Someone made a new friend...

...from the forest moon of Endor.

Wicket is in pretty good shape for a 30-year-old stuffed animal.

Blue Shirt

As you can see, I am officially a soccer mom. Tommy is playing in our local recreational soccer league, and is learning all the finer points of the sport. He spent most of his first game practicing dramatic falls, sometimes when he was near the ball and sometimes off on his own, and when he wasn't hurling himself across the grass he was manhandling the other players in an attempt to get the ball. Thankfully they weren't calling fouls on the first day, or Tommy would have been out after three minutes.

During the second game he was still a little hands-y, but it was much better. They rotate positions throughout the game because it is "not competitive," but Tommy seemed to spend a very long time at goal, which kept him from fouling other players, allowed him to throw himself upon the ground, and let him use his hands. I think it might be his position. According to Tommy, his current "dream" is to play pee-wee football (not happening), and I think goalie might be as close to football as you can get while playing soccer. If you look closely at the picture of Tommy throwing the ball out on the field, you will notice that he was pelting his teammates with the ball, for which I blame the coach yelling, "Throw the ball at a blue shirt." Five-year-olds love Amelia Bedelia for a reason.

Also, see if you can spot the picture of Tommy dancing. Ever since Emily's wedding he has been practicing his moves, including "break dancing," and he seems to especially like to do this during games. It was hard to adequately capture this because he was moving too much for a picture, but we got one shot of him gearing up for some of his excellent moves.

The little boys enjoyed playing their own game on the sidelines with Daddy (who pulled double-duty as photographer).

A Day At the Huntington

So, I wrote a little post about our day at the Huntington but blogger decided to eat it. It kept all the words, but for some reason rearranged them in alphabetical order. The words are below in case anyone wants to decode the post. Fortunately blogger did not eat the pictures...so here they are:

a about adventures all also always and another are areas attempts be because been before. before blue boy boys california can ceremony children days did enjoy. experienced fascinating favorite few for fun garden gardens gets give go goes great hadn't happened has have house houses. how huntington impatient in insists interesting into it japanese last learn library. long lots many me mom museum of on one or our outside. pinkie place planning preparing really run s see so someone something. something spent story. tea thankfully that the their then there they time to tommy too. too touch tours trip was we

It's almost poetic, really. Nice work Blogger.

If you give a boy a popsicle

he's going to want to eat it outside on the porch.

While sitting outside, he'll notice the neighbors are having a party.

He'll need to check it out. So he'll get up and begin walking around the cul-de-sac.

Then he'll decide that his walk is so entertaining that he'll keep going.

As he continues his walk, he'll notice one of the neighbor's has something strange-looking on their driveway, something that must be figured out.

So he'll walk across it. He'll bend down and touch it. He'll even sit in it.

Then he'll call for his brother and encourage him to do the same.

When neither of them can figure out what exactly all the sticky black stuff is, they'll decide to get a second opinion.

So they'll come home and ring the doorbell.

Them they'll notice that their hands leave little black marks everywhere, so they'll want to be cleaned up.

While you frantically Google "how to remove asphalt from skin" they'll delight in their exciting discovery and touch some more things. So you'll send them into the back.

You'll rub them down with olive oil to no avail, and realize the only recourse is gasoline.

When they finally finish their treatment they will stink like an old garage and ask to be hosed off.

After you hose them off they'll be cold and want to take a bath.

But taking a bath and getting ready for bed in the brutal heat will make them hot again, so they'll ask for a Popsicle to cool off.

And chances are, if they ask for a Popsicle, they will want to go eat it on the front porch.

Natural History Museum!

We spent a day this summer at the Natural History Museum with my Mom, Aunt, and cousin Molly. We enjoyed visiting the new garden, the fantastic new kid's lab, and seeing the LA exhibit. The big thrill of the day was the time we spent in the butterfly tent. I admit that when we first went in it was disappointing because in my head a butterfly tent would have thick clouds of butterflies, but upon further reflection (or rather observation of my most timid child), I realized that too many butterflies would be scary (and messy). Once the kids warmed up to having butterflies land on them they had a really great time. My mom ended up being a butterfly magnet, so we got to see lots and lots of them up close.

Starting School

It seems that everyone is posting pictures of their kids starting school, and I've yet to get my pictures up. Both Tommy and Nic are in school this year. Tommy is in full-day Kindergarten, and Nic is at school district pre-school for a few hours every afternoon. If only I could get Kenny to nap for any length of time I might actually be able to get something done!

Both guys are enjoying themselves. Tommy has been a little worn out, but given his naturally high level of energy I am not worried about him adjusting to the schedule. I don't know how I'll make it though...these early mornings are killing me! The little guys and I walk Tommy to school each morning, and while I enjoy the motivation to be up and ready for the day, I would like that day to start one hour later than it does. The good thing is we should actually be on time to more of our activities this year. So far, Tommy's favorite thing about school is, predictably, recess. He insists that he isn't learning anything at school, but I'm fairly sure he is. Being a social sort of fellow he has already had to have his seat moved, and there may have been an incident involving a dog pile...but Tommy assures me he was on top so I know he didn't start it. From his after-school commentary it appears that his teacher may have been blessed with a rather rambunctious group of little boys this year, so hopefully he will blend right into the pack and I won't get too many notes home.

On the first day of school Nic ran out the door to the bus, hoped on, and yelled "bye mom!" I was floored by his enthusiasm. He had spent the previous day worried that he would miss Kenny (until that point he was under the impression that mom and Kenny would also be attending preschool), and so I was a bit nervous that he would change his mind about preschool. However, his longstanding desire to ride a bus overrode any hesitations he had and he was quite pleased with himself and his situation. This lasted a few days, then we had a heat wave and one day Nic arrived at school half asleep and drenched in sweat and the school nurse took one look at him and decided he could no longer ride the bus because it doesn't have air conditioning, and she doesn't want him to have a sickle crisis because of the bus (and neither do I). Since then the district has been sending a mini-van for Nic, which is really an upgrade, but not in Nic-world. Now that he can no longer ride a big yellow school bus his enthusiasm for school has greatly diminished; there may even have been some kicking and screaming when he first had to be strapped into the mini-van carseat. Poor kid. He was so close to living the dream. We have high hopes that once it gets a little cooler he will be able to ride the bus again. He does like his class, I think. Sometimes it is hard to know with Nic. I have to say that I was blown away by the program on the preview day. The facilities at his school are amazing, the classrooms are beautifully designed. The playgrounds are great, and they even have an indoor playground that Nic will play on with a few friends when the weather is too hot or too cold for him to be outside for recess. They also have a library, areas for various therapies, and therapists that work in the classroom as well. Nic gets his speech therapy in class twice a week. Nic has made great strides in speech, and I think having more time to interact with his peers will be helpful to his speech development as well. The only downside of preschool is that Nic is pretty wiped out by dinner time and that has made eating with him a less than pleasant experience on many nights. He wouldn't nap anyway if he were home, but he doesn't quite have the energy to make it through the day without some downtime. I will probably need to institute an after school quiet time, but it is hard when the weather is still nice and they want to spend some time outside.

Kenny is enjoying getting a little time at home to himself. He enjoys being the center of attention for a short period of time (which may explain his reluctance to nap). We are doing our standard routine of bible studies and MOPS, so he is getting out and about too.

And now, for those promised photos: