Campbell’s Blog

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Our Little Writer

May 18th, 2011 · 1 Comment · Pictures

Campbell has recently been getting better and better at reading, just as his sister did when she turned four years old. It is still too early to tell, but he might be a little bit ahead.

But he has taken to doing something that I don’t think Mara really did when she was younger. She used to write and practice her letters often, and Campbell does the same. What is different is that he is also beginning to write words at this point. Sometimes he asks for one of us to spell the words for him. What we have seen at times though is that he likes to just give it a go at writing his own notes independently. This results in some very funny outcomes. I have taken pictures of a couple of his writings.

The first is a sign that he made to hang on his door. If you can interpret it you are a little better than me. He just came out and explained it to me one day. “When the door is closed, you have to read the sign,” he says. When first looking at it you could easily just mistake it for random letters and scribble.
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The second is a card that he made for me when I was away on a business trip. He started writing it, and then showed it to Mom. She advised that he copy one of the cards he had received for his birthday for the middle portion of it. This is the clearest item on there. The rest he originated himself. Can you read what it says?
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Put your mouse over each picture to see what it says.

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Happy Birthday Mr. Campbell

April 12th, 2011 · 1 Comment · Pictures, Video

So… our little man is turning 4 on Wednesday. Where has the time gone? On Sunday we had his little party at Chucky Cheese, his choice. He absolutely loved it.

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The birthday boy!!

He has so much fun going around and gathering tickets from the games and the machines. What might have been the best part of the day for him was getting a chance to go into the ticket booth where they blow the tickets in the air and you have the chance to grab as many as possible. At first, he acted scared, as if to say to the attendant, “you’re going to close me up in here?” Then his sister came to his rescue and dared to join him. Here is some video of their fun.

Fourth Bday Video
Fourth Bday Video

22.6 MB / Time 0:51

He was just all smiles in there. All in all he loved seeing his friends and having them there to share his special day with him. Thanks for coming to celebrate.

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Perfection Can Be Scary

January 30th, 2011 · 1 Comment · Video

One of the games that the kids got for Christmas was Perfection. Mara? Campbell? I can’t remember now who got it. It has been a little while. Well, when we tried to open it and play it during the holidays, we had a problem. We wound up the timer on the game and it proceeded not to count down. Nothing.

That was strange. So we brought it back to the store and they were out of stock and we had to wait. Well, a few weeks later mom got a replacement, brought it all the way home and sure enough, that one didn’t work with a different problem.

Next time to the store it was time to open up the game and try it out real time at the point of sale. In a way, thankfully, the next one didn’t work either because it proved to the store manager that Steph wasn’t crazy. The 4th game tried worked. And they wound it up again and it worked, and worked again. OK, this is the one to keep. Yes, is it likely to fail again based on experience. Sure, but we really wanted the kids to have it to try while it lasted.

And with good reason. The kids loved it and it was really fun seeing them enjoy it. Of course the best part is to see them react when the timer goes off. Here is some video of them playing it for the first time. We thought you would want to see it too.

Perfection Video
Perfection Video

12.8 MB / Time 2:15

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Is This North Carolina?

December 26th, 2010 · 1 Comment · Pictures, Video

Wow, what a Christmas. It has been spectacular here in North Carolina with the snow we have gotten. Hard to believe where we are. Steph was reading that this was the first white Christmas in like 59 years or something. Very fun.

We have been putting winter to very good use so far. We went ice skating on Friday night for Christmas Eve. The kids LOVED it. Campbell did much better this time around versus the first time we went. This time it was even outside, but he lasted a little longer and didn’t get so tired so fast. Mara on the other hand just wanted to try on her own after a while and had a great time holding on to the side and going around.

Today, the day after Christmas we were at it again. After an afternoon and night of snow we were left with something like 5-6 inches (my guesstimate). It made for perfect sledding weather. Thanks to Grandma and Grandpa for bringing us some sleds from up north at the end of the season last year. We wanted to be ready to take advantage this year and sure enough we did. Check out the pictures and videos of us with the kids for their first sledding experience. What a great time!

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Fun in the snow.

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Nothing better than a little sledding.

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Big snowball, or boulder

Sledding Video 1
Sledding Video 1

19.5 MB / Time 0:11

Sledding Video 2
Sledding Video 2

46.8 MB / Time 0:29

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Like Sister, Like Brother

November 29th, 2010 · 1 Comment · Video

Campbell has some good things going for him, and some bad things. The bad things first. He is the smallest in the family and that means big sis can take advantage of him sometimes. Also, he finds out quite often (because she tells him so) that he isn’t quite as strong, fast, smart, or big as her yet. I keep telling Mara that it won’t last forever, but she isn’t a believer yet.

Now, given the hardship, being the youngest does come with some perks. For one, he has big sister to look up to and emulate. Sometimes that means Campbell does some things even faster than Mara did when she was young(er).

Campbell has been trying to read for a little while now. As best as we can remember he wanted to start trying at the beginning of the summer. We started him off just the same as Mara did, using Bob Books that we got at Costco. It was a little slow at first, but he got the hang of it. Mom and I were also better at teaching after having gone through some of Mara’s reading camps with her and learning the correct way to work with children on it.

Well, as the summer went on, Campbell kept reading a little at a time and going through the books. Mom and I were thinking that he wasn’t doing badly at all (hey, very happy that he even wants to try really), but it “felt” like it was going a little slower for him than Mara. But, still OK. Well, come to find out when doing a little research on Mara’s blog, he happened to get started a year earlier than her!! We had no idea. We were just letting him “pull” for it and do what he wanted.

He is really doing great with it and his books. He is through quite a few of them. Now he is getting into the longer words. Here is a video of him reading one of the last three letter word books a week ago or so. This is the second or third time reading this book.

(The video is in mov format, so you need quicktime to view it more than likely. Let me know if you have trouble with it.)

Campbell Reading Video
Campbell Reading Video

16.3 MB / Time 2:51

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Happy Halloweenie!

October 31st, 2010 · 2 Comments · Pictures

The kids are having fun tonight going out in a pair of Toy Story cowkids.

Howdy Woody!

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First Try at Soccer

September 30th, 2010 · 1 Comment · Pictures

Well, Campbell is playing soccer this fall. This is his first time giving it a try, and so far he is having a lot of fun. He is a step behind some of the other kids at first but he is getting the hang of it. Another boy’s dad captured some photos of the kids and they turned out real nice. For the grandparents, if you want to buy a photo you can check out his site.

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More pictures of soccer are here, or even more at Scott’s website.

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Who’s on the Dressing?

August 30th, 2010 · 1 Comment · Video

One day we came across Campbell expressing that he saw Daddy and talking about how he had seen Daddy’s picture. At that very moment it was hard to tell what Campbell was actually talking about. In that first encounter I don’t even remember if we really learned what it was all about.

Then, it happens again. Campbell was saying that he saw Daddy’s picture and this time he had gotten Mara convinced of the same. What was he talking about? It happened to be at dinner time and there were a few things that we had scattered on the table to go along with our meal. That is when we figured it out because he showed us the salad dressing bottle.

Since that time, it is random when Campbell starts talking about it. Sometimes, if you aren’t paying attention, and then come upon him, you will find him talking to the picture as if he was talking to me. At the beginning of August we took a beach trip, and we took a little video of him telling everyone who his Daddy is. I guess there are worse people to get confused with.

Daddy Dressing Video
Daddy Dressing Video

64.4 MB / Time 0:34

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Until Next Time Lisa

July 9th, 2010 · 1 Comment · Pictures, Video

Today is a sad day in the Evans’ household. Lisa will no longer be visiting us. In honor of her last day we asked the kids a few questions and we are posting them to Campbell and Mara’s blog. Here are Campbell’s answers.

Q: What is your favorite thing to do with Lisa?
A: Play with her.

Q: If you could go anywhere with Lisa, where would it be?
A: H.H. Gregg.

Q: What is your favorite thing about Lisa?
A: She has a turquoise vacuum. She has funny jokes on her popsicles. She really does.

Q: How much do you love Lisa?
A: This much.
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Q: If you were to give Lisa something from your room, what would it be?
A: Purple dinosaur silly bands.

Q: What do you think about Lisa and Mark getting married?
A: Her honeymoon jar. It has money in it.

Q: What is the funniest thing you remember about Lisa?
A:
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Video

6.5 MB / Time 0:14

Q: How does it make you feel that Lisa won’t be your nanny anymore?
A: Sad. But, we can still see each other. I will miss Lisa.

Q: If you could give Lisa a present on her last day, what would it be?
A: The letter “o”. And a green sticker.

Q: What do you want to tell Lisa today?
A: I love you.

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Sports Day Saturday

June 30th, 2010 · 1 Comment · Pictures

This past Saturday, Dad had an idea. It was going to be sports day Saturday. Now, this wasn’t really a grand idea. Just a way to try and get the kids to try a couple of new things sports related instead of the usual toys they were using when they went outside. Oh, and yes, part of the idea was to try and get them outside as well. Not that the kids don’t like to get outside, but actually Mom and Dad can sometimes stay cooped up too much.

Mom went for a run with friends, so Dad decided to take Campbell and Mara to a local elementary school field. Sometimes when we just stay around the house there are too many distractions with other toys and things to get them to concentrate for a bit of time on one thing. We started with lacrosse.

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Handling the sticks.

Unfortunately the attempt at lacrosse was a little disappointing as the kids thought it was too hot out and that killed any sense of concentration of putting a ball in the stick. We will have to try that one again sometime soon when it is a little cooler out. But then once we put the sticks down, the heat didn’t stop Mara from challenging Campbell to a race to the soccer goal. So all was not lost on the trip to the field. We did some racing around.

Then we went back to the house. Dad made a rule. They could do anything they wanted as long as it involved a ball. Eventually this led to playing some basketball.

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This ball is bigger than me!

Campbell and Dad practiced some passing. Campbell is just getting to where he can catch the ball off a bounce. He also gave some dribbling a try and he did OK for his first time. Meanwhile, Mara was shooting on the lowered basket. When she made her first shot everyone was excited. Dad thought it was her first basket ever, but she confidently retorted, “I’ve made it before Dad.”

Although it didn’t end up as good for lacrosse practicing as Dad would have liked, it did end up being a good sports day. The kids had a lot of fun with basketball, and they especially liked topping it off with some dunks on the basket and hanging on the rim. Fun!

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