Ketner Lake

Breakfast varies, but is generally either Panera Bread, Old Santa Fe, or less likely Village Inn. At Panera, Paige generally like a cinnamon bagel, sliced, toasted, with plain cream cheese, and a chocolate milk. Marna and I will vary, especially depending on the time we get there. It's usually breakfast or lunch sandwich, but of late we've been trending on the lighter side. At Old Santa Fe, Paige generally gets a quesadilla, a breakfast burrito for me, and Marna mixes it up. Village Inn is less likely because it's always busy, but Paige will have chicken tenders, I'll have biscuits and gravy and Marna will have a breakfast skillet.

So what does any of this have to do with the picture? Well, to summarize, it's church, breakfast, and then...

When we get home I break out the mower and head to the lawn. After mowing the lawn I like to spray down the mower before putting it back into the garage - keeps the garage cleaner, and I feel responsible for maintaining my purchase (even though I haven't done more than oil and gas in the ten years we've had it). With the hose still out, and the weather getting warm, it's time for a little wet and wild action - and Paige is always more than ready to participate.

I have a bunch of squirt guns, but they're really hard for Paige to use. Lately then we've just been using the raw hose. She'll run around and I'll pretend to spray and miss her, while making sure to get her somewhat wet. She likes "rain" when I spray the hose straight up, and quite frankly, it feels good to me too. Once we both start to get a proper wetness, I'll generally slap on the sprinkler unit for Paige, and pull up a chair for myself. We'll air dry, and from there, whatever happens depends on how we feel.

While sitting back in my lawn chair a couple weekends ago, Paige started into some imaginary/pretend playing - something we strongly encourage for her. She grabbed a music-making wand that we got her at Disney on Ice, a pair of Marna's old tanning goggles, and set forth being a superhero running through the sprinkler and commanding it to bend to her will. I can only imagine that she got this from the recent influx of "The Incredibles" she's been watching lately, but really ... I'm not really sure.

After considering what to do for her birthday party, we landed on some pampering at the local Snip-It's (a kids haircut franchise). This year Paige seemed to have an ever growing list of friends to invite, but we drew the line at "that one girl in my other class." The friends at the party were other girls that Paige knows from the neighborhood, swim class and preschool.

The Snip-Its party was really fun. It started off with dress-up for each girl. Then they each got their hair done in a princess style, and also had their nails polished. There was also an opportunity to color your own bag (markers on fabric) while waiting for your turn. After hair and nails came a game of "simon says" which was short lived.

The girls each got their own make-up kit and were taught how to put on make-up. I got to be the test model, and Paige got to apply my make-up to show how it's done. Afterwards each girl took a turn down the red carpet runway to strut their best pose. Then came cupcakes and presents. Paige had a great time with all her friends.

Next up is kindergarten, which will start towards the end of August at Southeast Christian School.

Flash forward two years, and I had the opportunity to sit on an expert panel at the very first Ext Developer Conference in Orlando, FL. The framework has grown by leaps and bounds since first being rolled off from the Yahoo UI library. It's very comparable with Flex from an functionality perspective. There were about 200 developers present. I also sat in on a number of sessions, generally around theming and customization of the look and feel of Ext applications.

To be clear, the above picture is of the Orlando Convention Center. The Ext conference was held at the Ritz Carlton (which had a small, but very well stocked humidor I might add). As a Starwood Preferred Guest, I opted to stay at the Westin, which was by the convention center. I got an amazing room for a great deal, and highly recommend the location if you're ever in Orlando. The hotel didn't exist the last time I was there.

While in Orlando I also got together with my sister, Christy, and her boyfriend Jason for dinner at Maggiano's. I hadn't seen Christy since she lived in Baton Rouge, and we visited for her college graduation. Shortly after they moved to Orlando where Jason is working on his degree. We had a really nice meal with a bottle of wine and friendly conversation over everything from the Large Hadron Collider to Mayan civilization.

I was downstair when Marna called down that I should build a snowman with Paige. After a little hesitation about going out in the cold (I was still in my pajamas), I jumped up through on some clothes and went out to show Paige how to roll the parts and pieces of a snowman. The snow was so heavy that she was only able to push it over a few times before I had to take it the rest of the way.

When the three tiers were complete, I grabbed a couple of rocks for eyes, Marna grabbed a carrot for the nose, and Paige picked a hat for the head. If you're wondering where the mouth is, well, it's there, but only via an impression from the side of my hand.

As we finished up, it started to change more from snow to rain and our snowman was beginning to melt right before our eyes. Any time we stuck something into it, that section would slush off. Rather than slush off the entire head, I just made an indention for the mouth. Likewise we went without arms in the interest of keeping the body intact.

When we got there, our seats were not but three rows from the ice, and gave us among the best seats in the house. After the first half of the [about] ninety minute show, we traded potty times, and then I went on a little prize hunt. A bag of cotton candy came with a Dash mask. The event program (for our keepsake drawer) came with a crown and wand. And it all cost a fortune.

At the end of the show Paige got to shake hands with Cinderella, and then on our way out we posed for the photo above.

These days however, my dad has taken to hiding vast numbers of plastic eggs, filled with candy, across both the front and back yards. In this case, that amounts to just shy of an acre of land that the kids have to scour for their Easter treats. After thoroughly searching the front yard, we stopped for pictures. When it came to this post, I had a choice between smiles and goofy faces. Hey, what can I say, I'm in a goofy mood.

From there we all moved onto the [larger] backyard for more hunting. The kids are definitely getting smarter though, as this years egg hunt was over almost as soon as it began.

This year Marna and Paige colored eggs while I was at work, which was kind of a bummer, because I like taking these pictures so much, but they hadn't finished all the decorations at the same time. This morning then, before we headed out to Grandpa Rich and Grandma Janelle's house for the annual easter egg hunt, Paige and Marna sat down for a while to add Disney princess stickers as the final touch. This gave me a chance to take a few photos, which made me very happy.

The problem was that the stickers wouldn't stick to the cold eggs (or at least that was our guess). Note to product development teams at Disney, if you're going to lend your brand to once-a-year activities that are really important to people, it might do you good to actually try them out first. While she looks happy here, Paige was quite frustrated that her princess stickers didn't stick. The activity then was short-lived, but I did manage to get a few pictures in before we had to move on.

In case you're wondering, yes, this is posed, as Paige doesn't actually walk around holding eggs to her cheeks while smiling. With all the sticker problems, I needed something more, so I asked her to pose for me. And surprisingly, she did! I have pictures of her kissing an egg, as well as playing "Vanna" with one (smile). And I even got a few decent smiles out of her along the way.