Lawler's Diptych Action

My buddy Greg Lawler over at Zinkwazi.com, is one smart fella. He invented a Photoshop "action" for making a photo Diptych as easy as pie. While I have no idea how he did such a thing, it was fun to use! Here's my first dip into his Diptych action...

Drum Movie

As promised...enjoy!

Little Drummer

So, I added an electronic drum kit to Good Times Studio! I've been wanting to have a set to bang on for a long time but have waited for a good ebay deal to come around. Getting the chance to play whenever I feel inclined is great fun. What I didn't expect was Aaron's absolute obsession with playing 'em! He wants to groove every single chance he gets! I know what's gonna happen...he's gonna be drumming circles around his old man by age 6!

Look at that form!


Yesterday, I had an impromptu lesson with groove master, Dave Granada! He was stoked on the sound of my fakey Roland drums. ;)


Pork Pie drum throne in honor of Matt Steele...


Coming soon...a video of Aaron on the kit!

Aaron is Two!

My little buddy Aaron turned two this weekend. He had a "Bob the Builder Gymnastics" party. (Obviously Bob still needs to get his heart rate up too, right?!) It was fun to see Aaron smile and have so much fun. Here's a few pictures from his party...you can see a bunch more on my FACEBOOK.

Cute Aaron with disturbing expression on Dad in background...


Blowing out the candles...


Lil' Birthday Monkey...

Tully's Birthday

Tully had a pirate party at Padaro to celebrate his fourth birthday.



I put a ton of cute kid pix from the party HERE on Facebook.

BBQ Fun

Elmo had a 50th anniversary last Friday night. It was crazy fun...Dixieland band, cotton candy, popcorn, games, singing, inspiring speeches. It was like a potluck of good times!

Thanks to Karen & Matt Yonally for sending us a couple good pix from the evening.






Here's a great pic from Peter Trabucco...

My Buddy Matt Steele

Matt left us two years ago. I remember so many good times together. One day we will hang out again...

Funny Politics

Photo by Greg Lawler.



You won't find a lot of political wisdom on this blog...however, if you want to laugh, go see a HILARIOUS political video from Senator Mundell right HERE.

Don't forget to vote "thumbs up" for him so he wins a free trip to New York!

Here's the video...

My Kids

Here's a couple snapshots from this week...

Surf's Up

Abby and I have been on a major Boogie Boarding trend lately. We drug the whole family to the fun on Saturday.



Gramma was there too and we got to celebrate her birthday! More pix HERE.

Apple Farm Field Trip

Our school took its annual field trip to the Apple Farm in Solvang today. Basically the whole school spends the entire day picking apples and playing at the park. What's not to love?!

The trip allowed me to actually get some time to mess around with our new camera...I had a blast shooting pix of the students. I posted about 50 on my Facebook. You can see them all HERE.

Here's a few of my best shots...I like our camera. :)

Serious Kiddos

Sometimes they're very serious. I love 'em then too. They're pretty cute when they're thinking...

Silly Kiddos

I have silly kids. I love 'em.

Day 2...

I'm stoked to get to take Abby to school some mornings! Who wouldn't want this view from their desk before school starts?!


Elie and Abby ended up at Old Navy at the same time last week so they bought matching shirts! Pretty cute, eh?

Having good buddies that are older makes school even more relaxing!


I let Aaron take the wheel tonight. He really liked it...


Angela almost walked right into this guy tonight but her spidey senses saved her!

Abby's in Kindergarten!

I'm amazed by how she's grown so quickly...


I'm amazed by how confidently she swung into things today...


Angela has a bunch more about Abby's first day HERE.

New Cam, New School Year...

Our 5 year old Canon point-and-shoot started acting really funky this weekend. So, we decided we needed to get something reliable before school starts. This was my first shot with our new Nikon D40. I'm excited about the potential for better pictures!


Abby starts Kindergarten at my school tomorrow! I can't believe it!


We still had time for some waves today...


Aaron's happy about all the new fun too!


More new pix on my FLICKR page. I'll keep stashing pix there...

Stoked

Abby and I scored some wetsuits at the Channel Islands sale this week. We're mainly stoked to not be cold after a long boogie boarding sesh...



We ARE having a lot of fun in the water too! She's getting pretty brave with the waves...even starting catching lil baby ones by herself yesterday.

Water Whiteys

We've been running to the water quite a bit here at the end of summer. In the last week, we've been to two Elmo Swim parties. One for Abby's Kindergarten class and one for my incoming third grade class. Abby is like a fish now, darting all through the water without any pleas for assistance. (Don't worry Gramma, we still keep a close eye on her!) Aaron has been loosening up as I hold him and splash around the pool.

Up next...Boogie Boarding! We bought Abby a board and a rashguard today. I'm shopping for some gear myself so I think I'll have some beach pix to share soon.

Thanks to Kristi Sestak, a talented parent with a rockin' camera, for sharing this pic of Aaron and I in the H2O...

Honey on My Lips

Check out this "sweet" post from our rad-i-cool babysitter, Kjaere! Click HERE.

Abby the Artist, Aaron the Builder

Ange has been back to work for over a week so I'm logging lots of fun with the kids. I'm trying to snap some pix while I'm at it. Abby loves to do art. Here's a recent creation...

"My really good art..."


She's proud of her work!


Aaron is really into Bob the Builder...well, at least the song! Here he is watching the intro and playing the theme song with Bob. He usually only lasts a few minutes into the show, then he's off to the next thing!