Father and Daughter Day

Today was a lot of fun. My five year old and I spent most of the day together. I had a chance to watch her play two soccer games. She scored 6 goals.

We then did team pictures. Watched her eldest sibling referee an indoor soccer game.

We did lunch, a hair cut, some shopping, a trip to Sonic, a trip to Petland and then some veg time. You know you can learn a lot by listening to a five year old. She was lots of fun and had some very interesting observations of what the world is like.

As we waited for the haircut we looked through the books of different haircuts. We played a game of guess what haircut the other wanted. She picked the George Clooney haircut for me then the Goth guy. I selected the Shirley Temple curly for her. She laughed. And I picked some of the haircuts that swoop over the eye, I called them one eye pictures. She laughed.

When we were shopping she picked out one of the models on a Kohl's picture and said it looked like me! Oh, yea. Who says love isn't blind!

When we got home we had a couple of messages from a friend wanting her to play. She had spent a long day with me. Graciously she mentioned that she would like to play with her buddy. Looks like I'm gonna have to hang with the spouse!

Hope you had a great Saturday.

Stanley Cup Playoffs - Penguins Win

4.17.09 - The Pittsburgh Penguins, the National Hockey League franchise in the Steel City, won on two shots from Bill Guerin. He scored the first Penguin's and last goal of the game. The most important shot being in overtime. The shot hit the post and beat the Flyer's goalie. This win lifted the Penguins to a two games to zero lead in the best of five series.

Guerin, a 38 year old player, experienced his first game winning goal of his seventeen year hockey career.

The Penguins will now travel to Philadelphia for a match against the Flyers on Sunday. This could be the potential deciding match for the Eastern Conference final.

Marc-Andre Fleury was the winning goal tender for Pittsburgh.

The game on Sunday will be televised on NBC. The schedule shows the 23rd and the 27th for the next two games should they be necessary.

Let's hope that Sid and the kids can complete the sweep!

Go Penguins.

The Beach comes to the House

Over the weekend I acquired some play sand for the kids. The weather turned so we didn't get to put the sand in the kids sand box. This caused great disappointment for a young lady in my house.

The 100 pounds of sand has been in the back of my car since Saturday.

At bed time on Wednesday a request was made to put the sand in the garage so it was be available for the sandbox. When I procrastinated the sand made another round time to work with me. Oops!

As I headed home this evening I called my lovely spouse to let her know I was on the road to the house. As I finish talking Jen says a young lady would like to speak with you. Ok!

"Dad, could you please remember to leave the sand in the garage so we can get the sandbox opened?" This little voice just wanted to have a sandbox.

This little project manager had already reminded her mother about the sandbox. She also mentioned to me that she would meet me at the house.

How can you disappoint that persistence?

Anyway, I pulled up in the driveway. A certain young lady comes to me to remind me about guess what?

Just to let you know this story has a very happy ending. The kids had their feet in "The Beach" this afternoon. There were lots of helpers to move the sand, clean the sand turtle, get the supplies needed. Next there was the removal of shoes and socks then, feet in "The Beach"

There are a number of happy kiddos at our house. All over $6 dollars worth of sand and some family time getting "The Beach" ready. What a great evening.

Happy Easter to All

The family celebrated a wonderful Easter today. The little people awoke to check the arrival of the Easter Bunny. (Thank goodness it wasn't the butt crack of dawn.) There were some goodies for each of the kids.

We then did breakfast, church, lunch, and family time. The weather wasn't the best for Easter. It was rainy and very cold. A little pre-planning allowed for the festivities to continue. The Easter pictures were taken indoors this year.

Our crew did some practice egg hunts on Saturday. We had heard the weather wasn't going to be great so we hunted for some goodies in the backyard.

All had a great time. A number of members of the family celebrated that Lent was over allowing the consumption of chocolate, ice cream and some other things that were given up for the last forty days.

Hope all had a wonderful Easter. We did.

Interesting Weekend

This was quite a weekend. It rained on Friday and was cold. Saturday we had lots of cold and snow. Sunday, it was beautiful and the snow melted rapidly.

We had car repairs over the weekend when the spouse's car failed to start in the garage on Saturday evening. With our schedule we were all headed in different directions. Quick modifications to the plans, a call to AAA and remembering there were jumper cables saved the evenings events. On Sunday, Auto Zone gets a big kudos, in a separate post, for great service at the right time.



We had multiple kids doing the spend the night thing and a soccer game on Sunday. There was a school project on the Common Cold and family movie night.



Today as I passed Tractor Supply there was a sign for Ducks and Chicks. I first took my eldest daughter in when we were out running errands. She thought it was cool to see the little poultry. Later in the afternoon the two youngest went back with me.

All got to hold a Duck and a Chick. The Tractor Supply associate keep offering to put a number of them in the box for us to take home. This gentlemen is obviously single. Okay, it is only $4.25 for a duck. And $1.95 for a chicken. Well within my spending range. But, with the house on the market and the fact these cute things will be big enough to be out of the enclosure shown above this wouldn't be a marriage enhancing move on my part. I did think about it. Lots of fun. My parents acquired some Ducks and a Rabbit one year for Easter. Great memories!

Did you know that the air holes for a duck on on his beak? The little duck not only has webbed feet but there are claws on them. When you pick one up it makes a good bit of noise. When you put it back the other Duck buddies come over to check on the well being of the comrade.

To wrap up the weekend the family grilled out this evening. Big fun. Hope you all had a wonderful weekend!

March Madness has arrived

This year March Madness has a completely new meaning in our family. Usually March Madness is associated solely with the NCAA Basketball tournament. Not this year, my youngest brother, A Division III Assistant Basketball Coach, and his lovely wife welcomed the arrival of their first child, Grace Ann, to the world early in the month of March.
Another of my brothers and his lovely wife celebrated the arrival of their granddaughter, Gabriella, within the last week. My sister and my brother in law celebrated the 18th birthday of their son, my nephew. (I was there the day he arrived and still can’t believe that much time has elapsed.) Duncan Hines and the Great American Cookie Company will be able to achieve their future P&L’s this month each year with the contributions from the family.

What a great family time! We can’t wait to meet all of the newest additions to the family. The pictures are beautiful.

On the basketball side of the house the last week has been very interesting. All of the planned first seeds in the NCAA tournament have lost. Pitt, North Carolina, Oklahoma, all dropped games in their conference tournaments, oops! This year’s tournament should be lots of fun. This will also be a tough week. There are over 364 Division I basketball teams. Two Hundred and ninety nine of the basketball teams will be on the outside of the event looking in. It should be fun. Time to develop the brackets. Let the basketball madness commence.

It’s Spring Break at our House

That wonderful event that all school age children love has arrived at our house, SPRING BREAK! For the next week, the kids are out of school.

In our house that means four kids are now available to assist their parental units in whatever tasks, deemed appropriate, for the development of their character. Parental speak for completing chores, cleaning rooms, and fluffing the parents pillows! Yea right! It is nice to dream.

This week has caused some confusion for my 5 year old. Since she is out of school, she would like to know when I get Spring Break! I can’t wait to see my boss on Monday morning. (With the economy the way, it is I’m sure it might not be the right time to ask!) Nevertheless, my darling daughter has hit on a concept that I think should be explored. With vision like this why can’t they wave the constitutional requirement that the President has to be thrity six years old. I wonder how she can do in Economics.)

We are scheduling the week of sleepovers, social events, mall trips, movies, travel to places, activities, and veg time to have a great break. If the scheduling is right, I may see each child every other day as they spend time with their extended families. We use that term for the families of the friends they hang out with. We joke that my son has three hyphenated last names since the families of his buddies kind of claim him as one of their own. (I wonder if we can work that all the way through college? Oops! There I go using my out loud voice again.)

Spring Break is also the time that all children believe that everything is possible. The question was asked; Can’t we just get in the car and ride to see the grandparents? To add context to the discussion we live pretty close to the geographic center of the United States. The relatives live in the far Northeastern corner of the United States and on the East Coast. Another option was proposed by my eight-year-old son. He decided he would like to go to California for the break. We used the chance to do map reading and mapquesting to determine it would only take about 27 hours to get there. Mr. Math was on top of that saying, “it is only 1 and 3/24th of a day to get there.”(Parental pride in the math skill!) (Parental shock in realizing that he believes that I can drive that many hours without bathroom stops and sleep to arrive on the coast!) By the way, I love the sense of adventure that is developing.

We are getting ready for day two of Spring Break. The kids are using the opportunity to sleep in since most stayed up late on the first full day of Spring Break.

O'Connell Knights Men's Basketball Game on Television

O'Connell Men's Basketball Varsity Basketball Team will host DeMatha Catholic High School February 17, 2009. The game will be on television.

Game time will be 9:00 PM, eastern time and will be televised on ESPNU.

We'll be watching the team and Coach Stu. That's the guy on the left.

Go Silver and Blue!!!!

Hey! I'm gonna be an Uncle Again

Congratulations to Stuart and Erin. My brother and sister-in-law made the big announcement on that there is going to be another Wilson in the world.


I am sure that big sister Sidney is very excited.

Very cool another niece or nephew. The expected arrival is August!

My crew is excited that another cousin is on the way!

Time to start the name game.

Happy Birthday Boodles

Happy Birthday to you.

In the winter snows with Maria. The friends that do spend the nights, soda and whales.

Ms. Rock band hair. When she saw David Cook, the American Idol, winner and Randy Jackson.

With her friend Kennedy. Two of Charlie's Angels.

At age 2 1/2. The intense look with her dad before she was the flower girl in a wedding.

Becca the multi sport athlete. Gymnastics, Soccer, Cheerleading. She is competitive at every sport, game or even a staring contest.

Here she is at her 9th birthday party at the Flip shop.

It's the surfer girl. She is also a great student, avid reader, and a lover of music and her computer time.

Yep, eleven years ago today in St. Vincent's Hospital in Birmingham, Alabama, Miss Rebecca A. Wilson came into the world. My world is better because she is here.