un bon homme

Over a decade of father's days under his belt, and this father of four has reason to celebrate more than ever on the third Sunday of June. His day was filled with homemade cards, gifts, hugs & kisses, and peppercorn-crusted steak (with mashed potatoes of course). Sweet day for our sweet daddy.

la gymnastique

So here's "Coey" (LiLi's pronunciation) in her home away from home. Any given week for the past year and the upcoming one, she trains 6-10 hours at the gym on floor, vault, beam and bars. These shots were taken this past April at her last meet of the competitive year: the spring state championship.

C and teammates await the floor competition...

Working the bars...with Coach Marci looking on

The handstand dismount to finish her beam routine...

Concentrating on the floor routine while waiting for her turn...

Last minute pep talk from Coach Marci before taking the floor...

The stretch before a backward straight arm roll...

Poised to begin her round-off, back handspring tumbling pass...

Celebrating with Nadine after finishing 7th in two events...

I think gymnastics is good for Chloe. The perks? Discipline, strength, a gym "family" and goals to accomplish something worthwhile. Stay tuned for more highlights when this year's meets begin next month.

une remise d'un diplome

One diploma down and at least two more to go!

SoSo went the distance this year and wrapped up about 9 months of full-day kindergarten in June. Mrs. Phillips and SoSo had a stellar year together. It was definitely time to celebrate! I think all school kids love a good school party, but I think full-day kindergartners just might love them best. And there was no better time to have one than on the last day of school. (Full-day kindergarten moms have theirs on the first day of school.)

Now a couple of thoughts on the general idea of "graduating" from kindergarten: I believe Sawyer still has at least a decade and a half of school days ahead of him. While I don't think it can quite be called cruel (after all 5-year-olds are largely oblivious to the idea of graduation meaning you're done with school or at least the one you're graduating from), perhaps it's a bit misleading and in any event unnecessary to "graduate" from kindergarten. I will admit, though, he looked darned cute in that construction paper graduation cap.

femme fatale

You might not think it from her picture. Scout's fluffy white coat and puppy dog eyes give off a serene, almost pure countenance.

But this dog is lethal. Just ask any doodad (furniture included) that ends up on a floor in our house for too long. She has devoured and damaged and destroyed to her heart's content since joining our home in February. A partial list includes so many items that's it's practically painful to put it in print--the legs of our bar stools, a post of our kitchen island, the bench at our kitchen table, our newly refinished deck, the leather ottoman (this one is not entirely her fault as the kids had already managed to tear it in three places--the stuffing was almost begging to be ripped out), Stinky Pete's gym bag, the case for the portable iPod stereo, multiple pairs of flip flops, multiple pairs of shoes, no less than three of Ethan's books, various items of laundry, too many pens/pencils/crayons to count, a yellow highlighter (ironically this one was a highlight for all of us as she later threw up portions of the plastic in a fluorescent yellow pool of goo), a button on a PS3 controller, a hapless and now footless GI Joe figure (that one was yesterday), a shoe insole (as I write), any stuffed animal that she can get her mouth on, etc., etc., etc. If pressed, I could go on and on and on.

As if the chewing capacity of a puppy wasn't enough work, Scout has certain other tendencies that might make me give her up if Jason wasn't good enough to remind me that I wanted the dog for our kids after seeing Marley and Me. She has marked her territory all over my territory. The house training was (and sometimes is) just that extra amount of aggravation and work to send me over the edge at times. She's done such an excellent job defining her territory that she now feels compelled to defend and protect her turf practically to the death. I have to keep her tied up when outside with us for fear that she'll go after any dog that passes by our house (look closely at the pictures and you'll see her leash tethering her to the banister while I took the above photos). A couple of unfortunate dogs have wandered into our house and felt the fury of our fraidy-cat (the fact that off-leash and ownerless dogs manage to be around our house often enough must be one of Murphy's laws of pet ownership). Behind her sometimes vicious bark, Scout is, yes, a fraidy-cat who used to cower on our walks when we passed a parked pick-up truck/mini-van/water fountain/large object.

I'd like to begin writing about her virtues, but I'm tired of thinking about her just now. She has enough of them, otherwise she wouldn't still be living in my house.

sur la touche

Because Ed spent so much time on the field this spring (black jersey and goggles in case you can't tell with all that gear on)...

...we all got to spend a lot of time on the sidelines. Here are some shots of his groupies at his last lacrosse event of the year...an all-day tournament.

Sawyer in a cozy stadium chair

Aunt Joni (and the wee top of Glenn's head)

Roxy, Scout's cousin

Aunt A-dine

Mom, no doubt cheering her boy on

Liam flitting around and not ever sitting still

Dad coming back to the sidelines after giving some fatherly advice to his son

"Grandpa and Grandma with the white hair"

tante nadine

Aunt Nadine is a regular around these parts now that's she's moved to the area. We can't get enough of her...especially her niece and nephews! She almost always comes bearing gifts and goodies galore. These are especially welcome the day after a nephew breaks an arm.

Balloons and chocolates and a HUGE Mickey Mouse card for the injured...

Hugs and love in the lounge chair with nephews and "Regular," another gift from Nadine and LiLi's second stuffed animal in as many days...

What would a boy with a broken arm want more than a light-weight plastic sword with which he can carry on his battling?

Merci, Nadine!

des animaux

From time to time in our wet Northwest winters, we all feel a bit like caged animals. Even as winter transitions to spring and spring to summer, gray skies and rain seem to dominate our forecasts. So one sunny Wednesday in May, we freed ourselves and spent a wonderful afternoon peering at some truly caged animals. It felt good to be on the outside...looking in.

Learning the swimming patterns of the sea lions...

Climbing the bronzed chimps...

Getting close up to see the tarantula at the insect zoo...

Sharing a scrumptious elephant ear with a friend...

Getting mauled at the Zoo Store by a wild Grizzly...