Campbell's Blog » Video

Happy Birthday Mr. Campbell

Luke — Wed, 13 Apr 2011 02:57:26 +0000

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.

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

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.

Perfection Can Be Scary

Luke — Mon, 31 Jan 2011 03:28:15 +0000

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

12.8 MB / Time 2:15

Is This North Carolina?

Luke — Sun, 26 Dec 2010 19:26:57 +0000

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!

Fun in the snow.

Nothing better than a little sledding.

Big snowball, or boulder

Sledding Video 1

19.5 MB / Time 0:11

Sledding Video 2

46.8 MB / Time 0:29

Like Sister, Like Brother

Luke — Tue, 30 Nov 2010 03:04:00 +0000

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

16.3 MB / Time 2:51

Who’s on the Dressing?

Luke — Tue, 31 Aug 2010 00:22:04 +0000

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

64.4 MB / Time 0:34

Until Next Time Lisa

Luke — Fri, 09 Jul 2010 11:07:59 +0000

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.

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:

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.

Field Trip To The Trash Collection Department

Luke — Tue, 18 May 2010 22:40:15 +0000

Friday, Campbell and Mara got to go on a little field trip that Lisa setup for Campbell. She did all the legwork to find out where they could go to visit the city garbage trucks. Don’t ask me how, but she got connected to Mister Henry in City of Greensboro Field Operations, specifically the Trash Collection Department and he allowed them to come visit for a little tour. I have no idea if they do this normally or not, for school classes or what, but they did it yesterday for Campbell!

They got a tour of their garbage truck parking area and got to see all different types of trucks. Then they took a look at the garbage truck in detail.

Big driver.

Just like the pros.

Mister Henry showed them the ins and outs of a real garbage truck. Campbell got to see some of what he usually plays with as toys, in real life action.

Garbage Truck 2 Video
60.1 MB / Time 0:32

Here are two other videos of their tour if you are interested.

Garbage Truck 1 Video
26.8 MB / Time 0:14

Garbage Truck 3 Video
44.2 MB / Time 0:23

This has to be one of those times that you are just amazed at how nice some people can be to take time out of their jobs to make a special day for a little kid. Government connection or not, this was just superb service for any business to do. And many, many thanks to Lisa for the thought and creativity to create this experience for him. We are very lucky.

He just loved it!

Click through any of the pictures to see the whole set.

The Talking Garbage Can

Luke — Mon, 30 Nov 2009 01:35:06 +0000

Last week we made our first trip down to Walt Disney World. We had a wonderful time and the kids absolutely loved it. After telling you about Campbell’s infatuation with garbage cans and vacuum cleaners, our trip was met with some unexpected excitement. To our surprise they have a moving and talking garbage can in Tomorrowland. There is no schedule so there is no guarantee that it will be out and about at all, much less when you are in the area. On our first walk over to the area we had the chance to see it right away. This worked out really well since we had begun to hype it up to Campbell the day before.

Campbell’s new best friend.

Campbell and Mara chased it around for a few minutes and as you can see got a chance to pose with it. We took some video too so that you can see what it in action. Enjoy!

Push Video
123 MB / Time 1:09
Warning! The file is large.

The Climber

Luke — Tue, 10 Nov 2009 02:35:31 +0000

Just posted this entry to Mara’s website, but thought I would chronicle the video here as well.

Climbing Video

2.8 MB / Time 0:52

You might need to use Quicktime to view this.

King’s Weekend

Luke — Sun, 07 Jun 2009 04:57:09 +0000

Yes, of course I could have called it guy’s weekend, since Mara and Mom are off to VA. But that would be so 2000 and late. Plus, King’s weekend is much more representative of how Campbell and I roll when we have the house to ourselves.

We started off with bfast at Mickey D’s. By the way, whoever invented the McGriddle is a genius. Campbell stuck with the classic hotcakes. I think they’re just yellow cake batter in the shape of a pancake. He’s a growing boy and needs to eat well.

In the McD atrium.

Next we worked it all off at the playground. How many calories do you burn riding on the swing?

Swinging is hard work.

Next Daddy went to workout. I forgot pictures of Campbell screaming his head off in the gym daycare, but it wasn’t pretty. Actually it only lasted about 2 minutes they tell me, all until they put on the movie, Cars.

After cleaning up we went out to lunch. Campbell picked it. Red Robin (good choice).

A King’s feast.

After lunch it is always nap time. Kings need their rest.

So, after nap, what is the right thing to do? That’s right. Back to the playground.

So many toys, so little time.

I think you get the picture. What other random things do Kings do, when left to run the castle?

They don’t clean up after themselves.

Yes, they do chores.

They dance.

BoomBoom Dance Video
8.0 MB / Time 1:42
Editor’s note: Although it seems that the Batman shirt is Campbell’s dancing shirt, or that he wears it all the time due to the frequency on this blog, we assure you it is not the case. But he does like it.

Brush their teeth (but don’t floss, sorry mom).

Watch Madagascar Penguin DVDs and laugh.

A very full day!