Our Summer Vacation

Well we had a great little summer vacation last week in St. Joe Michigan where we've gone for 3 years now. Finn and Millie, as you can see, dug the beach.




Surprising to Daddy was how enjoyable our little blueberry picking expedition was. Finn ate as many as he put in his bucket, actually abandoning his bucket altogether several times.



That's an iphone in his hand, but shouldn't it be a harmonica?

Alisha took me to the worst Cubs game ever where they got razed by the Phillies 9 to 1 in 98 degree heat. Don't get me wrong. We were in the shade and the beer was cold, so it was fun.
Theree was also time spent on Miller's Time, the boat our friends Don and Julie Miller graciously hosted us on. Finn liked driving it with Don.

Millie Hits The Beach

Every bedtime for months when Finnegan wishes on a star he always asks for the same thing, "To have a great time at the beach." He got that yesterday up on Lake Michigan at Hager Park Beach. It was a lovely day and Millie's first beach visit ever but definitely not her last.


She is her mother's beach baby.

There will be more beach for the rest of the week.

Meet Millie!

This is Millicent Mitchem Valentine. She entered this world from the friendly confines of her mother's tummy at 7:55 AM on Thursday, August 19th, 2010. The picture above was when she was about an hour old.
In this picture she is about 5 minutes old. She weighed in at 6 pounds and 7.8 ounces and measures 18 and one half inches long. Mother and daughter are doing fine as you can see below.

Her brother Finnegan is having a bit of trouble with his definition of the word "gentle" but is otherwise thoroughly enthused.

Momma had a hard day, but is as lovely as ever and has made her husband very, very proud. As well a slew of grandparents and great grands.

There will be more to come. Thanks to all of you who have already called with best wishes and congratulations.

Summer Fun So Far 2010: The Indiana State Fair

Today we went to the Indiana State Fair.
Finnegan and I were part of that special crowd that breakfasts at the fair. A little Dairy Barn action and make sure that's chocolate milk.
The DNR pavilion was lotsa fun, but mostly because now we know he wants an Arctic Cat four-wheeler for Christmas.
It was cooler, or at least as cooler as it was gonna get all day, so we rushed the joint and saw ourselves some livestock. The donkey's were a lotta fun but the boy was mainly drawn to their little wagons.
Finn was all about the goats. They were about his speed.
Only you.
He got kinda mesmerized near the end of the day by this sleeping calf. It was eerie. He'd not touch or pet it but, stood motionless watching it sleep for like four minutes, which is like standing still an hour to a not yet two-year-old.

Welcome Kitty

We now have a cat. Alisha wanted one for her birthday and found a real cutie she got from a foster mom who just about cried when we asked for her. The cat's name was Compass, but so far the closest thing to a name Finnegan has given her is Mao.

Summer 2010 So Far: Bowling

Sunday night I had to miss a fundraiser I slightly helped pull together. I regretted it as I went about the duties that drew me away. But upon returning to see these pictures and hear from Alisha how much fun they had, I regretted it even more.

It was a fundraiser for a great not-for-profit called Reach for Youth which provides counseling opportunities for at-risk children and teens. A great organization and a worthy cause. The fundraiser was called Roll for youth and was held at what is apparently a beautiful bowling alley called the Woodland Bowl.

Alisha took Finnegan and their night went a little something like this.

Start with some tasty cheese pizza and when mom points the camera at you say what type of pizza you are eating, "Cheese!" Check.

Begin with some skee-ball just to reintroduce ourselves to rolling heavy non-bounce balls.
Didn't collect a lotta tickets, but the concept has been laid out. Check.
Next, get the young person cheats in place. Check.
Select a pretty blue ball from the broad and delightful array of technicolor balls. Check.
Accept a little help in aiming from a qualified adult. Check.
But you gotta get a feel for the ball and it's weight, as well as its shininess. Check-erino.

Roll it. Wait for it... Wait for it.... Wait... Wait...Wait...
BINGO! Clap when stuff falls down. Check! And the joy passes to another generation. Now I gotta get him a bowling shirt.

Summer 2010 So Far: Playdate

Today, Finnegan and I ventured to the east-side for a play-date hosted in the home of Anne-Marie and Tim and their lovely daughter Evyn.
Four children total in the house, with Max and Nathaniel, plus three more parents and Andrew a childless friend of us all who mixed mojitos and marveled at the well-behaved kids.
I have to say, if you were gonna go to your first multi-child playdate, this was a great one. They were all in incredible moods and shared better than I've seen.
They took turns playing Tim's grown-up drumkit in the basement, which Evyn is really pretty good at. There was this great toy I'd never seen before called an Elefun which blows butterflies out its blue trunk into the air for kids to catch with nets.
They were all so well behaved to allow for some decent adult conversation to take place. Goldfish helped though.
After some goldfish our hosts offered up the mojitos and kale lasagna which was really great and, to my amazement, was very appreciated by the increasingly finicky Finnegan.
It was a great time had by all and I really appreciated Tim and Anne-Marie hosting. They definitely out did our efforts which usually just involve some grapes and juice and crackers.
Next time we host, I'll feel compelled to get a keg of good beer and do some barbecuing. Tim and Anne-Marie have stepped up the game and now we must all follow suit.
They all played well and we fit a brief bit of story-time in with Nathaniel and Finn on my lap.

Summer 2010 So Far: Summer Love

I don't know who this fetching young lady was, but she absolutely owned the affections of young Finnegan at the playground on the beach of St. Joe, Michigan on a lovely July day. He met, pursued, charmed, did tricks for and eventually lost this beautiful beach damsel.

They were enthralled and then as suddenly as this, his first summer romance had begun, it was over with a sweet but heartbreaking, "I gotta go see my mom now." Stunned at her sudden departure he scanned the horizons with a pensive painful stare, but like a good man, kept his chin solid and took the punch to the gut. Later he drowned his sorrows in fruit snacks and a nap.

Summer 2010 So Far: Gard'nin, Part 2

Pickle cucumbers, hot peppers, basil and one serious squash.

Summer 2010 So Far: Gard'nin

We started a garden at our old house with our good friend Nicole who rents it these days. I got us/lucked into some free ready-made boxes from the nice folks at Indy Glass Center and carried some too wet, too heavy Mike's Mix from Indiana Mulch to fill them in April and May first Nicole and I planted some of each of our seedlings.

Nicole has done most of the weeding and daily maintenance of the garden, but every now and again I pop over with Finnegan to ruin things. But try as we might, food still grows.

Tonite's dinner featured one hot pepper in Alisha's delicious tequila-lime chicken and a green pepper in her black bean and corn salad.

The project started for me as something to do with Finnegan. Until this week, he has only been interested in the throwing of the dirt. He now seems to get the plants as part of it, but I know he loves to do the watering.

In this clip, the quality isn't very good, had to lower resolution to fit it in the blog, you can hear him call it, "gard'nin." He was soaked at the end, but he said "gard'nin" and "wat-ter" all the way home, or at least 16th street where he passed out in the car.