found on my camera

 Yeah, some kids were taking pictures.

 She's been wearing these glasses for several days.  Sometimes she drives me nuts with her chattering, but she's like sunshine, has one of those sunny personalities with all kinds of observations and ideas.

And lots of wild, giddy laughter--always the loud, squealy laughing.

When I get to living too much all up in my own head, tired, distracted, this kid cheers me up.  Every day there she is chipper chatter and happiness.

Tim just told me that today they tied their bikes together and rode in opposite directions.   When I asked how that went, he snickered, "Pretty terrible."

Julia laughed, "He's stronger, so I was just getting dragged backward!"

More evidence kids are nuts.

Julia told us yesterday in the car that when she was little, she thought that how the radio worked was that when it was time for a certain song to play, a buzzer would go off, or a light would go on at the singer's desk, prompting them to sing.

Wow, that would be elaborate, and tiresome for the singer!

She said, "True.  Now I know they just play CDs."

Yes, they do.

We went to the library today and that was very fun.   The baby took out many books, so I put away many books.   She ran all over--she likes the library.  I do too, actually, the big windows and helpful ladies, very laid back place to spend an hour.

When we left though, we could not find the car.  That stupid Toyota blends into the crowd, very incognito. (Notice I blame the poor, innocent CAR. Shameless.)

 That I was baffled was one thing, but Lydia too??    We walked up and down to the extent I wondered if it had been towed away?   The kids had stacks of books and those got heavy.  p.j. was walking and didn't really want to hold hands very much.

(Back in the day Julia didn't like to hold hands in traffic either.  She used to clasp her hands together in front of her chest in the parking lot and holler at me, "I am holding MY OWN hand!")   Pssht. That's not how it works, Child.

Then we went to the park.

Ours was the only car in the parking lot, so we had no trouble when we left there.

And this--some wild, seven acres of undeveloped land that's going on the market next week, only thirty minutes from downtown.  A long walk in the woods this afternoon, after spending the afternoon with funny kids, made it a quite perfect Thursday.

love, Val

monday morning

This guy came to visit for a while.

And the answer is yes, I did grab him tight and kiss those luscious cheeks.  I spoke to him of his gorgeousness.   He didn't complain.

Sam was so happy to see him--she threw herself down right next to him and sniffed his toes.

 Later this:

 And then this other guy came back for lunch and a little fun with the gang.

And today was a meeting at work, then pizza for lunch with my mom, and the sun is shining, it is a perfect 67 degrees out. September you have been nothing but good to us.

Onward.   love always, Val

beautiful september

We spent the weekend at my parents' place in Wisconsin. These are pictures from the fashion show, modeling the dress up clothes.

 He was the judge of the fashion show.  I asked what his credentials were. No answer was forthcoming.

 That's my grandma. Today was her 90th birthday party. She wasn't sure what would qualify a person as a fashion judge either.

 Okay, the magic show--it was interesting. She had us fooled over and over.

 A few wagon rides happened. Squirrels squirrled out.

 Squirrels in the art studio painting:

 These are from today, before we left for the 90th birthday party:

 And these from the party itself.  That's my grandma, hugging my aunt.

 Here's a picture of a bunch of cousins who don't see each other very often, laughing and catching up.

We went to  a party hosted at the cowboy hat guy's family last year and this made us laugh--there were two coolers of beverages, one labeled, "milk," and the other, "beer."   We chuckled that's how you know when you're in Wisconsin, when those are your choices.

Birds in the aviary:

 And on the way home we stopped to see these guys:

And now it's now, and the end of the day.

And my sweet grandma is ninety.

Happy Birthday, Beautiful Girl.

This whole family is lucky to have you, for all the years you have been loving and upholding us all.     love, Val and Jay and everybody.

homecoming cuteness

 James was voted Tenth Trade Homecoming King, so we had to head over to the gym for this event.

 She's very sweet and also friendly to the little kids.

Wheee.  Onward. 

James?   This is a lovely honor, granted I'm about 100% sure because you are kind.  Kindness = Everything.  
love you so, Mom and Dad

a list of rules

Julia and Tim are both writing this year, nice surprise.   I have no idea when this happened exactly, but it did.

Anyway, today Julia wrote extensive lists (invented spelling included) of how to take care of  p.j. properly:

She did have to help translate some of this.  Mrot is is Julia's backward way of saying remote:  ma-rote.

Guzz is how she spelled glasses. There was an unfortunate incident where p.j. mangled my glasses last week.   They were fixed at the eye doctor, so it's all good.

Tonight when Heidi came to pick her up and she was in the high chair, cranky, and Heidi held up a bite of food to her and she did her annoyed little howl, we told Heidi, "Hei-DEE, you're breaking rules two and three!"

Here's the second list:

 Looking at this and noticing how all new spellers over use the letter z, it makes me wonder why we actually don't use z more.  It would make perfect sense.

Anyway, we spent this fine and lovely Tuesday with my mom, and sister, and niece.

And now it's bedtime.

love, Val