August 15

It starts today.

Today was Meet the Teacher day for Lily's preschool and Caleb and Daisy's school.

(Don't worry; this funny little guy still gets to stay home with me. Until next year, when Lily is in kindergarten and he starts preschool. OH MY GOODNESS WHEN DID MY BABIES GET SO OLD????)

(He even has a mustache! See? He's a grown man. OH MY GOODNESS WHEN DID MY BABIES GET SO OLD????)

(Also, he's wearing underwear, not a diaper. He decided today that he was done with diapers.  OH MY GOODNESS WHEN DID MY BABIES GET SO OLD????)

Lily's Meet the Teacher event was in the morning, and I brought all four kids to visit Ms. Amy's classroom. Since Caleb and Daisy are both former students of hers, it wasn't a big deal. The kids had so much fun, and Lily is so excited! Each kiddo brought their teacher a little jar of caramel M&Ms. The chalkboard lid on the jar said, "Have a SWEET first day!" They were so excited to give their teachers their little gift!

Caleb and Daisy's Meet the Teacher event was from 2:30-3:30. It was a seriously inconvenient time, but thankfully Chris' mom was willing to come stay at home with napping Lily and Eli while I took my big kids to their new school. I brought my big camera, but I was strictly forbidden from taking pictures. Daisy's teacher is a cute blonde who is in her fifth year of teaching, but her first year of teaching first grade. Daisy already adores her.

Caleb's teacher is a man with a grizzled beard and 22 years of teaching experience. I think Caleb will do really well with a teacher like this!

They let me take one picture on the way out:

My sweet little tigers!

I promised them a special treat on our way home, so we stopped at Bread Co. Caleb chose a M&M cookie, Daisy chose a chocolate croissant, and we got an iced latte for Gayle. The worker asked if we wanted to add a flavor to the iced latte, and Caleb suggested lime. 

Unfortunately, they only had vanilla, caramel, and chocolate.

We chose vanilla.

Tomorrow I will send these babies off to school!

August 13

I got a new lens today!

I know. It's reaching the point of ridiculousness. But my little photography business paid for it, so I was thrilled to get a Sigma Art 35mm lens in the mail today. These are my random "playing with the new lens" photos.

35mm means I can get a whole room in one shot. It's a lovely wide angle lens that doesn't look super wide-angle-y.

And look at that dreamy blur! Hi, mermaid on the shelf! 

Hi, Eli on the slide!

Hi, Caleb in his jammies!

Hi, handsome husband looking at the tree that needs to be trimmed!

The wide-angle lens even allows me to take big-camera selfies.

Hooray!

August 12

I had a garage sale this morning. 

I tried to get rid of all of my baby clothes, but no one wanted them, so most of them are getting donated. I did sell over $100 worth of stuff and my basement is now free from a huge pile of castoffs, so I'm going to call it a win.

In the evening it was so lovely that we decided to go up to the track after dinner and let the kids ride bikes. It is a flat, empty surface that is great for kids like Daisy, who need to ditch their training wheels.

I brought my big camera because it was just too gorgeous out to leave it at home.

See?

Eli ran all the way around the 1/4 mile track at least once.

Chris took the training wheels off of Daisy's bike, much to her dismay.

Caleb, meanwhile, zipped around the track! We recently bought him a new secondhand bike, and it was such a tremendous upgrade. His last bike (also secondhand) was a Schwinn that Chris found at a garage sale. But it was heavy and awkward and Caleb preferred to ride his much-too-small Specialized bike over the appropriately-sized Schwinn. Finally I started searching for a better brand of bike for him, and the Trek was a winner.

While Chris took the wheels off her bike, Daisy sprinted.

Caleb is super fast on his bike.

He named the bike "Jet".

And Lily. Oh, Lily. This is the bike that all of the grandparents chipped in to buy for Caleb for his fourth birthday. He passed it on to Lily for her fourth birthday, and he and Daisy decorated it so that Lily would consider it a "girl bike".

It worked.

After one lap around the track, she rode in, beaming, and informed me that she had chosen a name for her bike.

Cherry.

I can't think of anything more appropriate. Goodness, I love this girl.

I don't know how Eli wound up here.

Daisy insisted on knee, elbow, and wrist pads. We forgot them at first, and had to turn around to get them.

She was very angry about riding without training wheels. It was a lot like swimming; we knew she was capable, but she was scared to try.

Happy Lily and her beloved Cherry.

I mean, really. Aren't you glad I brought my camera? I sure am.

This boy's curls kill me.

(His feet are so dirty and gross, but it was worth it for that smile.)

Caleb wanted to make sure I was watching him every time he rode past. 

See that? Chris is barely holding on. (He's also running, for the first time in nearly a month following his hernia surgery.) Daisy was riding well enough that he could let go, as long as she didn't notice he had let go. Once she noticed, she freaked out.

Like that.

Still, it was a great first try!

She was pretty proud of her efforts. 

Caleb and Jet.

Caleb was proud of his sister.

Lily and Cherry.

She loves this bike.

Loves.

This.

Bike.

August 11

The kids found this "caterpillar" in our garden, munching on a milkweed today. 

They took a picture with my phone, confident that Grandma could identify it. She couldn't. Neither could Instagram. Neither could my quick google searches. I'm pretty sure that means it's a grub of some sort, or an undesirable critter?

Eli and I had blurry snuggles today.

In the evening, we celebrated my nephew Max's 7th birthday. I was there when he was born, and it blows my mind that he is 7 now. 

Emily and Billy held Max's party at a park that has a giant merry-go-round that my kids love.

There's also a splash pad, but the kids spent their entire playtime on the merry-go-round.

Also, a small milestone, but Eli walked up this entire set of stairs without holding on to anything. He is becoming such a big boy!

(Don't worry, Mom. He caught his balance, and I was right behind him in case he fell.)

The birthday boy!

Near our celebration area was this tree. The kids spent a solid 30 minutes trying to run or climb up its trunk.

Daisy was pumped to be the first girl to climb up the tree. Caleb was devastated that Daisy made it up and he didn't. 

Max got a Minecraft Xbox for his birthday, and he was thrilled.

Eli hid in a tree, wearing hand-me-downs from Jace.

After birthday cake, Grandma took the little two to the playground to play.

Chris asked my mom to snap this picture of us. He's sweet like that.

I kind of like him.

After we left the party, we made a pit stop at a local frozen custard shop. You know, because cookie cake wasn't enough, and we needed ice cream too. 

The kids didn't seem to mind.

Lily made friends with the kids from another large family there. She is definitely our social butterfly.

Yum!