practice, practice.

Putting up the net in the backyard has been wonderful for M who struggled with getting her serves because she had no visual reference for whether or not the ball was in or out or even over the net at all. Well, 30 bucks solved that problem and now she is showing major initiative with wanting to be outside for at least an hour or so every evening working on serves and spikes and sometimes setting. I am so glad she has found her "thing." Now if I could just get her to be that enthusiastic about her flute...

Just a pretty one of my blue-eyed beauty..

now that's style.

I just couldn't help but take a picture of this. I have no idea why she thought wearing the helmet would help her with her piano but who am I to doubt genius?
Clearly reading the music was not possible so instead of just removing the helmet, she only pushes it up...love it.

pneumonia.

It started with a hacking cough that just wouldn't be quieted. Then we had the spraying bloody nose so bad that we didn't want him any where near his Sunday school class. Next came the 103 fever and I knew something was up so I immediately made an appointment for him to see his pediatrician. Dr. Rose (we love him) didn't even have to enter the exam room to diagnose him (he did of course, but it was more a formality), he said he could hear him up the corridor and already had the order for the x-rays sent as he had little doubt that we were dealing with pneumonia. I thought for sure it was just a mild case, I mean he seemed perfectly fine once the Motrin hit his system. Nope. Right middle lobe and if it got any worse, he would need to be hospitalized. The only good news was that it was bacterial pneumonia probably not contagious. The poor little man had taken a turn for the worse into the evening and for the next several days, it was a struggle to get my son that eats me out of house and home most days to finish two meals. We did our best to keep him hydrated and rested but the weight loss has been noticeable. He is finally now back to his normal self, but seeing him like this just broke my heart.

crumbs.

I just thought this was hilarious. Obviously, I had too long a lens on the camera but I knew if I took the time to grab a shorter one, the moment would be lost so I made due. Who says dogs aren't smart? All three of ours know exactly whose bar stool to sit near for maximum food dropage.

no more pencils, no more books.

I know, I know, it has been forever but with L swimming at least 6 days a week, sometimes 7 and my being expected to proof a minimum of 300 pictures a week from each meet, coupled with C being very, very ill (I'll get to that later), I wasn't giving a whole lot of thought to taking pictures any more pictures than I had to. These were taken right before C man got sick at the end of school party of one of his school chums. As you can see, I have been in a strange b&w mood lately. I just feel more nostalgic when I look at a black & white image.

This one just makes me smile :-)

And so does this one...

Field day...Oh The Places You Will Go.

A little late on these, but hey, with all the swim team craziness, who has the time to blog?

The theme for field day this year was Dr. Seuss's book, "Oh The Places You Will Go" and while everything was super cute and the kids had a great time, I was slightly bothered by the metamorphosis of today's "field day" from the field days of my childhood. When we were kids (and I am not that old folks), field day was about competition and sportsmanship with everyone receiving a participation ribbon if they in fact participated the entire day and each event had winners who were awarded place ribbons for their athleticism. What happened to those days? Maybe I am in the minority when I say that a healthy sense of competition is good for kids. Life is full of competitiveness whether we like it or not and kids have got to be prepared for it. Anywho, as I said, all was awfully cute and the day though hot was a success in the eyes of all the students. The cool thing is that I really didn't feel like taking pictures and daddy took the day off to be at both the little one's field days and have lunch with M in the middle so he was fine with being the documentarian (yep it is a real word) for the day!
L's grade was first up in the morning...

I took these next few while Dad was over at M's school...

No cropping have been done to the next three, they are exactly as they were taken and I already have big plans for them to hang in the game room. ;-)

Daddy was back pushing the shutter for the rest and I must say, he did a terrific job!