4 McIntosh Apples

What Father’s Day Means to Me

For many years, Father’s day was just another holiday to me. An excuse for the card companies to make some cash and the dads to lay around on their day off. The kids needed to buy a new tie or some cheap gift to make their father’s groan and put the new gift in special dark place to never see the light of day again.

However, just over five years ago that all changed for me. Now that Ean and Ella are in my life, it is a whole different day. Not only is Father’s Day a holiday to share with family, it is time for me to reflect on the joys of being a father. There are days that I want to strangle my kids when they are bickering, fighting, ignoring instructions, or not behaving in public and there are days that I want to hold my kids close and tell them that everything will be alright. I have learned many things by being a father beyond the diaper duties, making bottles, and cleaning poop. I have increased my level of patience and amazed at the joy in watching simple accomplishments. My kids teach me things daily that you cannot learn in school and I enjoy learning something new every day with them.

There is no better feeling than coming home from work having both of the kids running up to me yelling “DAAADDDDYYYYY!!!!” and both of them hug my legs before I even set down my bag. I’m sorry all of you dog owners, but the feeling when my kids bum rush me tops any pooch jumping up on you as you walking in the door. The smile on Ella’s face when she goes potty in the big girl potty is worth a million bucks. Hearing Ean’s teacher praise him for how well he is doing in school is enough to make me pound my chest and say “That’s my boy!”

A blueprint has been laid out for me to follow that should guide me based on how I was raised. All I can do is take the blueprint and try to improve on the design and help my children to be more than I am. I’ve commited myself to do my best to help guide and teach them as they get older and venture out into the world when they are ready. I can relish in their successes, comfort them in their pain, and take pride that I was part of their lives and helped guide them (with the help of my lovely wife, April) in their decisions for their own lives.

So, to all of the dads in my life, I want to wish you a Happy Father’s Day and know that I definitely appreciate everything that you have done to guide me, teach me, or support me in my own path in the world.

Tincaps Game – Star Wars Night 2010

If we were only go to a select few Fort Wayne Tin Cap games, do you think we would miss the Star Wars Night?

Of course not! Unfortunately, the Tincap’s pitchers did not play like they wanted to be there, but other than that we had a good time. Both kids actually behaved in public at the same time so it made the game a lot more fun.

Ean, with his fear of costumed character, did surprisingly well with the members of the 501st as well as Johnny Tincap and he even gave Johnny a high five. Ella, on the other hand, loved the costumed characters and wanted to see them every minute. She probably would have wanted to go home with Johnny or any of the stormtroopers.

To top it off, it was a fireworks nights and we stuck around until the very end to watch all of the fireworks. Both the kids loved them and April even commented that the fireworks were better than Bluffton’s 4th of July ones.

It was a very entertaining night for a relatively low cost that everyone enjoyed themselves.

From Star Wars Tin Cap Night 2010

Mothers Day 2010

For Mother’s day this year, we decided to keep it low key and have everyone over for dinner.

A simple meal turned out to be something more than we projected. April was making a homemade cheesecake when the propane ran out on our stove and she had to run to her Mom’s house to finish it up. We also had to make Chris cook the lasagna because our stove wouldn’t be filled until the next couple of days.

We finally got through the scare and had dinner, which turned out ok. Not what we planned, but we made do. After dinner was finished, we sat back and enjoyed some laughs watching “America’s Funniest Home Video”

From Mothers Day 2010

Free Comic Book Day 2010

Today was free comic book day and the family met up with my friend, Ray and his son at Books, Comics & Things in north Fort Wayne. There were a couple of members of the 501st that had some of their helmets on display as well as some of the weapons.

We all walked away with a handful of comics and were witness to a small costume contest.

All in all a fun day.

From FCBD 2010

Easter 2010

Another holiday has creeped by us – the kids get plenty of candy and the grown ups start eating Peter Rabbit and the kids cry because they want eat the chocolate bunny’s head off. Ah, the candy cannibalism.

The kids are really starting to enjoy the hunt for eggs now. Ella undestands what she is doing and Ean has a hard time not taking her eggs. I just wish that it would be warmer around here around Easter so we could have a larger full scale easter egg hunt outside.

Enjoy the pictures. The kids all had fun.

From Easter 2010

Spring Break 2010

With Ean being in preschool in the North Wells school district, we got our first taste of Spring Break this year.

Although, it was cold, we decided to head up to Chicago for a visit to Ikea and Legoland Discovery Center. Ean had a pretty good time, however Ella wasn’t really interested in being couped up some building as you can tell by the tears in her eyes in some of the pictures.

Once we got to open play area, Ella really started to enjoy herself. Ean says that his favorite parts were the 4D movies and the Dragon ride (which was similar to a carnival haunted house with the fright).

Here are some of the pictures of our trip in Legoland Discovery Center:

From Spring Break 2010

Yo Gabba Gabba Live!

The kids went to their first “Rock Concert” yesterday. The Yo Gabba Gabba gang came into Fort Wayne for a party in our city. Never heard of Yo Gabbba Gabba? Check out this wikipedia link then: Yo Gabba Gabba wikipedia entry.

Ean, who normally is frightened to death of people dressed in costumes, actually enjoyed himself very much. There was one scene when the special dancey dancey person came out and it was the Tin Caps mascot that Ean absolutely started getting squirmy asking when he was going to leave.

Ella, on the other hand, who we thought would be dancing all over the place sat more frozen just taking everything in. After the intermission, she started warming up and doing a bit more dancing and seemed to enjoy herself more. But we got the impression that she was just thinking – “What’s going on here – These people aren’t on my TV”.

Layna and Amanda joined us as well and they both had a good time as well.

In the end, it was a very good show and we thank Mike for driving us up there in his limousine. I truly believe that older girls (April and Amanda) had the best time out of all of us as they sang and danced the whole show. I wonder how they would have been if it was Kenny Chesney up there.

Anyways, here are some photos of the event and the complete album of pictures as well.

From Yo Gabba Gabba Live

We love spring

The thermostat almost cracked 70 degrees yesterday. So while April and Steve worked on the living room, I toon the kids outside.

Ah they love playing and it was hard to get them back after seven when all of tummy were growling.

Here are a couple photos as we ran around in the backyard.

Happy New Year! Goodbye 2009

Although 2009 may not have been as good to some people, we came away with several firsts and many positive things in our life.

Ean started school (which he loves), April reconnected with old friends, Dylan connecting with some gaming friends, Ean’s first dentist trip, Ella walking/running/eating/getting into everything/talking/laughing/feeding herself, Ean letting us eat at Rainforest cafe, Cocoa Beach, Ean riding a bike, Dylan working 120 hours a week to start up a major project, and April trying and liking sushi, which has become a regular item on our menu now and many many more things.

So as much as we enjoyed 2009, we also look forward to 2010. We get to work on Ella potty training, Ean and homework, getting the house ready to sell and many other projects.

For those that were in our lives this past year, we thank you and we appreciate everything that you have done to enrich our lives and our children.

For those that were not in our lives this past year, we wish we had more time together to share our lives with you and learn from yours. I hope that 2010 brings us more opportunities to be together.

Here are just a few major moments from the past year in pictures.