Chin Cheerio

Here is a cute, yet focus challenged, photo that I took over the weekend.

Red Head

Here is Lennon at the church playground today. He fell into the dirt on the way to the car and went stiff as a board (which looked kind of funny). So of course I had to snap a picture before actually going over and helping my poor kid. Here's hoping he will show me a little more kindness when I have my own "I've fallen and I can't get up!" moment 40 or so years from now.

The Rainbow

I splurged and got the kids two pools this year. Katharine went to Charlotte's to play. Upon drop off back home, the girls wanted to play some more here. I love how comfortable they are with each other and that they just want to go on and on and on...so they all ended up in the newly inflated rainbow pool. They all had fun in the "frozen" water part and the "heater" that safed them from the icy-cold shower. Very interesting to see the many rescue missions that went on. Lukas loved being part of it, though I am not sure he was aware that they were all mermaids.

I love the pose!

The First Pool Fun

I took this picture of our youngest homeschooler about 2 weeks ago. As you can see, she's already computer savvy.

This Spring has been so rainy and wet, and the kids have been waiting to get into the wading pool. So yesterday afternoon, between coming back from the lab where Lukas and Lennon got their blood drawn for allergy tests and going to tap class, I got the monkey pool out of the box, inflated it inside they house, rolled it out and filled it with water so they could hop in after dance last night. You can see they all had fun. Lennon loved the slide!

I do want to mention that Lukas and Lennon did awesome and it was not as much a disaster as I had anticipated to get 2 vials of blood from them. They both got some race cars and Cheetos as a price. And Cheetos are something you will NOT find in our house, ever! Lukas did not want to take off his bandaid before he could show it to Ms. Ann and Ms. Angie at their dance school.

Keira enjoyed eating grass and I tried to keep her from it.

Lukas all of a sudden started calling the monkey "Grandpa", maybe because grandpa usually clowns around with them, but what do I know what goes on in this little guys' head...

This morning, they were excited about going back into the pool, but of course, typical for Texas, the weather changed and we had small thundershowers. We will just wait and see what the weather will do today and hope to be able to go back out. Oh yeah, I didn't use the good camera for the photos, just my little one...

"Now my tongue finally has a door."

Katharine lost one of her front teeth tonight, and it looks like a double door is in her tongue's near future (the tooth next to it is loose as well).

Love shines through...

Iria and I went to see "Rent" tonight. After a long weekend, the message and music were both affirming and uplifting. It is great theatre.

I only had my iPhone, but a little filtering in Photoshop goes a long way with blurry, low-res, grainy photos. Iria was wondering why I was taking a bunch of shots of my crumpled program, so now she knows :)

Mushy bananas and mud puddles

I always like coming home and noticing the camera slightly out of place from where I left it- because then I know that there are probably some new pictures on it that Iria took during the day.

Flashback: May 5, 2006

Lukas and Katharine weren't really getting along tonight (he started playing with her Luke Skywalker toy without asking permission), so I dug back into the past to search for happier times.

Girl Power

Charlotte visited today, and their play consisited of the usual blend of estrogen and attitude.

Before the rain

We were outside playing in the drizzle before a thunderstorm rolled in.

Katharine posed in front of the blooming sweet peas that her Grandpa bought her.

Lukas and Lennon just ran around, splashing in puddles and looking for small bugs.

Keira showed me some tongue. Katharine did the same thing all the time at the age.

When the rain came, it was good to be inside (especially for my camera).

A shortcut through the mud

I took the kids to the new playground tonight, and thought that a shortcut over the dirt might be a good idea. It has been raining in Texas... so it most definitely was not a good idea. The wheels clogged up after about one minute, and we had to hose off the wagon and shoes once we returned home. Fun for the kids, but not for me.

The gallery

Katharine's wall is starting to fill up with her artwork.

Scarborough Renaissance Festival

Today me, Brian, Jeramy, Katharine, Lukas, Liam, Aiden and Maya went to the Ren' Fest. I took a little too many pictures, but: Renaissance Festival + Kids = Photo Op.



Here is the group, minus the three guys who were lugging all of the bags around.

Aiden, Lukas, Katharine and Maya got their faces painted. Liam opted for the rest room and ATM.

That hat store was popular.

Lukas went from pure happiness...

to absolute terror about halfway through the ride.

Katharine LOVED the rides, and I had to take her back one more time later on. I always secretly hoped that none of my kids would be into roller coaster style rides, but I might have to climb back on to one of those things again sooner than I would have thought.

Everybody was in fine form for the dart throwing.

Katharine was very graceful with the bubble wand- Iria can already see a lot of her dance training emerging.

Maya began to blow bubbles out of her hand all of a sudden, and it even surprised Jeramy. Very cool!

Liam picked it up fast, but had a devil of a time getting all of the soap off of his hands afterwards.

I remember this fairy from last year. There were a lot of returning faces.

The "Elephant Ride" was the big event today, and surprisingly cost effective considering everything else that they gauge you on there.

The poor camel didn't see much action. How could he possibly compete against an elephant?

Lukas in the maze.

We were starting to wind down by this point, and the sticks were a fun standing activity. Brian was pretty good with them.

The parade was great. We saw it last year as well.

One of our last stops was at the petting zoo...

but Katharine was growing cranky and bored...

so we didn't stay long.

Liam and Aiden picked up some wooden swords on the way out. Lukas survived a few skirmishes with just his plastic sword, and I was pretty impressed (and relieved).

One last ride.

They weren't awake for very long after this picture. All three kids slept pretty much the entire trip back to McKinney.

Here they are last year, minus the Martels: http://the-doeschers.blogspot.com/2008/04/scarborough-fair.html