Westminster Palace

William finished his latest paper architecture project today, Westminster Palace, complete with Big Ben and all. William loves doing stuff like this. When he gets home from school he runs down to the basement and sits at his little stretch of bench space that I have given him and will work for hours on end cutting paper. He started this one on the day after Christmas. We didn't keep track of the total hours he spent on it but it was a lot, especially for a 12 year old. 

He goes through zillions of x-acto knife blades. So much so that it is more economical if I sharpen the them with a wet stone than to buy new ones. He is pretty particular about the blades however. If I don't get the points sharpen just right he will send them back to me. I have to do the sharpening under my microscope to make sure I get the tips of the blades just right. Other than sharpening the blades, I do nothing on these projects. William prints the plans, cuts out the pecies and then figures out how it all fits together. The projects are fairly complecated but he does the entire thing on his own. 

Its nice having him down in the basement (aka the ManCave) with me. Most evenings he will be working on his paper stuff while I work on my paintings. He has decided to give this one to Lucky Aunt Teri. If anyone else want one of his works just ask nicely and he may grant your wish. See more photos of Westninster Palace here. 

Kid Cookery

For some reason, all of the kids have taken an interest in doing more of the cooking around here. Emily and William take basic cooking classes in school. When I say basic, I mean basic. Emily said that one day the made Top Ramen. Yum!

I asked Emily if they have covered taking care of their mise en place and she said that they were no where close to such concepts. Humm...what is a dad, who is a longtime student of French cooking, to do? Looks like it is time for some home schooling. 

One dish that the kids like, looks fancy, and if pretty easy is pull off is fish in papillote. This is simply cooking fish in a parchment paper envelope. the basic principle to keep in mind here is that things need to cook quickly in a hot oven (425 degrees), so the veggies need to be cut small and and the same size. The only other tricky part of the disk is cutting the heart shaped paper big enough and in the right shape, to hold your dish. Emily did a great job and got an A+ in her home school cooking class. She even let me take a few pictures of her at work. 

Paddy got the job of putting cookie dough on the cookie sheet. He did this well and didn't eat too much of the uncooked cookies. The only problem was that we couldn't account for all the cooked cookies once he was done. Humm?

William hasn't done much cooking in the past couple of weeks because he has been busy working on another major paper house project. Last year he completed a model of the Westminster Abby. This year, he wanted to make Grandma Linda and Grandpa Gene a model of the White House for their Christmas pressent. After many, many hours of painstaking X-acto knife cutting of tiny windows, he completed it and it looks great. See photos of both of these project here. 

Happy Holidays!

Russell, Mary, Emily, William and Paddy

William’s 12th Birthday!

Twelve years ago today William came into the world in dramatic fashion. As many of you probably know, he was a wee bit early because a complication with Mary’s pregnancy (plecenta previa). His first couple of weeks were rough but he pulled through and is doing just great today, howerver he is still one of the smallest kids in his class. Friday we had a small birthday celebration for him with pizza and cake. Check out photos of his birthday party and a few from the past twelve years here.

Happy Birthday William!

Le Toux on Le Blog

About a year ago The Philadelphia Union traded one of their star players, Sebastian Le Toux, to the Vancouver Whitecaps. They then held a going away party for him at Kildare’s Irish Pub in West Chester, just a few blocks from our house. Since it was walking distance, I went, had a beer, and met Seba. He spent half the season playing for Vancouver then got traded to the New York Red Bulls where he finished out the season. The last game of the year, we all got to see him play before his real home crowd at PPL Park.

When the season was over, we were all surprised the hear that he had been traded back to Philly! Again, they held his welcome home party at Kildare’s last night starting at 6:30. Which was very convenient for me, as the boys religious education classes are just a block down the street at St. Agnes. I dropped the boys off at church then, like a good Irish dad, I headed to the pub. Again, I got to shake his hand and get a photo with him. After which I headed back over to church and picked up the boys.

As you probably know from reading Le Blog, Paddy likes soccer and has gone to many games with me. I asked him when he got out of religious ed if he would like to meet a famous soccer player. “Sure! I’d love to!” He asked “When we could do that”  and I said “hummm…how about now?” He said “what? You can just do that?”

So, we walked the short walk back to he pub and went in. Any kids that came to the pub to meet Seba were ushered up to the front of the line and were given the royal treatment. Paddy, who happen to be wearing his Union hat, was over joyed. William on the other hand, could have cared less and asked if he could get something to eat.

Nonetheless, it was a big thrill for Paddy and a lesser thrill for William. Seab bent down and talked to Paddy. He asked if he liked soccer and if he could expect to see Paddy in the stands at PPL Park next season. Paddy skipped all the way home. Check out photos of the evening here along with a few other recent family photos as well. 

William's New Smile

Today was a big day. First off all three kids had an orthodontist appointments in succession this morning. The only one of the three who was really excited to be there was William, and it was all because his braces were coming off! Emily was there just to have hers tightened and Paddy was there to get sized up.

On the day that the braces come off, they give the kids a big back of candy that they were not allowed to have while they were wearing them. William got home from school and immediately ran over to the bag and started munching. A few minutes later he came over holding out his hand in it was a small white lump that looked like it was covered in blood.

“What’s that?” I asked. He points to his mouth and opens it. There’s blood everywhere. I said “Is that your tooth!” He nods his head yes. “William! We just went through all those braces and you break off your tooth with in the first 8 hours of having them off!” I look at it and think that it kind of looks like a molar baby tooth. I called the orthodontist and asked. They said “oh yeah, he still has his baby teeth back there. Woo. That was a relief!

William’s smile looks great. Paddy’s, however, is going to need some attention. He has a real issue as one of his front incisors is coming in behind his lower incisor. As I told Dr. Burkland, I’m not dentist, but that just doesn’t seem right. Dr. Burkland told me that I had great instincts for dentistry.

Check out other photos of our day in orthodontics here.

Russell

The Stroud Preserve, 14 October 2012

Today William and I decided to take an afternoon walk down at the Preserve. It was unseasonably warm above 70! Also a bit windy. We saw many caterpillars of many varies. William picked all of them up. See photos here. All in all it was pretty slow. No warblers around at all.

Stat time: 1:00
End time: 3:00
Temp: 70
Wind: moderate to strong from the southwest.
Skies: high clouds
Species Total: 34

Black Vulture – 1
Turkey Vulture – as usual, 20-30 over head with a few roosting on the power lines
Canada Goose – approx. 200 flew up from the Bobolink fields
Osprey – 1
Sharp-shinned Hawk – 6
Red-tailed Hawk – 4
Rock Dove – 10
Morning Dove – approx. 10
Red-bellied Woodpecker – approx. 5
Downy Woodpecker – 1
Northern Flicker – 1
Eastern Phoebe – 1, they seem to be thinning out
Blue Jay – approx. 50
American Crow – approx. 50
Tree Swallow – 200, these were the only bird that seemed to be on the move
Carolina Chickadee – approx. 5
Tufted Titmouse – approx. 5
White-breasted Nuthatch – 1
Carolina Wren – 1, heard only
Ruby-crowned Kinglet – 2
Eastern Bluebird – approx. 10
American Robin - approx. 100
Gray Catbird - approx. 1
European Starling – approx. 10
Cedar Waxwings – approx. 10
Eastern Towhee – 2
Song Sparrow – approx. 10
Swamp Sparrow – 1
White-throated Sparrow – 2
Northern Cardinal – 2
Red-winged Blackbird – approx. 10
House Finch – approx. 10
Purple Finch – approx. 10
American Goldfinch – approx. 15

A Week At The Beach

Last week we finally got our act together and went on a long over due family vacation! We dusted off all the camping gear and headed to the Delaware Seashore State Park. Our activities were completely predictable. Mary and the kids swam at the beach. Russell rode on his bike. The gnats bit hard. We went to the boardwalk at Rehobeth Beach. Ate ice cream. Swam on the beach some more. See photos here.