Wednesday, April 29, 2009

Slinging Webs...worldwide

(sorry for the cheesy title. couldn't resist)

FYI: back-filling here...so much happened around emmy's birthday, i'm only now realizing what didn't get blogged.

One of the Volz family traditions I am keen on continuing is the "un-birthday" present. So the sibling of the birthday kid gets one gift to keep them from
a) feeling ignored
and
b) being annoying about it.

This year, we debuted the concept. While he felt that maybe ONE gift was too few, Desi nonetheless liked his Black Spider Man outfit. As you can see:

'

one of emmy's gifts was a traditional red/blue spider man suit. naturally, web-slinging lessons ensued.


hey, even superheroes gotta learn somehow


the master and his apprentice (notice desi's cobra-poised-to-strike and emmy's rock and roll devil horns)


time to go solo. but...
how does it go again?



oh yeah. that's more like it

so watch out!

Wednesday, April 22, 2009

criminal negligence

i have no idea how this photo has sat, unblogged, since it was snapped in October. BAD Gary

Tuesday, April 21, 2009

To Maximize Your Viewing Experience...

Right now, turn on "Kung Fu Fighting" by Carl Douglas. If you don't own the song, at least get the 30-second preview from the iTunes store going.







I'll wait.







Ready?

Now see what Emmett does when he hears that song.




deep bow shows LOTS of respect for opponent




yeah, YOU! I'm comin' for YOU!



the pretzel attack. WARNING: not for amateurs. Blogger.com assumes no responsibility for injuries you sustain while attempting sweet moves pictured herein.



multi-limb attack. note the perfect form

Sunday, April 19, 2009

fun with turtles

so Jordy, the girl next door, has some turtles. she HAD some tadpoles, but found out you can't put them in the same bowl with turtles. so she has some well-fed turtles, and the kids were all playing with them on Saturday. i tried to upload video of it, but blogger wouldn't allow it and I suspect youtube won't be easy either. it's been blocked here for days (wonder why?). so for now, here's a still photo of the amphibian fun, taken after a tea party had broken out.



while i'm here, and it IS still only 6:30 am, here're some more photos.

e is a scary tiger, on our new(-ish) dragon rug.



one of the many delicious dessert options at school:



and finally, your host, proud to see that our name has gone global. more or less



FYI, I've since gotten a haircut

Thursday, April 16, 2009

The home stretch is upon us

Just 8 weeks remain until we head to Oregon. Desi is the most excited about that. Thought when I think of burritos and the beach and drinking tap water (it's the little things in life, I always say), I get pretty pumped too. Lots of fun to be had before we leave here, and gift shopping. Any requests (short of antique furniture), just email me.

Before I forget, here's a quote: 2 nights ago, I was helping Emmett pick which pj's to wear to bed. He said he wanted his Superman jammies. As he ran over to get them, he said "What's up, Soop?"

So cute. I later learned that's a line said by Silver Surfer in some show he had watched.

Up early this morning, followed the Cardinals' latest victory online. 7-4 at Wrigley. Is it too early to think October?

Except for weird cold snap yesterday, weather has allowed for comfortable wiffle ball nightly, in the street we call our playground, here at Westwood Green. Lots of neighbor kids trying their hand at swinging a bat for the first time. Is there ANYWHERE in the US that one kid would swing and miss and another kid would comment "second serve!"? That happened last night. And, just like I thought when I observed some boys at SAS playing catch (but not catching a single throw), I thought back to my mantra "it's all good. any exposure to the game is good."

Desi's up now too. He says "I am King Julian from Madagascar. What's up freaks? Don't check your email. Hey, you didn't do your homework."



with that, I take my leave. time 4 cereal!

Sunday, April 12, 2009

fun weekend in Zhudi Town

happy egg day to all, and to all, no more than 10 eggs. gotta make sure each kid gets some. desi counts to see if he's over his limit (he was, by 4)



a rare shot of all 4 of us. destined to become a collector's item.



emmy and dad got hairscut. here's the sharp lil guy now!

Monday, April 6, 2009

sunburns and not wearing a watch

SO we've back from the beach for a week now. I haven't written about it til now for 2 reasons: 1, blogging it means I'm no longer living it (denial is strong). 2, our return journey was pretty wacky, and I needed some time to elapse before writing so that the crazy part of the story didn't overshadow the days and days of awesome sitting around looking at the ocean.

so here's a photo of that activity:



and here's one of us, after a few days of sun:


It was fun to have Larry and Linda with us for most of our week in Boracay. Here's what they looked like:




More stories later. I started this post 2 hours ago, but I keep getting distracted and now it's bedtime. 3 day weekend is over, back 2 reality 4 us.
long live denial!

Wednesday, April 1, 2009

back from da beach

more to come. here's a shot from our patio area