Horse Farm

 

Taya spent a week at an overnight horse camp, and the remaining kids and I went to pick her up on Saturday. Nothing kids like more than an hour-long car ride to visit big smelly animals surrounded by dung. I couldn't keep them away! Please no one wonder, or at the very least not ask, why Taya isn't in any of these photos as the point of the whole adventure kind of centered around her. And I'm sure hidden inside we're all a little jealous of Julia, because deep down who hasn't fantasized about going to a farm in a wedding dress?

Cub Day Camp

Levi had a blast at Cub Scout Day Camp learning to make blue spaghetti, climb flag poles, damage nearby children, and other such fun. He just finished his Wolf Badge and is about to embark on the Bear journey.

Braces

Braces are one of the most cosmetically humiliating experiences voluntarily inflicted on our children we have yet invented, but if we don't undergo this most silly of child-rearing rituals those children then blame us when they need to get braces at age 40! So Taya at age 12 not only has to suffer the indignity of it all every day for the next year, but her photographer mother captured the entire procedure on camera. Smile! These are almost as good as baby bath tub photos!

We were fortunate enough to be recommended to Fast Braces by some friends of ours, taking half the time and therefore costing half as much as traditional orthodontia. Whereas other quotes we received varied from 15-18 months at $3500-4800, these weighed in at 10 months and $2000! A big difference that makes my own orthodontically enhanced mouth smile a little bigger.

Pretty Sisters

I had to do a quick retake of a front exterior of a home near where we live, and my daughters thought the yard was almost as pretty as they were. Taking a photo of them was the only way to keep them out of the photo of the house, so here are two to make extra sure the MLS photo doesn't have any yard faeries in it!

Bird Watching

Levi went to day camp in north Austin this week, and the owner of the real estate photography firm I contract for has 2 boys Levi's age and lives about 5 minutes from the camp. So they picked him up each night, and he slept over. I am picking him up tomorrow: he had a blast, and I am glad he enjoyed himself doing something good for his body, brain, and social skills, but we've missed his sweet self around here! She emailed me this photo with the message, "If you are really quiet, you can grab your camera… peek around the corner and catch a photo of the elusive Levibird curled up on the sofa reading a book…"

He behaved beautifully, much to my relief, especially after several recent altercations with the parent volunteers at swim meets and a tough time in school and Sunday school generally. Frankly I'm just glad he didn't get sent home early by the camp or our friends, and that I didn't get fired! His counselor is an at-risk teacher during the school year, luckily enough, and ironically enough was also named Levi! So Lord Levi was Little Levi's confidant and extra supervision during the week, helping him work through any tough situations. They even named a duck Levi III, so I guess there are 2 Levi birds now.

The boys helped him "man up" after all his four sister torture around here, and hopefully he'll come home understanding better what being a rowdy boy and a gentleman are all about.

Bowling

After Olivia's girl scout troop disbanded, they distributed the money left amongst the girls. She and her friend decided dinner and bowling sounded fun, so we toted both families along. I love the emotions captured here at the sheer pain of gutter balls, sweet help for the little ones, and Levi's typical over exuberance landing him on the slippery floor after every release. At least he didn't foul from way back there. What passion for living life to inspire me, what a fun bunch!

The Best Fathers Day Gift

A happy 4th Birthday to the best little Father's Day Gift ever! We love you both so much, Julia and Troy. You make our family so much sweeter. Have a great day!

Nintendo Swim Team

Swim Team is a pretty good excuse to play Nintendo DS for an entire Saturday with the better excuse of getting in a total of 3 minutes of exercise per kid. They also hold very still while playing DS allowing mommy to create Sharpie mascot art to boost team spirit, even though none of them are watching races while they watch their little screens. They do take a little break from it when they win a ribbon. Needless to say, swim meets are very popular with our kids. Swim practice? Not so much.

Wolf Badge Pack Meeting

They make the mom stand up with the cub when being awarded his wolf badge, and since asking someone to use my monstrosity of a camera set to manual requiring a tutorial to use would just be awkward while everyone waits for me to hurry to the front, I only have photos of the kids doing their fun activities. Jumping up and down with some oddly creative scout cheer, and of course as usual Levi has to follow up all active fun with some wrestling that none of the other kids seemed to appreciate albeit a room full of boys. Now, I realize that I could have just asked someone to put my camera card into their small camera and take a few shots of the ceremony for me, but then that would just be mom and son standing there doing nothing, and frankly boring. Look how much more fun they seem to be having. Plus, I wasn't wearing any makeup anyway.

May Day

Happy Texas May Day, y'all. Just wanted to say thank you to Angie and Brae for the invite to such a fun family party. None of us had ever seen a real May Pole before, and the over-under weaving challenged their spatial reasoning like an engineering class. My ADD son had some tactile therapy as he was compelled to use his hands rather than his eyes to "see" the finished product. Half the guests played instruments in a hoe-down jam, except Troy faking it on the gourd banjo. The best part was my homeschooled daughter's square dancing lesson that was fun, that she and her friends actually wanted to participate in, instead of some stinky 6th-grade gym class imitation. Strike that, I do believe hanging out with friends and eating potluck in such a gorgeous country home setting was the best part! Mmmmmm....especially the potluck.

3G Ranch Campout

Troy has been bugging some friends of ours to have us out to camp at their ranch, and he finally waxed annoying enough to wear them down for an "invitation." Nevertheless, we had a blast! Our hosts and their other guests seemed like they sorta enjoyed our muscled in company. It was a lovely location, freshly mowed meadow in springtime surrounded by wildflowers. And instead of playing with all those girls in the stinkin' flowers, Levi even had someone to wrestle with for 27 hours straight. And no one was bitten by nor saw nor heard any rattlesnakes.

Texas State Flower

Look at us having fun learning about Texas State History in the state flower meadow. This is how we really are all the time, except less well groomed, and a lot less skipping in the wildflowers.

75 and short sleeves on Sunday to snow on Tuesday, welcome to Texas! It's that time of year again when you have to stand on the porch in your pajamas every morning to figure out what to wear the rest of the day. Shorts? Parka? Who knows?! I'm sure the weatherman might, but the pj's on the porch is a lot more fun to make fun of. Unless the weather changes halfway through the day, which it is wont to do, and you sent your kids to school in flip-flops and tanks only to run their cold-weather gear down when the freezing rain kicks in while their teachers wonder what kind of mother you are anyway. Not nearly as much fun, but a good story for CPS nonetheless.

Piano kids

My kids take piano with a wonderful teacher in the beautiful Parker Piano Studio. Recently I had the chance to photograph them for promotional photos for her blogsite. It is a joy to watch my children learn to love creating music and learning all of the other wonderful lessons that come with time spent at a piano.

Happy Chinese New Year

Seems for a bunch of white Americans, we have a lot of Chinese ties going on. Maybe it's just a sign of the times: half our possessions lived there before they lived with us. Troy and I visited Tianjin, China about 8 years ago, and visited the Great Wall, Beijing and Red Square, the Summer Palace, Forbidden City, all that first-time tourist stuff. I bought this red vest during that visit. Then my sister's husband lived in Beijing several years for business. Troy's parents moved to Tianjin for 2 years and bought this little girl's red dress as the one I had bought was worn out by my numerous other daughters. On the opening day of the Beijing Olympics, 08/08/08, my daughter Zoey was born! It was fun to get photo updates of the Olympics from my brother-in-law, and hear how my in-laws' students praised their luck for having a grandchild on such an auspicious day.

We went to Austin's "Chinatown" for their new year celebration yesterday, and I was motivated to go red for church today! Troy is getting pretty handy with my big camera, and obliged a photo op for us as requested by my friend Brae. Here you go!