Throwback Thursday

Marcus turned four this week. During Karen's prior life, while Marcus was still in the oven, she and her dad embarked on a welding project. Well, this spring their welding project finally found a home.

Dance Recital

Elena had her end of year dance recital over Memorial Day weekend. Don't get me started about the timing. Anyway, Karen took a couple of photos backstage.

First up was her ballet number.

Then she did tap to the beat of Jailhouse Rock.

As you can see, all of the dancers are perfectly synchronized.

Since Karen was helping backstage, I was in charge of Marcus. We did lots of running around in the wallways between Elena's dances. Here is a photo of him that he asked me to take.

 

Karen said one of the girls was really nervous and didn't want to dance. The same girl refused to dance in the winter program. She told Karen that her mom said she would lose her iPad mini, TV, camera, phone, video games, and wouldn't be able to go to Wahooz or Roaring Springs all summer if she didn't dance. She danced. Well-played Mom!

Too Much Irish Coffee? Irrigating Is Harder Than It Looks!

As many of you know, Karen loves to go irrigating with her dad. This spring we had a ton of rain, and the roads were a mess...or John had too much Irish Cream in his coffee. You decide.

Here is a picture of Marcus "helping."

Elena loves to go along too. One cool morning she fell in the ditch, like up to her neck. She refused to pose for a picture, but did finish irrigating after a quick change of clothes.

Some People Just Don't Learn

Marcus likes to climb up on his dresser and goof around on it. We kept telling him that eventually he would fall and hurt himself. Well, he finally did, and in a big way. The inside of his mouth looked like hamburger.

Then, a couple of days later....

In other Marcus news, he decided to cut his own hair... the day prior to picture day. I'm pretty sure he did it while sitting on top of his dresser!

 

Ears=Pierced

Elena has wanted to pierce her ears for quite a while now. We even bought her earrings while in Mexico. She finally summoned up enough bravery to get the job done. You can see before (above) and after (below).

Tooth Fairy

The Tooth Fairy recently made a visit to our house. Here is the proud recipient.

Elena's Soccer Season

This spring Elena brought home forms for T-ball and soccer registration. Last summer soccer camp was a horrible failure, so I started signing her up for T-ball online. Just before I clicked "finish," I checked to make sure she wanted to play. "No, I want to play soccer!" she said. I texted Karen to give her an update.

Me: E wants to play soccer.
K: Do they have tryouts?
Me: No, everyone gets to play.
K: Too bad, that would have been an easy out.

So I signed her up for U6 soccer.  Months go by. Finally, just before the season is scheduled to start, I get The Email. Our kids won't be able to play unless they have a coach. I waited a while, then volunteered to be an assistant coach. I guess they took that to mean I would be THE coach.

My soccer experience includes a camp in which I sucked (much like Sprout) and recess games with teams predetermined by race. The point of the game was to start a fight. I did split my head open in the 5th grade making a sweet save as goalie once.

Fortunately I have some dad friends who have been thrust into the same situation. Matt Dare, in particular, was a great resource. With his assistance, and a certification from YouTube University, I set forth.

 

We bought Elena the essential soccer stuff. Cleats are not required, and Karen was hesitant to buy some for E because she sucked and would only use them for 2 months. I bought them anyway.

When we played our first game, we were seriously out-coached. The other coach was an expert and I was still figuring out the rules.  I remember thinking to myself that I should request that coach for Elena next year.... if she continued to play.

After the first game, things improved dramatically. The girls really developed well and started kicking butt. In most games, I had to figure out how to avoid completely humiliating the other team. On one end of the field we had Priscilla the super star. This was a common site; her with the ball and nobody in front of her.

Three defenders? No problem. She still scored.

On the other side of the field, we had Summer, "The Wall." At least when she wasn't hanging on the goal or making poop jokes, that is. We don't have goalies for this age group, but she took pride in defending our goal at all times.

After game 6 of 8, all but two kids had scored a goal. Elena was one of them. She had some close calls, but nothing went in. Finally, in game 7, she scored. Fortunately my mom got pictures of The Goal.

 

In the final game, I made a plan with Priscilla to help the other non-scorer get a goal. She set her up beautifully, passing it to her right in front of the goal which was about 3 feet away. Samantha bounced it off the goal post. Then Elena kicked it in (one of 4 goals on the day). Sometimes you just can't win.

Here is a nice photo of the Bean men. Many thanks to my brother who was my assistant coach. I really appreciate that he donated his time.

We were very lucky in that we had a good players. Most of the girls were older and weren't afraid to get kicked in the shins in order to get the ball. I've got about half of them committed to play in the fall (yes, I'm coaching again). Looking forward to it!

Elena's Birthday

 

Elena turned 6 in February, the day after our Mexico trip. Today, as I'm writing this, it is Marcus's birthday.

One of the things we did for this party was a photo booth of sorts. It was really fun for the kids. Here is Elena with her friend Piper.

And Zarek...

We also had a pinata. Here, Elena is taking a swing.

Piper really punished the pinata. I think she has a strong future in softball.

Riley had game too.

Here are some photos of those who attended.

Marcus partied a little too hard and passed out while everyone was still enjoying the festivities.

Mexico

In February we went to Mexico with the Sanchez family. Yes, that was 4 months ago. Get over it. One of the highlights of the trip was the dolphin adventure. We were able to get into the pool with the dolphins an interact with them.

Marcus was REALLY excited to touch the dolphins. Unfortunately, he got really cold and had to crap, so he kind of shut down.

 Luis, Alex and I went fishing for a day. Here is a photo of the sunrise as we headed out on the water.

 

We quickly discovered that saltwater fish pull hard. REALLY hard! Note that Alex and Luis have the exact same expression. I had a fish on too in the lower photo.

We caught lots of jack tuna and I also caught a cravalle jack.

There were tons of iguanas in the marina. We had a couple of smaller ones at our house as well.

 

We rented a vacation home, which was great. The kids spent most of their time in the pool.

The sunsets views were great from the place we stayed.

We walked on the boardwalk a few times. The human statues were a big hit wit the kids.

 

Then there was the rock balancing guy.

We watched one of the locals wash her laundry in the river. Elena asked why she didn't just use a washing machine like the rest of us...

I had a street artist draw a picture of the kids. Apparently we are parts to Tom Brady and Giselle...

One day we went to a botanical garden.

I was really psyched to see the strangler fig. I saw some really cool ones when I was in Australia. I made everyone go on a big hike to see one. Australian strangler figs are much more exciting.

Here is a picture of Karen at the botanical garden.

This statue was on the beach near our house.

Lisa and Luis were kind enough to watch the kids one evening while Karen and I went out to dinner. We walked about 30 minutes to where my phone said the restaurant would be. It wasn't there. The only things there were scary and dirty. We were lucky to find a taxi driver hanging out and he took us to the restaurant. Dinner was excellent.

 We ate what were the biggest shrimp I have ever seen. This is a regular-sized dinner plate.

 

Both of our kids got sick on the trip. Luckily you can buy just about any drug at a pharmacy in Mexico. There are about two pharmacies on every block. Unfortunately, you can buy antibiotics in liquid form without seeing a doctor. So what did we do to get Marcus to take the pills? Pin him down, shove the pill in and waterboard him until he swallowed it!

While Luis and I were waiting in line at the pharmacy, there was a young couple in front of us. By couple, I mean two dudes. Puerta Vallarta is the gay beach capital of the world after all. Anyway, we listened in as they debated the pros and cons and price differences between Cialis and Viagra. Then, on the walk back to the house, we were offered a "massage" by some nice young gentlemen.

Luis and I found a coconut in our neighborhood. With the help of the pool cleaning rod, we enjoyed fresh coconut juice.

One day I walked to the store to buy some beer. With the language barrier I almost made a very costly mistake.

 

One afternoon we walked to a nearby restaurant for lunch. Marcus passed out on the ground before he finished eating.

This was an abandoned house near our place.

 Airline travel...Ugh!

It's been 4 months since our trip, but our kids ask us at least once a week when we will be going back again.