sneak peek - miss e

I love baby yawns!

She's so beautiful! And she just laid there and let me play. I think she could see her reflection in my lens when I was up close and was perfectly content to watch me. Thanks again, Kimberly!

Labor Day fun

So, to kill some time on Labor Day (since we didn't go anywhere), we took Kev's RC car out to run in the parking lot at church. I got the car kit for Kev for Christmas back in 2001 thinking it would be a fun thing for him to work on over the winter . . . he finished the whole thing in 3 days. Back then we were living in Redding, Ca, and there was so much rain that winter we couldn't take it out to run until it dried up a little so we put it away. Nine years and 3 moves later here it is, raring to go. Kev let each of the kids try it out and both did pretty well with the driving, and G only flipped it once! Not bad for her first try.

They were a little suspicious of it when Kev was driving it . . . "It's gonna get us, Mom!":

J had the most fun just chasing it around the parking lot, especially when Kev got it stuck in the bushes and the batteries ran out.

ETA: Last night we took it out with my Dad's car and ran them again. On the last run of the night (of course it was the last run . . . after that it didn't work anymore) Kev ran it into a divider post on the edge of the property and bent a steering rod. No more fun until he fixes it. Shouldn't take long compared to the 3 days it took to build. :)

summer photo dump #2

Some photos just look better in B&W:

J was chasing his best friend E . . . not sure why he is channeling Frankenstein, tho.
Right after this next photo clicked his sister ran under the steps screaming and startled him, and he fell about 4.5 feet to the tire-covered ground. He would have been fine if he hadn't scraped his ear on the step on the way down:
And of course, what's a trip to the park without the wildlife shot?

And this face means, "I'm 5 going on 15 and I don't believe a word you say, Mom." Yeah, love the attitude.

summer photo dump part 1

So, here's our first portion of the Great Summer Photo Dump. I'll not bore you with captions unless they are needed . . . most of the photos tell their own story. And here we go:

I love this next one . . . she went inside to get a drink and he decided that his bike just wasn't cuttin' it anymore:

More to come!

sneak peek

Thanks for letting me work with you Lynette! I had a blast!

she made it....

. . . and so did I. ;)

firsts all around

So, we interrupt the regularly scheduled photo dump to bring you the first day of school for half of my family. Sunday night we spent a few hours finishing up last minute stuff in Kev's classroom:

And he even has a red stapler, just like on Office Space. It's not a Swingline but it still works.

His first two days went fantastically well and he still wants to go back which is always a good sign! He reallys enjoys working with the 5th graders and has come home really happy, though exhausted, each day. And today they are finally done with all the handbook/rules stuff so he actually gets to start curriculum.

Then today was Gennie's first day - her school does this thing where they assign the Kindergarteners to the A group or the B group, A group comes on the Monday and Tuesday of the first week, B group comes on the Wednesday and Thursday and the kids stay home on the Friday while the teachers use that time to divide up the kids into the three classes. Gennie was in B group so she had to wait until today to go. We did the obligatory first day of school photos in the front room before she left:

Yes, that's a sign-language K she's holding up, for Kindergarten.

Her little outfit came from my friend Annie (Thanks, Annie, she's been looking at it everyday waiting to put it on. She even tried it on last night to make sure she had it all together with the little belt, and then laid it out in her chair to make sure it didn't get wrinkled in the night.) We made her lunch and drove to the school where we found her classroom right away, and a new friend:

You can't see it very well but they are moving their name blocks over to indicate that they brought their own sack lunch instead of signing up for hot lunch. That's going to be her teacher, Mrs. Evans.

With a hug for me and a hug for Josiah, she was off with her new little friend and we were out of there. I made a bee-line for McD's for an iced mocha and some hashbrowns for J. Might just have to be our little ritual for the first day of school until he goes himself.

He didn't cry this time, unlike last year's outburst. And neither did I! Yesterday was an emotional rollercoaster (and I don't like rollercoasters- ask anyone) and I was a mess. We took Kopper back to the shelter because she just wasn't working out for us . . . she was the most disobedient beast on God's green earth and had recently learned to climb chain link meaning she was un-containable . . . we gave it the ol' college try for 6 months and she didn't get any better so we made the tough decision and back she went. But in all that I think I cried out all my tears for all the recent changes and got it over with before G's big day so it didn't even cross my mind to be sad this morning. Ahh, small blessings.

Now I just have to remember to go pick her up at 3:25. I don't think leaving her at school would be a good ending to the first day. :)