February Highlights:
- Lilah and I attend the father/daughter dance for the third consecutive year
- Lilah makes purses, wallets, flowers and other assorted items out of duck tape, then sells her wares with her friends for charity
- Spike gets a play date with Daisy, our next door neighbor’s dog
- Luke and I go to Adventure Guides winter camp – not much snow, but we found just enough to do a little sledding
- Luke starts spring baseball
Father/Daughter Dance 2012
Lilah picked out a purple dress for the father/daughter dance and I wore a tie to match her outfit. This year, the event was held in a much nicer venue with real dining rooms tables and chairs, a dedicated parquet dance floor and much nicer acoustics then the old community center where the dance has been held in the past. The food included some fettuccine alfredo pasta, veggies, baked chicken and deserts. Lilah and I danced to plenty of songs. She is still not much into slow dancing — lets hope she continues in that direction — but had a blast dancing to the classics (YMCA, electric slide, macarena, hokie-pokie, etc.) as well as more current grooves such as “I’m Sexy and I Know It,” “Born This Way,” “Good Feeling,” and “Rolling in the Deep.” We also posed for portraits, adding to my collection of images that show Lilah’s transition from little girl to young adult. It really does happen fast, but I’m glad to see that so far she is maturing into a smart, thoughtful, caring and entrepreneurial young lady.
Lilah Makes Arts & Crafts Using Multi-colored Duck Tape
Lilah’s latest venture is creating purses, wallets, flowers, and other assorted items out of multi-colored duck tape. Just give her a few rolls of duck tape, a pair of scissors and some straws and she will sit in a room for hours cutting strips of duck tape twisting them into floral shapes and attaching them to stems made from straws. When she sits, she definitely has a plan in mind of what she wants to make and the only thing that makes her stop is when her fingertips start cracking from the constant exposure to the sticky adhesive from the duck tape (one of the hazards of the trade 😉 ).
In February, she organized her friends to sell their wares door to door and at the park. The goal of the sales was to raise money for animal shelters and also give themselves a little pocket money to buy some things they might like at the mall. It was cool to watch them organize the sale and also create signs to post at the park. For their efforts, they ended up making $38. Not bad for something that was not sponsored by the school, just something that came from the heart.
Luke and I Attend Winter Camp
Winter camp is typically a snow-filled affair in Frazier Park. The boys from our adventure guides troop look forward to going every year and sledding down the courses the dads make with their shovels and axes. We did not have much luck with the snow this year. Our camp was basically devoid of snow except for a few scattered patches in some shady areas — definitely not enough snow to sled. On the second day of camp, we hooked up with two other dads and their kids to go on a hike in even higher elevation. That turned out to be a great move because we discovered just enough snow for the kids to sled on for a couple of hours. Luke was quite happy about the development and had an awesome time sliding down the icy snow with his pals.
In addition to sledding, the kids also got to watch a rescue helicopter land and talk to the pilot. It was also a chance for them to discover “secret places” in the mountains, play tag, and hang out in their own groups away from the adults. In the evening there were movies to watch — Mr Popper’s Penguins (night one), Puss in Boots (night two) — and on the last night each adventure guide group performed a skit on a stage in the main lodge (Luke’s skit was called “What’s in the Box” — here is a short clip).
Our Property is on Track – Escrow Should be Complete on March 16
Things continue to move forward on our four-plex. At this pace it looks like we’re on track to compete escrow by the 16. We have all the repairs scheduled to start as soon as we close escrow and our property manager has already secured us a tenant for one of the units. Only three more to go.
That’s all for now…more next month.