touched them - so brave.


Leash and Elle on the marry-go-round. She was so excited and wouldn't stop talking about it. "Can we go on the spinny thing? Can we? Can we?" Oh, and Elle was excited too. She is always giving thumbs up. I wonder where she gets that from?

This is akin to the Disney tea cups and this was Beck's first ride. How do you think it went by the looks of this picture? He puked. Well, I'm not sure if he did or not, because he pukes all the time I can't reasonably be expected to remember all the times he does. I just error on the side that he probably puked. Elle has her lips firmly pressed against the metal bar.
The 30 minute wait for the 30 second ride. But, dang! It was awesome. Elle kept on asking to go on it again and again, so I caved and went. It felt like it was going to come off of the tracks. I guess that is part of the "trill" of the roller coaster, huh?
Savanna on the far left is bored - with uncle Josh. Elle thinks it's pretty cool, because she gets to go on the ride with the big kids.
All this time I thought the Aura Borealis was in Alaska, but no...it comes from Alicia and Beck! This is a picture from the under...er...water aquarium. I think we were underwater.

Elle Fashion Vol. 2

I will run through what the camera man, Josh, was saying to evoke such reactions from Elle, the subject.
"Elle, now give me a mule kick! And get some pepperoni slices from the fridge."
"Now, the Thinker...without a chair or any thinking! Hang on to that end table and don't let those pepperonis go anywhere. Those are money!"
This one's cute, but I must continue. "Don't LOOK AT ME, but sort of smile. Don't blink, don't blink."
"Change outfits...and give me a wonky face. Show me your nostrils. Beautiful. The camera loves you!"
"That was perfect. More of the same face, but with more saliva on the right corner of your mouth. More, more, more!"
"Grab a pinata bat! You're tough, you're the toughest, you don't take any crap. That's right, some boys are trying to boss you around, but you're not going to take it. Get mad!"
"Now, hold your breath. You're a puffer fish. Stick out your lips. Scratch your puffer fish back with the pinata bat. Great!"
"The bat deflated your puffer fish puff. Let it all out...pfffft! Now smell your pits...peeyou...stinky!"
"Raise your pinata bat...like you're going to club a baby seal. NO, NOT BECK. It's pretend...pretend."
"You're confused. You've run through the entire spectrum of Elle's emotions."