jumping into june

girls getaway in galena


thelma, louise, and her other sister louise


met upon my return...


a hit!


a single becomes a double with an overthrow to 1st


april: weeding the field...june: shagging with zeal


ta da! a happy gym kids 1 graduate.


First off, I definitely want to make note of tomorrow being Kola's two-year anniversary at home with us. It's sometimes hard to see from one day to the next the changes our family, and especially the kids, go through. It's great to step back and see what a difference 20, 100 or 730 days can make. We've all learned, loved, laughed a lot in those 730 days...

A robin has been nesting on our front porch for a couple weeks. Kola and I walked out one day and saw mama Robin on the lawn and I asked Kola, "what do you think she's doing over there?" He said, "looking for her babies. She's going to find them and bring them to her nest to live." That's as good an explanation of it all as I've heard;)

I was lucky to be invited and able to go on a girrrrrls weekend in Galena. I realized there's been only one night in the last 730 I was without both of the kids. Now, affectionately I say, I was out with 3! We had a great time, and at the ripe age of 45, I took my first crack at karaoke with Blister in the Sun by the Violent Femmes (had to be at least 2 hours from home for that to happen!) I was surprised to learn that you actually do need to be able to carry a tune in register to pull that one off - thought I picked an easy one! It was such a fun time and a group of ez to travel with friends, I had a smile that lasted a few days after the trip.

School's been out for Kola for two weeks already, but he'll be going back to the same teacher, M/W/F mornings in the fall, so it really just feels like a hiatus for him. Ethan wrapped up a great kindergarten year and we were both very sad to see it end. He had a terrific class and a wonderful teacher who really helped him spread his wings. The first day I dropped him off for KG, I wore sunglasses and expected security to be showing me off the property, hysterical, but that day was surprisingly easy. Picking him up on the last day though I was pretty weepy. Thanks to Shelley for sharing some wine on the porch that night. Ethan has stopped crying, too, and now we're all thankful for a great school year and hope they remember how sad they were to leave it when it's time to go back...

Only two weeks left of t-ball, and the playoffs are looming. This means crunch time for some teams who are battling for the top spots. It means crunch team for our Blue Jays as we only have a few games left to socialize, remember to bring the video cameras, and see if we can catch our 6th fly ball of the season. Shots I missed: Ethan's turn to bat - as the coaches are calling his name and looking for him in the dugout and near the parents' area, the porta-potty door flies open and Ethan strolls on up to the plate to grab the bat...Patrick in the infield filling his cap with sand - when he's busted, dumps about 80% of the sand out before he flips it on letting the rest drizzle onto his shoulders...Ethan picking dandelions in the outfield, failing to notice a fly ball sailing over his head...the base runners who are left on base, not noticing or not sure why the other players have returned to their dugouts, and are eventually retrieved by a coach...We've actually made a lot of progress in two short months, but most importantly a good time is had by all.

The boyz start their summer schedule this coming week, including a camp together two 1/2 days a week, tennis, kola's doing pee wee football and t-ball, ethan's doing junior naturalist at the conservatory and gymnastics camp. Our block is doing a stay-on Wednesday afternoon where we pull up the lawnchairs and lemonade...hope it's warm enough for the slip-n-slide soon!!! And we're planning a few weekends away, and a one-week lake vacation. I'm looking forward to a great summer! And the boyz keep asking - is it here yet? The pool's open, when can we go in it? keep in touch;)xo b/s/e/k