The Perschbachers

Pizza

2012-01-31T20:53:00.005-06:00

For the last couple of years we had taken Eric over to Incredible Pizza in St. Louis for his birthday. This year between his birthday party and busy schedule we just decided to go to Chuck E. Cheese closer to home.
Both Lucy and he ate pizza, went on the rides and played games. They had a great time and it was a nice way to wrap up his birthday celebration.
You can see all of the picture HERE.

Birthday Party Video

2012-01-30T07:49:00.002-06:00

If you would like a copy of this video please right click on the following link and choose Save As or Download Linked File (depending on which browser you use): Birthday Party video

Birthday Party

2012-01-29T20:33:00.006-06:00

Today was Eric's birthday! We started the day off by going to church followed by a birthday party with his friends. Our church, St. Matthew UMC, was nice enough to let us use one of the larger Sunday School rooms to host his party. So after church wrapped up we got busy getting the room ready. Then at 1pm his friends started to arrive.
The big event for the party was the Lil Tumblers Tumblebus. It's a school bus with the seats removed and inside are gym mats, a small trampoline, climbing wall and other activities. The Tumblebus comes to his preschool every Monday and is one of his favorite activities at school. So we rented the bus to come and entertain at this party. Included with the bus were a bag of party favors for every child. Everyone looked like they were having a really great time in the bus!
Afterwards everyone came inside for cake and snacks. Shannon had made all sort of food for the party. Since his birthday party theme was LEGOs she had made a LEGO cake with LEGO shaped candy. There were fruit kabobs, LEGO cheese & crackers, carrots and M&Ms that she had picked out to match LEGO colors.
Then it was time for Eric to open presents. Everyone was incredibly generous with their gifts. He received several new LEGO sets, books, clothes and toys.
Once all the guests left we then opened presents as a family. We opened presents with my family on Friday night, but Shannon's family gave their gifts to Eric. It was a really fantastic party. Lucy even received a gift or two and had fun although she had to catch a short nap while everyone was on the Tumblebus.

Again, I'd like to thank everyone who attended and/or helped out for making it a really special day for Eric!

Also, special thanks to my wife for putting an incredible amount of effort into putting the party together.

Photos from the day are available on Flickr HERE. If you had any children in attendance please feel free to download any copies of the photos you wish. I will be making a video of the party later and will make that available for download as well.

Auto Show

2012-01-28T15:37:00.002-06:00

Eric and I went to the Saint Louis Auto Show today. After breakfast we caught the MetroLink train at the Memorial Hospital stop and took it down to the Convention Center. This year it seemed like the auto show was scaled back from last year. We still had a good time, though, looking at the cars and Eric played in the bouncy house.

One new thing this year was a Jeep obstacle course. A driver would take people through the course in a Jeep Wrangler Unlimited. Eric thought it was pretty cool to drive over stuff in the Jeep.

Birthday Weekend

2012-01-27T20:02:00.005-06:00

This weekend Eric turns 5. To start off the weekend Shannon bought Eric some cupcakes to take to school. Half of them were decorated from "Cars 2" and the other half were "Sesame Street". Eric suggested they get half of each since as he put it, "Girls don't like Cars, Mom!".
Later that evening Granny, Pa and Aunt Lara came over for dinner, cake and presents. Lucy was more than willing to help him open up his presents.
Among his presents was a new LEGO table with a couple of chairs for both Lucy and him.
After dinner and opening presents Eric then blew out the candles on his cake with Lucy watching him intently.

Eric Year Five

2012-01-25T21:18:00.001-06:00

National Pie Day

2012-01-21T19:27:00.005-06:00

Today the Pie Pantry in downtown Belleville celebrated National Pie Day. While the official observance is on Monday the restaurant had all of their activities today. There was a pie contest, pie making for the kids and an all you can eat pie buffet. Shannon spent the morning making a fantastic Peaches & Cream pie to enter in the contest. She had won first pace a couple of years ago.
We then went to the Pie Pantry so Shannon could drop off her pie for the contest and we could have lunch. Afterwards the kids each made a pie. Shannon and I then had dessert at the pie buffet. Lucy became fussy so I took her home for a nap. Eric and Shannon then went to the library to get some books while waiting for the pies to be judged.
Unfortunately, Shannon didn't win this year, but it was still a really enjoyable afternoon. You can see all of the photos HERE.

Warm January

2012-01-16T17:21:00.002-06:00

This weekend we didn't do anything really out of the ordinary. For the three day weekend we mainly just stayed around the house cleaning and playing. It has been unusually warm most of the month. Today was another one of those days were it got above 60 degrees so the kids could get outside and play. I had made a small video of them playing that I shared on Facebook.

Birthday Party

2012-01-15T17:27:00.002-06:00

For the last couple of weeks Shannon has been hard at work planning Eric's upcoming birthday party. It will be his first official birthday party where he invites friends as opposed to just family coming over for cake. This weekend Shannon sent out the invitations. He's having a LEGO themed party as you can see below from the invites and a preview of the party favors. We had found a LEGO birthday party kit plus Shannon has been gathering together LEGO candy molds, food ideas, similarly themed cake and decorations.

The party itself will be hosted in a room at the church. For entertainment we're planning on having the Tumblebus come by. One of Eric's favorite activities at preschool is on Monday's when the Tumblebus visits. It's a school bus that has the seats removed and inside are gym mats, tumbling and climbing activities. You can see some sample photos from various Tumblebuses (Tumblebusi?) HERE.

No More Ties

2012-01-13T19:23:00.004-06:00

15 years ago to this month I took a job that required me to wear a suit and tie. I was (initially) the sole IT guy for a CPA firm in downtown St. Louis and had to adhere to their suit and tie dress code. After almost two years at that job I then went to work as the network/database administrator of a department store chain down the street. Since they were in the clothing business it was also suit and tie. After a few months at that job I then went to go work for my present employer. That, too, was suit and tie. Being more on the systems engineering side I ended up hanging out at the fringe of the dress code with just a white shirt, tie and slacks leaving the suit coat at home. I've been at that job now for close to 13 years.

For those 13 years my desk was at the corporate campus in Clayton, but as the company expanded they added additional locations that were more IT centered. One of those locations was a technology center in Weldon Spring, MO. While the corporate campus was suit and tie the Weldon facility was business casual.

Over the years I've gone from spending every day at the corporate campus to where I was recently working one day at home, one day at Weldon then the other three in Clayton. Today, though, I've officially moved out to the Weldon campus. My commute has gone from 20 miles to just over 41. Where it would take me about 35 minutes or so (depending on traffic and the weather) it now takes at least 55 minutes. If traffic or the weather don't co-operate then it can easily to turn into one hour and a half.

There's pros and cons to working at either facility, but one of the major pluses to being out at Weldon will be the casual attire. I'm also only required to spend 50% of the work week there with the other 50% working from home. Now for the first time in 15 years I'll no longer be required to wear a tie. While my newer work area is quite bland and misses some of the features of the corporate campus such as a cafeteria I think I'll enjoy not having to wear a piece of cloth around my neck. This coming weekend I'll be packing all my white shirts and ties into a box that hopefully will go somewhere under the bed never to be reopened.

Coffee

2012-01-09T20:59:00.004-06:00

This year for Christmas the big gift seemed to be a Keurig coffee maker. I bought my parents the Keurig Elite Brewing System and Shannon bought me the Keurig Mini Plus. What makes the Keurig a little different from other coffee makers is the K-Cups. These cups are single serving packages that contain a variety of coffees, teas, cocoas and cider. You pop in a cup and it brews a single cup. When it's done you toss the K-Cup away and there's no mess. There's also no waste of making an entire pot of coffee or tea and not drinking it all.

Normally, I'm a coffee snob. I enjoy buying Fair Trade coffee that's delivered on the backs of donkeys that is then eventually air roasted as opposed to machine roasted in bulk. I like to grind the beans myself when I want to make a fresh pot. Then I brew it with one of my French presses following a ridged set of steps to ensure I get the most out of my coffee. Unfortunately all of that takes time. When I'm in a rush or want a quick single serving I usually give up and either go with a Folger's bag or else a Starbucks VIA packet.

The Keurig makes it just as simple, it's faster with no mess and there's a wide variety of coffee. Almost every grocery store, Target, Walmart, etc. carry the cups. They come in brands like Starbucks, Folgers, Green Mountain, Gloria Jean's, etc. There's also a good variety so I can start off in the morning with a bold cup of coffee, the kids can enjoy hot cocoa and Shannon can have a decaf tea before bed. You can view all of the different coffees on their website.

My commute with work has gotten longer so being able to make a quick cup of coffee on my way out the door has been great. On the days where I work at home I still enjoy the French press. At other times where I want something quick or someone else in the house wants something other than coffee the Keurig has been a great addition to my pile of coffee appliances and accessories.

My other big source of coffee from the holidays is the Starbucks tumbler pictured below. Starbucks always has their 12 Days of Christmas sale where they offer some really good deals on coffee and accessories. The best deal they had this year was the tumbler for $19.99. Normally the tumbler sells for $10, but if you bought it on that particular day it came with free coffee for the entire month of January. So far I've enjoyed a free cup of coffee each day. If you figure a venti sized coffee is usually around $2.12 if I drink a cup of coffee a day that's $65.72 overall. While it's not the greatest looking cup it does a great job of keeping the coffee warm.

Lucy at Two

2012-01-08T20:16:00.003-06:00

The other night Shannon had the idea of making a video of Lucy being her every day self. With so many of the videos I make for the blog we go somewhere like the Zoo, Magic House, etc. and I use music in place of the audio. This video is just Lucy running around like she would be any night at home.

Blog Notifications

2012-01-07T19:56:00.002-06:00

As always I'm tweaking things with the blog. For awhile I had offered a way to subscribe via email to receive blog notifications. That feature if back. If you would like to subscribe there is a link on the right hand side of the page.

Of course there's still the RSS feed HERE and Shannon has the updates on her Facebook page HERE.

Yearly Eric Video

2012-01-04T17:20:00.003-06:00

It's that time of year again where I start working on putting together a video comprised of footage of Eric from the past year. As I start to work on the video I always like to go back and look at the previous years.

Eric Year One (2007) video:

Eric Year Two (2008) video:

Eric Year Three (2009) video:

Eric Year Four (2010) video:

And just for fun this was the video I made last year as a trailer for his birthday...

Shannon's New Blog

2012-01-02T15:18:00.001-06:00

Shannon has started a new blog separate from our family one to highlight crafts, cooking and sewing projects she's working on. A link to the first post is below.

Yes, It's Homemade: Birthday Countdown Chain: It's a new year. Christmas is over, but Eric's birthday is at the end of the month. Being 4 years old, he doesn't have a great understanding...

Blog Banner

2012-01-02T12:41:00.001-06:00

With the new year it's also time for a new banner for the top of the blog. The old one had pictures from our fun, Summer activities so I replaced it with one from the Fall and holidays.

New Year

2012-01-01T16:21:00.002-06:00

To ring in the new year Granny, Pa and Aunt Lara came over to our house for dinner last night. The kids played with their Christmas toys and watched some videos. It wasn't too long after 8 pm before my family left and everyone else went to bed. I was the only one to stay up to midnight, but then I'm usually up until then most nights anyway. We're now just spending the rest of the weekend getting the house back to normal after the holidays and passing a cold around.

We ended up the year with 182 blog posts and 92 videos. That's down from the past couple of years, but as the kids get older there are less "firsts". Also, some things like trips to the Zoo, Monkey Joe's, Magic House, etc. become a little repetitive to blog about each time. I did, though, keep up with my yearly goal of trying to blog on average every other day which would be 178 posts.

Anyway, Happy New Year! I'm sure 2012 will bring plenty of more blog posts and fun.

Christmas with Mike's Family

2011-12-26T14:49:00.001-06:00

Christmas with Shannon's Family

2011-12-26T13:58:00.001-06:00

Christmas Morning

2011-12-25T22:44:00.001-06:00

Portable North Pole

2011-12-23T21:29:00.003-06:00

For the last couple of years Shannon has used the website PortableNorthPole.tv to create a personal video message from Santa Claus to Eric. Tonight we sat down with Eric and showed him the one for this year. You can view the video HERE.

In a couple of hours NORAD will start tracking Santa as he begins delivering presents around the world. We sat and watched the NORAD video earlier so Eric was pretty happy to get a message from Santa tonight and see that he was on the "Nice" list.

We'll be tracking Santa all day tomorrow using NORAD's updates on Facebook and YouTube.

Gingerbread Train

2011-12-19T19:11:00.003-06:00

Tonight after dinner Eric and Mommy spent part of the evening putting together a gingerbread train kit. It's the second year in a row they've put one together. Mommy does most of the work while Eric supervises.

Zoo Lights

2011-12-18T21:29:00.002-06:00

This evening we took Eric and Lucy to the Wild Lights event at the St. Louis Zoo. We saw the penguins, did crafts, colored, ate dinner and walked the light path through the zoo. Lucy was especially impressed with the penguins this year. Also, in past years it's usually been frigidly cold when we've gone. Tonight it was in the low 50s/upper 40s so it was a really enjoyable evening.

Birthday Party for Jesus

2011-12-18T12:51:00.004-06:00

This morning during Sunday School the church had a birthday party for Jesus. All of the children's classes met downstairs for donuts, juice and milk. Eric sat in the front row with the other preschoolers and ate his weight in donuts.
Then the puppet group put on a musical.Lucy wearing one of her Christmas dresses waiting for church to start.

Dreaming of a White Castle

2011-12-17T10:51:00.005-06:00

Eric has now seen Santa a total of five times this holiday season. The first was at the Santa Hut in downtown Belleville, then at Shannon's company Christmas party, then he was at Moore's Restaurant and then he was at Eric's preschool Christmas concert. Today Santa was at White Castle having breakfast.
Eric had some French toast sticks with orange juice, received a coloring page and a fry box full of candy while talking with Santa. The most impressive part was probably Santa's chair made out of White Castle boxes.

Holiday Night Lights

2011-12-17T08:13:00.002-06:00

Friday night we took the kids to the Magic House. It was Free Family Night which is also crazy busy night since it doesn't cost anything to get in. They were also having their Holiday Night Lights event. The entire Magic House was decorated for Christmas. There was gingerbread cookies and either hot cocoa or hot cider for the kids.

Preschool Christmas Concert

2011-12-16T08:41:00.002-06:00

Last night Eric's preschool put on their Christmas concert at the church. Afterwards they had cookies in the fellowship hall and Santa Claus stopped by for a visit.

Christmas Pajamas

2011-12-10T20:24:00.003-06:00

Every year Shannon searches online and in the stores for matching Christmas pajamas for the kids. With their difference in size it's usually a challenge, but this year she did a great job finding some.
Also, as an addendum to my post about the train under the Christmas tree. For the past few years I've looked for a Christmas themed Thomas Trackmaster train. Unfortunately I've only been able to find them for the wooden sets. Tonight we were doing some shopping at Kohl's and I finally found a holiday Thomas train that goes with the Trackmaster set. Best of all it was 45% off. So this is the new train for under the tree.

Santa Says

2011-12-09T20:16:00.000-06:00

Santa at Moore's

2011-12-05T19:16:00.003-06:00

Another yearly Christmas tradition has been having dinner with Santa and Mrs. Claus at Moore's Restaurant. It's a greasy spoon restaurant in our neighborhood and every year Santa stops by. Unfortunately, tonight Lucy had a fever so I kept her home while Eric and Shannon went up there. They always have gifts for the kids and Eric was able to tell Santa what he wanted for Christmas. Seeing as this is the third time that Eric has seen Santa this season and two have those have been back to back days hopefully Santa is getting the message.

Children's Musical

2011-12-05T11:47:00.002-06:00

Last night at church the children's choirs put on a musical called "The Great Christmas Giveaway". The choir Eric is in sang during two numbers. Below I have clips of both songs. For the second one the preschool choir dressed up as the nativity scene. Eric was a shepherd holding a cardboard crook.

Brunch with Santa

2011-12-04T22:10:00.002-06:00

One of the best events in December is Brunch with Santa at the Four Seasons Hotel. It's the company Christmas party for the employee's children. Eric looks forward to going all year long and refers to it as "the party at Mommy's tower". There's crafts, buffet, cookie decorating, music, Santa, gifts, balloons, bouncy house, etc. Both Eric and Lucy have a really good time there.

Busy Sunday

2011-12-04T20:34:00.003-06:00

Today was probably the busiest Sunday we've had in a long time. The day started off with Eric singing before the 10:45 am worship service. The children's choirs performed a musical tonight, but this morning they sang one song as a preview.

We also were invited to light the advent candles at the 10:45 service. So as soon as Eric was done singing we grabbed him and went to light the candles.
After church we then raced home, changed clothes and went to Shannon's company Christmas party which will be a separate blog post later tonight. When the party was over we then went back home, Lucy laid down for a short nap and Eric had to get ready to go back to church. He needed to be there at 4 pm for musical rehearsal. At 6:30 pm we then went back to church to watch him perform. When the musical was over we swung through McDonalds for a snack and drove through the Way of Lights (our second trip this year) before heading home for bed.

Advent

2011-12-02T17:06:00.002-06:00

Last night we began observing the Advent season. While I realize it started last Sunday our book for the kids actually starts on December 1st which also matches up with Eric's advent calendars. We light the candle, read a devotional, Eric says a prayer and then he sings us a Christmas song. This year he's also doing the advent calendar below where he opens up a panel each day for a Bible verse.

In addition to this Eric has another advent calendar. A few months ago I saw that LEGO had advent calendars available for their different series. Eric is into the LEGO City series the most so I bought him that one and surprised him with it yesterday when he came home from school. The box folds out so that there is a winter scene to play on and the box has a calendar on it. Each day there are new LEGO figures or pieces that all go together to create a winter scene. Now each morning Eric runs downstairs excitedly to see what new pieces he'll have that day.

Santa's House

2011-11-27T08:41:00.008-06:00

Yesterday after going to the Great Train Expo both Shannon and Eric worked on his Christmas list. They cut out items for the toy catalogues that he wanted and then he decorated it with some Christmas drawings.
When they finished with that Shannon decided we should go to Santa's House sponsored by the Optimist Club at the Belleville Public Square downtown. It gets so crazy the closer it gets to Christmas with actives we usually try to do some of them early. This also changes up our habit of going to the Macy's in downtown St. Louis. After that store has been downsized to just three floors they decided not to have Santa this year.
Santa's House was really nice. They have cookies and hot chocolate for the kids after their photo. The photographer was good and the prices weren't outrageous like some of the malls. Santa was also very good with the kids. The only problem was that Lucy wanted to have nothing to do with him.
As soon as Lucy was handed to Santa she began to cry. Nothing we or the photographer did would make her stop. So we had one photo taken with both of the kids and then we had another made with Eric showing Santa his Christmas list.
After getting our photos taken we went outside to have cookies and hot chocolate. Lucy really perked up when she knew that there was a cookie for her. As she cheered up we decided to go back inside and try it again. When she saw Santa she started crying again and continued to cry as we went back outside. She let the workers know how upset she was by constantly babbling in baby/toddler speak. I have no idea what she was telling them, but it probably wasn't pleasant.

While Macy's was free, allowed you to bring your own camera and was sort of historic I have to say I was really happy with Santa's House in Belleville. The square and area businesses were all decorated. Both Eric and Lucy were also really interested in a horse drawn trolley that was giving tours of downtown. Plus the money goes to help the Optimist Club.

Christmas Tree Train

2011-11-26T20:21:00.002-06:00

After Eric and I got home from the Great Train Expo we started to work on getting the train underneath the Christmas tree setup. For the past couple of years I've just used a couple of Eric's Thomas the Tank Engine Trackmaster series trains and track. The tracks are just plastic with battery operated trains so it's easy to setup and repair after the kids rearrange the track.

Great Train Expo

2011-11-26T19:15:00.003-06:00

In what is becoming a Thanksgiving weekend tradition Eric and I spent the morning at the Great Train Expo at the Gateway Center in Collinsville, IL.

Santa Photos

2011-11-25T16:36:00.013-06:00

Last night my Dad gave me a box of older family photos to scan. Today I did a handful of them and started with some for the season. The following are of my Dad and Aunt Sharon getting their picture taken with Santa Claus. Most, if not all of them, were taken at the Famous Barr in downtown St. Louis (now Macy's).

1952: My Dad would have been one and a half when this one was taken.

1953: Here he would have been a few months older than what Lucy is now.

1955: My Dad would have been 4 (a few months younger than Eric now) and my Aunt Sharon was 20 months old. My Grandmother is holding her.

1956: The Bing Crosby look must have popular for children that year.

1957: My Aunt was 3 and Dad was 6.

1958: Famous Barr got one of those new fancy color cameras.

1959

1960

Thanksgiving

2011-11-25T10:15:00.006-06:00

Yesterday for Thanksgiving we started the day off watching the Macy's parade. The kids weren't really into it, but it was on in the background while they played. Eric and I worked on a small LEGO snowman ornament I had found at Toys 'R Us.
Then we headed over to Uncle August and Aunt Rachel's house. They were hosting Thanksgiving for Shannon's side of the family.
We then headed home so Lucy could get her nap in. Shannon and Eric made a couple of pies while Lucy and I slept. Then we headed over to my parent's house for dinner.
Shannon made the following pies: one was cranberry cherry, another pumpkin streusel and then her award winning apple pie with gruyere cheese crust.

Way of Lights

2011-11-22T21:32:00.003-06:00

Tonight we took the kids to the Way of Lights at the National Shrine of Our Lady of the Snows. They had just opened last Friday and we usually try to go early in the holiday season. The closer it is to Christmas the busier it gets and you end up having to wait in really long lines to get in.

As we got there we drove through the lights, fed the animals, did the camel ride and then ate in the restaurant. Afterwards the kids played in the children's area. Then we walked across the street from the visitor's center to the hotel to see the LEGO nativity they had in their lobby. Then we drove back through the lights on our way home.

MacBook

2011-11-21T21:39:00.003-06:00

Last week we had a new addition to our computer family. I had a Dell Mini 1018 netbook running Ubuntu Linux that I used for work. With some coming changes to my desk location in the next month I'll be a little more mobile. So I opted to sell the netbook and found a great deal on a used early-2008 white MacBook. The plastic MacBooks had been discontinued (except for educational buyers) and the used prices have dropped quite a bit.

This one has an Intel Core 2 Duo 2.4GHz processor, 4GB RAM and a 160GB hard drive. It's more than adequate for what I'll need for work plus it'll be nice to have the full range of Apple devices: iPhone 4S, iPad 2, MacBook and iMac. So any of my work with photos, video, music, etc. can pretty much flow from one device to another.

Busy Sunday Morning

2011-11-20T14:28:00.001-06:00

This morning Shannon had to play bells at the 8 a.m. service, then Eric sang at the 9:17 a.m. service and after that we taught Kids Church at the 10:45 a.m. service. Below is a video of Eric singing.

Christmas Trees

2011-11-19T21:18:00.003-06:00

After we got home from Barnes and Noble and having lunch at Panera Bread Company I started to rearrange the living took so we could put up the Christmas tree. Then Lucy took her nap while Eric helped me put up the tree. This year we he was pretty helpful with putting together the tree, getting the lights ready and then hanging the ornaments.
When we finished with the big tree we then tried to figure out what to do with the little tree for the kids. There's too many ornaments between all of the ones that Shannon and I have plus the growing number of ornaments for Eric and Lucy. So a couple of years ago I started putting some of their ornaments on a smaller tree in the playroom. This year, though, I couldn't come up with a good spot to put the little tree that would keep it away from Lucy's curious hands. So I decided to do something different for this year by putting it in Eric's room. This year he'll have his very own tree that he can enjoy as he falls asleep each night. It has his favorite ornaments on it and he can turn it on/off whenever he likes.
Lucy was really excited when she woke up from her nap to see the trees up and decorated. She ran circles around the big tree downstairs checking out all of the ornaments, pointing at the lights and exclaiming "Wow!!!" over and over again.

Pilgrim Party

2011-11-19T21:06:00.002-06:00

Shannon and I took the kids up to Barnes and Noble today for story time. It was their annual Pilgrim Party where they read Thanksgiving themed books and have a similarly themed craft that was their snack. The kids listened to the books that were read. Afterwards it was time to sing on the stage. Lucy got really into it and danced the entire time. Below you can find some video footage of her having a good time. When that was finished they made pilgrim hats out of cookies and peanut butter cups.

13th Anniversary

2011-11-14T21:53:00.002-06:00

Shannon and I celebrated our thirteenth wedding anniversary today. After we got home from work and school we exchanged gifts. Then we got the kids ready to go out. One of Shannon's co-workers had offered to watch the kids for us so we took them over to their house (thanks Melissa and Ed!).

Shannon and I then had dinner at the Tenderloin Room at the Chase Park Plaza Hotel. We both had an 8 oz. steak and shared Bananas Foster for dessert. Afterwards we picked up the kids and headed home.

At this point we sort of spread our anniversary out between our dating and wedding anniversary. Instead of doing a really big night it's nice just to have an evening out with the two of us. I'm really just as content just sharing her company and having a nice dinner instead of having some extravagant gesture.

Family Photos

2011-11-12T16:17:00.003-06:00

A while back Shannon had found a Groupon for a one hour sitting with a professional photographer. He didn't have a studio so we agreed to meet him in Tower Grove park. With the leaves falling it would be the ideal setting for some family photos. Shannon had us all dress appropriately in fall colors and we met the photographer last Friday.

Unfortunately, he sort of rushed through the photo session not giving us a full hour. Yesterday I got the DVD (with copyright) for the photos and disappointingly he put in zero effort. After spending some time in Aperture I found about 12 photos out of the 52 he gave us that were usable. Even then all of them needed to either be centered, aligned, color corrected, etc.
Below you can find the whole gallery or you can click HERE.

Preschool Thanksgiving

2011-11-10T22:16:00.002-06:00

Tonight Eric's preschool held their annual Thanksgiving dinner. The school provides the meat and potatoes with all of the parents bringing side dishes and desserts. This year Granny, Pa, Aunt Lara, Grandma and Grandpa joined us. Pictures are below.

20th Dating Anniversary

2011-11-09T22:07:00.003-06:00

Today marks the 20th anniversary of my first date with Shannon. She was 15 and a sophomore at Belleville West High School. I was 17 and a senior. Below is a picture taken at the 1991 Christmas dance and probably the first picture of us together.
On Monday we'll be celebrating our 13th wedding anniversary. It's really amazing looking back on all of the years through the good times, not so good times and all of the events that have led us to where we are now with both Eric and Lucy to share out love with. I thank God that he's given me such a wonderful wife and mother to our children. I'm really blessed to be able to spend my life with her.

Typically we've celebrated each year by going back to the Steak n' Shake in West Belleville where we had our first date. Unfortunately, Shannon has been sick the last couple of days so we'll make it there another night. It's been a tradition that we go back there for dinner each year. The last few years have been even more special now that the kids go with us.

Eric School Photos

2011-11-02T22:51:00.005-05:00

Eric had some new school photos taken a couple of weeks ago. We just got the prints today so I thought I'd share them.

4S Part 2

2011-11-02T20:23:00.003-05:00

Today I was finally able to get an iPhone 4S. Shannon got hers on launch day, but due to my contract I had to wait a couple of weeks. In the last post I went over all the features we were looking forward to. What I'm probably most excited about is that both of us are finally using the same phone since we had Motorola RAZR V3s a few years ago.

What this means for the blog, though, is that we finally have the same camera. When she had her 3GS and I had the 4 there was noticeable gap between the video and picture quality between the phones. What would happen is that she would be shooting video of Lucy in 480p 4:3 30fps and then I would be shooting video of Eric in 720p 16:9 30fps (HD). When I'd go to combine footage there'd be a noticeable drop when I'd use her shots. Now we both can shoot in 1080p 30fps and take pictures at the same quality. That should also give me some nice options when we both happen to be shooting footage of the same thing and I want to switch between camera angles.

Halloween

2011-10-31T20:53:00.002-05:00

Pumpkin Carving

2011-10-31T15:44:00.005-05:00

Since Eric was home sick I thought we could catch up on some Halloween activities we hadn't gotten around to. Our pumpkins were still sitting outside, but we hadn't carved them yet. He helped me clean out the pumpkins putting all the seeds and guts into a bowl.

Then he drew a design of a happy face that he wanted me to carve. He watched me carve the pumpkin offering advice of how he wanted the eyes, nose and mouth. When I went to carve my pumpkin he wanted me to do a train engine. We went back and forth trying to figure out something that would work and that I could actually carve. Eventually we settled on a design.

Then we took the pumpkins up to his room, put in some LED flickering lights and watched them.

Sick on Halloween

2011-10-31T11:14:00.003-05:00

Eric's preschool had a few events to celebrate Halloween today. They were to go wearing their costumes upstairs to the church where they'd have a parade with the church staff giving them candy. Afterwards they then were going to a nearby nursing home to trick or treat. When they got back then it was going to be time for their party. Unfortunately, it didn't turn out as planned.

I took the day off to go on these activities with Eric. When I got there his nose was running so I cleaned him up and got his costume on. Just as he got upstairs into the church he started to cry and I couldn't get him to stop. At that point I got him away from the other kids so I could see what was wrong. It was then I heard the all too familiar gurgle. He threw up twice. Fortunately my years of watching Science Fiction paid off and I was able to quickly strip his space suit off without getting any of the vomit on him.

Now we're home just watching TV and playing with Legos. He seems to be feeling much better other than a runny nose. Tonight we had planned to have a decorated car at the church's Trunk or Treat event. Instead we'll probably just walk around getting candy, visit a couple of neighbors quickly and then just take it easy.

Eric Sings

2011-10-30T13:07:00.001-05:00

Eric sang before the 10:45 am worship service this morning.

Boo at the Zoo

2011-10-29T21:44:00.002-05:00

Lucy's Birthday

2011-10-29T16:49:00.001-05:00

Not-So-Haunted-House

2011-10-24T07:15:00.002-05:00

This past Saturday the Magic House started their No-So-Haunted-House event. Activities were this past weekend and will also be next weekend. Eric's costume this year is Curious George in space. A lot of people also think he's just a space monkey which is alright. Lucy's costume isn't quite ready yet so she just wore his monkey costume from a couple of years ago.

Newspaper

2011-10-23T09:41:00.006-05:00

When you open your copy of the Belleville News Democrat this morning you'll see that Albert Pujols tied the record for most home runs in a World Series game with Reggie Jackson and Babe Ruth. If you look right above that you'll see a couple of pictures of Eric wearing past Halloween costumes. The newspaper did a story about Shannon sewing costumes for the kids every year.
Last weekend they sent out a reporter to interview Shannon about how she makes the costumes and get inspiration for coming up with them. The reporter took photos of Shannon and the kids in their costumes. A picture of Shannon and Eric in his Woody/Bullseye from "Toy Story" costume was on the front page of the BND Magazine insert.
For any family members that want a copy of the paper you can download a PDF file of the entire paper HERE.

Go Cards!

2011-10-16T18:29:00.001-05:00

Just in time for the playoffs Eric has learned a new song.

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Firehouse

2011-10-15T14:10:00.006-05:00

Eric has been on a fireman kick for a while. He has fireman boots, hat, axe, radio, etc. I've got a friend/co-worker Scott who used to be a fireman with the Signal Hill fire department and still is associated with them. He had offered at one point to give Eric a tour of the firehouse so we took him up on it.

We got a private tour of the firehouse as no one else was there at the time. Eric got to sit in a fire engine and looked at their gear, uniforms, radio room, sleeping area, kitchen, rest area, meeting room, offices, etc. Since we've left he's talked about it several times and says he wants to be a fireman when he grows up. Thanks again to Scott for the tour!

iPhone 4S

2011-10-14T20:24:00.003-05:00

Back when the iPhone 4 came out I gave Shannon my 3GS. My plan was to then eventually upgrade her when her contract came up in late February. When it came around I figured it was worth it to wait for whatever the next model would be after the 4. June, which is usually the month Apple announces new phones, came and went. So we waited and eventually they announced the 4S a couple of weeks ago.

She was immediately eligible for it, but since I got the 4 on it's first day I have to wait until mid-November to get mine. Hers arrived in the mail today with all of it's new features. I won't get into all the technical details other than the 4S has the guts of the iPad 2. The main feature I'm interested in is the camera. It has an 8MP camera with an improved optic sensor. For video it now shoots at 1080p and has image stabilization which should improve the quality of our videos. Also, since we'll eventually have the same model it means we both can take photos and videos and have them be of the same quality.

Here's a sample video I found online between the 4 and 4S video recording with image stabilization:

The other big feature of the iPhone 4S is Siri. Voice to text and voice command technology has been around for a long time, but Siri takes it a step further being more conversational. You can see the video below, but it's a complete Star Trek-esque feature.

Then there's iCloud...

And the obligatory Apple commercial....

Lucy Year Two

2011-10-11T19:39:00.002-05:00

My favorite two videos to make each year are the ones right before the kids' birthdays to show how much they've grown. Here is the video for Lucy's second birthday coming up in a couple of weeks.

Video:

All of the content for this video was gathered since last October. To make all these clips I used my Apple iMac, Apple iPhone 3GS, Apple iPhone 4, Apple iPad, Apple iPad 2, Apple Aperture, Apple Final Cut Pro X, Apple iTunes and Apple iLife including iPhoto, iMovie and Garageband. Thanks, Steve.

Shannon Portrait

2011-10-09T20:23:00.002-05:00

This weekend I was going though the garage looking for some photos and came across a couple of Shannon. The photos were starting to fade/discolor so I wanted to get them scanned sooner than later. These photos were taken in 1996 when Shannon was in college studying journalism and photography. She took the photos herself with a timer on the camera and developed them.

Parents' Wedding Album

2011-10-09T19:15:00.004-05:00

As you know I've been trying to scan every loose print I can find. Back in April we had the negatives from our wedding photos digitized. My parents decided they wanted to have their wedding album backed up as well. So tonight I scanned in the photos from the album.

I'm still working on getting the photos the way I want them. Printed photos have a lot of imperfections that aren't necessarily visible to the naked eye, but the scanner picks them up. The photos right now are just a first pass to get them digitized with a little cleanup. As some point I hope to go back and remove a few more of the "white" marks on the photos.
You can see the entire gallery of photos HERE.

Pumpkin Festival

2011-10-08T14:49:00.001-05:00

We went back to Braeutigam Orchards this weekend for the Pumpkin Festival.

Video:

Apple Picking

2011-10-02T17:19:00.003-05:00

This morning after church we grabbed lunch at Subway then headed over to Braeutigam Orchards for some apple picking. Eric had gone a couple of weeks ago with his preschool class, but we hadn't taken Lucy yet. We were a little late in the season so many of the trees were already picked clean. Most of what was left was high up in the trees. So I had to climb up a ladder and hand them down to Shannon so she could give them to the kids. As always the kids love playing at the farm. Next weekend is Braeutigam's Pumpkin Festival so we'll go back to get our pumpkins.

Video:

Disney Store

2011-10-01T16:40:00.007-05:00

At the Saint Louis Galleria the Disney Store was having a grand opening today. There used to be a store at the Galleria a couple of years ago, but the stores weren't directly owned by Disney then. Due to some financial problems the parent company went under and Disney repurchased all the stores. Disney was now relaunching some of their stores by an effort lead by Steve Jobs. So I was a little curious to see what changes they'd bring to the stores to maybe make them a little more successful like Apple's retail.

When we got there at 10 am there was already a line to get into the store. It winded around the top part of the mall with the line oddly enough ending at the Apple store. They were giving the first 500 people that showed up free reusable shopping bags and we all got one. While we waited to get in they had employes walking the line trying to keep everyone entertained. Eric received a couple of Disney magnets after answering a trivia question about the movie "Cars" and singing "You've Got a Friend In Me" from Toy Story.

Once inside the kids started running around looking at everything. Eric ended up with a "Cars 2" Lego set and Lucy got a small, stuffed Mickey Mouse.

Afterwards Eric and I went shopping at the Apple store while Lucy and Shannon went to look for clothes. We then met up at the St. Louis Bread Co. for lunch. Then we joined the line to see Mickey Mouse who was going to be available for pictures. He ended up running about 15 minutes late and then we still stood in line for maybe half an hour. Unfortunately after waiting that long just before we got our pictures taken they decided to give Mickey a break and replaced him with Goofy. Lucy also had enough of everything and decided to take a nap. So only Eric got his picture taken. Then we headed home for naps and put together Eric's Legos.

Sandwich Showdown

2011-09-28T17:40:00.004-05:00

The Saint Louis Bread Co. (Panera Bread) is having a contest this Fall to add a new sandwich to their menu for a limited time. Shannon entered the contest a couple of weeks ago with her sandwich called the St. Louie Salami Sammie. You can view her entry on the voting page located HERE. From there if you click on the sandwich it will give you the ingredients, recipe details and the story behind the sandwich. Please also vote for her sandwich from that page. Her entry was selected to be among the top 20 out of 700 sandwiches submitted which already entitles us to a free loaf of bread each month for a year. If she gets into the top five or wins then there are additional prizes.

Shannon was also featured Tuesday in the Belleville News Democrat in this ARTICLE. The article appeared in both the print and online versions of the paper.

Rescue Expo

2011-09-25T20:36:00.002-05:00

Yesterday at the Science Center they had a Rescue Expo sponsored by the St. Louis Fire Chiefs' Association. It sounded great with events for the kids including uniformed fire fighters, but it wasn't nearly as cool as they made it sound in their press release. There was one fire fighter there in his dress uniform, one cop and a couple of people from the Red Cross. Eric is all into fire fighters at the moment so I thought he would enjoy it. Unfortunately, most of the events for the kids he already knew like learning how to stop, drop and roll. There wasn't much for him to see as far as fire fighting goes.

The only couple things that made it worthwhile is that we got to play at the Science Center before the event which is always a good time. Also, the National Guard was there. We got our picture taken in a military Humvee (as seen in the video below) and he was able to try on a vest, helmet and gas mask. We had a good time, but I just wish there would have been more of a presence from some fire fighters there.

Video:

Employee Picnic

2011-09-25T19:15:00.003-05:00

Shannon's employee picnic was today at Tower Grove park. She took both of the kids while I stayed home to get some yard work done. They had balloon animals, bouncy houses, games, food, face painting, etc. Lucy came home with a really cool Elmo balloon animal and Eric had his face painted like a cat. They had a really good day!
You can view the rest of the photos HERE.

BCH Fall Festival

2011-09-18T10:04:00.002-05:00

Yesterday we took the kids to the Fall Festival fundraiser at the Baptist Children's Home where my parents work.

Video:

Balloon Glow

2011-09-16T21:25:00.007-05:00

Every year in Saint Louis is the Great Forest Park Balloon Race. They have dozens of hot air balloons that participate. The night before the race the balloonists setup their balloons in the park and inflate them. There's food, vendors, bouncy houses, pony rides, etc. and it usually turns out to be one of the most attended events in the city.

We've meant to go in previous years, but either Eric was too little, or we were sick, or we didn't want to mess with the massive crowds. Due to the size of the event you need to either park hours in advance or find alternate transportation. There aren't any shuttle buses and a few of the streets in the park are shut down. This year Eric was finally big enough, but Lucy stayed home with Shannon.

As soon as I got home from work and Eric got home from school we had a quick snack. Then we caught the MetroLink train at the Memorial Hospital station in Belleville riding it to the Central West End station at Barnes-Jewish Hospital. Eric always gets a big kick from riding the train. From there it was about a 15 minute hike across Kingshighway and into the park.

Once there the balloonists were just setting up. Again, there were thousands upon thousands of people there either camped out or walking around. Eric immediately spotted the bouncy houses. Unfortunately, they required tickets that were a little steep in price. So after standing in line for tickets we then stood in line for a bouncy house. Then after two minutes he went through two dollars in tickets. After a couple of times I finally convinced him we needed to actually go see the balloons.

By then most of the balloons had been inflated. As we walked around they occasionally would fire up their balloons to get them going. Every so often a fog horn would be blown and all of the balloons would light their fire at the same time so they would all be going simultaneously. It was quite an experience walking underneath these giant balloons with their fire going at dusk.

The Balloon Glow is also a big event for photographers. Unfortunately, between trying to navigate the crown with a 4 1/2 year old on my shoulders it was hard to take any decent photos. You can see the photos I did take HERE. Eric had a really good time. He was given a balloon from Walgreens and a light up ring by State Farm. His favorite balloon was probably a giant bag of popcorn sponsored by Wehrenberg Theatres followed by the Energizer Bunny.

After a while Eric finally had his fill of looking at the balloons. We made the trek back across the park to the MetroLink station and rode home.

Star of the Week

2011-09-16T21:06:00.002-05:00

This year Eric's preschool has started a new thing called "Star of the Week". Each week they pick one student to be the star. Actually, due to his class size they're actually the star for two weeks. They get their picture on a wall in their classroom and it lists their favorite things.

Eric's favorite things are...

Favorite TV Show: Thomas the Tank Engine

Favorite Food: Vegetables

Favorite Color: Orange

Favorite Toy: Cars

Favorite Holiday: Christmas

Favorite Animal: Kitty

He was really excited about it when Shannon picked him up from school today.

Grandparents Breakfast

2011-09-16T16:45:00.003-05:00

This morning Eric's preschool had a special breakfast for grandparents. Shannon's parents went taking Lucy with them and my parents were there as well. You can see all of the pictures HERE.

Apples

2011-09-15T19:43:00.002-05:00

Eric's preschool class went apple picking today. I took the day off of work to join him.

Video:

Portraits

2011-09-13T21:08:00.005-05:00

Here are some new photos of the kids we had taken for Grandparents Day. Unfortunately, they didn't come until today. So Grandparents expect your copies soon.

Slides and Stars

2011-09-06T21:06:00.003-05:00

Shannon had a dentist appointment tonight after work so I took the kids to the park. Lucy is pretty fearless at the playground (which is both good and bad). Tonight she went down the slide all by herself for the first time.

Video:

Then later in the evening Eric and I went out star gazing. We had recently watched an episode of Curious George where George is out in the country counting stars. So Eric was pretty curious himself about stars now. He wanted to see the upside down hat (Big Dipper).

In addition to this a somewhat rare event was happing just above the last two stars in the handle of the Big Dipper. In the Pinwheel galaxy (M101) a white dwarf star was going supernova. Astronomers detected it on August 24th and it'll probably reach it's brightest point on September 9th. It's a somewhat rare event with about 1000 supernovae detected in human history. The last one in the M101 galaxy was back in 1970 and the last one seen in our galaxy was in 1604.

So I took him out into the country near Millstadt so we could get away from some of the light pollution. I showed Eric the Big Dipper which made him pretty excited. Using the Star Walk app on my iPad we were able to find a few more items. Then I started looking for the supernova. We have a really nice pair of Leica binoculars, but even with those it's still hard to see things 21 million light years away. I was just able to make out the M101 with a bright spot which would have been the supernova. It was barely discernible, but I'm still glad we made it out to look at the stars.

Labor Day

2011-09-05T14:11:00.002-05:00

Video:

Photos

2011-09-04T20:49:00.004-05:00

A couple of years ago I started the task of digitizing our family VHS tapes (and 8mm that had been converted to VHS). One I completed that I then digitized all of my Dad and Grandfather's 35mm slides. Now that I've gone through those my next task is to start digitizing loose prints and newspaper articles.

A few weeks ago my Dad started to go through and organize these. I took a few samples home to scan so I could see how they turned out. Here's the first few that I've done. The first photo is from the Midway Islands in 1945. In the back row the man second from the left is my Uncle Wally. Then my Grandfather is the one third from the left.
This is one of my Grandmother the same year when she would have been 18.
You can see the few photos and one newspaper clipping on Flicker HERE.

As a note... when I had wrapped up scanning the 35mm slides I let the Flickr Pro account storing the photos expire. Since then I've renewed that account so that I can store these photos as well making them available to all family members.

Saturday

2011-08-27T21:36:00.005-05:00

So today we didn't do anything exceptionally out of the ordinary, but we still had a good day. With the nice weather we decided to take Eric and Lucy to the Museum of Transportation. I've made several videos of our trips there so I just took photos today. You can find them all HERE.
Afterwards we headed over to the Toys R Us in Sunset Hills and then had lunch at Lion's Choice. From there we then went to the Whittle Shortline Railroad store in Valley Park.
Then later that evening we did what is quickly becoming a Saturday night tradition. For the last few weeks Eric and I usually make homemade pizzas and then play some Lego video games on the iMac before bed.

Promotion Sunday

2011-08-21T15:12:00.003-05:00

Today was promotion Sunday at church where all of the kids move up to the next Sunday School class, nursery or children's church. Eric has another year before kindergarten so he's still in preschool kids' church. We taught his class today. A few kids moved up and we had a few new three year olds join us.

The big news, though, is that Lucy moved out of the baby/infant nursery into the "walkers" nursery (or Nursery II). She was a little reluctant when we dropped her off, but when I picked her up we was really excited. It seemed as if she had a great time in the new room.

MoBoGar

2011-08-14T18:18:00.003-05:00

Today we took the kids to the Missouri Botanical Gardens. They were having a corporate sponsor day so any employees of the companies that help sponsor the gardens get in for free. Fortunately, I work for one such company so we were able to get free admission to the gardens and the children's play area. It had been a couple of years since we last took Eric there. The children's play area was new and both he and Lucy enjoyed it.

Video:

Pictures

Six Flags

2011-08-11T21:47:00.002-05:00

Today we took Eric to Six Flags. Like we did last year both Shannon and I took the day off of work to spend with him. Lucy stayed home with Grandma Carla until the evening when my parents picked her up. She's still too little to really enjoy the park.

Eric on the other hand was finally tall enough to ride some of the adult rides. He went on the Mine Train roller coaster and the Highland Fling plus all of the other kiddie rides we usually go on. We even spent a couple of hours at the water park. While it was a nice, cool day it was a little too cold to play in the water for too long. After he had enough of the cold we went back and rode some more rides.

Video:

Cardinals Game

2011-08-10T22:41:00.001-05:00

Video:

Lion's Choice Commercial

2011-08-09T20:13:00.004-05:00

A couple of weeks ago Shannon saw on Lion's Choice Restaurant's Facebook page that they were having a contest. Whoever submitted a commercial to their page could win a variety of prizes. So based upon our success with the last video contest we entered Shannon wanted us to make a commercial. Below is the commercial we submitted. It's been almost a week since we posted it with no response. If we do hear anything back I'll put it on the blog, but I at least wanted to get the video up here since it involved the kids.

The premise of the ad is that the lion is given a hamburger from a popular fast food chain, but doesn't want it. Then the lion is given a taco from another restaurant chain and isn't interested. Then the lion is given a roast beef sandwich from Lion's Choice which makes her happy.

Video:

Big Swifty

2011-08-08T13:32:00.003-05:00

On Saturday night I had the chance to sit in with a couple of bands. My friend Casey's band from back in college, Big Swifty, was getting together to put together a reunion show. They needed another guitar for the night and I was willing to help. They had rented out a banquet room at Bel-Air Bowl (formerly Panorama Lanes). It was a great show with a big crowd of people.

There were three bands playing the night. I played for a couple songs with the first band, Captains of Imagery, and then played the full two sets with Big Swifty. The last time I played in front of an audience was probably back in August of 2004 when I was with Citizens Arrest and then YARN before that. It was great to get out and play another time.

Pictures on Flicker are HERE.

Blog Header

2011-08-07T13:39:00.002-05:00

With all of our adventures this summer I figured it was time to update the header for the blog. You can see the new image either above or below.

Peaches

2011-08-06T14:25:00.000-05:00

Video:

Wiggle Trip

2011-08-01T18:47:00.002-05:00

And here is the last video although they're a bit backwards. This is the first video of our trip up, lunch at the Choo-Choo restaurant and then the Wiggles show in Chicago.

Video:

Wiggles Wisconsin Dells

2011-08-01T14:59:00.001-05:00

I made a longer version of the Wisconsin Dells video from the Wiggles concert. This gives you more of the whole experience including the "meet and greet" as well as the concert itself.

Video:

Shannon Fifth Wiggle

2011-08-01T08:02:00.002-05:00

Here is the video from yesterday's Wiggles concert in the Wisconsin Dells where Shannon sang with them.

Video:

Wiggles Photos

2011-07-31T23:57:00.002-05:00

All of the photos from this weekend are now online. I divided them up into two galleries.

The first is just overall photos from our trip including the Wiggles show in Chicago.
Wiggles Trip

The second gallery is just the photos from the Wiggles show in the Wisconsin Dells where Shannon was the 5th Wiggle.
Wiggles Wisconsin Dells

Wiggles: Wisconsin Dells

2011-07-31T16:30:00.001-05:00

Yesterday after the show we drove up to our hotel just south of the Wisconsin Dells. Shannon had found us another great deal for a multi-room suite at a Comfort Suites. After we checked in and dropped our bags we headed up to the Dells to play at a water park.

We went to Kalahari Resort where they had a theme park, games, hotel, outdoor water park and an indoor water park. We only visited the indoor water park an ate dinner afterwards. Then we headed back to the hotel to get some sleep for our big day.

The next morning we packed up, ate breakfast and checked out. We were scheduled to be at the theatre at 11:15 a.m., but we wanted to arrive early. That worked out great. As we arrived one of the handlers for the Wiggles was at the ticket counter. She gave us our "meet and greet" passes and our tickets. The tickets were for the first row center stage.

She later came back to get as well as a few other families that were part of the meet and greet. They then ushered us into the auditorium where we waited just a few minutes. Then the Wiggles came out to get their pictures with everyone. They spent a few minutes talking with each family. Lucy had on her Wiggles dress and Eric was wearing his Captain Feathersword costume. Shannon had also sewn herself a fruit salad apron to wear on stage. They were genuinely impressed with the costumes and talked briefly about the contest.

We then took our seats down front. We were as close to the show as you could possibly be without being on stage. The show was great and we had a few more chances to interact with them during the show. When it came time for them to perform "Fruit Salad" Shannon was invited to go up on stage and join them. She did very well!

Now we're headed home with the kids asleep in the back while I blog on the iPad. When we get home I'll get the pictures and videos uploaded.

Wiggles: Chicago

2011-07-30T16:48:00.001-05:00

On Friday afternoon we packed up the car and hit the road to follow the Wiggles for two of their shows. We had originally purchased tickets to see them in Chicago, but then Shannon won the contest so we could meet them in the Wisconsin Dells.

Friday afternoon and evening we spent driving up to Chicago. The kids did well on the road as they usually do with only a couple of stops to stretch their legs. We then checked into the hotel. Shannon had found an awesome deal online for a multi-room suite at a Westin just west of O'Hare. While it wasn't the same experience as staying at a Four Seasons the large space was great so Eric and Lucy could burn off some energy before bed running around.

The next morning we ordered room service, watched some Netflix and packed up. We then headed over to the Choo-Choo Restaurant in Des Plains. This was our third trip there. It's a small diner where a train delivers your food and it was the inspiration for the McDonald's franchise. Both kids loved watching the train go around the counter.

From there we then drove to the Rosemont Theatre to see the Wiggles' show. Lucy wore her Wiggles dress with their colors of red, yellow, blue and purple. Eric wore a Captain Feathersword costume that Shannon had sewed for him. The shows was great! We got to see the winner of the 5th Wiggle contest for Chicago perform so Shannon now knows what she is in for.

Now we're headed up to the Wisconsin Dells for tomorrow's show. We'll get to meet the Wiggles before the show and then Shannon will be on stage singing "Fruit Salad" with them. I'm currently making this blog post on my iPad using my iPhone as a WiFi hotspot. Both of the kids are asleep in the backseat.

Location:County Hwy N,Stoughton,United States

Meet the Wiggles

2011-07-25T19:11:00.003-05:00

Thanks to everyone who voted! We won the contest for the Wisconsin Dells. This weekend we'll be going to see the Wiggles as we had planned in Chicago, but then we'll be traveling to their show the next day at the Dells. Winning means we'll get four tickets to that show, Shannon will get to go up on stage to sing "Fruit Salad" with them and before all of that we'll get to meet the Wiggles. Being able to see them in person and having the kids talk to them is probably the part we're the most excited about. Again, I'd like to thank everyone who took time to vote.

Video:

As I stated in the blog post about the contest I wanted to quickly describe how we put the video together. When Shannon proposed that we enter the contest and described what she wanted to do I knew iMovie wouldn't be the best tool. So I bought Final Cut Pro X which had only been out for a few days and this was my first project.

First we recorded the audio. The Wiggles provided an instrumental track of the song. I copied that track into Garageband and then laid down another track of Shannon singing over the top of it. After a couple of takes I then exported the best cut of it out as an .aif file which I then copied into Final Cut.

The video was all shot on my iPhone 4. The first location was Stookey Park where I did the wide and close up shots. For each shot we did maybe three takes. Then we went to Uncle August (Shannon's brother) and Aunt Rachel's house to use their kitchen. It's bigger, nicer and cleaner than ours. I then recorded Shannon singing as she put together the fruit salad with a few takes. The shot of them eating was in our dining room and the shot of Shannon talking at the end was outside next to our neighbor's house.

So Shannon could sing against something I took the song we recorded in Garageband and put it on her iPhone. As I recorded video on my iPhone 4 I would play the song on her iPhone 3GS. That way her singing would synch up to the recorded track. It also made it easy to synch the video to the audio track as I edited the video.

After we had the audio and all of the video clips I then imported it all into Final Cut. I took the best take of each video clip, edited them down and tied them to the audio so they would be synched. Afterwards I added a lower third to the intro as well as a couple of transitions. Overall I'm really happy with the way it turned out. We tried to give the video the same vibe as some of the early Wiggles videos.

35mm Slides

2011-07-20T23:29:00.003-05:00

It was about this time last year that I began going through all of my Dad and Grandfather's slide carousels so that they could be digitized. Tonight I finally finished the project. I've scanned close to 2,000 slides, tweaked them as needed and organized them. All of them have been uploaded to a separate Flickr account called perschbacherfamily.

When I originally set up this Flickr account I signed up for Pro access so that I could store everything. As of August 8th my Pro membership will expire. Since this was originally intended to just be a temporary place for everyone to access the photos I will not be renewing. Then sometime after August 8th I'll be taking the photos offline. For a couple immediate family members I'll be getting you USB memory sticks with all of the photos. Those should go out in the mail tomorrow so you'll receive them early next week. If anyone else needs access to any photos after the 8th please let me know.

In the meantime please feel free to download any photos on that account. If you need instructions please refer to this blog post.

Saturday

2011-07-17T23:01:00.005-05:00

Yesterday we went to Braeutigam Orchards for some peach picking. Unfortunately, due to the wet spring they weren't quite ready yet. So while the kids played Shannon picked some blueberries and blackberries. We'll be going back in a week or two when their peaches are ready.
Afterwards we stopped by Eckert's on the way home to do some shopping. Then we went home for lunch and a nap before going to the theatre to see "Winnie the Pooh". Lucy has been to the theatre a couple of times before. She went once when we took Eric to see a movie, but then she was small enough she just slept in her pumpkin seat. Then last summer we went to the drive-in to see "Toy Story 3" and she fell asleep that time as well. Now she was old enough to actually watch the movie. She sat still through the entire movie and seemed to enjoy it.
You can see all of the pictures HERE.

Shannon on TV

2011-07-15T17:18:00.002-05:00

Today on Show Me St. Louis on KSDK Channel 5 they did a segment on the Four Seasons Hotel where Shannon works. Shannon appeared a few times during the segment so I thought I'd upload and share it to the blog.

Video:

Fireman's Picnic

2011-07-09T21:20:00.003-05:00

Shannon and Eric went to the Fireman's Picnic in Lebanon, IL tonight. There was a parade, food, games and rides. They must have had a really good time as Eric came home with a big bag of candy plus several prizes he had won. Lucy has been sick with pink eye so she and I stayed home tonight. You can see all of the pictures Shannon took HERE.

Cow Appreciation Day

2011-07-08T21:04:00.005-05:00

Every year Chick-Fil-A celebrates Cow Appreciation Day. Anyone who wears a full cow costume receives a free meal and if you wear a partial cow costume you get a free entree. This was at least the fourth year we've gone. There was 2007, 2009, 2010 and then today.
Lucy and I both dressed up this year so we both got free meals. Out of the years we've gone this year there were probably more people wearing cow themed outfits than in previous years.