Rob's family

Melinda and her favorite Dad on Splast Mountain Originally uploaded by robert_h_coleman I thought I lost this picture. I've looked a couple times for it (most recently when I blogged the photo from last summer. This time I found it. We decided that Gretchen was too small to ride this ride when we went (she was three). In retrospect, Melinda looks a little small too! I think this was in the days before "Fast-passes." We had a good long wait for the ride. I must have told Melinda 100 times, "We're gonna get WET!" Other than the trip to Tom Sawyer Island (which no one other than 10 year-old boys likes, this ride was probably the highlight of my trip to Disney.

Easter08 042 Originally uploaded by robert_h_coleman Susan left a message on my home answering machine saying she was out playing in the yard with the boys. I felt like I should draw the distinction with this photo. Our annual Easter egg hunt had a rain date. It did not have a snow date. On Friday, we received six inches of snow, but we had our event any way. It was actually a beautiful day. Sunny and 35. No wind. Typically, we just have our eggs on an open field. The event starts with the big kids being sent to touch the far fence, then they can start. This year it was a bit more challenging. With the snow, eggs could easily get hidden. Both my girls are in the "big kids" group this year. They pointed out that the Easter Bunny was kind of shrimpy . Melinda informed that she might do next year, but not when she was in sixth grade... sniff...

I have spoken about apple picking previously . I did a search and apparently, that was my only story. I'm quite happy to report that five years later, we're still picking apples (Tracey and I have gone almost every year since I moved out to Illinois ('92) and things are getting a little easier working with the girls. This year we asked them if they wanted to bring a friend. Melinda brought Russell, and Gretchen brought our next door neighbor - Hope. Once we arrived at the Orchard, Melinda split the group into the big kids (she and Russell with Mom) and little kids (Gretchen and Hope and me). Picking as always was quick (the drive is substantially longer) and relatively uneventful (Russell got stung by bees once for each member in our party (he was a trooper)). As in past years, the after picking is all about sweets. We made a crumble topped apple pie this year. The kids (and their parents) are much better able now-a-days to handle this sort of task. They each to go meaasure...

splashMtn Originally uploaded by robert_h_coleman We wrapped up the Florida portion of our vacation with a visit to "The Rat." It was HOT and sticky. We did manage to ride just about all the rides we wanted to ride. From this photo, it may appear that my family of four was frightened by this 54 foot plunge. Nothing could be further from the truth. In reality - only I am frightened - you can tell by the maniacal look on my face.

We've got piano recitals about quarterly. The girls are not as keen on practice as they've been in the past, but both of them keep getting better and better.

A couple weeks back I took the girls shopping for Tracey's birthday. After our initial purchases, they wanted to go to Club Libby Lou for a look. They found the cutest thing that was only $25. Fortunately, they didn't have any cash with them, so we pushed the decision back. (There is a VERY LONG aside on saving and THEIR money, that I won't go in to). It wound up that they each needed to save ~$5 to make this purchase. On allowance alone, it would take 5 weeks to save up this much. Melinda immediately began looking for additional funding sources. I ruled out their own chores as a source of funding (I'm not paying for cleaning your room). So I started looking at MY chores. Making Dad's lunch - $1 / week. Day 1 - I get a regular lunch with a joke in it (I often put jokes in their lunchboxes) - "What's round on the end and hi in the middle?" A: Ohio. Day 2-5 - Pretty typical stuff. Surprisingly no pushback from her - after piano, she puts my lunch togethe...

I'm not too worried about the what the fat man does. In Chicago, he brings either one big thing for two girls - last year - play station 2 - several years back our best present ever - jumbo tumbos, 8 velcoing gym mat shapes that make a plane or a house, or a mountain. They were $200, but they still get used today. or he brings about three things per kid (which is where we are this year). Tracey and I were off to our second round of gift buying last week (Santa was done) and we were having a difficult time finding anything we wanted to buy. We wound up frustrated, but basically rationalizing that we weren't going to buy just to buy. We bought nothing. Two days later, she found the last gift for Melinda (the game Stratego (perhaps my siblings recall not playing that with me (I'm certain Susan does ("PLEASE play Stratego with me!"))). We purchased our final gift yesterday - 40 new born diapers that we're going to stock in a diaper bag and give to Gretchen f...