Weekly Photo Challenge – Create

The picture above is my oldest son’s Father’s Day present to me last year. It is the Flying Spaghetti Monster! It is probably one of my favourite presents I have ever received! Why?

It took talent, creativity, imagination, and it was shaped by my son’s hands! It will always be a memory for me now. The same can’t be said for bought presents…

I was tickled pink that he chose to make me the Flying Spaghetti Monster too. I emailed a picture of it to Venganza.org, the creator of the Church of the Flying Spaghetti monster, and he posted my kid’s creation on the site. To this day, it has got over 300,000 hits!

Encourage your kids to create! Take a moment to compliment them on their art, poems, stories. It is something that I wish my parents did with me more often…

Photo of the day – Winter is coming

My littlest guy was out the other day walking around the yard, kicking leaves, and bundled for the cool weather. It was really cute. It was probably the first time I saw in my son’s eyes that he knew something was different outside. He was looking at the trees and picking up leaves.

Where we live, we get some beautiful fall colours, but it is as winter approaches that the leaves signal cold is upon us.

It is one of my favourite times of the year. No snow yet, the hot weather gone. In one word. Beautiful!

Photo of the day – Kids and Puddles

Today I took the boys out for a walk around the neighbourhood to give my wife some quiet time and a well deserved nap! I know, I’m the best husband ever. haha.

Anyway the walk started out great. They went down the neighbour’s long driveway and we all broke out into a game of hide and seek. We made progress down the dirt road when we stalled.

At the only puddle in a kilometre!

What is with puddles and kids? Maybe I am getting old and forget the attraction, but it took everything I had to move them along and forget that tiny pool of muddy water.

The 1 year old saw the puddle and immediately crouched down and grabbed mitt fulls of rocks. The 5 year old started grabbing maple leaves, threw them in, and started jumping full force into the water. Splashing everyone in the process!

They had such a great time!

I suppose I still love puddles. It’s just different now. I don’t jump in them anymore. I was out on a mountain bike ride this morning riding through big ones!

Do you still jump in puddles?

Camping ain’t what it used to be. It’s all about perspective.

I love camping! I really do.

I can’t say that as I sit here after the trip, that I’m not overjoyed to be home. It is quiet. I must be getting soft. I have to say, as I age, I see the benefits to those huge RVs parked in the sites next to me. I have always grumbled about ‘how that’s not REALLY camping’. Camping is hard work! Hand washing all the dishes, hauling water, trying to keep a 1 year old quiet at 3am, keeping everyone warm, and trying to make meals to feed our kids with hollow legs…Is that fun?

As I drove home today, my oldest son said, “daddy, I really liked our camping trip”. I couldn’t decide whether he was placating me. Trying to make me feel better, after a horrible early morning trying to tear down the camp and my children running around screaming, waking every camper within a kilometre. Or if he actually enjoyed himself?

The majority of the trip I seemed to be running around like a chicken with my head cut off. To be honest, I wasn’t at my best. I was stressed, didn’t sleep more than 2 hours in a row, and really had to work at relaxing. Relaxing meant the 15 minutes after the family went to bed and I could do a blog post! lol.

I’m sure that my memories of camping as a kid are far different than my dad’s memories of them. Camping is different now. It’s not about me any more. It used to be. Now it is about MY kids having a good time. Looking back at the pictures, I think it was a successful camping trip.

As we have more children, it may get harder and harder to camp the way I’m used to. I may just have to get one of those RVs after all. Now, THAT would be camping!

Here are a few pictures from the trip.

Photo of the day August 21, 2011 – Battles on the beach

When I was a kid, I spent a lot of time playing on my own. I grew up in a fairly small community and as luck would had it, my sister had friends around her age, but I did not.

So, I found ways to keep busy. I would play cars and do smash up Derbys with them. I would take my collection of stuffies, and have tag team professional wrestling matches, and I would also pay with army men.

Once I became a dad, I had this thought in my mind that I would never let my kids play with guns or play war games. Maybe it was because, as an adult, I had seen too much of the real world to want to ever glamourize guns and war. But now that my oldest is almost 9, I am starting to see games with army men and various laser guns as harmless entertainment.

So recently when we decided to head to the beach, I told my oldest son to bring his army men! He and my middle son spent HOURS getting along! Hours.

You don’t see them playing so well together most of the time. It could be many reasons, like a blended family, or their 4 year age difference, or that they simply are different types of kids.

But seeing them bond over such a simple toy, makes me think there is something more going on here. Like, kids have been playing war games for centuries, and maybe it helps them sort out good from bad.

I’m not sure, but I know that the army toys are being put next to the pail and shovel in our beach bag from now on!