Dear Holly: Cake Walks are a Cake Walk

10 years, 6 months.

Dear Holly,

Despite you having a soft-spoken nature, you offset it with your surprisingly competitive spirit.

This was on full display at the recent Fall Festival at church, as you were drawn to the stage where several rounds of the Cake Walk were conducted.

After winning the first time, you realized there was no rule that you couldn’t play again. So you just kept playing. You walked away with three different dessert prizes, which our family spent the rest of the week eating after dinner each night.

 

Love,

Daddy

Dear Jack: Tribute to Jack-Man

15 years, 11 months.

Dear Jack,

By now, all of your friends and many of your classmates have discovered the fact that two dozen episodes of our original YouTube series “Jack-Man” (from when you were 4 years old!) are out there for the world to see.

This week at school, for the day all the students were allowed to dress up for Halloween, you decided to go out into the bin in our garage and pull out your old Jack-man superhero costume.

It was a hit!

 

Love,

Daddy

DeKalb County Fair 2026

Here’s what I learned this year after attending the DeKalb County Fair:

I am at a place in my life now where I can officially afford to go on the other days of the week… when it’s not “buy one, get one free” night for armbands, on Thursday.

Last year, we went on Thursday: It was so crowded that we ended up not even going on any rides.

Instead, I paid the lady at one of the game booths 20 bucks so that my daughter could “win” a Spongebob prize and then we left.

Ah, but this year… we actually had fun. Not just my wife and my daughter- but I specifically, a grown man… had fun at the County Fair!

For a family of four, you are only saving $60 by going on Thursday night. But here’s the part Alanis Morissette would find ironic, because it really is like 10,000 spoons when all you need is a knife:

What good is it to save $60 if you have to wait nearly an hour to go on each ride? You end up going on less rides for less money, but waste the majority on your time spent there.

Now that I think of… PLEASE go on Thursday! That means there will be even less people there when I am there instead.

 

 

 

Dear Holly: Play-Doh Butter Slime

10 years, 5 months.

Dear Holly,

My favorite Saturdays are when we have nothing planned. Because then, “something” has room to happen.

I loved how one of our recent “nothing” Saturdays found your brother helping you create “butter slime” with a pack of special Play-Doh that somehow ended up at our house.

Life becomes a balance of consuming versus creating.

And maybe that’s what I like about Saturdays where nothing is planned: It forces us to be creative!

Love,

Daddy

Dear Jack: Grease Monkey!

15 years, 11 months.

Dear Jack,

Exactly one month from today will be your 16th birthday! Coincentally, I was able to get a candid view of you working on the electric car for your class at school.

Your teacher referred to you as the “grease monkey” of the class. Based on this photo, I can definitely see why!

Love,

Daddy