How about 'dem apples?

This year we have, I believe, four trees bearing apples. And we don't spray or net the trees...they just get to do their own thing. And this year, on the one tree where the boys were picking from, the fruit isn't that buggy, and the apples are tart and delicious.

So Austin picked his apple.

Then Ethan had to naturally pick his own (can't you hear it now..."Me do it"), so Austin picked Ethan up and he got his own apple.

Kids Were Here | Days 15....21

Day 15: Homemade chocolate chip cookie and milk. Perfect combo.

Day 16: Had too much fun, no picture taken. Challenge failed. Oh well!

Day 17: Lincoln logs....

Day 18: Austin took a box and had his way with it...lovely combo of pipe cleaners. I wonder if they are still used for cleaning pipes? haha...

Day 19: Austin's tractor drawing. He's pretty good!

Day 20: Ok, I broke the rules, again...no kids allowed! But, we were out of town, and here is Delaina and Austin at the Madison Children's Museum...gotta love her curls. Jealous.

Day 21: Austin's soccer ball...on the line...it was the game ball on Suday! He made a great goal assist.

Day 21: The training wheels have been removed. Practice has started. Falls and stubbornness have set in. (Yes, day 21 again. What can I say?)

Football. I mean, Soccer.

Soccer. A game where you use your feet (and other body parts except the hands) to move a ball into a net to score a goal. Why then, isn't it called 'football' like it is everywhere else in the world? 

Anyway...

A friend and I enrolled our oldest boys, who will be entering Kindergarten in a matter of weeks, in Optimist Soccer. The two boys know each other, are best friends....and did the whole 4K thing together. Soccer is on Sundays, and for the K/1st graders they have a 20 minute practice right before the big 'game'. Austin started off a little apprehensive, and it was hard for him twice (and for some other kids too) to not reach out with his hand and touch the ball. But he did great, scored 2 goals, and I am so proud of him!!

Here is team 5, Texas Orange...kicking soccer balls into the net during practice.

Throughout the game Austin gained confidence and some aggression...and took charge of the ball!

A little bashful after scoring a goal!!!

I think he'll catch on and begin to like the game!

Kids Were Here | Days 7, 8, 9, 10, 11, 12, 13, 14

Day 7: Ethan's potty chair. He's doing pretty well on the big boy potty!!

Day 8: Construction time with the good ol' wooden blocks. The boys have good imaginations!

Day 9: Cereal. Construction.

Day 10: Homemade waffles. From scratch, not a box. :)

Day 11: Drawing time!

Day 12: Trucks.

Day 13: Beloved Teddy. Make that Teddies. I see two of them.

Day 14: Candy from a wedding Mike and I went to last night, without the boys.

Enger Park

This past Sunday we were in Duluth, MN and drove up to Enger Park. The park is just....beautiful. Green. Fresh. Colorful. Alive.
A photographer's dream!

Kids Were Here | Days 5 & 6

Day 5: Austin's sneakers and new socks. Glad the shoes fit for school yet, after not wearing them all summer. Whew!

Day 6: Austin's barn drawing...complete with silo.

Kids Were Here | Days 3 & 4

Day 3: Ethan carried his face sunscreen around all afternoon....even taking the tube into the shower with him.

Day 4: After an afternoon of running through our 2 new sprinklers, sandbox playing, and running around the yard, the boys parked their hinders on the porch for a haircut.

Cukes & Carrots

I'm lovin' what the garden is producing for us this year. Even though I'm still miffed that something small snuck through the fence early in the season and ate all but one pea plant. I've enjoyed...oh, about 5 pods of peas fresh from my garden. All cuz I fixed the fence, albeit late. *note to self, fix the fence right the first time next year!!

Crazy Clouds

I love clouds.
As a child I used to go horizontal on the grass and cloudwatch.
I'm still fascinated by them.
Especially when they collide with a sunrise...or in this case, a sunset.

Kids Were Here | Day 2

I was all set to upload my picture of KWH to Flickr, post it on Blogger....only to have the internet slow down, then come to a screeching halt around 3ish. I troubleshooted...unplugged this and that, rebooted, yadda, yadda....nothing. I left to run an errand, meet up with a friend and her kids for a few hours, and returned home. I mentioned it to Michael at 8pm and he did some troubleshooting, but nothing. I called the company. Apparently there was a DSL outage. Needless to say, I was releived it wasn't anything on our end, but it was a minor inconvenience.

Fixed.

Here's yesterday's installment (Day 2) of Kids Were Here...for the past 3 days the boys have been busy playing 'train' and the track is still sprawling on the floor at my feet.

Kids Were Here | Day 1

The "Kids Were Here" project (conceived by Ketti - love and own her camera bags!) was to take a picture of the evidence children leave behind.  The two rules were: a picture every day for the month of June and no kids in the shot. I just stumbled upon this, and since today is August 1st I’m doing June in August. I'll be taking a picture daily...whether I'll be posting daily is probably, well, unlikely. So, a few days worth of pictures just might be lumped together in one post. 

The 'car' bin in the guest bedroom (aka kids playroom, catchall room).