And now presenting….

Oliver! A young magician recently returned from Caroline’s birthday party. Gordo, the magician at the party, taught him many wondrous tricks which he eagerly shared with us over and over.

The red happy face jumping out of a can trick.

Posing with his new wand. I think it’s a Fred Astaire impression.

Balancing an elephant on a ball on his finger.

And making a tiny blue rabbit appear from under his hat.

His assistant and her humming bird.

This is the flower Ellis down the street cut and gave to Nabby.

Abigail’s diorama. She said it’s a man in a forest trying to catch a bunny. There’s a squirrel in a hole in the tree.

They made the U of M crowns for themselves. And then they cleaned some pennies for Oliver’s homework.

This begins the cozy section of today’s post.

Abigail and Phoebe cuddling in blankets waiting for lunch. Phoebe is 6 months old now and wearing her 9 month clothes. Her legs are really long.

Jason baked lots of bread. Smelled sooo good.

Nabby’s arms were so sore and cracked that we decided to wrap them in ace bandages with vaseline for a few days. Turning the heater on always makes her dry skin worse. Phoebe LOVES to sit and play with her.

Nabby’s favorite ipad game right now is toca-builder.

Phoebe’s favorite game is playing with suds while I wash stuff.

For a long time she just poked the pile of bubbles with her finger. Eventually she put some in her mouth and smashed them with the spoon.

Oliver and Jason built a constellation projector (machine) for the science fair. At first Oliver was deflated (and crying a little) because it was too bright in the lunch room to see it work.

Eventually Jason helped him relocate to a more shady spot where it did work and he was very happy again. He explained and demonstrated it to 12 people all by himself.

Phoebe’s Who from Whoville hair.

Playing the piano. (They’re both yellow now.)

Eating toys. She’s not happy that the beads don’t come off the wires.

Nabby and I played cooties. We each made two. I asked her which one was her favorite. Maybe this one with the bow?

Or maybe these two.

In the end they were ALL her favorite.

And then we got ready for the ward halloween party! Oliver is actually Darth Vader this year, but we didn’t have the costume in time.

Phoebe playing with a basting brush.

And finally, ambition ran wild last week when Jason took a train to Chicago to share his research with prominent financial minds for three days and I painted the piano yellow. After two days of listening to Sarah Vaughn songs all alone I had a lot of creative energy fighting to get out. I don’t feel any need to explain myself beyond that.

The sheet music above the piano is from the Scrap Box. It’s a fox trot number titled “Love Will Find A Way”. Lovely isn’t it? That’s all I’ve got. Have a good Sunday.

One day it was time to get ready for preschool so I picked out some clothes and asked Nabby to put them on. She told me it looked like something I would wear. I thanked her for trying them and told her she could keep wearing them or change.

She came back wearing this and pointed out that the shorts were especially nice because they didn’t cover her angry birds bandaid. The hand me down shirt from Oliver matches her raccoon toy, the headband doesn’t slip around, and the shoes she made herself. All around an upgrade. She wanted to show off the milk jug man she made too (he has eyes and a nose on top).

So she wore that to school (switching the shoes) and actually I returned the shirt and pants from first outfit because she had no interest in them.

She loves to help me pick tomatoes from the backyard and that’s great because we actually have some this year!

She loves to push Phoebe in the swing.

She also likes to lay under Phoebe’s jumper. They both bust up laughing when Phoebe jumps on her. When Phoebe isn’t in the jumper Abby loves to stick her feet up through the leg holes and pretend her feet are a baby.

The good weather has been so nice. I’ve been walking Oliver home from school in the afternoons. Nabby always wears the running shoes Grandma Kotter bought her when we go and asks me to point out landmarks for her to run to. Her favorites are the stairs(a retaining wall of logs staked like steps), the chair (cut from a tree stump) and the red circle (a reflector someone put by a large rock near their driveway). Some times land marks are just the “fourth tree” or the “third mail box”. She’s pretty fast.  I love listening to Phoebe “ooooooo” in the carrier with me while we walk. I think she’s singing.

Oliver just started first grade. Here he is on the first day. Jason gave him and Nabby a father’s blessing the night before. His friends Caroline, Max and Ofelia from kindergarten sit at his table and he’s happy to be with them. He likes his teacher Mrs. Carlin. Her hair is a different color each Friday (she has several wigs). She says she likes to “change things up” for the kids to keep them curious. Emotionally starting school has been a non issue. He isn’t excited or sad to go, he’s just fine with it. We like to listen to the yo gabba gabba “good bye” song with Jack Black while we drive to school in the morning.

I wish I could remember what this machine does. He draws a lot of machines both outside and on paper.

Besides legos, trios, tinker toys, and blocks, he finds other stuff around the house to build with.

It’s a house for the mexican trains to live in. And… I think the square out by itself is a graveyard. The similar one next to the house is a flower bed. The rectangle to the far right is a swimming pool with a diving board. It must be broken on the end on purpose because he wouldn’t leave it unfinished for no reason. Even on the verge of wetting his pants he will finish what he’s doing before taking off.

These pepper seeds became a rather lengthy space saga he told himself after dinner. Some would zoom off and chase each other and others would pile together and explode. I really like Oliver.

He sings very softly to Phoebe when she cries and he’s a good singer. He understands other people’s sensitivities really well for a 6 year old. And…that’s all.

This was her first time in the high chair too. Plus, we have some nice shots of her comb over.

And there it is. First bite was sort of a shock. Second one she slapped the tray a lot and looked excited.

Check it out. She’s practically feeding herself.

She liked it and a couple days later didn’t like it. And a couple days later started liking it again. That’s how the babies do it. Plain rice cereal is boring. We’ll get some new stuff to try soon.

We spent a day at the beach just before school started. Really, what can I say? Everyone had a great time. Lovely day. Phoebe napped a lot in the boba carrier while I strolled in the surf. Some empty nesters near by loaned us their boogie board and the Oliver and Abby loved climbing and playing on that in the water.

Oliver, Abby and Jason climbed Warren Dune. Abby rode on Jason’s shoulders half the way up. It was really taller than it looks.

There’s Oliver running down. You might have to look close he’s tiny.

We stopped and got ourselves some pizza on the way home.

Then it poured as we got close to AA.

The kids finished swimming lessons Monday. It was about 65 degrees and cloudy for 5 of the 8 lessons. The other three days were sunny and 70. But at least the water was warm.

These two play for hours. They’re always together.

Oliver made a rocket with a thousand buttons. One button is even for Phoebe- it gives you a baby toy when you push it.

Phoebe is good. She eats and sleeps and chews on stuff and spits up sometimes. See the puddle on the blanket? Ohh, that tummy time.

Abby put all of these together by herself (again).

This is Oliver’s summer homework book. That’s a brain holding a bucket and shovel.

I like this page with the pig on the hat.

The tv antenna fell off the window seal and stopped working. Jason pulled it apart and couldn’t see any physical damage, but it has circuit boards so it could be something electronic. Anyway, after fiddling with it he got ABC to come in from Toledo. Toledo? Yeah, weird huh. It’s the only station that comes in. The local news is always covering nasty crime stories. A lady was arrested for human trafficking last week. The slave trade has been a problem there for a long time. Makes me angry.

The kids love to get apples for snacks.

We were out catching fireflies the other night in our pajamas.

Abby still loves her baby sister.

Phoebe fits in her bumbo seat now.

I’ll be working on back to school shopping. Nabby would look pretty cute in these.

Love you all. Hope you have a good week.

We had a great time Saturday at rolling hills waterpark. Abby and Oliver liked the wave pool best. Phoebe and I found a spot of nice grass by the lazy river to watch the kids and Jason float by a few times. It was only barely 80, but after the 65 temps last week it felt nice and hot. Sunny too. I LOVE SUNSHINE!! More please.

I spent most of the afternoon walking around with Phoebe asleep in the front carrier, but it was still well worth it. I was dying to get out of the house and obviously from the pasty complexion a little sun was going to do me good. The kids too have spent too many days this summer (especially this month) playing with legos inside and dodging thunderstorms. Jason is amazing and didn’t slow down once taking the kids through everything.

Kaitlin sent us this outfit for Phoebe and it looks great on her!

Look how big she is!

She’s was wiggling like crazy to get Oliver and Abby’s attention when I took these pictures.

This was her just three months ago

We drove to Bay City last Friday for the Tall Ship Festival. Some of these ships sail all over the world. This one came from Sweden.

Jason was wishing he could see them with the sails out, but even when they came into port Thursday they just motored in. I guess you have to join a crew to see the sails out up close. I hope I’m not giving him any ideas- he might just do that to escape the pressure of this dissertation.

We parked for free and took a shuttle to the entrance. Jas took charge of pulling BOB (stroller) onto the bus. People’s eye’s got wide when they saw us get on and one gentleman from Thailand asked me if I was Catholic. I said I was Mormon and we talked a second. It doesn’t bother me at all to be mistaken for a Catholic (might have saved me on the metro that one day with the Puerto Rican gangsters), but since when did three children mean a huge family? Maybe we just look a lot younger than we are? (I hope!) Maybe it looks like seven when Oliver and Nabby are jumping around so fast they blur. Anyway, it was nice to talk and make a friend and not just be stared at again. This cool orange/red building was in front of the bus stop.

Swords and whips and wannabe pirates. There were loads of crafts for the kids and singing groups too. AND SUN! There was sunshine in Michigan!! I could hardly contain myself. It felt SOOOOO good. And I burned my nose and forehead a little. And I didn’t even care. Apparently all that solar energy made my fingers fidgety because I have a ton of photos.

Honest truth, Oliver gave this guy a high five.

He had to jump.

This guy works with Ring of Steel in Ann Arbor. He lit one of his whips on fire and threw it around a ton without burning anything. He showed us how he whips a sword out of an actor’s hand for a movie or play.

I think these guys were teaching kids how to talk like a pirate. My kids didn’t want to go anywhere near them.

Smee teaching Nabby how to make a hat. I named him Smee in my head. She liked drawing a pirate map too. Oliver made an eye patch.

I answered Buttercup’s riddle and won a couple of pixy sticks. One was iocan powder and the other was it’s antidote. I wish the antidote had been chocolate covered, but that probably would have melted and been messy. It was hot.

Then we ate ice cream and went home.