Daily Fishing Report

Yes, again with the fishing, better get used to it.  This time we have Margie and Junior catching their first fish:

That’s one proud little face, huh?

The Great Northern

Warning: this could quickly turn into a fishing blog.  Baba was beside himself this afternoon upon pulling this out of the lake:

I hope to post Bike For Life news within the next day or two, so stay tuned.

Finally Fishing

Baba’s been dreaming about fishing all winter. He did manage to get out for a couple of unsuccessful ice fishing ventures, but the “real deal” to him involves standing on the end of the dock casting and reeling. James and I gave him a fishing book for Christmas this year, and he must have that thing memorized by now, having devoured it cover-to-cover at least a dozen times. Several times a day I’m treated to a lesson on where, when and how to catch the biggest and most elusive fish.

With the advent of Wisconsin fishing opener over the weekend, Baba’s finally getting his chance. Last night James took the kids down to the dock for a couple hours of fishing. Baba remained behind after the others had left, throwing his line into the water well past dark. He was rewarded with a total of six fish, with representatives from the bass, walleye and crappie families. Even better, in my opinion, he learned to remove the fish from the hook himself!

View the album here.

Margie Turns 6

I missed the actual day because we were busy celebrating late into the night . . . but our princess turned six yesterday! Her big brother stayed up the night before making Happy Birthday signs and planning a special breakfast for her (Malt-O-Meal ). She wanted to decorate her own Dairy Queen cake, so good thing Papa and Mimi have connections.

Margie was especially excited to have Grandma and Grandpa K present at her birthday party. Thanks for driving over (and hope you found the new blog)!

View the entire album here.

A Study in Deserts

Yesterday during rest time, Margie came to me with a picture she had copied from one of her art books.  But rather than quitting there, she built on the idea with her own creative touch.  Here’s the first installment of her project (her original contribution):

She asked, “Mom, if the desert looked like this, how would you feel?  Happy or sad?”  I admitted such scenery would most likely have me feeling sad.  Then she pulled out the second picture (this is her copy from the art book):

“But wouldn’t this make you feel happy?” she asked.  Indeed, it does.

Baba on Ice

One of the stinky drawbacks of this new blog is that I can’t embed Picasa slideshows here (although I’ve heard there’s a way to work around that–haven’t figure it out yet).  For the time being, I’m just going to drop a couple of my favorite photos here and let you look here for the rest of them if you’re interested.

The ice on our small lake has broken into shards, making paddling much easier and also interesting.  James took the kids out in turns today–I would have been out myself except I injured my wrist pitching baseballs to Baba yesterday afternoon and decided to let it have a rest.  While he had Margie and Baba out I ran a few errands with Junior, and the youngster had a lady in the checkout at Farm & Fleet laughing because he insisted, “I want to go kayaking!” at the top of his lungs.  Uncle Johnny K. is gonna have a disciple, I think.

I like the determination on the face of the boy in this photo:

And you can’t beat this for timing.  Check out the flying ducks in the upper left:

He Pedals

This video isn’t the best evidence of the new accomplishment* (the Rule of Parenting Videography says, “You’ll never catch it on video”) . . . but here’s what Junior’s been doing with this 70-degree day:

That’s a first-time-ever for him, and he’s quite proud. Every time a truck pulls around the corner he shouts, “Daddy, watch me ride a bike!” Unfortunately, Daddy just called to say he won’t be home until close to bedtime.

*You do, however, see ample evidence in this video that Junior is still a work in progress.

Edited at 5:30pm CDT: I give up for now.  I’ve spent too much time trying to get the video to display here.  Here’s the link if you want to see it.  Let the record show I made a good attempt at a blog post today.

Back in the Boat – 2008

Sorry, Drina, to make this so cursory, but today has been one of “those” days. I was tempted to skip the blog altogether tonight, but we do have a deal . . .

The big news is that yesterday I was able to get back on the water for the first time this year. I’d been thinking that I wouldn’t get any kayaking done until the ice was gone from the lake, not realizing that it would melt away from the edges long before breaking up in the center. And I didn’t know that the flow from the creek to our north causes the ice to melt in that small bay weeks before the rest of the lake is ice-free. As a result of these two occurrences, I was able to edge along the shore to the creek in my kayak yesterday, although we’re probably still a week or so away from ice-out.

And I didn’t think of it until just now, but I guess I’m “back in the boat” on my blog as well.

He’s Learning

We celebrated Christmas with most of my family on the day after Thanksgiving this year.  Baba received a Zoingo-Boingo from my parents (that’s a Pogo Ball for those of you from my generation), and he’s been working on learning how to use it.  He wanted to share his success with all of you:

Great Horned Owl

We had a special visitor to our backyard today–what appeared to be a Great Horned Owl.  Having never before seen an owl of any kind in the wild, I was as excited as the kids.