When I was growing up the school picture was the picture of record for the year. In a film camera world, photos would be taken on summer vacation, birthdays and Christmas – that was about it. Photographs were a special event sort of thing, not an every day occurrence.

The school picture was the one Nan would have on her credenza to show off to her friends. We would only see her a couple of times a year – now my sons can Skype their Nana anytime they want.

Photography is no longer a luxury. Digital means we dont have to ration out our picture taking. We can take hundreds or thousands a month and can archive just the dozens that are decent. My son knows how to take pictures using my iPhone and is eager to learn how to use my DSLR – he’s 3.

Yet picture day is still a day circled on the calendar to make sure our kids look their ‘Sunday best.’

Why is that?

School picture day should be obsolete. School yearbooks should have faded away in this YouTube era, Facebook should have made high school reunions redundant.

Yet all those still hang around and linger as old timey traditions of the past.

Still, I’ll concede it was fun to get Zacharie ready for picture day this week, but I’m not looking forward to the photo pack prices when the pictures are processed. Can’t we just each pay the photographer a couple of bucks for their time and get an email of the jpg?

Instead we’ll be urged to buy wallets, 3×5, 4×6 and 5×7 images at ridiculous prices. In the 70s and 80s we needed the school photographer to be that intermediary and print off the photos. Now, for less than $100, I can get a photo quality printer to fire off as any images on to paper as I want at the same quality.

I just want a picture of my son as my wallpaper on my iPhone – and I don’t need school picture day to make that happen.

Check with your local Fire or Police Department for by-laws and regulations on discharging fireworks in your municipality. Be aware many municipalities have changed their by-laws concerning rules and regulations regarding fireworks.

Family or Consumer Fireworks Safety Tips:
Adults must take responsibility to supervise all fireworks activities. Fireworks are not toys. They burn at approximately the same temperature as a household match and can cause burn injuries and ignite clothing if improperly lit.

Read and follow all warnings and instructions. Do not purchase or use unlabeled fireworks. Homemade fireworks are deadly. One third of the injuries associated with fireworks have typically been caused by illegal explosives or homemade fireworks.

It is illegal for minors to purchase and possess fireworks. It is illegal to sell fireworks to minors.

Use fireworks outdoors only. Never try to re-light fireworks that have not fully functioned and always have water handy in a garden hose or bucket.

Sparklers are often considered harmless fun. However, they can burn as hot as 650° Celsius (1200 °Fahrenheit) and can ignite clothing. As with other fireworks, always use them outdoors under adult supervision. Place used sparklers immediately into a metal container.

The majority of the injuries from family or consumer fireworks involve misuse rather than malfunction.

Organizers need a permit to set off display fireworks. The actual firing of the display is conducted by a trained pyrotechnic operator and crew. Crowd control is mandatory.

Display Fireworks Safety Tips:

* Spectators should obey all safety personnel and respect the security barriers set up to allow the trained operator to safely do his job.
* If a firework component falls to the ground without exploding, immediately tell the safety personnel. Do not touch the fireworks.
* Leave the lighting of all fireworks to the trained operator when you attend a public display. Consumer fireworks are not appropriate to use when a large crowd is present.
* Taking pets to a fireworks display is not a good idea. The loud noises can hurt their ears and cause them to panic. Leave pets at home if you are going to a fireworks show.
* Regulation alone cannot protect the public. It must be combined with personal responsibility and awareness.

Most importantly, have a safe and scary Halloween!

Photo on Flickr by mckaysavage.

Total time to prepare for hike: 3 hrs 40 minutes.
Total hike time: 1 hr.

As with most bad ideas, Daddy thought this one up. “Let’s go for a hike!” he said. “Why?” said Faith. “I don’ wanna!” said Roan. Well Daddy overruled them this time. Although he now regrets it.

Before you get the wrong idea, the hike idea was pretty modest; an absolutely level, manicured gravel trail in a nearby nature preserve. Top distance? A few kilometers a most. It was almost more an idea of a hike than a real hike.

PREPARATION

Everybody was assigned a job. Daddy took extra clothes and water. Roan was assigned to carry the snacks. Faith was assigned the medical kit and safety equiment. We never did find Faith’s old backpack so her new kids backpack had its first outing today. Roan and Daddy found their old backpacks no problem.

Faith insisted on packing snacks, then assigning them to Roan for packing, then unpacking them again to ‘check’ them, then pack them again and issue Roan his backpack back to him. Roan was mildly amused.

Once we were all packed and everyone was forced, literally forced to go to the bathroom, we discovered we were a few items short, namely air for the tires, a water resistant jacket for Faith, and a compass. These three would have to be resolved before a real hike to happen.

LAST MINUTE REPLENISHING OF SUPPLIES

Air in the tire? Check. free at gas station.

Rain resistant jacket for Faith? $3.99 at Salvation Army. After a little back and forth on what was boyish or girly, and a quick looky next door at the kids resale shop (no luck).

Off to get a compass? Not so fast. By now it is clearly lunch time. So off to Burger King, a Saturday ritual. No major drama here, just lots and lots of time spend nibbling on the lunch that only minutes before was so ardently demanded. Funny how it doesn’t take much to resolve “I’m soooo hungry!”

Then we’re off to the local hardware store for a compass, which at 1.99 also left room for an emergency poncho (1.99) a hand warmer packet (.79) and a whistle (also 1.99). This last item was determined to be critical in case of bears. Fortunately we only needed one, since we had already attached a little jinglebell to Roan’s backpack so he wouldn’t get lost, or if he did , we could hear him when he jingled his bell.

A FEW FINAL ADJUSTMENTS

Now, at 2:30 we were finally at the trailhead, ready to hike. A check of the trail map showed how we could travel down the wide path in pretty much a straight line, decide when we were tired, then come back along the same route.

Off we go! But first we gotta stop to figure out how the compass works. Line up the red arrow with the “N” by turning the compass, not your body, then look at which letter is pointing in the direction you are going. But don’t forget to give the compass time to catch up to your turning or no matter which way you go, you’ll go “north”.

Off we go! But first we need to get a jacket. It’s new, so it needs to be checked out. And zipped up. And the backpack adjusted. And the whistle and compass pulled out and untangled.

And the Hello Kitty medallion put on front of it all, bling side out.

Off we go!

But first we need some water. And the hat adjusted to the right or back so you can actually tip the water into your mouth and not down your front.

And we’re off! Watch out for the poop! Horse poop! Dog poop! Poop, poop, poop.

But we also found a caterpillar. He was cool. And fuzzy. We made sure he made it all the way to the other side of the path.

Then we needed to take a few pictures.

A little more walking was good.

All this walking can work up an appetite, so we needed to take a break for a snack. And some water. Good thing there was a park bench nearby. Good place to watch the dogs and the bike people go by. Nice view.

We saw a duck and a heron and a butterfly.

HEY! WE’RE HIKING!

This was great. Everybody had a chance to do their thing: Daddy got to share the water and take out the clothes jacket; Roan got to pass out the snacks; and Faith….

We pretty soon took care of that, as Roan obliged by doing a quick start on the gravel, which landed him hands first and in a roughly south-by-southwest orientation.

Rocks are naughty. They cut your hands when you land on them hard. And they don’t make you want to show your daddy or your sister, ’cause they want to hurt you. So even if your hand hurts and you are crying, don’t show anybody your boo-boo or it will get lots worse.

Once Faith and Daddy were done hurting Roan, everything was alright. Faith had more water, then Roan had some water, then Faith ran out of water and wanted Roan’s water, then Roan didn’t want to share his water, then Daddy had to make Roan share his water, then everything was alright.

Then we walked back, cause we’d already been gone 45 minutes and Daddy only really wanted to go for an hour or so, and getting hurt was a good reason to turn back anyway.

And that was the end of our little hike. Time for a nap.

Sometimes it’s not the destination, but the journey that matters most.

And sometimes it’s the getting ready for the journey that matters most.

About This Author: Christopher is married to the beautiful and talented Michelle, and dad to four year old son Roan and eight year old daughter Faith. He is a self-described opera, sci-fi, literature, and music geek. Follow Christopher on twitter @operabladerunnr

One of my jobs was moving a woodpile from one side of the house to the other so we could have better access to the backyard. There are about 150 pieces of laurel, maple and spruce that needed to be moved. Not the easiest thing to do with a toddler underfoot. But Zacharie wanted to help. There were some smaller pieces I would let him take while I trucked the big stuff over, but I soon realized the small pieces would disappear.

So everytime Zacharie took a piece over from one side to the other, I would take it back. For most of the day we moved that pile, interspersed with lunch, snack, bike and wagon rides and a nap, and he moved the same 4 sticks all day long.

He would carry it over, I would carry it back. He would carry it over, I would carry it back.

And he loved it. And I loved him.

This weekend I think I’m going to teach him how to wash the cars.