Beautiful.

EI playing dress up with her sister.

The crew, in various stages of getting dressed in the morning. This picture was their own idea; I'm not sure why.

These last three are simply IM. No more to be said.

Fall Run

This picture was taken right outside the church where AK takes piano lessons. It is called Chapel by the Sea, for obvious reasons.

I went for a run during AK's piano lesson, and this is what I got to look at as I ran.

This country lane is one of our favorite places to run. It is just a three minute jog away from AK's piano lesson (and a twenty minute jog from our house).

This is the cottonwood tree in our backyard. It went from totally green to totally yellow in a very short time.

Right after AK's piano lesson on Friday, ML, AK, and IM took off for a camping/fishing/boating/hunting trip. They met the two favorite uncles from Soldotna who brought my parents camper trailer with them for everyone to stay in. They had an awesome time and got a bunch of good pictures which we will post soon. EI and mama got to stay home and have a relaxing couple of days.

BBREBBBTCJKTCJKAUGBEEBBBBEBE

Just wanted to put this on, does there need to be a reason?
Later

Birthday Weekend

EI eating breakfast backward

On my birthday some friends watched the kids while ML and I went out to lunch and went birthday shopping. When we were done the babysitters and kids were still at Chuck E. Cheese's so ML took a nap while I went for a run. Back home I got some pictures of our newly growing lawn. We are going to give the grass a couple more weeks without being walked on, and then we can cut off at ground level all the pipes you see sticking out of the ground. Next summer we should have a real lawn! The kids had a great time with the babysitters. Not only did they get to go to Chuck E. Cheese's and play games and win prizes, they got to go to McDonald's to eat and play in the playland there.

Another very exciting birthday present was new interior doors. Yea! This hallway looks so much brighter with six white doors instead of six dark brown doors. We still have to paint the doors glossy white, put the door knobs on, and change the hinges to antique pewter instead of gold.

School Daze

We are getting into the swing of the school year schedule around here. Besides school AK has dance lessons twice a week, piano lessons once a week, and AWANA. IM has been doing preschool at home with mom, swimming lessons once a week, playgroup once a week, and he gets to do AWANA this year as well. It is his first year as a cubbie. Last night was the first night and he was very excited. He had a great time. We keep forgetting to bring our camera places, but here are a few pictures from recent days.

If you look closely you can see that EI has been decorated with daisies by her sister. They are even tucked into her socks.

playing outside together on one of the last semi-warm days of summer.

EI practices the piano diligently.

Its very exhausting. Notice the puppy on the piano in front of her. She climbed up into the chair, put the puppy there, and sat down to play all by herself.

Hopefully we will have some more picture worthy events around here soon. Some upcoming happenings around here are new interior doors installed Friday, cross-country races to watch on Saturday, and CJ's birthday on Sunday. We should have some pictures to share of these various exciting occasions.

Birthday Take

Hey mom I got this CD at the store the other day, a Jazz Classic. It was the first jazz album to have an artwork on the cover and the first to break the mold of music in 4/4 or 3/4 time the album has music in 5/4 time. Anyway do you remember this one?


Later

Its Fairly obvious

We took the kids to the fair last week and had a great time. I had been dreaming of it for a week and I was getting so pumped up for the turkey leg I was going to devour. When we got to the turkey leg booth CJ noticed that it was $9 for a leg, one leg, by itself, alone, $9. I was a little put off at that point and didn' t really know how my stomach was going to respond, then CJ said the words that got me off the hook with my stomach. "Nine dollars, are you kidding me?!! We can buy two Costco rotisserie chikens for that!" Enough and well said babe, I moved on to other distractions at the fair with a contented heart thinking of all the wonderful dinners CJ has provided with those amazingly tasty Costco creations. As we walked away and I began munching a tasty smashed and soaked through to the crust peanutbutterandhoney sandwich I was secretly planning what steps would need to be taken in case my Kettle corn booth was in such a state as to be appealing to only the affluent masses at the fair.

AK and her buddie scaring the bejeezies out of the parental units for their lack of protection on a bit of a wild ride. Afterward they said it was fun but we hardly noticed any blinking as we watched. IM had a great time, he met a soldier at the recruting booth who gave him a "real" dog tag. EI sat in the stroller for 4 hours with no complaint. Ham solo won in the final race of the pig races against Paula Ham-dule. By the way we did get my kettle corn and let me give you a little bit of advice. If they ask "open or closed" in reference to the bag the answer is always and forever an emphatic enthusiasic clear "OPEN PLEASE!" At this request they topped off the bag adding another 5" of pop to the bag, it's a no brainer.
Later