Happy Holidays from the Rockin' Polays

We're a little later than usual getting our Christmas cards out. While we put the finishing touches on them, here's a little music video we threw together after we put up the tree.

(Those picking this up in feed readers and other platforms will want to click through to view.)

Tree-decorating slideshow:


Music video:

Personalize funny videos and birthday eCards at JibJab!

Cheers! And Happy Holidays!

Summer and First Day of School - 2010

This has been a crazy, hectic month, kicked off by the first time we've had all three boys heading off to full-time school and punctuated by all of them playing soccer every Saturday, too.

Add to that some weekly baseball for Mason, and some crushing work deadlines for both Brandy and I, and its any wonder how we're pulling it all off. So if we've been a little quiet over here, please forgive us. Things will settle back to a dull roar after Halloween.

Meanwhile, here's a couple of slideshows to recap the summer and the beginning of the school year:

Summer - 2010


First Day of School - 2010

Sliding practice

Mason and I got to share in a little baseball sliding practice yesterday. More on my experience is over at Commuter Daddy, but here's a couple of videos of Mason in action:

Happy Birthday, Mason

One of my favorite photos of Mason is one I took in 2003, when he was 2 years old. He was watching TV and eating a chocolate chip muffin that was so large it practically hid his face before he started eating it.

On the occasion of his 9th birthday a couple of weeks ago, Mason was again eating a chocolate chip muffin, and I was again able to sneak in a photo.

While Mason has clearly changed quite a bit in seven years, it's nice to know that the chocolate chip muffin is his constant.

Here are some more photos from the birthday morning festivities, plus a video of Mason showing off some new skateboard moves he learned via his new Yo Baby Kick Flipper.

Happy Birthday, Benjamin

This past week has been a festive one at the homestead, with a family celebration of Benjamin's birthday on Wednesday and a party with his friends (Benjamin's first such party) yesterday.

Here's a slideshow that captured some of the moments, plus a video in which Benjamin shares his thoughts on turning 5 years old (can be summed up in one word: "Good."):

How we spent our February vacation

First half of the week:


The cherry on the vacation sundae, courtesy of LEGO:


There will be more to come over on Commuter Daddy....

January 2010 is the Month of Sam

January still has a few days to go, but already Sam has accomplished quite a lot. In this video clip, he's on his way to a second place finish in the Wing School Geography Bee, answering what dammed river forms Lake Havasu on the California-Arizona border.



He followed that up with two separate performances with the concert and jazz bands, the latter culminating in a solo during one of the numbers.



By day, for a class project he was building a house from balsa wood and tissue paper that could withstand a massive earthquake, but still had time to defeat me in Risk for the first time. Look out, everyone. I can testify directly that he is ready to take over the world.

If only he'd remember to bring his lunch box home from school.... It's tough being a super genius!

See no evil

Couple of interesting things to note about one of the rare group photos taken of our clan at Sam's winter band concert the other night:

1. Sam is wearing my tie. He is growing up so fast, which of course means so am I.
2. Mason still hates having his photo taken, which is funny because he really enjoys being the center of attention, too. Such a dichotomy!
3. You almost can't tell from the photo that Benjamin is in a complete meltdown. Brandy and I don't even look stressed by it. I assure you the situation was completely opposite.