Read it, share it, tweet it, follow it...

Have you ever received one of those annoying chain emails? No matter how much you want to delete them, you still feel compeled to read them in their entirety:

Believe me.. this really works!! Just scroll down to the end, but while you do.. make a wish. Whatever age you are, is the number of minutes it will take for your wish to come true (ex. you are 15 yrs.old = 15 minutes). If you don't send this to 20 people in 20 minutes and if this 20 people don't sign up as followers, you will have bad luck for 20 years!! GO!!!


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STOP!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!


CONGRATULATIONS!!!!!!!!!!!!!


YOUR WISH WILL NOW COME TRUE IN YOUR AGE MINUTES!! NOW FOLLOW THIS


CAREFULLY.... IT CAN BE VERY REWARDING!!!!!


IF YOU SEND THIS TO 10 MORE PEOPLE, OTHER THAN THE 20 YOU ALREADY HAVE SENT IT TO, AND IF THEY ALL SIGN UP AS FOLLOWERS SOMETHING MAJOR, THAT YOU'VE BEEN WANTING, WILL HAPPEN IN THE NEXT 10 SECONDS, MINUTES, HOURS, OR DAYS!! PROBABLY MINUTES OR DAYS. GOOD LUCK!!!!

All jokes aside if you like "DaddyDayCare", share it, tweet it, follow it...

John's Joke Of The Day.

-What is a crate full of ducks?

-A box of quackers!

Paracord Stocking Stuffers.

Since we are big Jets fans, as you can see above, I figured I would take a few minutes this afternoon to make a couple of green and white survival* (friendship*) bracelets.

For one bracelet, I used about 5 feet of each color paracord so about 10 feet altogether. I also used a 3/8inch side release buckle to make it easy for them to put on and take off.

I hope they will wear them proudly when the Jets make it to the superbowl. Although, by then I might have to make some bigger ones, the kids will be all grown up!!

*The boys need to work on their friendship, the Jets on their season survival.

Here is also a picture of the watchband I made for myself a couple weeks ago. It goes well with this watch and got a lot of compliments.

I did not post a tutorial, there are so many ressources on the internet. Here are a few  very  useful links.

http://stormdrane.blogspot.com/

www.fusionknots.com

 

The Things They Say...

Me, this morning: "Guys, I cleaned up and organized your playroom, so please try to keep it this way until Christmas. Otherwise Santa won't know where to leave the presents if it's a mess."
Matthew: "Santa doesn't leave the presents in the playrom, he leaves them under the tree. Besides, last year it was messy and he left the presents anyway!"
Me: Sigh...

Yesterday, listening to WFAN:
Matthew: "Daddy, I'll never play for the Mets!"
Me: "What if they're the only team who wants you?"
Matthew: "I'll play for the Yankkes and I'll have a no trade clause."
He's not 7 years old yet and he knows about a no trade clause!!

It's ok to say...

I understand the need to be politically correct and that a lot of our vocabulary has changed and evolved. One is not blind, but is visually impaired, one is not mute but has a speech impediment ...
But aren't we pushing it a little too far sometimes? I remember a few years ago during Christmas time, a couple was leaving the restaurant I was managing, and as they exited I wished them a Merry Christmas. The hostess at the time reminded me that I couldn't say that and that being politically correct I should have wished them happy holidays. Of course I disagreed then and still disagree now. Why should people get offended because they celebrate a different holiday. If you want to wish a Merry Christmas, Happy Kwanza, Happy Hanukkah, Happy "whateveryouarecelebrating", go ahead and proudly do it.
After all, don't we teach our kids to repect and embrace our differences.
How about teaching by example.

Awesome Log Cabin.

This is a project that my friend Jen made for her daughter's school.
She turned a cardboard box into an amazing log cabin.
The paint job is fantastic and the house is finished with window treatments and Sinead's art work decorates the walls.

Now that's talent!!

Mr. Kurt Rocks.

We saw Mr. Kurt for the first time a few years ago as he was playing at the Tarrytown library and we already thought he was very good.
Over the years, the kids have gone to to see him play many times and when it comes to chidren entertainers, few have the patience that he has and last night at the New City library was no exception.
He always gets the kids involved in his concerts and John had a blast showing off his voice!

Mr. Kurt treated the boys to an autograph session.



He even sang duet with Grace when everyone was gone, how awsome!!



So don't forget to check out his website: http://www.kurtgallagher.com/ and take the kids to see him, he rocks!

Tying the knot.

I have been wanting to experiment with decorative knots for quite a while but never got to it so as I had a few minutes to myself this afternoon, I dug into my craft box, came up with some nylon rope and started practicing.
Here is what I came up with.
My first lanyard:

A funky looking thing that I might use as a keychain. I made it to practice a monkey fist knot:

And a small lanyard bracelet that I thought Grace would want to wear but she didn't want anything to do with it because it didn't have Elmo on it!!

If you're ready to catch the bug, the internet is full of ressources. Have fun and be carefull it can be quite addictive.

Next stop Etsy!!



The scariest job.

No matter how dangerous your job is or how much of a thrill seeker you are; no task, no job, nothing is scarier than raising children. Before they even take their first breath we worry about our kids. A million things could go wrong during the pregnancy. The birth itself is a frightening ordeal. And from the moment we welcome our little cherubs to this crazy world we can't stop worrying. The first few weeks of a new born can be nerve wrecking, especially with the first one. We get home from the hospital with our tiny bundle of joy after getting a few minutes crash course on how to handle him. Quite frankly, a kid getting a hamster will get better instructions. Anyway that's it, you're home, clueless, tired and stressed out. He's crying! Why? Is he hungry? Wet? In pain? He's sleeping! Is breathing? Is he breathing too fast? Too quickly? How about SIDS?
And this is just the beginning people. Kids get ill, sick, they get hurt, there is trips to the ER, hospital stays. And these are just a few of what I would call "natural" dangers. Then we have to worry about peer pressure and bullying. And as they grow up they're involved in more activities and we have to worry about more peer pressure and we also have to think about child abuse, and risk of abduction...just read the headlines, there are a lot of sick people out there.
Wow! It's enough stress to make the most level headed parent become totally insane. One solution would be to get cloned and miniaturized so I could be with each one of our kids every second of the day (no, not to spy on them, the need to spy will come later) just to make sure that they're safe.
Until that happens, we stick to plan B.
We educate them as well as we can, we teach them how to be safe, we try to be good role models and most importantly we keep telling them that they can come to us for anything. And we can only hope that they will.
No, parenthood is definitely not for sissies!

Halloween Deco: Walking Zombies Sign.

This craft is fairly easy and quick to do.
I started with a square piece of wood that I spray painted black.

With some 5/8inch wide masking tape I laid down the outline of the sign.

I spray painted a coat of orange and since I am looking for a rugged look I made sure to let some of the black paint show through.

Using some 11/2inch wide letter stencils I laid down the marking in the center of the sign.

I spray painted the lettering in black and voila!

Using the same method I made these two decorations as well.

Mother's Day fun at the Bronx Zoo.

Mother's day project: From Dollar store find to personalized charm bracelet.

On my last trip to the Dollar tree, I had picked up a 12 pack of dice. I didn't really know what I was going to do with them but I knew I would come up with something.

Sure enough a few days later I decided to personalize a dice with some pictures of the kids. Because of the size of the dice, I had the pictures printed on a small scale (9 pix on a 4x6). With a utility knife I cut the pictures to fit the face of the dice and I glued each one using Mod Podge. Once dry, I applied a coat of Dimensional Magic on each side leaving each side to dry over night (yes, it's time consuming but well worth it!). When all the sides of the dice were complete I glued a Y bail to a corner. I do not have pictures for each steps because of some camera issues but here are a few shots of the finished product.

I decided to make a charm bracelet for Eileen for Mother's Day and the dice will be one of the charms. Since Eileen and I like to play Scrabble, the other charms will be 3 Scrabble tiles with our Children's initials. I glued an Aanraku bail on the back of each tiles with superglue. For the bracelet used some "Natural Chic" rubber thread. I looped it three times and used some small jump rings to hold it together. To close the bracelet, I heated the ends and "soldered" them together. All I need now is a nice gift box.

Missing my bike.

As I was driving the Dadmobile on this glorious spring morning, I couldn't help but missing her.
I get that same feeling every spring. I started remembering the great times we had together, living life in the fast lane (literally). I still remember the day I made the decision to let her go. I gave her away to one very lucky guy. I can still see him pulling onto the driveway in his pick up truck to take her away from me. We didn't spend much time together anymore and as I was getting older I knew it would be wiser to go our separate ways. Even though she didn't like her, soon to be MommyO at the time said I would regret it but I didn't listen. Though we hit a few bumps on the road, we never had a fall out (thank God!). She wasn't my first one and I sure hope that she wasn't my last one either but as low maintenance as she was, I couldn't afford her right now. Sure I tried to replace her but it wasn't the same. And as I look in my rear view mirror and see Grace's gorgeous face, I wonder how well she would fit in the family. I know John would love her but would it really be safe?