Father’s Day….er….Week…..er….???

So it’s been a week since I treated my dad like a king for a day and it seems to have gone to his head. I keep getting all these notes and pics that relate to father’s and sons – it’s like he’s signed up for some newsletter or something. Anyway, here are a few of his favs….

He swears he will be saying this no matter how big I get, or how old I am, or where we are. (Here’s the full article from Mashable.com –  “14 Adorable Confessions From Super Dads”)

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And my dad swears this will be him every chance he gets. I’m counting on my mom to stop him, but he’s crafty so we are on high alert. (Here’s the full article from Mashable.com – “32 Reasons Our Dads Are the Greatest”)

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One thing my dad always points out is when he sees another dad being present and a good dad. According to “19 Things Dads Do That You Won’t See In Popular Culture” from Buzzfeed.com, movies and stories tend to focus on the exceptions rather than the rule when it comes to fathers these days. I hope he’s right.

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I told my dad I get it – you should have more than one day a year where I appreciate and honor you, blah, blah, blah. I think the “blah, blah, blah” part did me in because he followed up with the below winning essay for a “What My Father Means to Me” contest from a 6th grader named Edward titled: “The Dad I Will Never Know.” Dad – I give…uncle….no mas.

My dad and mom both served in the United States Navy. They were stationed in Maine, which is where I was born.

I said my first word when I was six months old. I took my first step when I was nine months old. I said my first prayer. On all my first school days, my mom was there. I always noticed dads picking up my friends and not so much moms. After so many years, I finally asked my mom why my dad never picked me up. She told me he was killed in a car accident when I was two months old.

My mom took me to Philadelphia to visit my dad’s grave when I was 8 years old. I sat next to his grave and stared at his picture on the gravestone. I remember crying for awhile because I wanted to give my dad a hug and to tell him how much I missed him and love him….

While playing soccer, I score goals and look up at my mom to see her face. If only my dad was standing there next to her to share the same excitement.

When I graduate high school and college, I will see my mom standing there so proud. If only my dad were there to stand proud next to my mom.

Mowing the lawn, learning how to drive, ride a bike, play catch in the backyard, how to fish, boy scout campouts, getting married, learning how to fix things and being a man [are things] my mom will have to teach me because my dad won’t be there. No sense in asking God why my dad isn’t here for me. He must have needed someone like my dad in heaven.

The artist formally known as Parker

So I’ve noticed a great number of paint masters have three or more syllables in their name and end with a long “o” sound, e.g., Mi-chel-an-ge-lo, Le-o-nar-do, Pi-cas-so. So with that, please address me as Par-ke-ro.

Sure, that may be a bit pretentious, but when you have a piece of work featured in the prestigious Dallas Museum of Art, then I will call you what you want.

Yep, that’s right – my latest sculpture is currently being featured at the DMA. For this piece I didn’t want to be passe and go the political or religious route – that’s so 2010. No, I chose to be more introspective and create a piece that spoke about a boy’s growing understanding of the power within. I chose to express that in the form of a lion (and not only because that is my favorite stuffed animal). As a matter of fact, I have titled the piece Super Lion. I call it Super Lion because I made the eyes real big so they can see far away – into my soul if you will (said in brute-y tone).

And, I wasn’t done there. Mommy, grannie, daddy, and I decided to paint more masterpieces at the DMA’s weekend family workshop.

Super Lion

Me

me in front of a Mark Rothko

me in front of a Mark Rothko

in the kids center

in the kids center

Workshop

Some other people’s art 

Michelangelo, Raphael, Leonardo, Donatello….Parker

No, I ‘m not the newest member of the Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles – I, like these great art masters, have been bitten by the art bug. Grannie, daddy, and I went to the Dallas Museum of Art the other day to expand my knowledge of art and had a chance to participate in one of their children’s art clinics – it was AWESOME!! I had so much fun. This particular clinic (and they change every month) was about still lifes and what was represented by the kinds of food on the table, or the type of flatware or drinkware, etc. We all learned stuff we didn’t know beforehand. Then we got the chance to make our own version of a still life with different craft materials. You can see below what grannie and I made (mine is the pizza). We did such a good job that we were all craving pizza and donuts so we had to grab some pizza on the way home and donuts the next morning. They say art inspires you so if our work isn’t art, then I don’t know what is.

Anyway, we had so much fun that we plan on going back once a month to participate in the clinics to broaden our awareness and appreciation for all mediums. You can check back here for more masterpieces.

DMA collage_gold frame

Barbados birthday baby

Well, in a matter of a week I got a tan and I turned 7 years old – all thanks to Barbados. I had a blast traveling in style and spending time with my family, but I am tired from the trip and glad to be home. Some highlights from the trip included: seeing a sunken ship and sea turtle while snorkeling during our pirate ship excursion, eating flying fish, boogie boarding, daddy getting stung by a jellyfish, and of course my birthday.

The whole trip was great and unlike last year, daddy didn’t end up in the hospital, but he did get stung on the same leg he broke last vacation. Of course his version of the story is one of man vs. wild like the jellyfish was some sort of Portuguese Man of War. While it does resemble some of the pics of the Man of Wars, it was like the size of strawberry. So even if it was a Man of War, it wasn’t the size of a football or big enough to warrant him getting a tattoo of where it stung him to commemorate his triumph over the wild.

Anyway, first class trip all the way.

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a beach tradition

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beach chillin’

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pretty momma

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hot momma

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daddy loves me

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momma w/ crazy uncle David

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view from the room

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sunken ship

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Crush from Finding Nemo

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View from our roof

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first class is how I do

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Crane Beach

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jellyfish along of the beach

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happy birthday to me

For Sale

I was telling daddy the other day that we should sell our house. He asked me why I wanted to sell my house since we really liked the house, yard, neighborhood, and school??? I told him we didn’t need to sell it right away, but in a month or so so we could get a house that was bigger (because we don’t use the guest room much or the other spare bedroom that we still haven’t decided whether to turn it into a home gym, game room, or another play room for me), had more couches, and was closer to Grannie. Daddy seemed pretty open to my idea, but I think he was sold when I told him we could get a lot of money for it – $4,000!!

Check for our home on the MLS soon.

Grandparents galore

Over the past week I have been blessing my grandparents with my presence. First, it was bowling with papa Kolias and daddy. I’m almost unstoppable with bumpers and a ramp to guide the ball, but daddy still got the best of us both and was crowned champion. Daddy says that this is his time – young enough to beat the aging papa Kolias and old enough to hold me off for many years to come. Just keep in mind daddy that my time will come and I will have no pity on you.

Then, I spent the whole day with Grannie on 5/24 because school was out and mommy and daddy had to work so she was the lucky one that got to run me around everywhere – and I mean everywhere. First, it was off to a great breakfast at Waffle House – my fav (#FavFlav). After getting fueled up, we went to the library to find knock-knock joke books. She didn’t realize how many books there would be on that subject, nor did my folks – I have been reading knock-knock jokes left and right. After that, we ran up to Pilot Point to go to this zoo where you can also eat dinner with bears. Unfortunately, it is closed during the week so we wasted a trip to Pilot Point for nothing. So pressed to keep me entertained and happy, Grannie took me to Chuck-E-Cheese and I have to say that I never get sick of that place. Yes, it may be germ-infested and full of ill-mannered kids that aren’t high on taking turns, but I get to spend lots of money for tickets to get prizes worth a fraction of the money spent on them.

And then this past weekend, we went out to nanny’s new place at Possum Kingdom. That is about a 3 hour car ride from here to there – fortunately, I had a lot of knock-knock books to help pass the time for mommy and daddy (thanks Grannie). One of the cool things about nanny’s place is that she has like 40 pet deer, or at least deer that hear the can rattle and come running up for a free meal. Nevertheless, I got to feed deer and it was cool. We fed them corn and at one point I tried to throw the corn out real far, but I ended up just hitting a deer in the head. I didn’t mean to, but I did giggle when I heard the thump of corn on his head – I hope that isn’t bad karma – he did continue to eat.

Anyway, it was a good time with the grandparents – next up is papa Dupree this weekend at the family reunion.

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Daddy is a Fool!

It obviously goes without saying that I pick up little things from my parents, e.g., I get short-tempered when playing Super Mario Bros just like daddy does. He says it is because he gets so worked up and wants to win. It gets kind of annoying to me when he is telling me not to go there or do that in the game, but that doesn’t stop me from doing the exact same thing to mommy or grannie when they play with  me. There are a number of things I’ve picked up from both parents, but I want to talk about one specific thing I picked up from mommy.

We just love us some April Fool’s Day. For 23 years of daddy’s life, he never really had anyone try to trick him on April 1st, but about 15 years ago, someone started – mommy. And about 2 years ago, daddy had to worry about 2 people – mommy and ME!

This year, daddy had to go out of town and grannie was taking me to school since mommy was working. Daddy always stresses when someone other than mommy or him take me to school because of the routine, etc. I thought this was the perfect scenario for me to take advantage and I had grannie text him saying I had a fever and needed to stay home. Daddy started freaking because he was out of town, mommy was at work, and he didn’t want grannie to have to stay home with me. We finally told him he was an April Fool. Mommy was proud of me for thinking of that all by myself. Oh daddy, you’re such an easy mark. I’m still laughing.

I only look sweet

I only look sweet

Bunny Hop…

…right up to my door. Yep, E.B. (Easter Bunny) dropped by my place again this year. This time, I had a couple of surprises for him, but he had a few for me.

A day or so before Easter, I thought to myself – why should Santa be the only one to get something to eat on his route around the world? – no offense  Santa if you’re reading this. So I made E.B. a special egg so he wouldn’t get hungry. I also left him a note in chalk since I know how to spell this year – he had to be surprised by that.

He wrote me a note as well and left me a basket, but this year he left me a lot of eggs to find and some where bigger than my head. And the day just got better because I got to do another egg hunt with my cousins at Papa Dupree’s house.

Check out the videos below and pardon me being in my underoos, but I was excited.

P.S. Thank you Jesus for dying and rising to save us from our sins.

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