Daddy's Truck

Daddy has a 1952 Ford F-1 pick up truck. The girls love to play in it but they have not yet ridden in it (not too safe with front row carseats).

Daddy needed to wash the truck so they got to ride in it for 20 feet to back out of the garage into the driveway. They thought it was so cool!
Then it was fun to wash the truck. Spray hoses, soap, swimsuits on a hot August day. What could be better?

Adventure Princess

I have fun memories from Indian Princess, a father daughter activity through the YMCA. I was so excited that Katherine is old enough to do it this year. Now though they call it Adventure Princess to be more politically correct. It has more of a western explorer theme with settlements instead of tribes.

We had the induction where all of the girls and their dads wore their leather vests (ours is plain and boring right now) and they had a bonfire and ceremony. I have to admit, I am a bit jealous that I do not get to participate in the camp outs but I am so excited for Katherine and Sam to get to do this together with friends.

Katherine's settlement is the Mighty Mississipi's (all are named after rivers). They are mostly girls that live in our neighborhood and will attend the same elementary. We also invited 2 friends from church to join us.

The girls were pretty amazed with the fire.
Some of the older girls put paint on their face, gave them a coon skin hat (which Hooligan ate) and some patches for their vest.

Dan and Eden

Sam and Katherine with Dan and Eden

James and Hannah, Sam and Katherine, Dan and Eden

Matt and Emma

Right now they are on their first camp out and I can't wait to hear all about it.

Daddy's Little Girl

Sam is a great daddy for little girls. He loves to snuggle. One thing he was looking forward to about having a newborn again was when they fall asleep on your chest. Here are some pictures of Caroline sleeping on Sam. Her favorite place to sleep is not her bed, the pack and play or swing but in any one's arms. We all too often oblige her but sometimes we try to multitask. Daddy likes to try to work on the computer while she is sleeping on him. Please ignore the messy office. It actually is much improved since these photos were taken.


Here is a little awake time. Every day she is waking up a little bit more. It is fun unless that awake time is when we want to be asleep.

This weekend we finally went to one of the kids clinics at Lowes. They have them at Home Depot too. Katherine loves to play with her tools and help daddy so we knew that she would enjoy the kids clinic. They had run out of kids aprons which was a bummer but we did get our own pair of kids sized safety goggles. With a chemistry minor dad and a former science teacher mom, Katherine probably should have had these long ago for science experiments around the house.

Our project for this week was a dune buggy car made of wood. Sam did most of the work but Katherine enjoyed helping by banging the hammer, putting together the wheels and putting the stickers on.


Here is the final product - a dune buggy.

I see this becoming a regular father/daughter activity. Between Home Depot and Lowes there is a children's clinic three Saturdays of the month.

Happy Father's Day

Happy Father's day to my dad, Katherine's Pops, and to Sam. Saturday we joined my parents a the pool at their country club. I grew up going there and probably had not been there since I graduated from high school. They are in the process of renovating the kid area to add a spray park. That means they took out the wading pool and there was only one kids pool. It was barely shallow enough for Katherine to walk by herself and she preferred being in a floaty or held by one of us.

Katherine in the pool with Pops and Daddy

Sunday we went to church. I made sure I got a photo of Katherine with her daddy before church because I knew that those cute pony tails would be gone by the time we got home. Sam was awakened by Katherine bringing him a present. After lunch they spent a little time together in the office where she gave him a bag she made at school full of pictures and goodies.

Yes, Katherine is learning to use scissors - watch out.

For dinner we took a picnic to a local park. It was a really nice night. Sam and Katherine had a blast on the swing going really high. I love the looks on her face in these pictures as she is so excited.

I am so lucky that Katherine has such a great daddy. He loves to spend time with her and he jumps right in to help out in any way that I need. I can really tell how much she loves her daddy when it is a week that he is working late. She will ask for him over and over because she misses him.

Sunday fun

A few weeks ago I thought Katherine looked so cute for church. She was wearing a dress from last year that still fits though it is a little shorter and she actually let me put a bow in her hair. That is a rare event these days.
I went outside to give Hooligan water and Katherine followed me out there to play so I snapped a few pictures.

When we got home she wanted to look for "roly poly polies" so she plopped down on the driveway in her Sunday best to collect bugs with daddy.
She is absolutely fascinated by whatever we can catch. So far it has been roly polies, lady bugs and ants. We have attempted to catch a lizard but it was just too fast.
With a mom who was a science teacher and a dad who is an engineer and a chemistry major, we love this inquisitive mind and love for nature. We want to do whatever it takes to cultivate that interest, even getting down and dirty in her Sunday best.

Father Daughter Time

Tonight Sam came home early from work. Katherine was very excited because he was home very late last night. We spent a lot of time in the backyard. It is funny to see what kind of activities a father and a daughter will do together.

Anytime we go into the backyard one of the first activities is cleaning up Hooligan's poopoo. Katherine likes to go around the yard pointing it out to us so that we can clean it up. Lovely bonding experience.
Then she sat on her ball while watching daddy clean up some clippings from our tree and vines on the fence.
Now this is quality bonding. Daddy got excited when he heard the trash truck. He took Katherine out to see the robot at work. Daddy and Katherine love to watch robots on YouTube. Now this is more what you expect a father and daughter to do. They are looking for lady bugs. Katherine is very interested in nature. She loves to look at the "poly polies", grasshoppers, lady bugs and lizards. We are talking about how we need to get some kind of terrarium to put things in for an evening or a day when we catch them so that we can watch them and learn. Of course being a former science teacher I love this curiosity.

I do also want to point out Katherine's rather unique outfit. I don't think she could have found two items of clothing that matched less if she had tried. She was wearing the cute blue polka dot shirt with denim shorts. But, since she refused to potty before nap she woke up quite wet. She did not want to put on her khaki shorts but insisted on blue. There were no more blue shorts. So, she went to her drawer and pulled out those pants and put them on by herself. Oh, well. We had no where to go and it is pretty funny.

Arbo with the family

Saturday we went to the Arboretum yet again, this time with the entire family. We went when they opened to meet a photographer to retake some pictures of Katherine. It is impossible for me to take good pictures of her at the Arboretum or really anywhere and Brandi had her work cut out for her to get some good ones as well. We should have them back in about a week.

Katherine and daddy while waiting for Brandi
Not quite posing how we wanted.

After we were done with the photographer, Katherine changed into her tutu and we continued our morning hanging out as a family. The tutu was quite an attention getter, especially in the over 50 crowd. Everyone thought she was so cute. Of course I agree!

Most of our pictures were of Katherine walking away.

This photo was right after Katherine said, "Sam, sit right here". Sam and I looked at one another and just busted out laughing. Katherine has known our names for the last month but this was really the first time she used them on our own or to give us directions. It was cute and funny but we are not encouraging it.

Sam was trying to get Katherine to smell the flowers. She would alternate between blowing on it and kissing it.

This photo reminds me of my dear baby brother Will. He was always getting his head stuck as a child. Katherine's head did not get stuck, but I have a few memories of Will like this. She did actually get stuck the other day at the library playground when she wiggled her body through the gate and her head would not fit through. Luckily I realized this before she did and got her back through the gate before we had a crying toddler.