State Fair

   This morning

, we were getting changed for the State Fair, and Colin was protesting my choice of a orange pop-stained T-shirt for him. I said, "that's okay, you probably will drink more pop at the fair." And he said, "I'm just going to drink melted butter."

Waylon, Willie, and the boys..........

Quote: "The most important things for country music are trucks, girls, and beer."  AJF 7/1/13

Super Nanny apparently makes these kids listen to a lot of country in the family truckster.  Maybe watching an old episode of Hee-Haw would blow their minds.

Wax On..... Wax Off

FroFamily, Inc. really didn't have enough to do so we signed up the youngest two members of the family for karate.  In a moment of relative spontaneity (or perhaps in a wine-induced haze), Mrs. Dad purchased two packages of karate classes at last fall's Gatewood PTO silent auction.  Those trial classes were embraced wholeheartedly by B&C when we finally got around to them this spring, so Mr. Mom and Mrs. Dad pried open the checkbook for 6 months of training from Mr. Marotta (not Miyagi).  Now they are all about potential belt promotions (B has already moved up and C is close), knife-hands (don't ask), and step-behind sidekicks (self explanatory).

It is great that B&C can do something together, and they both seem to have a true interest.  Not to mention that they both prove that they can listen and follow instructions from an adult (albeit not Mr. Mom) for at least 1 hour twice per week.  They are not quite ready to take on Johnny and the gang from Cobra Kai yet, but that's just fine.  They will some day.  Plus we all know that it is not football players that get the chicks.  It is clearly the karate kids.  Elisabeth Shue - Ya baby!

From the Inflated Ego Department

Dateline: 3/1/13

C: "Dad, why do a thousand million people call me cute?"
Mr. Mom: "Because you are C.  Because you are."

Mr. Mom's head is big (literally - hat size 7 1/2).  I am glad C's is also big (figuratively).  Always keep that self confidence C.

Here's Our Number....Call Us Maybe....

But we will likely be watching The Voice, talking about The Voice, or impatiently waiting for the next season of The Voice to start.

FroFamily does not have a lot of family wide-passions.  Sure Mr. Mom has fastpitch softball/Chipotle/beer, Mrs. Dad has colon health/shopping for the best deal/Facebook, A has soccer/gymnastics/Star Wars, B has hockey/brother tormenting/recess, and C has whatever anyone else has/wants/likes, but rarely is there something the whole family can get behind.  That was until The Voice - Season 3.

This show completely took over our lives this past TV season, and it happened by complete happenstance.  Mrs. Dad and A were home on the couch and in Mrs. Dad's infinite wisdom she decided to flip on the TV.  Coincidentally it happened to be premier night for The Voice - Season 3.  Two minutes later .... ta da .... we are all hooked.

The baffling thing is that the kids do not watch primetime television, and Mr. Mom and Mrs. Dad are not really reality TV people.  We gave up on Survivor a few seasons ago, we have never watched a minute of American Idol and still can't figure out what all the fuss was about, doing anything with the "Stars" offers no interest, and we don't care if you think you can dance.  But there was/is something magical about this show, The Voice, and it is a travesty that it took us until Season 3 to embrace it.

There seems to be a little something for everyone with this show.  Attractive and engaging personalities, above average musical selections, a format built for the DVR, .... Mr. Mom (who fancies himself as a little bit of a music nerd) loves the variety of songs and interplay between the four "coaches".  Mrs. Dad secretly loves this pop-culture type of TV but has always been a little afraid to admit it (probably because Mr. Mom is such an ass and wouldn't typically want to watch it with her).  A has suddenly become a pop music aficionado and loves the Christina Aguilera chosen singers.  C thinks Adam Levine is the coolest (and so does Mrs. Dad but who can blame her).  And B immediately loved Cee Lo Green, in fact so much that dressing up like Cee Lo was his Halloween costume choice this year.

[Editor's sidebar: Halloween 2012.  It was a terrific night.  B (Cee Lo), C (Adam), Mrs. Dad (Christina), and Mr. Mom (Blake Shelton) made a good showing in the neighborhood (although "Christina" and her rack stayed home to hand out candy and "Adam" tired out quickly) and were accompanied by the beautiful Princess Leia (A) for a candy extravaganza.]

One of the great things I have come to appreciate about The Voice has been its ability to bring my musical tastes out of the pre-2000 era where they had previously been stuck indefinitely.  I mostly blame generally poor music/bad songs for more than a decade, the invasion of hip-hop, and sports talk radio.  I only listened to mainstream music on a rare occasion (i.e. driving with Mrs. Dad).  But some of this new stuff is really good, and I have now found myself turning it to good ol' 97.1 on purpose (and sometimes even 94.5 and 101.3, but that is only during times of complete craziness).

AB&C seem to know many of these songs somehow, and I wonder if today's musicians will be their equivalents to the favorites of my younger days.  Could Katy Perry be their Madonna?  One Direction is unequivocally the best boy band of all time.  Is Fun the quirky, catchy Talking Heads of today?  Now I just have to get the kids to understand that Cee Lo, Trevin, Nicholas, and Cody from The Voice do not sing Stayin' Alive, but that it is actually Barry, Robin, Maurice (R.I.P. Bee Gees - except for Barry of course who is sadly the last man standing).  And no, it is not Terry McDermott that sings Let It Be, it is actually a little band we call The Beatles.  It is a parallel bizarro universe in which I live and I am just trying to keep up.