Dad weekend again

After a long week away from home, it's good to be back with the kids, where I am solo dad for another weekend while Steph and my sister are in Spokane.  Once again, I sit here blogging on a Saturday night.  Last time I did this, I followed it up by looking at pictures of Mackenzie in chronological reverse order, ending with pictures from her birth.   I won't be repeating that one tonight... I was a mess by the time I finished!

While there's a lot of refereeing, and it's light on adult conversation, I love the time the kids and I share with no distractions.  The rainy weather has kept us inside all weekend, which is fine, as we have turned it into a crafts weekend.  Both of them are dealing with colds, but they don't complain.  The only real issue is they constantly ask for cough drops and sometimes it's hard to distinguish between the desire for cough relief and the desire for candy.  I think I'm doing okay though.

We're doing a lot of halloween projects, interspersed with reading a lot of halloween books.  This is in addition to a school project I did with Jackson, where we decorated a posterboard doll to look like his halloween costume.  Of course Kenzie loved it, so I repeated the project for her a couple nights later.

Captain Hook, with his school project...

I think we, I mean Jackson, has a good chance at an A!

Tinkerbell...

Today Kenzie decided she wanted "to make a picture for my brother".  Of course, it was a pumpkin.  Jackson was then inspired to create his own halloween artwork.

We all miss Steph, especially me, as I haven't seen her for a week.  But we get her back tomorrow!

One last random pic... I happened upon Jackson reading Pinkalicious.  He is really getting into reading recently!

 

Pumpkins

The pumpkins are keeping busy these days.  Their latest noteworthy adventures include separate field trips to the  pumpkin patch, "dad day", and learning to dribble a basketball while driving mom crazy with the noise.

Basketball practice

Pumpkin patch: I dunno much, I wasn't there, but they came back in plucky spirits! 

 

Jackson was excited to have his mom along for the fun

This is the best picture Steph was able to come up with from Kenzie's trip... not sure what that's all about.  But she did a great job buying Kenzie a sparkly pumpkin shirt that she really loved, so that's good.

"Dad day":  I took a random Wednesday off to just enjoy being dad.  I loved dropping the kids off at school and picking them up.  Because Wednesdays are early dismissal, we took advantage of the free time to take them to Family Fun Center.  We were almost the only people in the entire park!  The kids got to drive their own go karts and Jackson got to ride his own boat.  Kenzie frequently crashed her car, due to the frequent need to fix her hair (sounds like her mom's driving from her high school days), but had fun doing so.  Jackson blew us away when he expertly executed a 5 point parking job with his boat, all by himself.  We ended the day with movie night at home, eating popcorn and watching Beauty and the Beast.  Jackson found it too scary.  Mackenzie loved it.

Weekend strolls with the kiddos

I love morning walks with the kids in the fall, when we take Smokey out to get his exercise  in our neighborhood.  My favorite is the walk we do to an adjacent neighborhood called Rock Meadows.  The homes are all on big spreads with pastures for horses, and there is a central equestrian area.   Sometimes, if we are lucky, we get to watch equestrian practice.  The kids love watching the horses learn how to jump.

Last week we got a close up view.  The kids learned that "ho" means "stop" to horses, and that "hi" sounds just like "ho".  So they learned to wave at the horses each time they ran by, instead of saying hi.  They also learned that horses get jittery around sudden movements, but they don't mind little kids yelling and screaming. They did not learn these last two facts by trial and error, thankfully!  One of the participants in the equestrian practice was kind enough to teach them these items.

Maybe the kids can get a summer job some day working with the horses.  They like the idea of brushing the horses and feeding them apples... but not so excited about the "mucking" part!

Shiny and Clean!

They are just barely still in that bath time is cute age...  it's like watching a beautiful sunset.  Time passes too quickly.  How I wish I could freeze it!  Or that humans aged in redwood years.  Well, I'm just glad we had the presence of mind to remember to enjoy bath time while we still can.

Squeaky clean!!

mmmwahh!!

Jackson has already moved on to showers.  Sniff... ... think I got some dust in my eye.

wedding bells?

Mackenzie says she isn't going to college, is never going to get married, and wants to "live with you guys forever".  Her plan is to cook for us, clean, and tell us what to do.

On our Disneyland vacation, she excitedly pointed out a wedding dress in a window display, and when asked if she wanted a wedding dress like that some day, she replied "no because I'm never getting married!"

So we will have to cherish moments like this, since we will never get the real thing.   The other night Mackenzie disappeared upstairs for a half an hour, and finally emerged looking like this:

Act III: Banzai Nights

The best of Tokyo is seen after sunset.  The anticipation of this final weekend had been building for a good 18 months or so, so the pressure we put on ourselves to deliver was intense.  We made diamonds with this pressure.  Rarely have such lofty expectations been exceeded by such perfect execution.  

The girls decided to lay low the first evening back in the city, opting to save their batteries for Saturday night.  Thus, Friday night was boys night.  What to do on a guys night in Tokyo, Nate asked?  One word: Shibuya.  Big smile from Nate.

Exploration is the theme and the reason to go to Tokyo.  On this night, we took a subway into Shibuya, with no set agenda.  Our plan was to walk up or down every stairwell that appealed, and some that didn't.  We were not disappointed!  

Neon lit "Center Gai", the main artery to Shibuya

Enjoying a whiskey sour at a cool bar we found at the top of a hidden staircase, complete with our own personal Taiwanese bartender

Martini man

Long day at the office???

During the days, the girls liked to shop at department stores (the bane of my existence), and Nate played pachinko all day, leaving me free to do whatever I pleased.  More Shibuya!!

Walking thru Shinjuki to get to the subway to Shibuya.  One of Nate's top 5 pachinko parlors can be seen on the right.

Their cops are cooler than our movie stars

My next haircut...

Bought a sweet shirt from this guy.  I very much respect the decor of his store.

Saturday night was marked by the arrival of our friend Alex, who happened to be in town with his new employer, Coach.  What fortune!  It should be noted that Alex arrived in the afternoon after traveling 20 hours from New York, and basically brushed his teeth, changed his shirt, and said "let's do it!"
The man is a living legend.

So with the girls' batteries recharged, and Alex providing a spark off the bench, we were ready for a night for the ages.  The girls listened to the scouting report from our previous evening, and agreed we should repeat pretty much everything and add a whole bunch of new.

Drinks at Alex's hotel.  

Entering the martini den

The art of the martini.  I hope this video works... if not, :(

Sushi master!  Best sushi ever.

Our happy tribe!

Shelly makes a friend..

When you get lost in the confusing back alleys of Shibuya, it's best to stop for sangria and vegetable bisque.

We knew we were close to the club when we started finding love hotels at every turn...

Steph/Colonel Sanders/Shelly

Drinks at Alcatraz,  a horror movie hospital/prison themed restaurant.  Umm, thanks I'll have a syringe of truth syrum please!

In my happy place:)

We finally found it, Club Atom!

Helpful 7/11 clerk, directing us to the Karaoke bar

 Shelly earns MVP honors for this night, for discovering and then hijacking Dr Shu and Marina, two friendly Tokyo hipsters that she roped into our fun at the karaoke bar. 

"Don't stop... believing!!!"

Doctor Shu and Marina belt out The Backstreet Boys

Neil Diamond or Snoop Dogg?

YES!!!! Snoop Dogg!!!! 

We made it home safely at 5:30AM, happy and content.  Sunday evening we downshifted, putting on our Sunday finest and headed out to the Park Hyatt hotel, enjoying $25 drinks and $30 cheese cake at the famed Lost in Translation bar.  A perfect cap to own Tokyo Drift!

Alex sums the trip up best