July 19

Sweet Lily is three today! Two-year-old Lily was a golden child: sweet, silly, affectionate, fun. However, I am starting to suspect that three-year-old Lily may be another animal entirely.  Still sweet, silly and affectionate, but with a side of tantrums and struggles for independence. I understand the psychology behind it, and realize it's an important stage, but that doesn't make it any easier!

We started the day with a birthday tradition that the kids just love: balloons on their bedroom door. Lily got three pink balloons for her third birthday.

I can't wait to continue this tradition when the kids start hitting their teen years. A doorway filled with balloons? It will be so much fun!

Chris usually likes to take the kids out for special Daddy adventures on their birthdays, but he really needed to be at work today. Instead, he compromised by taking Lily out to breakfast before he left for work.

I think she was very happy with the chocolate chip pancake that was bigger than her head! (No, Mom, she didn't eat it all!)

We played at home all morning, and though I wanted to take some birthday photos of Lily, she wasn't really feeling it and I didn't push it. I need to make it a priority, though!

While Lily napped, Caleb and I worked on building her a special birthday surprise:

Her very own bed in Caleb and Daisy's room!

Pardon the poorly-lit picture, but it helps to show how the bed fits into the room. Eventually it will be bunk beds, and all four kids will share this room for a while. But for now we only assembled one of the beds. We are so close to being finished in here - just need to finish installing the drawers, put in a board and cushion for the window seat, trim out the built-ins, and get new curtains!

When Lily woke up, we were so excited to show her the surprise! 

Lily, however, was a bit overwhelmed.

We gave her some time to explore her new bed.

She tried it out.

She inspected all of the artwork.

And soon enough, she was quite pleased.

Another favorite tradition! I am so mad that I forgot to take Caleb's picture like this. I think I'll have to go back and do it, even though his birthday was a week and a half ago.

Lily chose to celebrate her birthday at the Mexican restaurant. We don't go there often, but every time we drive past, she asks if we can go. For her birthday, we said yes, and the whole family joined us.

Eli swiped her crown.

Ryan, Max, and Jace looked at pictures on Ryan's phone.

Lily got snuggles with her Aunt Mimi.

Then we went back to our house for cake and presents. 

Caleb helped me decorate Lily's birthday cake, and helped me choose the Sophia the First doll that went on top. Lily's only request had been a pink cake. No, a purple cake. No, a pink cake. Purple. Pink. Pink. Purple. 

In the end, she was very happy with her cake!

And she's three!

Also three is my sweet nephew Jace, who was born 3 days after Lily. I stole him away to the back yard and snapped a few birthday pictures for Emily and Billy.

Why are my kids never this cooperative about pictures?

Then back inside, and it was time for presents. 

Happy birthday, Lily Clare!

July 18

Caleb's swim season is officially over, and the team celebrated a great season with a banquet up at the pool. There was food, awards, and even a shaving cream fight! The kids ate food we don't normally eat, got multiple desserts, and swam well past their bedtime. It was a good night.

I picked up three of these tubes for $3 each at Target, and it was definitely the best $9 I've spent all summer.

I asked Daisy if she wanted me to take one last picture of her and her friend Emma, who helped her during kickboard team. Daisy said no, so I snapped this one of the two of them holding hands as Daisy walked up to get her medal for participating in kickboard team.

I know her face doesn't betray anything, but this girl was so excited to get a medal!

She immediately ran back to show it to Daddy.

Daddy had been busy supervising the little ones. Lily made friends with the daughter of one of the coaches. She didn't know her new friend's name, so she just called her "Friend". It was adorable!

I have all the heart eyes for this picture. Her medal even has her name engraved on the back! Maybe I'll look back on this picture in 15 years, when she's an Olympic gold medalist in kickboarding. (That's a thing, right?)

Then it was Caleb's turn! 

The 6&under boys were the first to get their awards.

Caleb won the "Most Improved" award for his age group.

His trophy had his name, and "Most Improved" on it. I love that these coaches know my boy so well!

He also got a plaque for swimming in the conference meet. He was pretty excited about that one.

My boy. This season stretched him and grew him so much, and I am so proud of him!

After all of the awards were handed out, it was time for the annual shaving cream fight. 

I stayed safely behind the pool fence, but managed to snap this awesome image of my people.

Caleb usually hates getting messy, but this fight was definitely a highlight for him.

And for her. Daisy was thrilled! (The veteran swimmers warned us to put goggles on the kids, because the shaving cream stings the eyes.)

So much fun!

When we finally got home, I remembered that *gasp!* tomorrow is Lily's third birthday! I needed to take her last picture as a two-year-old! The sun was definitely set, but I squeezed out a few drops of light for this picture:

This time three years ago, labor hadn't even started. Chris and I were debating about whether to try to induce her, or keep waiting. We decided to wait, and at 6:10 the next morning, she was in my arms. Happy early birthday, Lily Clare!

July 16

Today was a busy day! I had an early-morning photo session, then Caleb had his final swim meet of the season (a big deal meet, against all of the other teams in the conference!), then another photo session, then a "grown-up party" at a friend's house.

Chris and I left the house at about the same time, me to my first photo session and him with all four kids to the swim meet. On my way back from the session, I stopped by a local bakery to pick up treats for the kids (and myself, and Chris). Then I headed to the meet, which was held at a high school's natatorium.

Daisy was thrilled with the emoji macaron I got for her.

As was Princess Lily. Don't you love the way she dresses and accessorizes for a decidedly un-fancy event? (I almost typed "excessorizes", which, while technically not a word, really should be, especially in reference to something like Lily's 23 bracelets on one arm.)

Eli shared Daddy's peanut butter monster cookie. This might be one of my new favorite pictures of him. Those curls!

Soon it was time for Caleb's event! Can you tell he was excited?

The stands were crowded, but we managed to find a good spot to watch Caleb's first race. He ended up swimming the 25 back, 25 breast, and 25 free.

Almost time!

Can you see Caleb down there by the door, waiting his turn?

Freestyle!

After the race, we went back to the swimmers' area to congratulate him and deliver his macaron.

That's one happy boy!

(It's also a boy with cow fingernails. At practice on Thursday, all of the swimmers painted their fingernails to look like cows, in honor of their team mascot. Even Daisy and Lily are sporting cow nails!)

Then I took the little ones home for lunch and naps, while Chris stayed up at the pool with Caleb.

Caleb is in that line somewhere, waiting for his next race.

Oh! There he is!

Backstroke is Caleb's favorite stroke. He ended up getting 8th place in this event, out of nearly 20 boys! He was disqualified in breast stroke, because he accidentally started the race swimming freestyle. Oops!

The conference meet was a long day, but it was such a good thing for Caleb, and such a fun way to finish off his first swim season!

July 13

Caleb's swim team season is winding down, so today's practice was a fun one: Bring a Cow day.

I have forgotten to encourage Caleb to participate in other fun days (Hat Day, Rubber Ducky Day, Olympics Day), but I was on it for this one. Caleb grabbed a plain white t-shirt and I helped him draw cow spots on it and write his team name. Then, in a stroke of brilliance, I remembered Caleb's Halloween Costume when he was one:

Yep. He was a cow. He was nearly 16 months, and just starting to walk really well. It was the cutest thing! Amazingly, I was able to find the costume and it fit 17.5-month-old Eli perfectly! The warm fleece of the fabric wasn't exactly appropriate for the heat of July, but we made do.

I know. Cutest thing ever, right? And the face he's making? He's saying, "MOO!"

(Actually both boys are.)

I love how proud Caleb looks! He was really pleased with his cow shirt and cow brother; in fact, the coach told him that he won the contest for best cow and gave him a special treat!

Someone brought a cow bubble machine, and all of the 10 and under kids were totally pumped.

MOO! 

This swim team has been so good for Caleb!

And then we took the costume off, because it was HOT!

Much, much later, Eli and I sat on the front porch and watched storms roll in.  

It was lovely.

July 12

A month or two ago, I volunteered to do a free babywearing mini photo session for my local babywearing group. It seemed pretty straightforward: they chose a winner, I met the winner for a 20-minute session, and I delivered 5 edited images. No big deal.

Except that the winner ended up living an hour away from me. Oops! That was a tricky situation, but luckily there was a lovely park exactly halfway between us. Even luckier was that the park was literally three minutes from Chris' bank. We ended up scheduling the session for a weekday - today - and Chris met me at the park and took the kids to his office for the time it took me to do the session. The kids were pumped, because one of the things on their summer goal list was "Visit Daddy at work", and it was just the right amount of time for them to spend at his office.

This is what I found when I returned from my mini-session:

Lily loved Chris' phone. I always forget that these children have exactly zero experience with corded phones, except as a novelty. It's so strange!

Eli was just excited to see me.

(Side note: do you notice that he's standing? That's because he is suddenly a walker! Like, not "he takes a few steps here and there", not a cruiser, but a legit walker! Overnight! It's crazy, and I'm not entirely emotionally ready to process the fact that my last baby is now officially a toddler.)

And Caleb was playing with some Legos that months ago he insisted Chris take to work.

I asked the kids later what they thought about Chris' office.

Caleb said it was "not that bad". Ha!

Daisy said it was really messy. (She's right!)

Lily thought it was messy, but was mostly interested in talking about the phone and all of the phone calls she made. (I'm fairly confident Chris unplugged the phone, so she didn't make any real calls.)

Later, once we were home, I took some pictures of wraps that I am ready to sell.

I stalked this piece of beige linen fabric with gold flecks for months at the fabric store! I needed 4 yards, and first it was $28 per yard, then $14 per yard, and I finally scored it for $7 per yard and split it with a friend. I converted it to a size four wrap, and used it a lot last summer. Now that I have a legit size 3 cotton/linen/hemp wrap, this one needs to go. I have actually already sold it!

I love this wrap. It's a Yaro Yolka Toddler Blue, size 3. The herringbone just does something for me! It's specially woven to be super-supportive for toddlers, but that means it's also a really thick, beastly wrap. I don't like wrapping with it, and the size 3 cotton/linen/hemp wrap means this one has to go. Sadly, no one seems to want to buy it!

This one is my size 5 Girasol Northern Lights. Man, I love this wrap. If I were a sentimental person, I would totally keep it. Instead, I'm taking pictures of it. This was the wrap I stalked when Eli was born, and was thrilled to finally find. It was the one I used for his one-month pictures, when he wasn't even supposed to be out of my belly yet. It is lovely and I will probably one day buy a scrap of it to make a keepsake with, but a size 5 doesn't really do anything for me now. Off it goes. Hopefully it finds a home soon!

July 11

Oops.

I promised not to get behind on blogging, but here I am, 10 days behind on my blog. To my loyal readers (Mom, Dan and Gayle, Shirley, Amber, Jill and ... who else is out there? I'd love it if you'd drop me a comment so I know you're there! Or text me, or email me, or FB message me... I know Blogger comments can be challenging.), I'm sorry. Everything is fine. I've just been enjoying a break, and busy editing pictures for my little photography business. I aim to only take on two sessions each week so that I can keep up with editing, but sometimes even that keeps me up until midnight.

So. July 11. 

We worked out in the yard all morning. While I pulled weeds, Caleb found two snails in our yard! One was a "big" snail:

This one was maybe the size of a Cheerio?

I had to get out my macro filters to photograph it, but obviously I'm still figuring out how to use them.

Then he excitedly told me that he found a "baby" snail! 

This little guy was smaller than a grain of rice. Perhaps he was closer to a grain of sand? It is on a leaf, and those rocks below the leaf are actually the concrete of our driveway, if that gives you any perspective on how magnified this image is.

Then we moved our baby snail to a leaf. Cute, isn't it? Caleb wanted to keep the snails for pets, but I convinced him that they would just die if we put them in a jar with dirt and water, so they could be our "outside pets".

He knows not to argue with his mama.

And then there's this. I have no explanation.