Tuesday, July 9, 2013

Family Surfing Night #9

It's Family Surfing Night!



click }here{ if you're not familiar with this kind of Quality Family Time.  
Because if you're not familiar ... 


That's right ... Quality.  
With a capital "Q".

This week we start off with a music video entry from Ben.
It's ... strange.  
It's so strange you can't look away.
And by the time you realize you can't look away, you also realize the song is quite catchy.


During this video, we had a surprise guest appearance by our friend Emily via pop up chat.
Hi Emily!

:o)


We're on a musical roll tonight.  
From Aaron:  very cool animation and a good tune by Gotye.
On a side note, do you know how to say "Gotye"?
It's pronounced GOtee-yay.
Doesn't that feel so much more hip than saying GOT-ye? or GO-tye? 
GOtee-yay.
It's how all the cool people say it.
See?  
Another benefit of Family Surfing Night.
Social Awareness! 


From Abbie:   Unequal pay between monkeys.  
It's a real problem.  
You'll see.   


From LtDan:  LtDan is a wizard when it comes to making fried rice.  
He can make delicious fried rice out of anything. 
We can all appreciate the skill demonstrated by the Master of Fried Rice in this video.
But at our house, we could call no one but LtDan the Master of Fried Rice.  
We've had too many fabulous Fried Rice dinners to say anything else. 
An impressive video, nonetheless.


And from Me:  a fond remembrance of Saturday Night Live circa 1984.  
Sadly, it's not the entire video, because the entire video is nowhere to be found on the internet.  
Nowhere.
This makes me very sad.
Anyway, only LtDan and I knew how truly funny this entry was.


Nathan, for some goofy reason, had no video to share.  
I think it may be because he has seen every funny thing on the internet and cannot choose. 
He is aware this is unacceptable. 

And tonight's Family Surfing Night winner is:

Ben's strange-can't-look-away entry by Steam Powered Giraffe!
You know you want to see it again!


Congrats to Ben, your name goes on the trophy!


Thursday, July 4, 2013

Summer ... 13th Birthdays ... Independence Day!

I tried to convince myself that I could just hang with the spring decor 
until autumn, but I just couldn't do it.  

I put spring back into the boxes.



And out comes the best of summer!




We mark a big milestone this July ...
our baby turns 13 ...
and all our kids are teenagers ...

YOWZA.

Our little guy ...


the one we called The Boppy, because he was always happy ...


the one who gave the best hugs and snuggles ever ...


Is now a teenager.










Happy Birthday, Aaron!



We celebrated July 4th early in conjunction with Aaron's birthday ...
LtDan put the barbeque porch to good use and grilled some fantastic ribs.



And we had our own fireworks show.
LtDan love loves loves his pyrotechnics.
I do, too.  I had no camera when the grand finale went off ...
but standing in the front yard looking up was like being inside the fireworks ...

it was awesome!




(thanks to my sister in law Paula for the spectacular sparkler pics!)

The teenagers watched the fireworks from the barn balcony. 


Celebrating America, and grateful to and proud of our men and women in military service.


From our house to yours ...


Happy 4th of July!