September 2009

Creepy Fish Feeding at the Memphis Botanical Gardens.

I loved that place.

Misty Morning Runs

Exist here.

They make me happy. 

Gymnastics

Alida didn't want to stop.

So we found the new place.

 

After the first two-hour, pre-team workout:

"Mom.  That was no joke.  They were WAY more serious than Alabama."

 

And she hung in there, and she did some things better and some things worse than the other girls in her class.  And by the end of the second session she was twirling around the bars like I'd never seen her before.

 

Alida is a bottle of potential, wherever she wants to put it.

We will not be able to stop her, and I don't want to, once she decides to do a thing. 

Comic Book Illustration

Elaine in deep concentration at a class in comic book illustration she started instead of gymnastics.

 

Her glee that her dad surprised her and stayed to take the class with her, undeniable.

Thursday evenings are theirs for two hours a week for nine weeks.  They both love it.

One random Thursday evening

I'm not sure whether the dog enjoyed better the attempted kill of the skunk outside our door

or the bath that came after.

 

He had the thing in his mouth.

It sprayed 

It played dead.

It scampered off.

 

This all happened within about five seconds of Patric and I walking out into the night to take him on a short walk before bed, chattering away with each other for the first time the entire day as the leash flew from Patric's hand. 

 

 Brother, never a break.

Sunday Mornings

Early

They sneak off and fish, the girls and their dad.

They don't really catch much, and he got into some really bad poison ivy or oak mites two weeks ago that have made him so miserable for the last two weeks, he finally went to the doctor. 

 

(he never goes to the doctor) 

 

Nothing will stop them.  

Five Years Ago This Month

I may have inadvertently shown them Pet Cemetery on TBS one Saturday morning, while I tried to sneak in some fashion of adult time before they woke up.

 

Two weeks ago: we watched it again.

It was so much fun.

 

They still HATED the part where the Achilles heel is sliced with a scalpel. 

Conversations With Ben

We've been shopping new churches, which is super fun because we get to expose the kids to a huge range of how people worship.

 

This Sunday:

Me: Well, we were a little overdressed.

Ben: No.  No, mother.  They were all underdressed!

 

Ben, some days you make me feel like I may have done a thing or two correctly. 

School Lunch

Kill me now.

 

I'm trying.

But peanut butter apple sandwiches with grape eyes--cute but total failure for actually wanting to eat it.

 

The cheese is a unibrow.

School Picture Day

One head of hair straightened.

One head of hair curled.

 

 

Real smiles, priceless.

The Demands of My Grocery List

Grow ever more complicated

Scouts Out

The boys joined a local troop last Saturday to get to know them and explore Starving Rock Park.

 

It was a great day for a hike and a great day trip to see some new friends.

 

And by the end of the very long day at home, Elaine and I decided our new motto is: When given the chance, go hiking.  Because we stayed in, and didn't have nearly as much fun.