Wednesday, June 20, 2012

baseball lessons


these two crack me up.  aidan with his pants all hiked up and his tight lipped smile.  nadia with her grin so cheesy it squeezes her eyes closed.  and playing baseball together, forget about it.
too stinking cute.

aidan loved day one of the cougar baseball camp, but a migraine on day two kept him home with me.  i want to punch migraines in the face, hard, with brass knuckles. 

nadia was the only girl in a sea of 9-14 year old ballplayers.  she worked twice as hard and even hit a home run grounder.

i wanted to pick the coach up and put him in my pocket and bring him right home with me.  at the end of the day his focus was on the importance of being responsible for yourself and your things and how that will make you a better ballplayer.  he preached the importance of being competitive, but not to beat others; competitive to make yourself better.  he reminded the kids to be unselfish on the field and at home and most of all to thank their parents. 

i guess that means we are stuck with this baseball thing for a while.  -sigh-

the dad

to tony...
there are a million reasons why you are the perfect dad for the two little lovely leapers from our loins, but may we just this time focus on one?
it is the most important after all.
it is the thing that made you & i an us and which because you are so very good at math might have guessed, made them ours.
it is your sense of humor.....
"you see that pony?  he was going to perform tonight, but he can't.  he's a little horse"


every blessed time we pass a pony, this is what we here.  this and tony's stifled giggles. 
every time people. 

the little guy above sits in our kitchen window. i am sure it looks a little silly up there, all smug and important in it's giant bell jar.  silly like the look on the tonester's face when he cracks himself up over his joke.  knee-slapping funny, that guy is.  and we can't help but laugh, and roll our eyes just a tiny bit.  and do you know that we love it?  and we love him to pieces and pieces and pieces.

Saturday, June 16, 2012

slow down

we are only 5 days into summer vacation and i feel like it is flying by already.  our summer bucket list is nearly finalized and our journals are primed and ready for short travels.  now if we can remember to just slow down and enjoy it...

Friday, June 15, 2012

vaulting

what might make a nadia smile like that?

well, you see, nadia is thick with megan, hannah and the squish. 

annnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnndddd......

megan is q's sister and tracy's daughter.  tracy is super cool because she is also the pe teacher, but megan's dad is awesome too because he teaches woodshop which nadia just knows is going to be her favorite class.  the squish is really sienna and is hannah's little sister, but most importantly is just one of the girls.  hanna and sienna have  a super brad dad who teaches science with nadia's mom in a long distance kinda way.  super brad dad is also dad to spence and auzzie who have very little to do with this story but are always worth mentioning.  this really starts with hannah's mom who is really sienna's mom too and is all kinds of genius in her own right.
staying with me?
it was hannah's mom who initiated the super cool tradition of a birthday surprise instead of a birthday party.  for two years running, she has listened and plotted and planned and came up with the best birthday experience that her girl hannah could ask for.  a perfectly picked non party, party if you will. 

tracy carried the torch back in march for the meg-arama's 9th birthday and passed it on to me for the nani-nonster.




and that is why you see my little nani b standing on a perfectly good horse right there. 

Thursday, June 7, 2012

yesteryear...

i used to do a lot of this...

i know it looks glamorous,
but i didn't do it for the fame, or the accolades or even the super soft lanonlin hands... 
i did it for the money.

and sometimes i would do this too...

but not for money...
just because i really wanted to gross my mom out.

now i just do it to hang out with my dad and get my mom to cook for me.

(ok, and because my kids love being at there and because it is really funny to watch tony wrangle a sheep)


Wednesday, June 6, 2012

because sometimes...

sometimes a mom just needs to see the sweet in their sibling relationship.



sometimes a mom just needs to see a little camaraderie. 


sometimes a mom just needs to see the freakfaces she birthed from her loins.


Tuesday, June 5, 2012

happy birthday to my baby

she wrote us this letter...

my family
what does a tall man, one short woman and one boy have in common?  all of them are in my family.
my dad is a tall but wonderful man.  he works a lot but he can also play, but not loud.  he sits in a quiet, shallow and gloomy room all by himself and all day.  [here is where she drew a stick figure of him crying over his keyboard].  he will always love me!
my mom is a short but very wonderful woman.  she works hard, goes on long trips and comes back wanting to love her family.  she knows how to play! she will always love me!
my brother is very very smart and knows how to play. in all sorts of ways! wow do i love him! and he loves me!
and that's my amazing, wonderful, talented family!

and that's my nadia.
she finds the good in all of those around her.  nine years ago she slipped into this world all gooey and full of giggles and goodness to complete our family.  she inspires us all to find the happy in the day and when in doubt, dance. 






happy birthday nadia my love. 
love every minute of nine while we love every minute with you.

Monday, June 4, 2012

who loves a good cause?

i do. 
but what i love more is a ton of people working together for that cause. 
and even better than that, a leader who puts in countless hours of planning and worrying and perfecting and pleasing and most of all making it all fun. 

thank you KAREN!!  you are boob worth admiring, a boob worth emulating, a boob to cheer for! 


thank you for inviting me to be a boob too.



the glow run was such a success. 
rumor has it that more than $7000 was raised to fight cancer. 
about 400 of the very coolest people were there getting their glow on. 
and next year....

next year is going to be even better.  karen & the rest of the boobs are already planning.  
you probably better plan on being there.

and by the way...relay for life is just around the corner.