First Fall Games

Since last week's games were cancelled due to rain, we played our first soccer games of the season today instead (not counting the tournament at the end of August). First up was DD with her soccer game at 9AM. I have to giggle at this picture of DD on the sidelines. With playing 8v8, they had one sub and DD was chosen to be the first one to sit out. I think she was just grimacing because of how bright it was and not because she was unhappy. She was pretty excited for her first game today. DH and I would catch her glancing at us during the game and when she saw us looking at her, she would break out in a smile.

I caught DD at just the right time with this photo. I would suggest clicking on the picture to make it bigger so you can really see her scrunched-up face. At first, she seemed a bit hesitant when she was playing defense. Thankfully she seemed to get a bit more aggressive when she played offense later. Maybe that was just her getting warmed up, but she was running hard during the last part of the game. Her team is made up of 7-year-olds (U8) and they were playing a team of 8-year-olds (U9). We were prepared for her team to lose badly because of the age and size differences, but they ended up with 2-2 tie.

DS#2's game was in San Marcos at 1PM, which is about an hour away. This required only a short stop at home after DD's game before leaving for DS#2's game. DH and Grandma went with DS#2 while I stayed at home (sort of) with DS#1, DS#3, and DD. Unfortunately, DS#2's team played short because of illnesses, but they also tied their game 1-1. I thought this was a cool picture because of how DS#2's arms look like they're all bent backwards. In reality, he was apparently moving very fast and this is just what he looked like in a moment of time.

Back home, I left the house before DH so I could get a birthday present for DD's friend M. She was invited to her friend's birthday party. Thankfully, M has a really wonderful family. They let me drop off DD at noon for the 1PM party so I could go home and get DS#3 to take a nap. DS#1 ended up going to "hang out" at a friend's house until about 4PM and DS#3 ended up taking a three hour nap. I picked up DD from her friend M's house on the way to church shortly before 5PM. M's family not only shuttled her back and forth to the party but they also bought a stuffed animal for her and M to stuff (a la Build A Bear) at the party place. They were incredibly generous!

Because we went to church, we missed the first half of DS#1's game. Luckily, they won 1-0 despite some significant illnesses on their team. The other team apparently had some illnesses as well. If today was any indication, this is going to be a rough flu season for our area. One player on DS#1's team had to be lead away after the first half because he was gagging and vomiting. Another player is going to be a "maybe" for the game tomorrow because of the same thing. This is so unfortunate because DS#1's team is actually pretty good this year and would probably be likely to win lots of games. Thankfully they won this one.

Tomorrow I'm working again. DH will be traveling to Laredo, which is about 2 1/2 hours away, for DS#1's game. Grandma is staying home with the younger kids. It's just another typical weekend day during the Fall soccer season.

Friends Game Night

Recently, DS#2 has been begging to have a "Family Game Night". In the past, this has meant playing board games together, ordering pizza, and generally having family time. This week we decided to have "Family Game Night" tonight. This afternoon, when DS#2 was playing with his friend E from across the street, he asked if he could have E over for our "Family Game Night". My first thought was to say "no" since it's "FAMILY Game Night", however, DH and I love E and his brother L, who is good friends with DD. In fact, at that very moment, L was outside playing with DD. I went ahead and said "yes". Of course that meant that DD would want to ask to have L over too. I told her "yes" too.

I should have known what was going to happen. We had the pizza along with some sausage from DS#1's school athletics fundraiser, then DS#2 paired up with E and DD paired up with L. The former pair played the Wii and my new Toy Story Mania game (see left). The latter pair put on black capes and pretended to be "supervillains".

First of all, DH joked that other kids want to be "superheroes" but his kids want to be "supervilliains". Second, that meant that we were having a "Friends Game Night" instead of a "Family Game Night". That part didn't bother DH and I because, as I already stated, we love E and his brother L. The part that bothered us was the fact that after we sent the brothers home close to 8PM, DS#2 still wanted to have the "Family" part of "Family Game Night". It was time for his little sister and brother to go to bed and time for him to get ready for bed! Grrrrr!

Awesomer Than Awesome

"Awesomer than awesome" is DD's new phrase to describe herself. Apparently, when DD came out of her piano lesson this afternoon, she proclaimed that she was "awesomer than awesome"! Her teacher said that DD is so much fun to have that she could have her every day. Then she said that DD is her first student to "pass" that particular piece (that we practiced this past week and that she played during her lesson) in the first week. She said that she and DD were having fun going back and forth saying, "I'm awesome" until finally DD said, "I'm awesomer than awesome!" DD, of course, kept saying this phrase all evening. Thank goodness she was at soccer practice for an hour and a half when I didn't have to hear her say this phrase! ;) I'm hoping that this experience means that she'll keep taking piano lessons for a while longer. :)

In other news, my mother-in-law arrived today for a visit. DH and I are glad that DS#3, who can be a little shy around people he doesn't know, seems to be talking quite a bit around Grandma. She was bonding with him while watching one of his Thomas the Tank Engine videos. She also stayed with him while I picked up the other kids at soccer because I gave him his bath early and he asked to go to bed. He didn't end up actually sleeping, of course, but she did get to hear him say the "Our Father" before going to bed. I'll have to video tape him doing that some time soon, because it is SO adorable to hear him "trespasses" and "deliver us from evil".

Toy Story Mania

We got Toy Story Mania for the Wii yesterday. I'm not usually the type to care that much about video games or getting a game the first day it's out, but this one really excited me. It's very similar to the attraction at Disney-MGM in Florida that was very popular when we were there in January of this year. The whole family loved it and everyone else did too, judging from the long lines. It's a classic shoot 'em up arcade type game. The Disney attraction was available in 3D and so is this video game (although you don't have to view the video game in 3D).

I didn't get to play yesterday because there was soccer practice for the kids plus I was preparing a lecture to give to the residents at work this morning. Playing it tonight was a reward for me for doing a good job with the lecture. ;) Actually, for the first time, my hands didn't get icy right before I had to give the lecture, and I didn't panic when the projector wouldn't work. I gave the lecture entirely from my notes, and I even got a couple of compliments from another staff member afterwards, as well as one of the residents. I felt almost comfortable giving the lecture for probably the first time ever.

But, this post is about this cool game. It was everything that I hoped that it would be. Even though the whole point of most of the video game is to shoot at things, I was surprisingly entertained. I think my right arm will be sore tomorrow based on all of the shaking, twisting, and other contortions I had to do, but it was SO fun! Oh, and the picture above is of DD wearing the available 3D glasses that I didn't bother wearing. I didn't need them and I wanted to be able to view the screen in full without those silly glasses obstructing my view or making my head ache from looking at the 3D image.

In short, if you're thinking of getting this game (I'm talking to YOU, CB!), then get it. I can't wait to come home tomorrow and play it again. :)

Layout Per Day Again

As promised, I want to post some pages that I've done recently. I'm working on a lecture that I've giving tomorrow, so I'm not doing much else tonight. I'm going to post in somewhat random order so I apologize ahead of time. I didn't do much scrapping this summer at all! That's why I'm trying to do a page a day for September.


These are a couple of pages I did in June and August. The top one is of DS#3's love for buses. That has been surpassed somewhat by his love for trains. The second one is about DS#3 falling asleep while in the stroller. He was in that stroller quite a bit during our trip to DC.



These next two use pictures from our trip to Colorado in 2003 when the boys were very small, DD was a baby, and DS#3 wasn't even an apple in DH's eye.

These are absolutely adorable photos of DS#3 falling asleep in a semi-standing position on the bottom step of our stairs. He was getting sick plus he had an exhausting morning and needed a nap.


These two are some pictures from our trip to Disney in September of 2007. This was our first stay at the Polynesian Resort and we had a fabulous time.


The above two pages showcase pictures of a 2 1/2 year old DS#2. Isn't the just the cutest?

This one shows DS#1 making funny faces with his friend when they were both about 7 years old. I miss my little DS#1!

This one shows DS#1 and DS#2 making funny faces. I think that was just the age where they would have a funny face every time I pulled out the camera!

This layout shows DH and DS#1 practicing their Bo Staff form from their karate class in the backyard so they wouldn't beat up any of our inside furniture. Look how intense (and little) DS#1 looks!

DH took all of these pictures of our neighbors and neighborhood back in September of 2002 when we got our first digital camera. We've been all digital now for about three or four years. I can't ever go back to film--digital is so much more convenient!

Finally, this layout shows DS#1 in February of this year when he was starting to really become fascinated with trains. He is currently quite obsessed with trains and he'll hardly go anywhere without them.

I have one more page I've done this month, but that is on the other computer, so I won't post it here. I'm proud of myself for getting all of these (except the top two above) done this month. Wish me luck for being able to get one page a day done for the rest of the month!

Nerf Gun Wars and Other Fun Weekend Photos

Did I already mention how we had so much fun this past weekend? Here's more evidence. The boys here are using the desk chairs as both their vehicles and their shields. That was some Nerf Gun War!

I took this picture on Sunday morning. My sister has a two story entryway, and somehow one of the suction cup-type darts got stuck up where the ceiling meets the wall. They were all trying to shoot down that dart and that entertained them for most of the morning. At one point they used some bean bags and one got stuck above the door, but DS#1 could reach that one by standing on a chair. They got a second suction cup dart stuck up there too, but that one ended up falling off on its own. In the end, they never were able to shoot that dart down.

Speaking of Nerf Gun Wars, this is a picture of the girls with their Nerf guns. I just think the look on my niece A's face is just hilarious! She's the one in the middle. DD also made me laugh. She really wanted to point that gun at me while I was taking the picture. Also, notice how her right hip is sort of thrown to one side? She is such a poser that I have to laugh!

This is what DS#3 was doing all weekend. He was playing with my nephew's old trains. DS#2 and my nephew N helped build the tracks. They even seemed to be having more fun than DS#3 at one point. You can also see DS#1 in the background. He brought his laptop partly so he could do his World Geography homework. After he finished, however, he was playing games and checking his Facebook page. That's what DS#1 was doing all weekend. ;)

My sister has this Jelly Belly dispenser on her counter. This is a close-up of DS#3 getting some jelly beans out of that dispenser. He loves jelly beans and kept asking for more. He actually only had three toddler handfuls before he decided on his own that he had enough. I love how I can see his fine motor skills at work here.

This photo is one of my favorites, of course because all of the kids are in the picture. I didn't get to grow up very close to my cousins because we lived so far away. It's wonderful that not only do my kids get to play with their cousins, they also get along so well with them.

C's 40th Bday Party

As I stated in my last blog post, we were at my sister C's house this weekend. Her DH wanted to do something special for her upcoming 40th birthday. At first he had this big surprise block party planned, but when she got wind of it, she emphatically told him that she did NOT want a big party. So yesterday was the scaled down version. This is the food spread, mostly from P.F. Chang's, but also some desserts courtesy of La Madeleine and my mom. All of my family was there, but also C's in-laws came to town for this, and one couple they are close to also attended.

The birthday cake was a fruit tart from La Madeleine. My sister M had a "4" candle but no "0", so they joked about C turning "4". I love this picture of C blowing out her candle because of how the kids are so intensely focused on the candle, even DS#3. I also love how I can tell that DS#1 is talking to his little brother to focus on the birthday candle. Just before this, DS#3 had been laying in my lap after he asked for his "turp toth" (burp cloth), a sure sign that he was tired, even after his three hour afternoon nap.

C got a Michael's gift card from her friends, very appropriate for this scrapbooker. She got some nice hoop earrings from her in-laws. My sister M gave her a Coach bag that she bought at the Coach outlet store near here last week. I got her a house cleaning by the lady that clean's M's house. The big present, however, came from her DH. This is the look on her face when her DH surprised her with a 4-day cruise for the two of them!

This is C's reaction to the present. She was SO surprised and so happy about the present! Her kids immediately asked if they were going on the cruise too, and then when they were told they weren't, they asked who was going to take care of them. C's DH had already asked my sister M and my parents to help him out with that. You did good, J!

After that was over, the kids just played and played. They will need a few days of early bedtimes to make up for their lack of sleep this weekend! They all had Nerf guns and they were running around the house shooting at each other, sometimes getting some innocent (adult) bystanders. At one point, their friend K got a Nerf gun and started running after and shooting the kids! DS#1 didn't even have a gun, so he started just throwing the Nerf darts at people. They kept the rest of us sufficiently entertained.

One more fun thing happened. C's DH had this picture of himself at age 12 or 13 on his laptop. He was VERY thin, almost sickly looking, and in the picture, he was posing like a muscle man and sucking in his gut, or what was supposed to be his gut. I don't think you can get a good look at that picture in this picture, but that's what is on the laptop. He got my nephew N to post like that. N is also very thin. The girls got wind of that and wanted to pose too, so I snapped this fun picture of all of them posing.

I'll try to post a few more pics in the coming days. We all really have so much fun visiting my family. I wish we lived closer to each other. I was talking to C this morning about how we both don't have any close female friends. My sisters are my best friends. I love that! Happy Birthday, C!

Staying Out of the Rain

Our area has been catching up on rain the past week or so. Poor DS#3 hasn't had his outdoor play time lately as a result, so we took him to an indoor play area at Ingram Park Mall called "Simon Kidgits" after the company that runs the mall. It's a nice little area with small play structures perfect for the toddler set.

At first DS#3 stuck near to DH and me. He seemed to enjoy just looking at the other kids playing. There were really only about six kids there. I finally took him to the small slide shaped like an armadillo and he started playing. Finally we got a few smiles out of him.

He didn't play as "hard" as he usually does at the outdoor playground that DH likes to take him to, but he did seem to have fun. He would play on a few things then run back to where DH and I were sitting. We ate in the food court and then he wanted to play some more. DH and I were having a conversation when we realized that he was sitting next to us again just watching the other kids play. We decided that it was time to go at that point.

As I mentioned earlier, we've been getting lots of rainfall recently, so much so that DD's first two games (tonight and tomorrow morning) were cancelled. We found out this afternoon around 2PM that DS#1's game tomorrow morning was also cancelled. DS#2 has a "bye" week. That left us free to go to Houston to visit my family a little early. Despite the rain, traffic was moving along well until we got to a point a little over an hour away. We were basically stopped for about 50 minutes when traffic suddenly started moving again. Now we're at my dear sister's house. Here no matter what we'll all enjoy ourselves whether or not it keeps raining.

Calm Before The Storm

I took DS#3 for his haircut today. We've been taking him to this place called Sharkey's Cuts for Kids for a while now. I took him the first time and DH took him the last couple of times. Apparently the last time, he didn't cry at all. Today he seemed very calm when we first walked in and he wanted to get in the Lightning McQueen car. He was looking down, though, and I sensed that a change in mood was coming. That's when I took this picture. After a couple of minutes, he decided that he wanted out of the Lightning McQueen car. *SIGH* Then, he started crying and he cried through the whole haircut.

One reason why we go to this place is that they just roll with it and just get the haircut done quickly. We were joking around about how I was torn between trying to comfort him and wanting to take video so I could show it to him when he gets older and hopefully doesn't hate haircuts anymore. We also joked about how it would be funny if he still did this when he was 40--umm, no. Actually, I told her that once he's 18, he'll be out of my hands. In any case, I took one picture to document the sad, crying, pleading face as well as the finished haircut.

There was a toy train at the checkout counter. It's one of those that you can attach a balloon too and when the balloon is blown up and then released, the train whistles as the air rushing out of the balloon propels it forward. He wanted it, it was only $3, so I bought it for him. I may have been joking, but I still felt bad for my poor little guy.

Wendy's Baconator

Today DS#1 stayed after school to work on his Photoshop assignments that were missing that I mentioned in yesterday's post. Luckily, his teacher didn't count them as late because he did see DS#1 working on them in class. DH and I also told DS#1 that the teacher was probably more "lenient" because DS#1 had the initiative to ask about the assignments and to volunteer to stay after school to finish them.

The bad part about that was that I stuck around waiting to pick him up. I usually get off of work around 3PM. Since school started, I stay around until 3:30PM so I can pick up DS#1 at 4PM (since his school is very close to where I work). Today I stayed at work until 4PM and waited around for DS#1 to finish for an hour. It took him that long to finish just one of the assignments. We didn't get home until 6PM. Ugh!

Since it was so late, I asked him if he wanted me to pick up something for him to eat before heading home. There is a Wendy's near the school, so he specifically requested the "Baconator" with "meat and cheese only and jalapenos" and a large Chocolate Frosty. I was shocked at how many fat and calories items had, but then I looked at his smiling, satisfied face (that was chewing at the time) and it all seemed worth it. He even said, "I love you, Mama" after he finished swallowing. That made the long wait worth it. ;)

New and Old Things

DH wrote on his blog about how DS#3 was making his trains "talk" to each other this morning. I wish DS#3 had let him take a video! DS#3 did allow DH to take some pictures at the park, though. I love this picture of him--no cheesy smile, just a nice, big, happy smile! He was actually swinging on a swing today. I know that sounds weird, but he's never liked swinging. At most he would just sit in the swing but then he would want to get out as soon as you made the swing move.

This afternoon when I got home, I took this picture because DS#3 was balancing trains on the blinds again. He used to put vehicles in weird places like that, but since then he has only been lining them up on the carpet.

Also today, DS#1, my big boy, looked so defeated when I picked him up from school. He had some trouble with a couple of assignments in his Survey of Design Technology class. They're learning how to use Adobe Photoshop CS4 to manipulate images. Apparently one assignment that he had turned in was blank when the instructor tried to open it. He accidently deleted another assignment today after finishing it. He's always been good at everything at school without trying too hard and this is a new feeling for him. Hopefully he'll settle right in after a while and it'll be easy like everything else is for him.

Lifelong Friends

This is a picture of DD with her dearest and oldest friend M. M is one month younger than DD, but they've known each other since M was six weeks old and in the same "room" at the same daycare. When they were babies, they were the smallest and youngest ones in that room, but they were the "ringleaders". M is one of the few friends that DD gets to be "girly" with. M's mom and I were talking today about how they get along so well. We've never heard them quarrel. I'm sure they don't always agree, but they seem to compromise easily. This photo was taken at the pool today. They even thought of the same pose. Of course, this pose worries their respective fathers...

They spent a lot of time playing with each other this holiday weekend. DS#2 spent a lot of time playing with M's big brother A, who DS#2 has known since they were about 3 years old. Tomorrow we're back to our busy schedule, but for a few days it was nice to take it easy. I even got some scrapping done, mostly using old pictures. I'll try to post them some time this week.

Unexpected Things

Yesterday when we got home from church and eating out for dinner, the garage door would not open. DH found out that it was because the springs were broken. A few years ago something similar happened when we lived in Illinois. At that time the garage door came down on the hood of the Camry mere hours after DS#1 had been playing in that area. We were relieved that no one was hurt then, and we were once again relieved that no car was hurt either. Unfortunately, this being a holiday weekend, it cost us an extra $50 to have someone come out and fix the door. We didn't have much choice, though, because DH didn't think he could lift the very heavy garage door in order to could get my car out to go to work on Tuesday morning. Thankfully, they came out to fix it early this morning.

This also meant that I didn't go shopping with my mom and sister today. I was going to take a separate car because I don't have nearly the "shopping stamina" that they do and I needed to be able to come back early. I could have taken DH's car, but I'm not as comfortable driving it and I didn't want to leave him without a car with the four kids. It was probably a good thing anyway, because the $600 cost of repairing the garage door would have cut into my shopping money plus I would have gotten restless during the hour or so that Mom and Sis spent in the Coach store alone. ;)

Since it is a new week, that meant another trip to Target. My kids have been Target obsessed lately. DD still had her gift card to spend. My mom also gave her a gift card that she had with about $5 left on it and she also gave DS#2 $20 to spend on his beloved Legos. DD wanted some Hannah Montana doll that came with a horse. When we got there she discovered that it was out of her price range, so she got a HM dress-up set instead. That wasn't a surprise, but what did surprise me was that she also wanted to get this small Space Patrol Lego set. She has recently been more interested in Legos. It's good in a way because that gives her something in common with DS#2 and they both get along a little better when they're playing with Legos. DH took this picture just because she looked so excited about the Lego set.

Another unexpected event today was DS#3 taking his sister's HM microphone and singing into it. This picture has a weird tilt mostly because I was trying to capture the action before he stopped. He was tilting his head back and everything. He was SO hilarious! I actually saw this before, in the last week or so. I would hear him "singing" upstairs and I would hear him getting closer and closer until I saw him downstairs singing into the microphone.

Labor Day Visit

My mom and sister arrived today for a visit. Mom was just here last week, but she came this week because my sister was driving--and they plan on going shopping at the outlet mall tomorrow. I don't have the shopping stamina that they do, so I'll probably take a separate car and leave early. The last time they did this, they stayed at the outlet mall ALL DAY.

When my sisters or Mom are here in town, my DD forgets that I'm around. Whereas she usually is fighting with her siblings (and DH) to be the one who sits next to me, she now fights to sit next to my sister. At church tonight she was all the way on the other end of the pew, sitting in between them. In this picture taken at Chili's tonight, she is wedging herself in between them again.

On the bench opposite of where DD and company are sitting, all of my boys are sitting together. DS#3 has been rather clingy today. He didn't even run towards my mom and give her a hug today, even though she was just here last weekend. Of course, he had just awoken from his nap when he first saw her. Here he is pushing DH away because he claimed that the seat next to him was "for mama". Even though it can be a hassle for me sometimes, it does feel good that he still wants me around. :)

This afternoon, DS#1 went to a neighborhood friend's house. He was also there last night when I was at work. On both occasions, it rained on DS#1 as he was walking home from his friend's house. We haven't had good rain like this in several months, so it's nice to see it. Since it has rained when DS#1 is walking outside, his little brother says that he should walk outside all the time so we can get some more rain. :)

Family Outings

First an update on my drama with my contracting company. Today I got a call from one of the vice presidents. She told me that I was right and that they decided that "the right thing to do" would be to give me my four vacation days back. You're damn right that that's the right thing to do! *eyeroll* Now maybe I can stop stressing about it after over 4 weeks of being in limbo! Grrr!

Now on to happier tales... Yesterday was a day off for me, a "comp" day for working last Saturday. DH suggested going for a walk after he dropped off DS#1 at school. Up until yesterday we had a few days of nice weather where, even though it still got up into the mid 90s, there was a nice breeze that actually made it nice to be outside. There is a fairly new park area near our neighborhood that has long walking/jogging paths. It's pleasant to look at the scenery, but it's even better that the paths are shaded.

This is a picture of DH pushing the stroller that DS#3 was riding in. DS#3 was adorable, pointing out the "tees" (trees), "das" (grass), and "dawdies" (doggies) that we saw during the walk. A couple of times there was even an "air pain" (airplane) in the sky. He would point and say, "Look Papa! There's (fill in the blank)!"

Later I got to eat lunch with my friend Jen and her own adorable little 4 1/2 year old boy, and I reminisced about how he was the age DS#3 is now when they moved into town two years ago. I then got to take a nap with DS#3, eat dinner with the family, and then the kids and I went to Target.

I took this picture because I thought it was hilarious that we were taking this little family outing to Target. The kids LOVE to go to Target. We all can usually find a little something to buy. DS#1 actually actively looked for clothing on this trip and he ended up buying three T-shirts. DS#2 wasn't allowed to buy any of the Legos he wanted because he recently bought some. Star Wars Legos are his current obsession, and he counts the days until he can buy another set. DD got a gift card from her godmother for her birthday and it's been burning a hole in her pocket. She didn't end up getting anything, however. This visit happened to be a little rushed because DS#3 found some Thomas the Tank Engine Legos that he desperately wanted to play with. It was too big a set to buy "just because" but it definitely gave me some ideas for Christmas.

Overall, DS#1 came out ahead with some clothing, and DH got to do his own thing at home. I got to spend some time with the kids. It's all good.

Tooth Fairy x 2

DD finally lost a tooth the "normal" way! No dentist had to get involved this time! The "normal" way, however, involved DH brushing DD's teeth before bed yesterday, and causing her tooth to come out. I'm sure DH can describe the experience in more detail on his blog later. The Tooth Fairy gives dollar coins for each tooth lost at our house, so I thought I would take a picture of DD with her coin and her missing lower front left tooth.

Of course I had to take a similar picture of DS#2, who also lost a tooth last night. Because of the two lost teeth, DH had to "buy" a dollar coin from DS#1's stash with a dollar bill since we didn't have enough dollar coins. DS#2 decided to be goofy and put his dollar coin on his eye for his picture. I couldn't complain--at least he was letting me take a picture and showing his personality in the picture. That's all good with me!

What's interesting is the number of pictures it required to get that last picture of DS#2 with the coin on his eye. You see, he kept dropping the coin out of his eye. If this picture looks a little funny, it's because the coin dropped out just after I pressed the shutter release button on my camera. You can see the outline of the coin still on his eye but not a full image because the coin dropped out of sight. This was also a lesson on lighting for DS#2. I took all of these photos without a flash. I thought it was interesting that when I took a picture using the flash and I showed the picture to DS#2, he didn't like the picture using the flash as much as the picture WITHOUT the flash. I'm not going to show that picture here, because I already deleted it, but the color in the flash picture isn't as natural and the image looks more flattened.

Just to show a little more of his personality, DS#2 decided after all of that to put my camera lens cap on his eye for a final photo. His head is tilted back here because he obviously can't squeeze his eye around that huge lens cap so instead he has to balance it on his face. I'm just happy that he let me take all of these photos! Oh, and I almost forgot to mention that as you can see, he lost the upper front left tooth this time.

Afterschool Snacks

I brought DS#1 a snack almost every day when I picked him up from his summer camp in July. I've been doing the same thing since school started. Often it's cookies that I buy at work. Yesterday I brought him one of those packages with the six little chocolate-covered donuts. Today I decided that since he had lunch ("A" lunch) at noon, that he would be hungry enough at 4PM for a bigger snack, so I bought him such buffalo wings from Wendy's.

When I saw him, however, he just looked really tired and rundown. Apparently, during last period (soccer) he had to run for 45 minutes. He didn't even get to drink water during that time, and the temperature was in the mid-90s! He only ate a couple of pieces and said that he wanted to finish the rest at home. That's when I started to worry because he is almost always gobbling food down. He explained that he wasn't as hungry because there is more food available at "A" lunch. When he has "B" lunch (the schedule alternates between "A" and "B"), he doesn't get to eat lunch until almost 2PM and there isn't much food left. That really doesn't make sense to me, except that maybe he is so hungry by that time that he needs more food to fill up. In any case, he did finish his "snack" when he got home and he drank plenty of water tonight.

This is my photo for today. It's Tuesday, so that means soccer practice for our family. DD is wearing an old practice shirt that used to belong to DS#2. DH bought her some new black soccer socks so she can match better than with her red socks. She has pink shin guards, pink soccer cleats, and a pink soccer ball, of course. I love that she and DS#2 are both putting on their gear on the bottom step together. He had tried to hide, but thankfully, he listened to my pleas for him to stay put. :)