New Bike

As promised, here are some pictures of Lucas's new bike, a birthday gift from my parents. Of note is that this is first bike with gears. It has 6 speeds and 20" wheels, and while he's still getting the hang of it, he likes it a lot better than his old bike.

And here's the requisite video. You'll notice the video goes sideways halfway through. Oddly enough, on the computer, it's the opposite where it starts out sideways and then goes normal. Ah, Apple iPhone, how I love to hate you.



In contrast to Lucas's bad behavior story in the last post, I wanted to point out that he received a Student of the Year certificate from his teacher on the last day of class today. Only 2 other kids received them so hopefully that's a good thing!

Canada's Most Wanted

I've been meaning to post pictures of Lucas with his new bike, but I keep forgetting to download the photos from Marilu's phone, and when I remember during the day, she's not here, so that doesn't do me much good. Anyway, they'll be up soon.

In other news, Lucas has turned to a life of crime. On Tuesday, one of his classmates and (former?) friends hit him in the face at a school assembly. Lucas then threatened to get the kid in trouble unless he gave Lucas money or Pokemon cards. The next day, the kid brought Lucas $100! Lucas then traded the money to a 5th grader for Pokemon cards. This all would have gone unnoticed if not for the 5th grader bragging about it and getting caught by the vice principal. At that point, the story came out and everyone got their cards and money back.

I should point out that this all happened on the next-to-last day of school. Suffice to say, Lucas will be feeling the repercussion from his first foray into blackmail for several weeks to come. FYI, we still haven't figured out exactly how Lucas got the idea for his scheme, but it's possible it's from something he saw on Scooby-Doo or iCarly. Go figure.

Here are some random photos that have been sitting in my To Do folder for way too long. From the tail end of 2014, here's Lucas with his Uncle Steven outside Canadian Tire Center prior to a Sens game.

In January, Lucas had his first out-of-town tournament in Brockville. I'm pretty sure I posted photos from the actual games, but here's an example of what the kids do in their down time.

And finally, a nice, innocent photo of Lucas. You wouldn't know he's on the lam for extortion charges, would you?

Tomorrow, Lucas and I are driving down to Massachusetts and will be there for a little over a week. I'll try and get one more post up today (with new bike pictures!), but no promises. If not, see you in July!

Birthday Lunch

Lunch with the birthday boy!

Lucas's 8th Birthday Party

Although Lucas's birthday isn't until June 16, we held his actual party yesterday. I originally tried to book it for the War Museum, since they have a very cool-sounding Ultimate Fort theme, but unfortunately, it was completely booked for the month of June. So now we know to book well in advance for next year. As a result, we asked Lucas if he would be okay with doing it at the same place as last year (the Oz Dome), and his answer was a resounding yes. So that's what we did!

Prior to the party, Tracey asked if we wanted her to bring her camera, and in our hubris, we said that we would be fine with our new Nikon. Oh, how silly we were! It turns out that if you aren't on the top deck of a bright and sunshiny cruise ship, action shots aren't nearly as easy to take. As a result, at least half of the photos I took in the not nearly so bright and not nearly so sunshiny Oz Dome had some blur in them. They still came out okay (better than what I could get on my iPhone), but if I've learned nothing else, I know I now need to read the book my mom bought me on how to actually use my camera.

Since the first hour of the party was spent on the field, let's start with that. All my bitching about photo quality aside, I really like how this first one came out. I should also note that this is the first time I've ever cropped a photo on this blog (to get a rid of a bunch of empty space on the right side). I'm going to try and do that more in the future since I'm still getting used to centering photos on the Nikon.

The symmetry in this photo (or whatever you would call a straight line) was completely unintentional, but I really like how it came out.

I'm not quite sure what Lucas is doing here, but whatever works for him.

I have no idea what Lucas and the party coordinator are talking about here, but I love the facial expressions.

This one is a little blurry, but I liked the look of it.

For the last 5-10 minutes, the dads (there were 3 of us) joined the party coordinator in a game against the kids. I'm not sure what the final score was, but I now realize I'm not yet in game shape for adult soccer. It got even worse when the kids decided they could pick up the ball and run with it. I'm surprised my heart stayed in my chest, chasing them all over the field.

Before going inside, we made sure we got a "team" photo of the boys. One semi-serious...

...and the other not so much. I don't really want to know what Lucas is doing to that ball.

The kids are relatively calm before the pizza and cake eating commence. Marilu was pleased that they ate the majority of the vegetables while waiting.

For this birthday, Marilu made an ice cream sandwich cake. It consisted of 3 layers of ice cream sandwiches (18 total) covered in whipped cream and surrounded by frozen raspberries.

Finally, it was gift opening time. Here are a couple of the highlights. (side note: Etienne's eyes in the first photo crack me up...he looks *really* excited)

And here's a final shoutout to the parents who made it through the whole party with us. First, the daring dads, Mo and John, who assisted me in losing to the kids...

...and then Tracey (with Marilu), who has helped out in just about every one of Lucas's birthday parties.

Thanks a bunch!

First Communion

Back in April, Lucas had his First Communion. If you know me well, you know that even though I was raised Roman Catholic, I'm not a fan of religion. However, I went along with this since it was one of those "pick your fights" moments. Besides, I'm reasonably sure he'll eventually figure out what's true and what's not on his own in the coming years. With that said, here are some photos from his special day.

First up, Lucas models his outfit. Well, at least the top part of it.

Posing with Father Virgil after the ceremony.

He looks like such a little gentleman here. You'd never realize what kind of hellraiser dwells within! :)

Group shot with both grandmothers and then individual photos with each.

And finally, the three of us. If there is a God, Lucas's praying is probably all that is keeping me safe from lightning bolts.

World Cup

Marilu and Lucas are downtown today, watching a doubleheader of the FIFA Women's World Cup. They'll be seeing Norway vs Thailand, followed by Germany vs Ivory Coast. It should be a fun time. Here's a picture she sent me of Lucas prior to the game.