Top 5 reasons to shower after your children

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    You hate warm water.
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  3. You love standing sliding on a surface coated in various kiddie soaps.
  4.  


  5. The dog had dry skin, so while you were in the shower the kids helped him out.
  6.  


  7. Nutrition choices are made while you clean the dog off, lots of energy for school today!
  8.  

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    Your children have better fashion sense than you, so it’s best they dress and accessorize themselves.

 

Have I missed one (or several)? Drop a comment or a @reply on twitter and I’ll do a follow-up with input from everyone.
 

TCM: Costumes Exhibit

We’re back at The Indianapolis Children’s Museum again! The focus of this trip was on their new “Incredible Costumes” exhibit. Since our family are such fans of Movies and TV (and Halloween, heh), it was a natural attraction for us.

 

We were immediately greeted by their newest addition to the entrance area, Bumblebee from the Transformers movies:
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We started the day where we start all our TCM visits… ScienceWorks (it’s a boy thing). Sam found the Chimpmunk vest (chipmunk stripe not visible in the below photo, but it’s there I assure you) and gave it a test with his best “chipmunk face”.
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The usual second stop is the carousel.. today was no exception, especially given both boys had friends with them. Sam had his friends Carson and Addison(not pictured)…

while our Carson had his buddies Logan and Nathan.

 
Here’s a good one of the older boys goofin on the steps:
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Why were we here again? Oh yea! The “Incredible Costumes” exhibit!!! The children’s play area in here was pretty cool; it provided a costume area complete with dressing room mirrors, a stage area with interchangeable backgrounds and reversible props, and a director/audience area. Here’s Logan and Carson apparently filming a horror flick.

Later in the costume area practicing an action scene.

 

There was also an area on the other side of the exhibit that had videos playing but I didn’t get to check it out. The rest of the space had cases with all kinds of cool costumes in them… here are a couple.

 

We rounded out our visit with a stop in Dinosphere and All Aboard (Trains)…
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As our friends were preparing to leave, Sam and I found the Princess & the Frog set outside the theater. Sam gave equal time to both roles.
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Another fun day spent exploring and learning… Thanks Children’s Museum! To browse my full gallery from our trip click away below!
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Commenting feature here

I’ve converted from WordPress commenting to Facebook commenting on my blog. This does two things; 1. Spammer control 2. People won’t have to register to share comments with me. Let me know if you have any issues commenting, I want to make sure I’m getting your messages.

I look forward to having conversations with all of you!

E

IMS: Hall of Fame Museum & Track Tour

With Papa in town for the kid’s Spring Break, I decided to take Friday off to take them all somewhere fun… we decided on the Indianapolis Motor Speedway Hall of Fame Museum.  They had recent changed over the cars on the display to show only those that have won the Indy 500 (on their main showroom floor).   Everyone really enjoyed looking at all the cars, new and old.  We were treated to a Track Tour as well, which I had never done.  It was pretty cool and by the time we finished our tour the guy over the speaker said, “We would have just been lapped by an IndyCar for the 15th or 16th time”… Whoa!

Here are some of my favorite pics… full gallery link available at the bottom.

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Found humor: Explanation of Warren G’s “Regulate”

This was apparently entered on on Wikipedia’s site on the song itself but was recently removed. I found a copy of it at this site: http://brandonblattner.com/2010/08/03/wikipedias-explanation-of-warren-gs-regulate/

On a cool, clear night (typical to Southern California) Warren G travels through his neighborhood, searching for women with whom he might initiate sexual intercourse. He has chosen to engage in this pursuit alone.
Nate Dogg, having just arrived in Long Beach, seeks Warren. On his way to find Warren, Nate passes a car full of women who are excited to see him. Regardless, he insists to the women that there is no cause for excitement.
Warren makes a left turn at 21st Street and Lewis Ave, in the East Hill/Salt Lake neighborhood[6], where he sees a group of young men enjoying a game of dice together. He parks his car and greets them. He is excited to find people to play with, but to his chagrin, he discovers they intend to relieve him of his material possessions. Once the hopeful robbers reveal their firearms, Warren realizes he is in a less than favorable predicament.
Meanwhile, Nate passes the women, as they are low on his list of priorities. His primary concern is locating Warren. After curtly casting away the strumpets (whose interest in Nate was such that they crashed their automobile), he serendipitously stumbles upon his friend, Warren G, being held up by the young miscreants.
Warren, unaware that Nate is surreptitiously observing the scene unfold, is in disbelief that he’s being robbed. The perpetrators have taken jewelry and a name brand designer watch from Warren, who is so incredulous that he asks what else the robbers intend to steal. This is most likely a rhetorical question.
Observing these unfortunate proceedings, Nate realizes that he may have to use his firearm to deliver his friend from harm.
The tension crescendos as the robbers point their guns to Warren’s head. Warren senses the gravity of his situation. He cannot believe the events unfolding could happen in his own neighborhood. As he imagines himself in a fantastical escape, he catches a glimpse of his friend, Nate.
Nate has seventeen cartridges to expend (sixteen residing in the pistol’s magazine, with a solitary round placed in the chamber and ready to be fired) on the group of robbers, and he uses many of them. Afterward, he generously shares the credit for neutralizing the situation with Warren, though it is clear that Nate did all of the difficult work. Putting congratulations aside, Nate quickly reminds himself that he has committed multiple homicides to save Warren before letting his friend know that there are females nearby if he wishes to fornicate with them.
Warren recalls that it was the promise of copulation that coaxed him away from his previous activities, and is thankful that Nate knows a way to satisfy these urges.
Nate quickly finds the women who earlier crashed their car on Nate’s account. He remarks to one that he is fond of her physical appeal. The woman, impressed by Nate’s singing ability, asks that he and Warren allow her and her friends to share transportation. Soon, both friends are driving with automobiles full of women to the East Side Motel, presumably to consummate their flirtation in an orgy.
The third verse is more expository, with Warren and Nate explaining their G Funk musical style. Nate displays his bravado by claiming that individuals with equivalent knowledge could not even attempt to approach his level of lyrical mastery. There follows a brief discussion of the genre’s musicological features, with special care taken to point out that in said milieu the rhythm is not in fact the rhythm, as one might assume, but actually the bass. Similarly the bass serves a purpose closer to that which the treble would in more traditional musical forms. Nate goes on to note that if any third party smokes as he does, they would find themselves in a state of intoxication daily (from Nate’s other works, it can be inferred that the substance referenced is marijuana). Nate concludes his delineation of the night by issuing a vague threat to “busters,” suggesting that he and Warren will further “regulate” any potential incidents in the future (presumably by engaging their enemies with small arms fire).

RIP Nate Dogg

Brickworld: Indy – Attack of the Legos

This past weekend we made it out to the Indianapolis Convention Center for Brickworld: Indy… it was 18,000 sqft of Lego displays/vendors/activities. Our good friends the Rose’s invited us to join them, the mom’s both opted out of the event. So it was two dads and four boys off for a day of Lego Mania.

Much of the signage was either made with Legos or had a Lego creation next to them… this extended to name tags on staff (I wish I had gotten a good pic of the name tags).
Taken with SmugShot on Eric's iPhone

In the first area as we arrived was an area where different building activities were going on. There was mural building, a miniature golf hole, little kid legos on the floor, and where our group rushed, the enormous table of gray bricks. Kids (and adults) were challenged to build anything they wanted with the simplest of Legos.
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In the next (much larger) area were the displays… grand scale creations, with amazing attention to details.
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The Lucas Oil Stadium display had motorized sliding window and doors…


My favorite “scene” was this siege on a castle…

This is the one image that truly summed up the whole experience for the kids.

We had an awesome time and at the end we toured some of the vendor tables that lined the outer wall of the display area and proceeded to spend way more money than we planned… so many little custom items to make your Lego creations come alive for you. This is on our watch-list to make sure we get back to again next year.

Full Gallery
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My First foursquare Year!

One year ago today I earned my Newbie Badge in Foursquare. It’s been an interesting year all around and I’m glad I have been using Foursquare so I can look back and say “Alright, I did get off my butt and do SOMETHING!”

I want to thank AboutFoursquare for making an awesome infographic that inspired me to think about making one of my own. They were even awesome enough to break down how they did it. Mine is a little rougher around the edges but I’m pretty pleased with the result.

I was happy to see three of my favorite local businesses that I mention on Twitter show up in my most frequented list. Scotty’s Brewhouse, The Children’s Museum of Indianapolis, and West Coast Tacos are great venues (one of them is on wheels!) to frequent. I’ll have to get that ‘other’ venue replaced this next year with something local.

Thanks to everyone that has been a part of my life these last 365 days!!

Image in my gallery at different sizes