Live from iFest 2007

As I write this I am at One Way Street‘s iFest Conference. (International Festival of Puppetry & Ventriloquism) I’m here for just two days of the week long conference to report on this event for Kidology. I will be publishing a full report on Kidology.org soon in the Kidology Reports Zone, but here are a few teaser pictures and an EXCITING VIDEO at the end! iFest is a great place to meet other people who love puppets! And BUY cool new puppets! (I will be posting my favorites!) And bring your puppet team (these teens are from Texas!) And eat great food! (Chicken Sandwhich and fries, TWO pieces of pizza and TWO cups of Dew…. Oh Yeah, I love this conference!)   The highlight of the evening was getting to see the Black Light Competition in the evening. (There will be highlights via video in the Kidology Report on iFest) But then I got a big surprise! I was invited to compete in the Sport Stacking competition in the dark by Norm Hewitt, and won the first stack meet with four contestants, and then later, there was a second “semi-final” with four more, who all turned out to be kids.…

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A Bedtime Story for Luke

Yes, this is Luke with his laptop… granted, an old dead one, but he loves to sit and play with it… I wonder who is trying to be like? (picture is months old, fyi) Well, tonight as I was putting him to bed, I told him the following bedtime story, and thought others might like it as well, this is the short blog version. His version was drawn out and had the benefit of character voices! ENJOY! The Tale of the Three Little Piggy’s and Big Bad Wolf Hacker Once upon a time there were three little pigs who all worked in the Internet industry. One day, they heard a rumor that a terrible hacker, known only as the Big Bad Wolf Hacker, was sending out a virus that could do critical damage to a personal computer! The three little piggies were scared! “I’ll download a free virus protection tool!” said the first little piggy. “I’ll install Norton Anti-Virus!” said the second little piggy. “I’ll buy a Mac” said the third little piggy. And sure enough the Big Bad Wolf Hacker hacked and he hacked and he broke into the first little piggy’s computer and deleted all kinds of important…

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What does this picture mean?

What could this possibly mean? OK, my dad sends out these pictures to family with no explanation. I know the easy assumption would be that this is his wife’s new car… but that is far toooooo obvious, it can’t be that! What do YOU THINK is the meaning of these mysterious pictures? I think she must have just gotten a new job at Rocky Mountain Auto Brokers!

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Why Patriotism?

Over on Kidology.org there is a hot discussion that was started by a brother “down under” who asked: Why do American Christians see the need to teach patriotism? Doesn’t God love all nations equally? (see full question and discussion here) I’ve been watching the conversation, discussing it with family and friends, and waiting to post my answer until I could really give it some thought, and decided to answer it here on my blog rather than just in the Kidology forum. I’d love your feedback here or there. My short answer would be, I have never taught “Patriotism” to kids in church, but I certainly have modeled it. They see my flag ties and my red-white-n-blue converse shoes I only wear on US holidays. There is no secret I love my country, but I don’t teach “patriotism.” What I have taught is gratitude to God for our blessings, many of which are being American, and civil responsibility, both which are not USA dependent. “nation” not “America” I can go on and on about what a good and amazing country this is, but that is beside the point. I think the Kidology discussion got off on that rabbit trail, which is…

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Luke Goes to the Park

Just want to post some pictures from the park for family, friends, and Luke fans! Luke moves up to a bigger bottle! Luke’s first time to see bubbles! He was fascinated! Luke learns to swing! Only his second time in one! Couldn’t choose between these pictures, so putting both! BUT THEN THE MOST AMAZING THING HAPPENED! You MUST SEE THE VIDEO to believe it! After setting Luke on the slide and holding him from behind a bunch of times, and then keeping my hand behind him several more times in case he fell back, he finally pushed me away as if to say, “Let me do it alone.” So I nervously put him at the top of the small slide (it has hight sides, which was nice) and then video taped his first decent down a slide solo… and you won’t believe what happened! OK, I figured out how to put flash video on my blog, here is the first:

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