august iphone dump

Reading in bed together. Resting. LOVE the look on Scott's face. Tap shoes.

Unrequested sharing. Peeping, playing Avery. There's a little bee in my gina. Indidocunite girls. Happy birthday, Cathryn!

Doing some reading. Go blue. A cotton candy factory threw up on her (she picked this outfit herself). Virtual ski jumping. St. Mary's glacier.

Wear at hat...or sunglasses, with our without the lens.

Twins? They might have mixed up the vials at the fertility clinic. Scott's full 'beard." Daddy bear with a broken knee and crutches.

Love the perspective on the first one but needed to reshoot when he was wearing his space jammies.

My favorite project. My favorite necklace. Baby Rahul. Piles of money. I just couldn't cut the tips off of her bobby's when it was time for them to go - bribery totally worked instead.

Avery driving a model-T. Working the cash register. Climbing up.

Milky with friends. Weekend Wii. Vivi loves Rosie. Her set up.

Modeling their backpacks. Avery running on the track at school. Vivi's first day of school.

At the ball park. Game ball! Waiting for mommy (photo credit: Scott).

Speed racer. She now does her own pedicures. Ridiculous shoes. If this doesn't make you smile, you have no soul. Editing and caption by Avery. Vivi's favorite girls.

Avery's first day of school. Celebrating with a Big Fat Cupcake. Hopefully her majesty finds this clothing selection suitable. Viv eating lunch in her classroom.

avery's first day of school

Avery started ECE (pre-k) at Teller Elementary today. The anticipation of him starting school has been pressing down on us for months, and now, we are here. This all seems so huge, so momentous, so amazing. He has officially started his school career. Memories are being made and I'm fairly convinced the years will start ticking off even faster now. During the lemonade social the previous week, I kept thinking that this whole school thing wasn't possible. How is it that I was about to let my son go? Playing in the school yard, eating lunch in the cafeteria, buying milk, finding his own way, making friends, figuring out his place in the social network that is elementary school had arrived at our front door. My feelings vacillated between "oh, I totally get why people home school, maybe I'll try it" to "I'm so excited for him, let's go!" 

The first day of school was just a few hours where the parents listened to the teachers talk about the upcoming year while the kids played on the playground. When it was over, I wasn't upset and thought, yup, we can do this! Not a tear was shed.

The second day was his first full day. We packed a lunch, made sure he had a back-up lovey for rest and $10 in his lunch account. The playground was buzzing with excitement. Avery was so happy. It's like he was made to go to school and I was just along for the ride, sharing in his joy. The teachers lined the kids up and marched them into the school. I waved and smiled as I watched this precious parade. Just before Avery went through the doors, he turned around and found me in the crowd (his face was easy to see as he is at least a head taller than most of his classmates). He had the biggest, purest smile on his face and then he waved good bye. A dagger in my heart. I could not get to the car fast enough to let the tears go and call Scott to share in the pain and joy that was watching our son walk in to an elementary school. I never knew it would be so hard watching my children grow.

Avery LOVES school. He doesn't understand weekends and is raring to go every morning. It is a perfect fit for him. I finally got the full run-down of a typical day almost a week later while snuggling with him late one night - much better than the 'nothing' I get right after school. They need a bit of time to process all those happenings. Most of the raw emotional response to my child going to school has subsided and has been replaced with his excitement and enthusiasm. He is totally in his element. I love seeing him this happy.

*Avery is wearing a tiger shirt in honor of the Teller Tigers.
*Nikki was also came to the first day of school.    

ved's 5th birthday

Birthday boy, Ved.

Vivienne playing in the creek

Shanaya wading

Avery climbing

All the kids working together to build a damn

Mr. Independent, Rome

A little watermelon snack

A little sibling love

Ved sneaking a taste of the frosting

Happy birthday, Ved!

When I first saw the evite for Ved's 5th birthday, I honestly thought that Jovina had made a typo. 5 just seems impossible, the age we thought about when our children were infants and how it was a distant, far off age, so far removed from our tiny newborns. But here they are, diving head first into childhood, pulling their parents kicking and screaming with them. Ved's party at the Children's Gardens was a blast. The kids stuck pretty close to the creek, save for Avery who wandered off to the parking lot at one point, and then congregated in the party room for the much anticipated cake. Unfortunately, we had to leave a little early because Scott had his company party that day and I had a 3 hour photo shoot. Luckily, we got to see Ved blow out his candles and celebrate the 5 year old boy who is leading the way.

putt putt

It took some convincing and watching a two year old drive the course, but I finally convinced Mr. Junior Republican to drive the mini race car.

Getting a ticket was probably the highlight for him

Getting buckled in

Reviewing all of the safety information

Two seconds before he hit the guard rail

Two seconds before he hit that yellow car

Putt putt was more his speed

Keeping score

He really was quite good and typically needed only one more shot than me to get the ball in

His tongue activity reflects his level of concentration

The only pic I could beg him to pose for. I don't even care that the camera is focusing on the rope.

No time for pictures, there were 18 holes to play

He of course chose a green ball

This was his favorite hole. I even let him use my ball...6 times.

Definitely more his speed

Waiting for our turn.

Since Vivienne started school a week before Avery, I wanted to maximize the fun of his last week of summer vacation as well as some quality mother/son time. So, we dropped Vivi off on her second day and headed to Boondocks. I talked him into driving the mini race cars which might have been a mistake because he was terrible. So terrible that after 3 crashes, he just stopped. I can't say that I blame him and hope his current driving skills are not an indication of the teen years. Despite the less than stellar race, Avery did wonderfully at putt putt. He had the best time and was actually very good at getting the ball to the hole. I love that he's old enough to actually participate in activities. We easily made it through the 18 holes, played some arcade games and then left to pick up Sister. It takes more than 30 minutes to get from Thornton to Temple Emanuel, fyi.