Family Photos

Let me just start by telling you a little about a crazy friend of ours. You know, the amazing kind of crazy, all good. Mikol was our Photographer friend who took our family pictures this year. And I absolutely love love love them. A few days later she calls demanding a reshoot. And I'm thinking huh, they are beautiful. She goes on and on about how she didn't get one of all three of our kiddos, which she did get one, and she didn't get an individual of Saydee... on and on, crazy I tell you, crazy.

So, tonight we went out for the reshoot and again I was floored by her talent and her genuine sweetness. 2 hours later she is at my door with a cd of all the pics because she knows we were leaving town Wed morning. Crazy. I love her. I love her pictures.


Shoot #1 ... a few

"My Dad's real name is Dad."

Today one of the primary workers told me that Saydee explained something to her last Sunday.

"My Dad's real name is Dad. You can call him Brother Tree. And sometimes my Mom calls him Heath."

Star Wars Birthday

Tyson and his friend Zack had a joint birthday party star wars style. They had a great time.
Wish I had taken more pictures. All the boys painted their own galaxies and dueled with light sabers. Heaven, right?

Amy not only whipped up these Jedi outfits she also made this adorable little Yoda hat.

The light saber cake idea was taken from the Hostess with the Mostess.

We're so glad Amy suggested this fun little party for our boys because on the 30th Tyson spent his 9th birthday laid up on the couch sipping on Gatorade. We celebrated over root beer shakes. This tonsil experience has not been a fun one. Poor little guy. Recovery has been a little slow, but he's now doing much better.

The Magic House

As part of our library's summer reading program the kids get weekly prizes for so many books read. One of the prizes were tickets to the Magic House in St Louis. We've heard how amazing this place is. We were not disappointed. Tyson wanted to invite his friend Zack, so off we went, without little girls in tow. We had so much fun. You definitely couldn't do this place in one day. It's all hands on education for kids, babies to the big ones. The girls would love it. It was nice not to be pulled in a million directions though, and the boys got to do their own thing their speed. These pics only show a fraction of this place.

This beanstalk went up through all three floors.



Huck Finn Room, one of my favorites.

Life size Dollhouse and village including a restraunt, library, hospital, post office, bank, etc, etc.

Amy came to dispute her bill being charged $1,700 for some produce and a loaf of bread.
sheesh! inflation is a bugger.

This little path is an underground river where you can watch your catch swim back to their pond. Magnetic fish. Brilliant.

Construction site.

I was ecstatic to find that a year's family membership was a mere $75.

So so worth it.

And info unrelated... Tyson goes in to get his tonsils out tommorrow, and adnoids and drain his left ear. Two days before his Birthday. He is excited for the ice cream, jello and popsicles though. His grandma got him a snow cone maker for his birthday. Perfect.

kids and summer.

Despite sickness and stuff breaking, summer has been good. We stay busy with typical summery activities. A few very random pics.

We play many versions of this game.

We love the 4th of July. This is the only picture I could find.

And every summer we swim

and eat Popsicles.

Growing food.

Our first attempt at gardening turned a little wild. At first I was so meticulous weeding and upkeep. Then i thought, "upkeep, for heaven sakes that's why we opted for raised beds". So we let it go and found weeds still grow and pretty soon took over. So that and we haphazardly planted the seeds, with one look at it you'd know I have no idea what i'm doing. Quite a few plants died very quickly. We still got an abundance of tomatoes and cucumbers and few other things. The kids love to pick the fruit, which proves a real challenge to find.

Learning to ride.

Tyson has conquered the bike. Took only a few days, he caught on pretty quick. He was riding on his own by that second day. Of course there were a few good wipeouts and some battle wounds to brag about. Nonetheless he remained tough and optimistic. And now like he told us this week "I could be a pro!" Absolutely, we say, just keep that helmet on. And maybe some neosporine in your pocket. He named his bike, "wipeout".

A few pics from our camera phone. This is the second or third day. It didn't occur to me, use the phone. Our camera's gone missing this past month.

Nothing says summer like a boy and his bike.