BSC Alumni Party

This past weekend was Brian's 10-year anniversary celebrating his graduation from college at Birmingham-Southern.
It was so hectic I thought we were there for 9 days and the only time I whipped out the camera was when they were bouncing around the Wacky World.







Brian and I did get to go out both Friday and Saturday night (sans children) which was a major special treat. Friday night we got to talk with Liz, the Kyzer, and her husband John Wilson so we felt a little famous at the end of it all.

We also found out that our friend Ginny Phillips has a book coming out in February so you can look forward to promotion of that also.

All in all, we got to reconnect with old friends, laugh a lot, celebrate Service Learning at BSC and my dad's involvement and amazing tenure there.
We are tired, but really happy.

One of My Favorites From the Weekend

Svea found Papa's protective earphones in the basement the other morning. She probably couldn't hear a word I was saying...and loved it.

Last Week All Star

Last week at All Star Sports, the sport of the day was Flag Football.
We spent all week talking about how to pull flags instead of decking the other kids. Turned out, we probably didn't need to worry too much because Henry was on some other planet the whole session.

He did love running in circles:



And learning to run through the cones:



And waiting in line with his teammates:



However, that would be him rolling on the floor there on the far left. Hugging his ball:



And this sweet girl was helping him with his hat after she helped him put his shoes back on for the 8th time that morning:



So THIS is the "flag" they speak of:



Henry, performing the "Shake Your Furry Tail" song and dance before running around like a maniac trying to pull off other people's flags. Except he wouldn't pull anyone's off. He just got close to them, and then sat down.



I was way more tired than he was by the end.

Busy Saturday

This past Saturday was very busy in Evansville.

First there was Bike Race at UE:


which we have been looking forward to since last year. You would too, especially if you're a fan of "Breaking Away." Or the Tour de France.
Most of the teams are sororities and fraternities, then there are a few clubs, but they are all equipped with pit crews that do the "throwing" and "catching" of the bikes when changing racers. It lasts most of the day and there's free food and loud music - lots of fun. We went in the morning, came home for lunch and naps, then went back.

There were also 3 soccer games in the field next to the bike track.

Henry picked out his white team attire, Cubs helmet and "new" shoes. Then immediately found a football.




Svea observed.



We came home dirty with mild tan lines, already looking forward to next year's race.

Svea and the Dandelion

Sprucin' It Up in the Backyard

Svea helping to water the tomatoes:



And now the mint:



The new plant stand and plant boxes that Brian made!



While Svea watered, Henry batted:



Just passing the afternoon...

Spring Fever

Spring fever has hit us along with our allergies, and the yard looks great for all of our suffering actually.
Here's the pile of debris that I pulled out of our 18 azalea bushes:



While pruning and cleaning, I saw this:



and tried to clip around it without exposing the eggs too much. I really hope they make it...



Here's a view from inside the house of the mom keeping the eggs warm.



I'm totally getting old if I care about birds and flowers. Seriously.

Another (not so) All Star Moment

We found out on Monday at Henry's All Star Sports Class that there was one for Svea's age on Wednesdays...so we signed her up.
However, this Wednesday turned out to be the day that NONE of the participants in the class wanted to play. At least it wasn't just Svea who cried and wanted me to hold her the whole time we were hopping, jumping, crawling, singing, dancing in a circle.

The theme that day was soccer, just like Henry's class, and here's where the soccer equipment sat:



while the other children cried or wandered aimlessly through the gym.
So the wise teacher pulled out this:



and most of the kids enjoyed it. Not Svea. This is what she did when she let me put her down:



Henry, however, had the best 45 minutes of his day.
In fact, it was Henry and the teacher participating in most all of the activities. She thanked me for bringing him at the end.



Maybe Svea will warm up next week...for 20-month-old flag football. Stay tuned...

Photo Album Peek

"Si-lo-saur. Dance":



Bike ride with Daddy:





Playing King/Queen of the Mountain at today's playdate:



Shout out to the Emory Eagles in my pajama's that kind of make me look like a boy:

All Star Sports #2

Henry had another session of All Star Sports this past Monday. Last week was basketball and this week was soccer. But Henry likes to include all sports rules when playing, so our soccer ball got dribbled a LOT.

He was in a weird mood too and just couldn't decide if he wanted to be part of the group or not.



I thought he would warm up a little...but he never really caught on.



There was one drill where the coach rolled the ball to each child and the child was supposed to stop the ball with his/her foot. Henry didn't like that drill. Coach turned to me at one point and from across the gym suggested that we work on this at home.



There was this one kid who must play soccer in his sleep. He was incredible. Here he is scoring. Henry's just watching him.
I would have gotten out of his way too.



After their water break, they broke up into orange and green teams to "play" each other. Henry was on the orange, but just kept running in circles, pumping his arms in the air, yelling, "Go Aces! Go Aces!"



He also liked just standing and playing in the green team's goal. Future goalie I guess.

There are two girls who are twins in the class and their mom asked Coach what next week's sport was and Henry heard Coach tell her FOOTBALL.
I spent one full day explaining that no, you CANNOT tackle your friends in the gym. This will be FLAG FOOTBALL. So Henry wanted to know why Uncle Brad tackled HIM and why was that okay?
So now we talk about flag football 23 hours a day and repeat for one hour, "You ONLY tackle Uncle Brad."
Heh heh.

Our training has begun.
(This picture was taken yesterday while he watched old footage of Alabama football)



Just in time for the A-day game.

"Baseball Field. So Fast." (by iHusband)

The theme in our house.

Svea talks about the "bayball fee-yuld" as if it's a member of the family, a treasured member at that, who might be very ill at this moment and we should go immediately to check on him or her.





Henry points to the players and asks questions about their uniforms. According to his rationale, the catcher is clearly the most important person on the field because he has the most accoutrements to his outfit. When you ask him if he'd like to do something (like eat lunch), he replies authoritatively, "Basebawl playirz like to do dat." Which means yes.

We rarely get to actually watch the games, because they would rather run in circles and act out the plays just beyond the fence. This places us in a terrible spot to see what's going on, but it's very interactive, since foul balls rain down from the sky perpetually in the exact spot our children want to be.

Having lived through a highly successful teeball career where I was stung by insects, hit by errant pitches, and spent most of my time in left field tying and untying my shoes, I am convinced the entire family might be taken out by one stray foul ball and an abhorration of Newtonian law. I usually have an ulcer by the 3rd or 4th inning.



Ladies and gentlemen, the national pastime.

Shameless Promotion

My mother is not the Avon World Sales Leader, I admit. She does, however, have HER VERY OWN WEB SITE!

I am really proud of her since she tends to completely freak out if the blinking cursor is one inch off on her Word document or if the computer can't read her mind as it changes. We all do that a little, though.
She made her website and it's up and running, consolidating her creative interests and artwork. It's there on the left in my blogroll, Robin C. Jackson.

ALSO, my brother's web site is up and running!
He and Amber have been working on getting this going and it looks mighty fine. Polished, even. John Stewart will most likely start teaching art soon in Singapore, so hopefully there will be more to add as their time overseas deepens.

And finally, in an act of true shameless promotion, I've started scanning in some of the prints and paintings I have been working on. There are about 5 more that are wet or I'm not sure where to go next...so there aren't many to look at. Most of what I have been doing is copying and messing up, the beginning of all processes I guess. But it's fun. And that's the current goal. It's all there in the blogroll under iMollie, imollie.

Happy web surfing.

Lilah is Twos!

At least that's how she says it.

Svea's BFF Lilah turned two last weekend so we went by for a slice of bunny cake (her birthday fell on Easter this year and she does have two real live bunnies that hop, drop pellets, and eat carrots, Gabby and Choco):



Then she came for a visit and was not happy with me at all when her parents left. However, she REALLY liked it when I pulled out the camera and flipped the screen around so she could see herself while I was trying to take her picture:





Svea found it amusing also.

Mrs. PotatoHead

Kind of.





(the post of those lips is, in fact, in her nose)

Oh, Suzana

Henry held our friend Suzana (pronounced Suz-ahhhhhh-nah) the other day for the first time.



She liked his hair.