Monkeypants.net

Dancin' Katie

2008-04-01T15:06:00.002-04:00

Katie was totally rocking out to Hannah Montana in the kitchen. I could hear her dancing away, but every time I went in to see she'd get shy and stop.

So I turned on the digital camera, put it on the table and left the room - whereupon Katie resumed her rock star ways.

I feel mean, but she's adorable.
She has a line of Disney princesses in front of the iPod as her audience. She keeps arranging them and performing to them.
See for yourself:

Column

2008-04-01T08:09:00.002-04:00

My latest column for Parenting NH Magazine is up.

Check it out if you get a chance.

Hockey

2008-03-29T20:59:00.001-04:00

I made a highlight video of Amy's goaltending during the 2008 season. I only actually taped about four games and a practice, but I pulled a bunch of saves and interesting plays and put them all together here:

Radio play!

2008-03-25T22:41:00.005-04:00

The River 92.5 played a song off of the Mary Bliven Band's album, "On the Edge" tonight. That's the second time I've had radio play on an honest to goodness, real commercial radio station. Cool. Check it out:

Easter

2008-03-22T19:55:00.003-04:00

We decorated eggs for Easter tonight.
I put some pictures of it up on Flickr. (Click on the pic to see them all.)

Happy St. Patrick's Day

2008-03-17T15:11:00.002-04:00

Happy St. Patrick's Day to everyone. We'll be having one of our theme dinners tonight, so I'll probably post a Flickr set for it later.

Theme dinner night

2008-02-20T18:58:00.004-05:00

Every February, when it gets really cold and we're really, really sick of the winter, we have a Mardi Gras night at our house. I'll usually cook jambalaya or something, we'll put on goofy hats and put zydeco music on.

Tonight was that night. I made jambalaya and shrimp gumbo. I prefered the shrimp gumbo, but both came out good.

Here are some pics:

Writing

2008-01-02T11:13:00.001-05:00

My first column as the 'Dad on Board' columnist for Parenting N.H. Magazine is in this month's issue. The print edition is available all over the place, but you can check it out online.

New Years Eve

2008-01-01T09:55:00.000-05:00

I've had 11 days off in a row due to the holidays and a couple of vacation days I had to use up or lose.
I've been sick every single one of those days. For anyone keeping score: That stinks.
However, it has been a nice break.

We spent New Years Eve at home eating Chinese food.
Here's a few pictures of our festive evening in:

Chinese food, goofy hats and noise makers - the only way to celebrate New Years Eve.

Amy is all about the festive headgear.

She is the King of New Years Eve.

Yeah, we probably could take down the tree... BUT WE WON'T!!!

Ryan lounges her way into 2008.

Tiny hat, giant noggin.

Wearin' Mama's shoes.

Christmas Day

2007-12-26T14:03:00.000-05:00

Amy's family came by on Christmas, and we had a great day.
Other than the fact I was pretty sick. And then Katie got pretty sick.
But it just wouldn't be Christmas without Katie puking, would it?

But we did have a great day. Everyone was very generous and we had a lot of fun.
Here's how it looked:

Coming down to see the tree first thing on Christmas morning.

Katie plays with her stocking.

Preparing to hit the loot.

Katie was so patient waiting for family members to arrive.

Sporting the Christmas Antlers(tm).

Trumpet!

A festive change in headgear.

Lego Star Wars for the Wii. Score!

Amy, Katie and The Doctor.

Amy gets more stuff.

How many different ways can you say, "opening presents"?

A book about basses. I am very pleased by this, despite the look of aggressive ennui on my face.

Katie in her special Christmas dress.

Alex, Ash and Katie.

Ryan helps Katie with a gift.

I get into the spirit of Christmas by shooting stuff with a Nerf gun.

Grammy Connie.

Ryan, Snub and Katie.

Webkinz rule.

Katie and Grammy Connie.

Christmas Eve 2007

2007-12-26T13:46:00.000-05:00

Our annual tradition is to go to my brother's house in Manchester on Christmas Eve to celebrate with my side of the family, and then spend Christmas Day with Amy's side of the family.

Here's how Christmas Eve 2007 went:

Katie is very excited for the Christmas Eve party.

Rory and Patrick.

Little kid roll call...

Patrick and Katie goofing around.

Katie was so excited, she was literally on the edge of her seat.

Janna, Rory, Rick, Chris and my mother.

Barry prepares to read 'Twas the Night Before Christmas' to the kids.

A bunch of the kids pretend to be asleep so Santa will come.

My parents.

Kyle plays NHL 08 while Erik and Kristopher watch. And Amy is obviously caught up in the action of the game.

The NHL 08 grudge matches ensue.

Webkinz all around. Thank you, Me'mere!

Webkinz love.

Grammy passing out loot to the kids.

A bunch of the girls getting into the spirit.

Katie playing with the Christmas Village behind the chair on Christmas Eve at our house.

The last clean view of our festive fireplace for several days.

The last clean view of our TV room for several days.

Amy getting warm by the fire on Christmas Eve.

Katie puts out the cookies for Santa on Christmas Eve.

Flying

2007-10-19T23:16:00.000-04:00

Look what Amy did tonight...
She went indoor skydiving at Skyventure NH in Nashua for her birthday. She had a 20 minute instruction course and then went for two flights. Here is the second of the two. (She did great.)

Back from The World

2007-10-13T21:08:00.000-04:00

We are back from Walt Disney World. We had a great trip, and if you want to read more about it and see a bunch of pictures from the trip, go to our Disney page.

In the meantime, that picture above is now the single greatest picture ever taken of Amy and Katie, I think.

Hockey

2007-09-30T15:39:00.000-04:00

I was pulling a bunch of old video off our tapes and putting it on to the hard drive. While doing so I made an Amy highlight reel. This is part 1 - the inline years. It all takes place between 1995 and 1999 sometime.

Apple picking

2007-09-30T14:50:00.000-04:00

We went apple picking with Mike and Jenny and Andrew and William. Then we went back to Mike and Jenny's house and AwesomeLunch(tm).
Here's some pictures of it:

Picking out a pumpkin.

Katie and Andrew

Sampling the goods.

Amy and Katie, Jenny and Andrew.

Hayride.

Hayride. (I'm not very creative with the captions today. I was up late.)

Sarah went with us, too.

Bill, Mike and William.

Katie and Andrew in the wagon.

Bored

2007-09-23T13:35:00.001-04:00

Amy is away at a hockey tournament this weekend, so Katie and I have been left to entertain ourselves.
Which can be a dangerous thing, given past experiences.
However, aside from a few poor dining choices it's been a fairly damage-free weekend.
It's Sunday, so at this point we're both looking forward to Amy's return home. I think it finally go to Katie, who started acting a bit odd:

And then we figured we'd make a little lunch. As you can tell, Katie is starting to get excited about our upcoming trip.

Also, at this point, Amy's team is 1-1-1, and is in the finals for the championship at 3 p.m.

Birthday pics

2007-09-17T20:54:00.000-04:00

Katie turned 5 on Sunday.
Here's a bunch of pictures from her party:

Princess Jasmine enjoys being 5.
Flying around on her 'magic carpet.'
Ready for her closeup.
Awesome cake by Rebecca Fournier.
The present vortex begins to form.
Amy is drawn helplessly into the eye of the storm.
Cake time!
Jasmine makes her grand entrance.
Showing off the shoes.
Molly living it up.

Happy Birthday Katie!

2007-09-17T20:32:00.000-04:00

I know these tests may become tiresome, so I will attempt to post meaningful content as I try things out.
For example, here's a video of several thousand little girls singing Happy Birthday to Katie yesterday:

Listen at the end when Amy says, "Make a wish."
She actually says, "I wish I could slide on a rainbow."
And I swear I didn't drill her.

Redesign

2007-09-17T19:38:00.000-04:00

Gee, you think it was about time?
Monkeypants hasn't really undergone a change - at all - since 2001. Well, not counting one time when I tried to use LiveJournal and then Amy had a kaniption fit so I put it back to the old way.
Well, I just saw Fitzie's site, Townie News and figured I was way overdue for a redesign.

I also needed it to be very low maintenance, otherwise I wouldn't ever update it. So here's my first try.
I'll probably just try to get it up and then change it around later.

But now Amy's putting Katie to bed, and I'm still basking in the glow of the Pats crushing the Chargers.
And with that, I'll try getting this to show up at monkeypants.net. If you see it, you'll know I was successful.