Ethan’s instructions:
1. Blow both balloons up first (to stretch the balloons)
2. Let the air out of both
3. Blow up the balloon that’s supposed to be bigger (on the outside)
4. While holding the outside balloon put the other balloon inside it
5. Blow up the inside balloon
6. Blow up the outside balloon just a bit more
7. Tie […]

We’re currently on BC’s Sunshine Coast taking a week’s holiday. A couple of days ago we took a two-hour hike to Skookumchuck Narrows, which is where the tidal flow into a huge basin is constricted through a narrow passage and can exceed 30 km/hr.
Really cool rapids and standing waves … which the kayakers enjoy:

[…]

Ethan and Aidan were playing around with Photobooth, Apple’s fun picture-taking software that accompanies the newer iMacs and MacBooks with built-in cameras.
A couple of the results:

And one that they liked better:

The painting you see in the back? It’s Jeroen Vermeulen’s … their uncle (and my brother-in-law).
Tags: ethan, aidan, john koetsier, family, […]

(a poem by Gabrielle Koetsier, age 10)
Children sitting, solemn, silent.
Bell rings! Screaming, yelling, violent!
Running, rushing, up the stairs.
“Children, wait!” nobody cares.
School’s out! It’s summer! Time to play!
No more teachers! Run away!
We are going to the pool.
Perfect way to keep us cool.
Let’s go buy some lemonade!
We will drink it in the shade.
Our skin is brown, our […]

This past Easter we, naturally, had an easter egg hunt. Each of the kids had a chance to hide the eggs and let the others find them.
And Gabrielle, being the creative girl she is, had to make it more interesting … with clues. Here they are …
Hrm …. in the library?

Outside?!?

This doesn’t sound too […]

I love well-constructed and vivid language. Here’s a snippet I ran across today that inspired some memories:

A few years back, I was struggling to liberate a new Barbie doll from the almost invincible packaging that imprisoned her …

(Seen in an email newsletter from Character Counts … written by Michael Josephson.)
Tags: language, john koetsier, […]

I took the day off today and we spent the day at Mount Baker. Tubing, playing, feeding the birds … absolutely gorgeous:

Here’s a short video that I took while tubing … following Gabrielle down the hill:

Tags: mount baker, tubing, john koetsier

Tags: aidan, snowboy, snowman, john koetsier

Last year we had snow. This year, we have more:

Tags: snow, vancouver, flickr, john koetsier

So Aidan wanted to watch The Lord of the Rings.
I said no, it’s too scary for 3-year olds. He disagreed, saying that he would not be scared. “I’m tough!” he declared. Teresa backed me up, telling Aidan that there were lots of parts in LOTR that she was even scared by.
He thought for a second. […]

So we were at some friends’ place this afternoon and they have a cat.
Gabrielle told Aidan that cats like to play with string, and that he might like to wiggle a string in front of the cat. Aidan took the string, and held it with both hands horizontally in front of the cat.
He waited a […]

Russell Davies talks about how to be interesting:

While I was at the U of O I kept going on about how the core skill of any future creative business person will be ‘being interesting’. People will employ and want to work with (and want to be with) interesting people.
And since I’d spent quite a lot […]

Back from trick-or-treating with the kids.
Ethan counted his candy, and he’s got 135 chocolate bars, bags of chips, and assorted other candies. The other kids have about the same.
We didn’t go to that many homes …. many just give out 6 or 7 candies at a time.
Sheesh - when I was a kid we […]

Ethan, this is how you type without looking at the keyboard. You just have to know where all the keys are, and then it is very, very, easy.
(Typed with my eyes closed - mostly - to prove a point to my 7-year-old son, Ethan.)
Tags: typing, kids, son, ethan, john koetsier […]

It’s rather self-explanatory, don’t you think? Here’s Aidan, my 3-year old:

Saw this quote on Guy Kawasaki’s blog today. Too good to pass up.
Ambrose Bierce, in The Devil’s Dictionary:

War is God’s way of teaching Americans geography.

Ouch!
Tags: war, america, geograpy

I just put Aidan to bed. His bedtime story was an impromptu one that Gabrielle and Ethan also sat in for … about Frank. It was the first time I’ve made up an entirely new story for the kids for a long time … perhaps since The Wonderful Colorful House.
After the story, and after our […]

Teresa and I recently took the kids to Osoyoos, BC, where we met up with 3 other families of relatives and spent a few days at a hotel. It was a much-needed break for all of us.
Check out the Flick photoset.
Unfortunately, Teresa broke her foot when we went horseback riding. The stablehands didn’t put the […]

OK, this is just horrible: the Fish & Flush toilet.

But my daughter loves it … and you have to admit, it is completely cool in a horrible, nasty, kitschy way.
Tags: fish, toilet, kitsch, fun, john koetsier