Random Access

Thursday – 28 November 2013
It’s Thanksgiving Day here.

I have many things for which I am thankful, chief among them:

Sara! and Team DiVa

Sara!

Team DiVa

Team DiVa again (because I can)…

Our parents…

…and our sibs.

Also, I’m thankful for  extended family and friends far too numerous to mention.

I’m thankful for the many blessings in my life… as well as the adversities. It is hard to fully appreciate what you have if there has been no struggle – no matter how great or small – in order to achieve it.

If you are traveling over the holiday to be with loved ones, I wish you a safe journey and a safe return. I hope that you enjoy the time with your family and friends and are able to create wonderful memories not just for the holiday season, but for looking back on in the years to come.

Be well.

Be good to each other.

Namaste.

Monday – 11 November 2013
Today is Veterans Day.

I’d like to take a moment to thank my friends, family, extended family and the thousands of other people who have chosen to serve our country and to protect the freedoms we hold dear.

Saturday – 02 November 2013
A few weeks ago, Sara bought the girls stickers – two types of Justice League stickers, to be precise. Why? Because kids love stickers. Duh. We haven’t been giving them as incentives or accolades. We (mostly Sara, to be honest) have been giving them to the girls because, again, kids love stickers.

Earlier this week, Sara gave the girls an Aquaman sticker (Diana) and a Green Lantern sticker (Vanessa). They have been pretty good about keeping up with their respective stickers, though the stickers look like they’ve been down about 20 miles of bad road at this point.

After dinner tonight, Vanessa was playing with her sticker and kept saying something that I wasn’t sure that I was hearing properly. So, focused on her, I asked her to say what she said again. And she did. Loudly.

Green Lantern’s light!

I must have had “The World’s Most Confused Father” look on my face, because she said it again. Equally loudly, if not louder.

Green Lantern’s light!

I was stunned, mostly because I hadn’t taught her the Green Lantern Corps oath. Yet, there she was, shouting it – or at least part of it – in the dining room for all to hear. So, I did the only thing I could do: I looked into the kitchen at Sara and asked, “Did you teach her the oath?”

After she stopped laughing, Sara said,”Yes… but I didn’t figure she’d get the whole thing, so I just went with ‘Green Lantern’s light!'”

Best. Wife. Ever.

Namaste.

01 November 2013
It’s All Saints Day.
Not to be confused with All Saints Day.

Yesterday was Hallowe’en. We dressed the girls up as Weeping Angels. (Hey, Sara! agreed to it. That’s all I’m sayin’.) They were very cute. But rather than me prattle on about it, I’ll let you read what Sara had to say on her blog:

Happy Halloween!

Rob had the great idea a couple of months ago that the ladies should be Weeping Angels for Halloween. He’s even been teaching them to play Peekaboo by saying “Rawr!” instead of “peekaboo!”, which they are tremendously fond of.

So I’ve been spending the last two weeks trying to figure out how to make a decent Weeping Angel costume for toddlers. It had to be comfortable and warm so that they could wear it without complaining. And I had a feeling they wouldn’t go for elaborate face paint and wigs, so it had to be limited to just a costume. This is what I came up with:

The costume is basically a grey shirt and leggings (so they wouldn’t get cold) and then an over-dress, and a pair of wings that I painted to look like stone.

There’s Vanessa doing her best Weeping Angel impression.

I didn’t count on how much Diana would love playing with her wings. She was pulling on those all evening, and they needed so emergency repair at one point.  Fortunately, her grandpa had a stapler handy.

And here’s Diana showing that even Weeping Angels like to get cuddles from daddy.

Here’s an Instagram shot of the progress on the wings. Basically for both the dress and the wings I started with a white costume and turned them to stone by dying them grey, then spattering them with black, white, and grey paint.

For the wings, since I couldn’t just throw them in the washing machine with some Rit, I used fabric paint that comes in a spray can.

We hope you had a Happy Halloween!

Yep.  And here are EVEN MORE PICTURES of the girls in their costumes.

Namaste.