Saturday, June 30, 2007

It's a bird! It's a plane! It's an inflated plastic shirt on my three-year-old!

Henry got this Superman shirt with a velcro-on cape for Christmas and was terrified of it (as seen in this post) until a few days ago.

All of the sudden, he wasn't scared of it, he LOVES it and wants to jump from chair to couch and back while watching "Superman Returns" on TV. To be a three-year-old...



I think this is supposed to be "flexing":



Here he catches a glimpse of himself in the mirror and is momentarily stunned:

Tuesday, June 26, 2007

"Boring" Days

These days are not really boring, but sometimes they feel all the same. I know that in 6 months I am going to look back on these pictures and not believe how young Henry and Svea look...but this week I have felt like nothing ever changes around here.

So here we are, just hanging out.
Henry chose tennis as his sport of the moment, filling his tennis bag with 23 tennis balls and one junior racket, donning "tennis" hat, shirt, shorts and shoes:



Svea controlled the tractor, looking beautiful the whole time:

Rollerblading in the House

I dusted off my old rollerblades the other day to skate alongside Henry as he rides with his training wheels on his big bike. I only almost fell a few times...but Henry definitely thought he could do better:



Lullwater Park

The four of us went to Atlanta last weekend for a wedding. Brian and I had such high hopes for this fun, family time together and we were basically delusional and downright dumb to think this would work out.

While Brian was attending to reverent duties, the kids and I went to Lullwater Park to walk around in the 91 degree heat.
I have lots of good memories from strolling, running, rollerblading and walking to class through this park. I thought this would just add to those...but Henry and Svea had other ideas.

We ran some:



Pushed the Prince around some:



Threw rocks in the water:



Threw some sticks too:



And then the protests, wails of thirst. I-can't-possibly-walk-anymore-Mom-so-I-will-lie-here-forever time began:



Maybe we'll try it again another time...

Wii Are So Getting One of These

So Uncle Brad brought his Wii to the beach...and we all had sore muscles from it.



Aunt Beth and Aunt Brooke warmed up with some tennis:



I'm not sure who won, but it didn't matter since we were laughing so hard at them.



Laughing until we tried it ourselves, that is. That stuff is so fun and I am pretty anti-video gaming.



We are so saving for one of these.

Wednesday, June 20, 2007

The Queen

of sea, sand, sun and animal crackers.

First Days in the Sand

Svea got pretty excited about the sand almost immediately:



Henry thought water IN the bucket was a silly idea:



I think the noise of the waves and wind, the feel of the sand, and the shade from the tent were a little confusing at first:



They'll get the hang of it in a few more hours...

Monday, June 18, 2007

Didja see my new racecar shirt?


henry in his new shirt
Originally uploaded by iMollie

For Real, Mom.


take these wings off already
Originally uploaded by iMollie

This Weekend

We drove through Birmingham this weekend to attend the wedding of Wilson and Callie Nash.
Dude, what an evening.

In all seriousness, if you picked up the most polished and thick-paged magazine on Weddings In The South, 95 of the 98 pages would contain pictures taken at this wedding. It involved a very rooted and reverent Christian service, 12 attendants, 12 communion servers, a crucifer, ringbearer, flower girls, ushers, the Bishop, many ministers and over 1,000 in the congregation (or do you say audience?) who could have all been heading for a runway photoshoot. Our dear friends Angela and Will and I scored a phat seat on the front row of the balcony, 30 minutes before the service began, to observe all the beautiful people. Seriously.

The service was an hour in all its glory, and then the reception was so hugely huge and beautiful that it took me a full 2 hours to even find the chocolate bar. I needed 2 plates.
We did get to visit with John and Denise, parents of Maggie and the Harper/Holder clan briefly. Unfortunately we only observed Tyler from a distance (did I mention this was hugely huge?) and so I didn’t get to sock him one and tell him to post to his blog already. His peeps are waiting.

The band at the reception was rocking, and there were flowers everywhere – even from what seemed to be an upturned parasol hanging from the middle of the ceiling.
There were so many cars there that our car was re-routed onto the actual golf course where we got to park and walk about a mile to the country club entrance. One of the best parts was when we left and I could take off my heels and walk through that perfect golfing grass in the dark, sweaty in my dress from dancing and white wine, and smile with Brian over all the people we got to see who we hadn’t seen in years. In that moment we were timeless, full, and so content.

We were also in bed by 9:30pm.

Early the next morning, we packed the sexy minivan and headed to Destin.
This year is our year of road trips, hence the purchase of the Cream Puff (found in our January archives) and we have made many keen observations of the cars around us.

First, there are many reeeeeeaaaalllllllly long 18+ wheelers on the roads connecting Evansville with the Southern States, and I hate to be insulting, but they are just bad news. They are terrible to drive around. We observe them swerving and drifting and over-correcting and being the over-protective, over-anxious, judgmental parents that we are, we make appropriate comments about the drivers and what they should be doing other than driving this huge house-on-wheels around our family.

Then there are the smaller cars which are terrifying in their own ways.

For example, from behind a vehicle we’ll see a silhouette of a male driver with one arm bent at the elbow with the wrist resting on top of his head, and the other hand holding a phone to his ear. He’ll be in this position for many, many minutes.

We also have seen a female driver in her convertible using one hand to gesture her conversation, with the other hand holding her phone to her ear.
Seriously people.

We see lots of two-handed eating, committed nose-picking, hands beating the TOP of the outside of the vehicle in tune with music. At least we assume it’s in tune to something.

I really hope they are teaching youngsters how to drive with their knees in Driver’s Ed these days.
Henry and Svea will probably play video games while singing and driving and eating a Big Mac when they are 15 years old because the laws will change just to make me and Brian more nervous parents.

And if those laws do change, we just may make Henry and Svea park their video-gaming cars in a borrowed golf course to walk barefoot through the perfect grass and feel timeless and surrounded by those who love them, full and content, just as a reminder.

We all need those.

Monday, June 11, 2007

The Blues and BBQ

There was a festival in Henderson, KY this weekend with free music and lots of (not free) barbeque. The kids LOVED it.
There was an empty fountain behind the music stage that Henry, Svea and Calvin had a great time running in:





Some bigger kids came along very soon and gathered up all the coins that were in the bottom of the drained fountain and stuffed their pockets. Our little ones were too busy running to see the money...or to care. Kinda nice to see that, actually.

Svea loved kissing and hugging baby Suzana:



Busy 'Round Here

We've been pretty busy around here the past week - lots to catch everyone up on.

Henry went to Vacation Bible School and has been singing strange songs ever since. Most of the words seem to be made of all vowels, though we hear a "Jesus" in there occasionally.

In the meantime, Svea took care of her babies and had fun time with Mom:



In the afternoons, Brian and Henry caught up on the Giro d'Italia that we taped to get us pumped for the Tour. I'm really glad that Henry likes his helmet, especially since there is no helmet law in Evansville, but we've had a hard time explaing that he doesn't have to wear it while sitting inside on the couch.



We did have a successful run through some garage sales this past Saturday and Brian found a tool for his workshop that he's wanted his whole life, and we found two bikes and a razor scooter for the kids.





Svea found the training wheels we were taking off of her purple Princess bike to put on Henry's new blue bike since she'll have to wait a summer or two before she can reach her pedals.

She found the training wheels:


Then decided to ride on them. Hmmm:





Here's the new Princess bike:



And here's Svea's version of cornhole while her brother scooted and biked along the driveway:



All this...before it was even 10am.