After Cameron's indoor soccer game yesterday we assembled our 3-man "Metacomet Trail Patrol" and hit the trail near Old Newgate Prison (from the Civil War era) in Granby, Connecticut. As always, the hike took on a distinct military theme as the boys stormed the woods to weed out terrorists, the Taliban, or whatever band of hooligans was invading the country yesterday afternoon.
Photo album's on the right!
Owen brought his list of New Year's resolutions home from school today. Much to our dismay, this list has apparently been hanging on the wall in the classroom for the past few weeks...
"MY NEW YEARS RESOLUTIONS, BY OWEN.
1. I'm going to eat a lot of healthy food to gain weight.
2. I am going to focus more.
3. I will flush the toilet after going.
4. I will use soap when I wash my hands.
5. I will stop ignoring what Shane says.
6. I will stop teaching Shane that a penny is more than a quarter.
7. I will stop teaching Shane that one dollar is more than a ten dollar bill."
Boy, Shane (and the bathroom) is going to be in MUCH better shape if Owen can pull these resolutions off!
In our ongoing effort to encourage the boys to appreciate mainstream sports (no problem when it comes to Shane, an uphill battle with the other two), we staged an AFC Championship Football Party on Sunday afternoon.
We watched our beloved New England Patriots square off against the dreaded Baltimore Ravens while Amy served up some classic "football food", including nachos, chicken fingers, pizza, meatballs and mini-burgers.
But it's worth mentioning that all the food was made from scratch. Amy doesn't like serving up food from BJ's...not even for a football game!
And, as Nana always says, no football playoff game is complete unless a game of "squares" is incorporated. Long story, but this is a game of chance where a winner is announced at the end of each quarter.
We decided to award five "Disney Dollars" to the winner of each quarter. Well, little did we know that Owie would win all four quarters, which means he'll have $20 burning a whole in his pocket as he strolls around Disney next month!
The results from our last poll question are in. The query: "Which Disney character would you most like to have a lunch date with?"
We ended up with a military tie! The army commander from Toy Story and "Sarge", the jeep from Cars each nabbed two votes.
Then we had an unprecedented seven-way tie for 2nd place! The following characters each drew one vote: Donald Duck, Mater, Mrs. Potato Head, Sleeping Beauty, Mr. Incredible, Tigger and Clone Trooper Rex (assuming he's a legitimate Disney character).
That's an awful lot of 2nd-place finishers, but I guess that's what happens when there are only 3 regular blog readers and approximately 8,000 Disney characters to choose from.
To be honest, I would have cast a second vote for Sleeping Beauty if it wasn't for the fact that the vote would be posted on the Internet. So kudo's to Tony for being man enough to openly vote for SB!
Alright, this may be the toughest poll question yet: "Which of the Disney parks are you most looking forward to?"
Here's a quick refresher...there's Magic Kingdom, Epcot Center, Animal Kingdom and Disney Hollywood Studios.
I cast my vote for Epcot, mostly because I was treated to a Billy Ocean performance there during the last trip.
Amy and Cameron also voted for Epcot. Owen and Shane enthusiastically voted for "Star Wars", which I'll count as two votes for Hollywood Studios.
OK, Epcot's off to a strong lead early on. Please chime in!
OK, here are the results from the last poll question, "What Disney ride can you not wait to hop on?"...
The revamped and newly-updated Star Tours was the winner with 4 votes.
The classic indoor thriller, Space Mountain, took second place with 3 votes.
Soarin', Mount Everest and It's a Small World (despite the fact that it hasn't been updated since it opened in 1966) each raked in 2 votes.
Next up..."What Disney character would you most like to have a lunch date with?"
I vote for Mr. Incredible, Amy: Tigger, Shane: the captain of the army guys in Toy Story, Cameron: Sarge from Cars (the army jeep-guy), Owen: Clone Trooper Captain Rex (although there's a heated debate going on in the household as to whether he qualifies as a Disney character).
OK, let's hear your vote!
Cameron embarked on his final pre-teen year this past Friday! Hard to believe, but Cameron has spent 12 solid years on the planet and we celebrated after school with an authentic Italian meal at Procaccini's in East Hartford. That was followed by a delicious Sugarbelle cupcake dessert back at home.
Saturday also proved to be a special day for Cameron as well when he scored his first goal at the premiere soccer level! It wasn't pretty (he crashed into the ground pretty hard after taking the shot) but it still counted. It must have been the hibachi lunch at Sake in Enfield before the game!
And Monday may prove to be the best day of the long birthday weekend when Cameron tries paintball for the first time with a few of his soccer buddies.
Happy 12th B-Day, Cammy!
Cameron chose the word of the day today...annihilate, which means to utterly destroy.
Example: The New England Patriots annihilated Tim Tebow and the Denver Bronco's last night. I won't even repeat the score...it was just too ridiculous.
Did Mr. Tebow even show up to that game?
As Nana rapidly approaches retirement, it seems that she is releasing her stress in a socially-unacceptable way...
