Secret Life of the McEachern Family

First Day of School – Part 2

Derek — Fri, 03 Sep 2010 23:29:07 +0000

To get the day started off right and get the boys in the mood for school Jen made a special breakfast of pancakes that spelled out the words “School Today”. By the look on Andrew’s face I know he love them, especially with the powdered sugar on top!

First Day of School

Derek — Tue, 31 Aug 2010 01:13:02 +0000

I’m a little behind the times but last week was the first day of school for the boys. This year they were both starting at new schools and just after a week into it they are both enjoying it. Tonight when I came home from work Alex told me about “all this homework” they were assigned. “I had math and reading, and spelling.”

Andrew hasn’t had any homework yet . During the first week they worked on a continents poster where they cut out the continents from different colored construction paper and then glued them onto another piece of paper. This was Andrew’s favorite thing and he talked about it every night he came home so hopefully we’ll get to see it soon.

Alex and Andrew on their first day of school.

Star Wars at Barnes and Noble

Derek — Mon, 23 Aug 2010 02:59:30 +0000

This weekend at the Barnes and Noble they were having a special appearance by Star Wars characters. Since these days it’s all Star Wars all the time around the house I took the boys to check it out. I wasn’t sure how it was going to go since the last time Andrew saw Darth Vader he jumped out of his seat and tried running away, but then again, that was just about two years ago.

Alex and Andrew with Shdow Trooper, Scout Trooper and a couple of Jawas	Posing with a Mandalorian. (At least that's what Alex tells me.)
Posing with Darth Vader	TIE Fighter Pilot and Jawa.
Boba Fett.

Alex’s Swim at Texas Summer Games

Derek — Mon, 09 Aug 2010 01:12:22 +0000

This past weekend Alex and I were in Waco Texas for the Texas Amateur Swimming State Meet. It’s a league that’s meant for kids who normally don’t swim on a competitive team during the year. Since this was his first year competing we were pretty impressed that he was able to place well enough at the regional meet and make it to the state meet. And by impressed, we also mean, really, we have to drive to Waco and spend the night for a 25 free and a relay?

He swam really well. In the 25 Free he took 2 seconds off his best time and went 17.49 and placed 13th. He also swam on the 4×25 Free relay and they came in 6th overall.

Here is the video of his 25 free. He’s in lane one swimming wild man, no cap or goggles.

It’s Been A Long Time…

Derek — Sat, 31 Jul 2010 20:24:26 +0000

It’s been a long time since I’ve had time to make an update and in fact I really don’t even have the time now since we need to run out the door to one of Alex’s soccer games.

We are getting settled in the house though there are still a lot of boxes all over the place but every day it gets a little better. Deanna and Doug are in town with little nephew Corey for a visit and I’ll put some pictures together once things settle down a bit.

In the mean time here’s a picture of Andrew at the Dallas Aquarium from the other day.

Alex’s First Swim Meet

Derek — Sun, 04 Jul 2010 19:16:28 +0000

The other night Alex had his first swim meet. He’s been swimming on a summer league team for kids who normally don’t swim during the year and he’s really enjoying himself. The team has already had a couple of other meets but this was the first one that we were able to attend and I think he had lots of fun.

It was kind of weird for Jen and I since we took turns timing and we were thinking how it’s all come full circle. Our parents used to time at our meets and now we are timing at our kids meet.

This is a low quality video of Alex swimming the 25 yard free.

Three Little Pigs – Poor Old Dad

Derek — Sat, 03 Jul 2010 20:21:00 +0000

The other day Andrew was watching a DVD that contains the classic Disney animation of The Three Little Pigs. I was playing with Caroline on the ground and only half paying attention to what was happening during the story since I think I’ve seen it a bunch of times when I was a kid.

Near the end of the movie the wolf is trying to blow down the third little pigs house made of bricks and is having a difficult time of it. The two pigs from the house made of straw and the house made of sticks are hiding under the bed scared out of their minds and in the background there is a picture of Mom on the wall. I never really noticed the pictures in the background before. (Now that I’m looking at this picture it looks like mom had 7 little piglets, what happened to the other 4?) Anyway, what caught my attention was the picture of Dad.

After the pigs get out from under the bed they are dancing around celebrating the demise of the wolf and you can see a picture of dear old dad on the wall who has apparently been turned into a bunch of sausage links.

And because being turned into a set of sausage links isn’t bad enough there’s another picture of him as a large piece of ham. Poor Dad.

Florida Vacation Pictures

Derek — Fri, 02 Jul 2010 02:29:29 +0000

At the beginning on June we took a family vacation to Watercolor Florida which is located in the pan handle kind of mid way between Destin and Panama City. Kelly was the vacation planner and booked a house that the whole family stayed in. It was a really relaxing vacation with swimming in the gulf, hanging out around the pool, afternoon naps, and other really strenuous vacation activities.

We took a bunch of pictures which you can see here.

And before anyone asks, we managed to make it there just ahead of BP oil spill tar balls washing up on the beach. While we where there they started showing up in Pensacola and by the looks of the Google Map of the oil spill it won’t be long before they start showing up there as well.

Yearly Pictures – Finally Done!

Derek — Thu, 24 Jun 2010 01:46:50 +0000

I know it’s just about the end of June now and I’ve finally got around to getting the yearly pictures posted. I got Caroline’s done back in February but just didn’t get around to getting the boys pictures finished even through we took them relatively close to their birthdays.

Here’s Andrew’s Pictures and Alex’s Pictures. And, in case you missed it, here’s Caroline’s Pictures.

New Collage for Home Page

Derek — Wed, 23 Jun 2010 03:08:28 +0000

I always promise that I’m going to keep the picture collage on the front page up to date but it’s been about a year since I last updated it and it was really out of date. Since everyone went to bed early tonight I had some free time to myself and I put a new one together.