A small miracle...

I know... you think that my actually blogging is the miracle.

Alas, it's much more practical than that!

After a miserable day, following a miserable week, I came home from Target with a gallon of cough medicine and a bag of Halloween candy. Anticipating sweet relief, I was less than impressed with this discovery...



Seems Cael was busy while I was gone. Yes, I left him with supervision, I'm just not certain where said supervisors were... Cael was caught with my fabulous green pen. Surprisingly, nobody thought to investigate where exactly he'd been happily illustrating, although everyone seemed to know he had colored "somewhere"... The couch, people! He colored on my couch!

I wish I could say I responded calmly and without any inappropriate words, but y'all would know I was lying. I did dig out the cleaner that came with the couch and read through the warranty. Go ahead, guess whether pen is covered....

Nope. With little faith and even less energy, I took to cleaning the couch.

Would you believe, it wiped right off?! Look at it! I'm sold on Enduro Suede. I used to long for leather... No more.


I think it almost makes up for the rest of the week. Almost.

Pompey's Pillar

T-ball 2010

I might be the only parent on the planet that thinks the t-ball season is far to short! I just don't tire of it... This year, I took on team parent duties (after seven years of kids playing ball, I figured I'm due...). Bad call. There are some rude, lazy, cheap people having kids these days. I don't see me signing up for that job again anytime soon!


George waiting for his teammates to get the show on the road!



Explaining something to Coach John.



Explaining something else to Coach John.

Looks like Coach John is explaining a thing or two to George!

Ready to catch!

A little coach pitch in a t-ball game!

George instructing the third baseman on what he ought to be doing!

Running for home!

We're already counting the days until ball season begins again! Fortunately, George is signed up for fall soccer so he'll have some organized running to keep him busy soon!

Ain't No Wild Waves... But We Love It

Someday, George isn't going to have that black tooth and I do believe I'm going to miss it!


Auntie Sara & Uncle Josh (Sure is awesome when they come along...)


Waiting for the big bucket dump... notice Josh keeping Cael from breaking free!

(This is the waterpark we went to when I was Rhys' age: Wild Waves)

Cael turns three... finally!

Yes, his birthday is May 21st. However, you will notice only TWO candles on the cake. Cael did not want turn three. He wanted to stay "two half"! So insistent was he, we went along with it.

Turns out that just this week (a full two months later), he's decided that now he'll be three. Fabulous. Just in time to go to the movies tomorrow. He went from being free to $6. Way to go Cael.


Lovin' the Buzz cake with its two candles!


George giving some instruction on the art of t-ball.




Bret sending one down the hall to a waiting Cael.



Now, there's a good end to a great party! Brennen, Maddie & Cael...

Love, love, love summer....

We got to hang with some friends the other night to celebrate John's 9th birthday. What a glorious summer evening! I want to bottle it up and keep a bit for those February nights when winter won't relax it's grip and summer seems impossibly far away...

Katie patiently refilled water guns 1000 times! Cael thinks she's magic! Bjorn just liked to soak her leg, over and over and over....

Cael comin' after the mama firing with both hands! John is right behind with ammo as well!

Kjersten taking another turn on the zip line. When Rhys arrived at the party (after karate), he spent the whole evening on this thing! Our friends do have the best backyard in the whole world! (Just ask my kiddos!)

George & Zeb shooting at John's grandpa, Bill, who had the BIG water blaster gun. Bill politely obliged their request for a gun fight and the little boys got a much deserved and thoroughly enjoyed soaking!

Nathan & Jason didn't seem to mind the chaos. Of course, they were chatting out the the line of fire, happily ignoring their combined 9 children!

Unfortunately: my modus operandi

Thanks, Jamie! It's only funny because I know I'm not alone here...

T-ball season begins tonight!

We finally had some spring rain yesterday, so George's 1st practice was postponed until today. Well, it did quit raining last night... Now we have snow. You can imagine the mud we're going to have! You have to love our springtime here in Montana...

Miss Amy's Field Trip

Today, after a morning meeting, I called my dad to see if today was a good day to do lunch. Since I was already in the heights and knew that Amy's husband was home sick, I called to see if she'd like to get out of her germ-infested house and come along.

Cafeteria food for lunch wasn't the draw (although, it is for my kids!). Amy wanted to come look at the helicopter. After a lunch of "girled cheese" for the kiddos & wrap sandwiches for us, we headed for the helipad.


Without Rhys & Brennen there to compete for seats, Kjersten & Cael were able to crawl around freely! Amy chatted with my dad long enough to decide that this would not be the career of choice for her: something about being bothered by blood...


Kjersten parked in grandpa's spot. Note the shorts. It was supposed to be 71 today. (It wasn't but she couldn't pass up the chance to wear shorts before it snows again on Wednesday.)

No pictures of Amy or my dad. I'm sure that doesn't bother either of them!

Cool science!

"Go on, Evan! Touch that ball... It won't hurt. Honest!"


"So this is how a propeller works!?"


It's harder than it looks to turn that wheel!



75 lbs of gear (if he were to don the oxygen tank).

Practicing with the daVinci Surgical Robot. These kids have so much experience with video games that this little exercise was a breeze! Turns out, video games are a true life skill!

Blasting perfect smoke rings with a garbage can drum. This was one experiment we'll be recreating at home!

Blowing giant bubbles...

AJ loved keeping these balls airborne. He needs one of these at home!

We'll be going again next year... it was fabulous! (Not to mention, my kids have now been assigned a science fair project to enter! I love great inspiration!)