Today has officially been certified as the “Craziest Day Ever” by the Martin-Keller Family. As you live it vicariously through this published timeline, keep in mind that everyone is happy, healthy, and in good spirits. Now.

In one day, we managed to take care of all necessary school-related carpools, shop at Target, take Mommy to the ER, have lunch with Aunt Jenni & Kiana, take Jocelyn and a friend to her kids Piano Party, and go out to dinner and then a hockey game. And did I mention that the Vancouver Kellers drove down from Oregon to stay the night, too?

Let’s review the day’s activities (timeline courtesy of David’s cell phone): Read the rest of this entry »

We had a fun adventure today, after we picked up Jocelyn from school. …

The Goodyear Blimp was circling downtown San Jose, in advance of the NCAA Mens Basketball West Regional this weekend. We could see it from our car on the way home, so we decided to investigate. We followed a meandering path, giving both girls the chance to see the blimp outside each of their windows. Eventually, we tracked it down to San Jose Arena, where we got out to enjoy the blimp, the ticket-buying frenzy, and neighboring park.

We visited the library yesterday, primarily to do research for Jocelyn’s “pet horse” second grade research project. On our way, Felicia told us all about Librariers:

Felicia: “When we see the Librariers, I am going to tell them we lost the Clifford book.”
Jocelyn: “What is a Librarier?”
Felicia: “They live at the library.”
Jocelyn: “You mean they work at the library?
Felicia: “Yeah. They sleep at them homes. They read books before they go to bed.”

Yes, “Librariers” … you know … like furriers, or ferriers, couriers, or even clothiers … You might call them “Librarians” … but Felicia prefers Librariers.

By the way, the losing of the Clifford book is another story.

Thanks to a teacher training day on Friday, our family is enjoying a three-day weekend in honor of St. Patrick’s Day. Well, not really, but we are off for three days. We had at least two different plans for the weekend — both of which fizzled — so we went to the beach at Natural Bridges yesterday.

Since our trip was to be a short one, we might have taken a few shortcuts with the sunscreen. But then we got word that Jocelyn’s ballet lesson had been cancelled, so we decided to stay at the beach for a few more hours.

Today, we’ve all got various degrees of sunburn: David and Jocelyn have bright red feet and lower calves, and Felicia appears to have red socks on, too. Karen’s back is lobster-esque as well. Oops.

That right there is a hastily-snapped digital picture of Jocelyn’s first soccer goal ever. At any level. She’s wearing the pinkish jersey, sneaking past a surprised goalkeeper and depositing the ball in the back of the net. She followed that up with two more, and notched a natural hat trick to lead her team in scoring in today’s game.

We’re playing in a new spring league this year, and Daddy has managed to avoid having to coach. So, in her first game ever without me as a coach, she scores. Three times. Woo hoo!

Nana & Papa have been in town this week, blending smoothly into a normal week’s worth of family and extracurricular activities.

After Nana watched Jocelyn’s piano practice on Wednesday, Felicia openly dreamed of the day when “I get older and Papa will come to my piano practice.” So, she was really excited when Nana made plans to watch Felicia’s ballet class on Friday. Felicia was even more animated than usual, and regularly glanced over her shoulder to make sure Nana was watching.

Two interactions with our local firefighters provided a lot of excitement for Felicia this week …

As we were leaving the grocery store on Wednesday, we walked past the big fire truck from Station 6. We had the good luck to see firefighter Colleen, who showed Felicia the giant crew cab for the pumper. As she was lifting Felicia into the cab, Colleen pointed to a chair in the rig, and said “That’s where I sit.”

Felicia turned around to the right rear corner of the cab and pointed: “That’s my seat. And my sissy sits there and my Daddy sits there, and my Mommy sits there,” she continued around in order.

But after we left the truck and went to our car, Felicia asked me, “Daddy, where are the firefighters who sit in the other seats?” I assured her they were inside the store buying food for the fire station.

Felicia’s preschool had an exciting day on Thursday, featuring an unintended visit from firefighters. A smokey plate in the oven was the cause of the fun, but it wasn’t discovered until the teachers had summoned firefighters to investigate. Once everything calmed down, the firefighters showed the kids some of their uniforms and then distributed “Junior Firefighter” stickers.

Felicia was reportedly very calm throughout the entire ordeal, and she was eager to tell me about it when I picked her up:

“Daddy, I got to meet the firefighters who sit in the other seats!” …