I was invited by my sister Becky and my brother-in law Andrew to go with them and their children to go see Pirates of the Caribbean: Curse of the Black Pearl, at the Blossom Music Center, with the Cleveland Orchestra playing the score for the movie. I have to say it was fantastic. There are parts where you have to remind yourself that the orchestra is actually playing it. For example; when they are doing the scene inside the pirate bar, the orchestra is playing the bar music. It is a huge tonal shift from the rest of the score, but they are still doing all the music. Amazing. I do not know if this is true or not, but supposedly that was the first time Disney had done the orchestra with that particular movie.

We left the program in some one else’s car, but there are going to be more events during the entire summer, and since kids (everyone under 18) is free for the summer I think it would be a great idea to go to another event. I do not usually have a chance to see how my children have grown, but watching two little ones fidget and fuss during the movie and I really got to appreciate how much older the children are and how they can sit quietly now.

We rode our bikes to downtown Akron, again, for the 4th of July. I say “again” sort of ironically, because I actually had the dates mixed up and took the kids downtown for fireworks a day early. We made the exact same trip two days in a row. The only real difference between last year and this year was we sort of took the long way this year. My personal philosophy is that riding a bicycle is a great form of transportation, but that you should also enjoy the experience. The towpath is definitely more enjoyable than city streets. With the water, the animals of all sorts, and the ability to really travel at your own pace.

We took a sleeping bag, which required a bit of experimentation in tying it down, and some water bottles with us. We enjoyed some ice cream downtown. Some of Patty’s friends from Stow showed up and we got a chance to all hang out with them. It was a great time. I wish I could take better pictures, but honestly I have been feeling lately that I should take fewer pictures and just enjoy the moment more.

I think everyone got what they wanted for Christmas this year and that has always been sort of important for me. I can not get the kids a lot of gifts, but I always want to make sure that they at least get the thing or maybe a few things that they really want. I am already starting to see some drastic changes in what the kids actually want for Christmas. The gifts by far get more expensive and more clothing.

Michelle just wanted a few pairs of jeans and a hoodie, but they had to be from American Eagle. I do not know anything about American Eagle other than it is in the mall and they sell clothing. I also know that it does not matter what they sell that it is the name of the place that Michelle wants to have on her jeans and hoodie. I know when I was a teenager I enjoyed Starter branded stuff, which I believe Starter is now a brand at Wal-Mart.

Patty wanted make-up and I ended up having to get her another iPod, because the iPod I bought her last year disappeared under what we will call “mysterious circumstances”. I did not know what to get and I had to consult with other people to figure out what a 13 year old girl would want. This situation is not exactly unique to this year, because I am fairly sure that I had to ask people what to get her last year as well. I ended up getting her a few things and she seemed pleased with my selections, so I guess I did the right thing for the most part.

Eddy is still the easiest one to get gifts for, because he still wants toys. He did ask for Dragonball Z toys, which are becoming almost impossible to find. I ended up finding a few figures that actually belong to a Japanese board game, but they have an extraordinary level of detail and he liked them, so I guess that worked. Lucky for me he also wanted Star Wars LEGO sets, because those are extremely easy to find. They are still making Dragonball Z video games as well and so I found one of those for him as well.

Grandma just wanted three things. She wanted to be able to get her hair cut and styled, so she got a gift certificate to Fantastic Sam’s. I am not sure Fantastic Sam’s is going to exist for much longer, because I think the Fantastic Sam’s that I got the gift card from is basically the last one in the area. Just thinking about it, because I have been getting my hair cut there ever since I remember. She wanted a way to organize her movies and so she got shelves. The third thing she wanted was ringtones for her phone, but honestly I do not know how to accomplish that task, so that will have to wait for another day.

I think ultimately it was a great idea to have all the kids together for Christmas. They really all should be together as a family for holidays and special events. I do not see any reason for them being apart. Family should be something that is very important to them. I know that not everyone in my family got the benefit of really appreciating having brothers and sisters around all the time and it is generally something that I feel is a real waste not being able to depend on family to be there for you.

I wasn’t going to post these pictures, because, well as you can see they are terrible. These pictures are all from Thanksgiving at my parents house in Maryland. They invited quite a few of us over for the event and I had brought my camera for such an event. Believe it or not, I was actually reminded that I brought my camera for this occasion. I retrieved the camera from my bag and these are the pictures that I got. I do not even know where my son is during this whole thing. I know that Amy is under the table looking for something or cleaning something up. I don’t think my family takes good pictures.

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I was cleaning the basement and I found a CD that was labeled “Pictures”. I threw it into the CDROM on my computer and I found a ton of pictures from years past. I could not think of a better use of those pictures than to go ahead and throw them up on the pictures page. The pictures page now has 2004 and 2005, which is long before I even started this blog. This is a list of the events that I added from oldest to newest with my own observations of where we were in our lives at that time.

This is an Easter where I had all three children in the old apartment. Easter is really my time of the year, and that is mostly because my Grandmother always insists on us all going to church. I get all the kids together, we dress up nice, and we go to church. You can tell as much from the pictures. Everyone gets a basket and while there are no pictures of it really everyone gets a little present as well as candy. I remember having to count all the candy so that each child would receive the exact same amount. In some of the pictures you can actually see them checking what is inside the others baskets, and you can bet that this is the exact reason. I do not know why they assume that someone would get more than them, but they always do.

This is two pictures of the kids from that Halloween. The amazing part is that I do not know what Eddy is supposed to be, but I remember him knowing. Patty is quite obviously a witch, but Eddy said that his costume, which is really a mix of two other costumes, is something. I just can not remember what he called that. The kids never want to hang around for long on Halloween, because they want to hurry up outside and get to the candy. This must be a fairly warm Halloween in Ohio, because I do not see either of them wearing a coat. There have been many a Halloween where it was very cold, even snowing.

This Christmas takes place at two different places, which is why the tree and the location changes half way through the pictures. The first half of the pictures are from the apartments my parents and my brother used to live at in Maryland. My parents have since moved to a house. The apartment was nice, but I do not think that anyone is going to miss it. Much like the second half of the pictures are from the apartment that I used to live in with the children. The most notable difference to me is the tree. I had such a terrible tree. My tree is still fake and terrible, but it does look a sight better than that one.

Even before I moved to Akron the kids and I would all go to downtown Akron for the fireworks. I never really prepared enough, which is to say, I never had chairs or blankets. We just kind of drove down, found a place to sit or stand, and watched the fireworks. I must have still been friends with Lee at this time. I have not seen him in forever and honestly do not know where he has gone off to. We used to hang out a lot when I lived at the apartment.

This was a particularly poor birthday. Birthdays were so hard back then. I had to save up the money just to buy the kids anything. I wish I would have taken more pictures, because honestly the only thing I know is that she got a doll and that radio. The doll was some sort of collection. I believe that she still has the doll somewhere and it is meant for being displayed on a shelf. I know she loved that radio. It was certainly something that she asked for. It played MP3’s if you burned them to a disc! I can not believe that used to be expensive technology only a few years ago. I do not know what happened to that radio, but something tells me it got broken.

Eddy has loved DragonBall Z or Sonic the Hedgehog for as long as I can remember. This birthday was no exception as he got action figures from both of those series. Today you could add Pokemon to that mix, but he has also been buying Sonic the Hedgehog comics. People who do not have kids often remark that it always seemed as though Eddy would receive more gifts than Patty. On his birthday, for Christmas, and so on. The fact is everyone knows that boys toys are cheap. Eddy wanted action figures and he got them. You can get a ton of action figures for what a radio or a nice doll costs. I think even Barbie’s tend to be almost double what I paid for any action figure.

My mother decided that what would make a great birthday gift for me is tickets to go see the circus in Cleveland. I had enough tickets to take my Grandmother, Michelle, Patty, and Eddy. It was a great time. We showed up early enough to watch a preshow with the clowns. I really do not like the camera I had back then, and so a great deal of the shots are really terrible. I am very thankful though that the shots of the kids turned out so great. It really is something to see them all in clown noses!