Pops the Polka Meister

Dad has his picture on the internet. This is the band he has been in for the last few years. One of my high school buddies' dad is the band leader (Big Willie). I give you Big Willie and the Polka Meisters. For some music samples visit their MySpace page: http://profile.myspace.com/index.cfm?fuseaction=user.viewprofile&friendid=415537776

Joshua the Triathlete

On Sunday August 24th, Joshua participated in a Kid's Triathlon. The local Parks and Rec dept organized this Kid’s Tri-for-Fun. The idea was created to promote a safe, positive and fun environment for kids to experience a traditional triathlon (swim, bike, run), with a little healthy competition. Proceeds from race participation will benefit the Firefighters Pacific Burn Institute, an organization devoted to research, treatment, and prevention of burn related injuries for children and adults.

Note: Make sure you check out Joshua's video "interview" about the tri a couple of entries down.
Waiting by the pool for his "group" to be called. They were grouped by age and the length of the swim, bike and run were based on how old the participants were. Josh participated with other 5-6 year olds.
His group is called and he patiently receives his instructions for the race.
Jesse is not so patient and pretends to sleep in the stands.
FINALLY, in the water and waiting for the horn that starts the race!

And They're Off!

The swim: 25 meters
Out of the pool and on to the "transition area" where his bike was waiting for him.
Dad helps Josh get on his t-shirt, helmet and shoes.
The bike portion: 1/2 mile.

Note: I wish I had gotten a picture of Joshua's tranistion from bike to run. John saw it and said Josh tried to "leap" off his bike while it was still moving and crashed pretty hard. He jumped up and just started to run! He really banged his knee up but only noticed after the tri was over. That's commitment to the prize! Last but not least, the run: 1/4 of a mile. You can see his knee is banged up if you look closely.

Joshua came in 5th place in his group!

The End of The Tri

In the HOME STRETCH!
Checking out his medal.
The young Triathlete!
Grandma Drinen, brother Jesse and sister Alita, part of Joshua's cheering section.

"I just wanted to get through it....."

This "interview with Josh after the kids Triathlon is a riot! He sounds like a pro athlete being interviewed by ESPN.

Laundry Prodigy

Alita is a laundry prodigy. At 15 months she can do it all except put the detergent in. You think I'm kidding? Watch the short clips below.........................

No Title Needed..................

..................sheer cuteness from her royal highness, Princess Alita. She continues to grow and develop. The kid has figured out how to snap her fingers at 15 months of age!!!!!!!!!!! Yep, I said, snap. What 15 month old knows how to snap? I guess she needed to snap in order to get her brothers and parents (in other words her servants) attention. Little Lita also is using several new words like down, up, Inono (I don't know), awdun (all done), suse (juice), cras (crackers) and yes. When she wants to say "no" she just shakes her head, usually she shakes her head violently so not to be misunderstood! She is singing along with her favorite bedtime toy a Pooh Bear that plays music. She LOVES, LOVES, LOVES to be outside and throw balls to anyone who will play with her. Alita also loves to follow mom around and imitate everything she does (sweep, cook, do the laundry, talk on the phone, etc). All in all she is doing very well!

Skater Dudes!

Jesse and Joshua have been learning to ride skateboards. Their boards used to belong to their Dad and Uncles. Yes, the skateboards have ended up in the pool, twice. Rad Dudes, shread it up!

Verbal Cruelty Towards Autistic Children & Their Families

I don't want to muck up our lovely family blog too much with the ramblings of an idiot but this highly educated but foolish syndicated shock jock, Michael Savage, made some outrageous comments about children and their familes with autism. He said, "In 99 percent of the cases (of autism), it's a brat who hasn't been told to cut the act out. What do you mean they scream and they're silent? They don't have a father around to tell them, `Don't act like a moron. You'll get nowhere in life. Stop acting like a putz. Straighten up. Act like a man. Don't sit there crying and screaming, you idiot."

I won't give it much more attention because that's obviously what Mr. Savage is seeking. If you can stomach more discussion of this fool I blogged about it on my personal blog, because I had to get it off my chest. http://www.casahm.blogspot.com/.

Mr. Savage you are welcome to come to my house for dinner anytime and meet my autistic son and his father.

Summer Daze

We are midway through our third week of Summer Vacation and it's almost over! "Back-to-school Night is tomorrow night and the first day of school is MONDAY! The boys are getting a bit excited already. They are still at that age where school is "fun". Jesse isn't totally thrilled but he is looking forward to seeing his pals and of course utilizing the "computer lab" at school again. Joshua will be joining Jesse at Foulks Ranch Elementry and he is looking forward to making new friends and thrilled to finally have arrived at his permenant school. Poor puppy was tossed around between THREE different schools for kindergarten! He weathered it all fairly well but still, three schools in your first year of school is a bit of a bummer. I do not know how parents handle three months of summer vacation! It's been three weeks for me and I'm more than ready for the kids to go back. I guess part of it is the stress of trying to get us settled in our new home while entertaining the rugrats. I can't wait until the house is quiet with the boys in school and Alita down for a nap. Maybe I can FINALLY get back to the many, many boxes I haven't touched since school let out.

The boys have been enjoying the pool of course. We had a bit of an alge problem a couple of weeks ago but that's gone now. The pool is a bit cooler than it was in Phoenix since the weather is not quite as hot here but the boys are adjusting. We went to the community pool complex last week with friends. Jesse found the "big slide" and spent literally the entire afternoon standing in line and then enjoying the 40-second thrill of twisting and turning down a big waterside. I wish I had a camera that day to capture the look of sheer joy on Jesse's face when he splashed down in the pool at the bottom. Joshua was 3 inches too short for the big water slide but still enjoyed the smaller slides, wading pools with water guns where he could shoot his friends.

This week the boys are attending Vacation Bible School at a local Church. The theme is "Pirate Tales" and both Jesse and Josh are LOVING IT! They come home singing new songs, reciting Bible verses, of course with lots of arts and crafts and tales of the cool field games they played. Our sweet 17-year old neighbor, Chelsi, accompanies Jesse to make sure he gets the most out of the experience. Note on Chelsi: she babysits the kids often and has proved to be a total gem. Not only is she great with kids in general she has a 15-year old brother with autism so she really understands and does very well with Jesse. How lucky are we that this girl lives just two doors down?!?!?!?!

Alita seems ready for her brothers to be gone for part of the day again so she can play with her dollies in peace. Yes, Alita has begun playing with dolls. She likes to hug them and they give them to someone else for a hug. I have yet to get a picture of John hugging dollies but if I get the chance I will share with you Daddy hugging a doll to make his little girl happy. Lita's other favorite toy lately is little set of play kitchen condiments that Great Aunt Pam gave her. She is ADORABLE carrying around her little bottles of ketchup, olive oil and grape jelly. They have magnetic lids for her to take on and off. I gave Lita part of a shelf in our new kitchen to keep her "condiments" and she loves to put them away and arrange them just how she wants them. I'm holding myself back from running out and buying her a little play kitchen. She's really not ready for that. Maybe Christmas...........Finally, Miss Alita LOVES throwing balls!! She has a pretty good arm for a 14 month old girl too. She likes to throw balls to Joshua especially. Josh is a good big brother and tosses them back gently.

Enjoy some of the latest of our Summer Fun pictures................................