Kenzie's New School Pic!

Princess Kenzie at the Renaissance Faire - 9/3/07

Here is Princess Kenzie in the costume we bought her. The costume is beautiful and she'll be able to wear it for Halloween and to the faire if we go again this year. It should also fit her next year unless she grows 6 inches by next summer. It took some coaxing to get her to smile, but eventually she did and what a smile she gave us! See that smile in the second picture? That's the one that needed coaxing. As if you couldn't tell.

Here is a picture of the Queen at the Gate when we arrived followed by a picture of her procession shortly thereafter.

When the Queen makes an entrance, she makes an entrance in style! Here she is arriving at the Joust on her noble steed. Beautiful animal, eh? I meant the Queen, by the way.

...just kidding...

But seriously, dig those groovy 16th century mics!

And here is a shot of "The Bull", the knight we cheered for, the one with the fake blood (ask Kenzie about that). The bottom picture is of Kenzie and I cheering for The Bull.

Beach Baby

Here's a couple pics of Kenzie at Long Beach Island this summer. My parents rented a house on the island for a week and we got to visit overnight on the weekend. Kenzie loves the shore. These pics were snapped just moments before she dug up some unexploded ordnance from World War II. Just kidding. I meant to say moments before she dug up some hypodermic needles and various other medical waste...sorry, it happened again. I meant to say sand crabs. Just plain old sand crabs.

Yours Truly, circa 1995

I found this picture today while going through some boxes. This picture was taken fall semester 1995 outside Bozorth Hall at Rowan University. The picture was taken by a friend who was taking a photogoraphy course (surprise!).

I've often wanted to go back to the shaved-head look, but it was a lot of work. And I'm no good with a Bic, either, so I'd have to use my Norelco, which is how I kept my head shaved back then. The entire process just takes too darn long.

Also, see my "facial hair"? Yeah. What you see is the result of me not shaving for about a year. I was cursed with very scarce facial hair. Oh well.

Maybe This is Why She's So Weird...Part I

I took Kenzie to see Ratatouille yesterday morning. Not a bad movie. It's definitely not my favorite Pixar flick, but not a bad movie by any means. Anyway, America's Favorite (dysfunctional) TV Family - The Simpsons - have a movie coming out later this month and there was a big advertisement for it at the theater.

Kenzie likes the Simpsons a lot, so she had to have her picture taken with them.

Maybe This is Why She's So Weird...Part II

Here's Kenzie with her real parents?

Kenzie's Dance Recital

Here are a few pictures of Kenzie at her Dance Recital. The theme was Disney's Beauty and the Beast. Guess which one Kenzie was...just kidding!

Here she is posing for the camera just before her show. I need to find a way to post the video of her recital because it really was precious. For now, however, you'll have to live with the few pictures we have.

Enjoy!

Kenzie and her friend, Abby, showing off their moves.

Kenzie curtsying, about to get her trophy.

Kenzie with her dance teacher, Miss Shannon.

The girls palling around after the recital.

Kenzie with her flowers and trophy!

I love this picture. The sun's going down, shadows are getting longer, the day is winding down. Kenzie and I are sharing a moment on the curb in front of our apartment. I'm wearing a hat so she insisted on wearing a hat. You can see my truck and Tiff's old car to either side of us. And I don't look that fat. I love this picture.

These are some of my all-time favorite pictures of Kenzie. I love them because she looks so darn peaceful.

I also love these pictures because you can just imagine the sound of her snoring like her mother.

Random silliness.

This is Kermit, the Hermit Crab. He was Kenzie's first pet. He's dead now, but his memory lives on.

Kenzie loves to help us cook. She was always looking to help. Of course, I think all kids like to help their parents in the kitchen.

There was a time when I used to make my own bread and pizza dough. To keep Kenzie occupied (which is a euphamism for "out of the way"), I used to add some food coloring to some scraps of dough and let her have some fun.

You can see our ravioli cutter and an egg cooker for the microwave (made the eggs rubbery) with her in this picture. I don't know what she thought she was doing, but she was definitely enjoying herself.

Here are a couple of shots of Grandpa and Grandma Kovacs with Kenzie. This was her first and so-far only trip to the Turtle Back Zoo. I used to go there when I was little so it was kind of a special day when I got to take Kenzie there.

Here are some shots of me lost, deep in thought, planning my attack. The kid I'm playing against is Andrew, my nephew-in -law (is that right?) from Maine. I kicked his butt that weekend. Then again, I was also about 4 times his age...

There was a time when I was really good at chess. I once played against one of my fraternity brothers and my situation looked pretty dire: I had lost my queen, both bishops, a knight and a rook very early in the game. Meanwhile, I had only taken a rook and a couple pawns from him. After that he fell apart and I ended up winning that game.

It's been years since I've played chess; what you see here is the first time I'd played in about 4 years and I have not played since; my skills have most certainly degraded quite a bit. But Andrew here is a good player, especially considering his age. Still, I had to show him who was boss. No mercy!!!

Here is Kenzie's first taste of Chinese food. No Asian jokes, okay?

She still loves Chinese food.

For some reason we decided to get Kenzie her own little cake for her 1st Birthday. The first picture is of her eating it. The 2nd picture is the eventual crash after the sugar high. Just kidding. I don't remember when the 2nd picture was taken, but it makes for a funny progression.

Here's one of the birthday girl by herself. Doesn't she look adorable?!

Kenzie's First Christmas #1

Kenzie's First Christmas #2

Tiff will have to correct me if I'm wrong, but I do believe that this was Kenzie's first solid meal. This was Thanksgiving dinner in Missouri.

I know this is kinda blurry, but this is Kenzie feeding our ex-dog, Suki, Oreos. I never really cared for the dog, but she was kind of cute. For an ugly Pug.

Here's one of Kenzie soon after her very first surgery. She had to have tubes put in her ears because she used to get horrible ear infections. That's one thing I feel badly about passing on to her. But she's over them now; the tubes worked their magic. It just surprised me because I figured she'd be miserable after surgery. But she was only a few months old - she didn't know she was supposed to be miserable. She was actually in really great spirits that day. I love the little hat. I wish we'd saved it. Or maybe we did.

Here's another picture of Kenzie after getting her tubes put in.

Kenzie's First Halloween. Since then she's been Lilo from Lilo & Stitch, Snow White and a fairy. This is my favorite so far.