Bikes, Green Leaf Carpeting, and Other Summer Stuff

A summer picture catch-up post.  Enjoy! 


You guys, Georgia has been making such amazing strides in her preschool readiness! I think she actually likes the little transition class that she's in now for a few hours each week and is looking forward to 3 day a week preschool in the fall. She's still our little reluctant joiner, though. Here she is at soccer "camp". I was not there but am told that dear Harry was comforting her after some tears.

{Bad mommy = notice I was too cheap to buy her itty-bitty shinguards for just five 1-hour days of camp.  She seemed satisfied with knee socks, though.} 



No, that's not a nap. That, my friends, is a tantrum.


Women's work?




Paint the town wet.


We do get out and about from time to time.


Caged at the zoo.


Our front steps the morning after the biggest hail storm I've ever seen, including my years in Texas and Missouri. What's that? You want a ball size comparison? Let's go with golf ball. It was 80 degrees out, but the ground looked as ice-covered as February. I wish I had pictures but would've been pelted. Our poor new van. : (


The entire neighborhood looked like this the next day.


June loves her monkey and "bankie." (Sara B. - that's the lovey you embroidered for her - she has really taken to it!)

She's always up to mischief of one kind...

or another...(she loves sampling the foam from Daddy's beer with her finger)


I guess in Illinois we call this a hill?


Thought this looked like the quintessential picture of Americana for Independence Day weekend:





Kiss the cook! (with World's Cutest Ponytail)



And then there was the children's bike parade in Beth's neighborhood on the 4th. One of those things that you look forward to and then rave about afterwards but during it have to wonder if you've lost your mind or if the children even consider themselves to be having "fun." It felt like 100 degrees to this pregnant lady, and at least in the case of our children, the bike parade should've instead been called the walk/ride/complain/cry because there's a fire truck/pick-me-up mama parade. As you can see from the pictures, every possible form of transport and combination of children was involved. Georgia recently got a new balance bike that she's been very excited about practicing with, but needless to say, she was totally over riding it by the time we arrived at the parade start. *Sigh*




Cousin Alice


At least Cousin Sam was smart enough to admit from the get-go that he had no intention of biking once he heard a wagon was available!


Children practicing the art of looking anywhere but the camera.




Mama, up!


Uncle Lach, carry me!


Uncle Lach, shoulders!


Georgia now opting for the wagon instead of walking. (Note that for lack of additional hands to carry stuff, I insisted that she keep her helmet on the whole time. Ha!)

We bailed out of the line for seeing the cab of the fire truck due to incessant whining. Well, that plus the fact that Georgia had already cried when the siren came on, and panicked when we asked her to pose on the back of the truck for a picture with her cousins, saying, "But it's going to leave!" A fire fighter assured her the engine was off. I swear, that girl's fear of abandonment runs DEEP.

After the parade, she told me it was all fantastic and thanked me for taking her there. No joke.

And now, the grand finale: the patches. As soon as she heard that she was getting a new bike, Georgia excitedly began demanding "patches" to go with it. I have no idea where she's even seen knee and elbow pads (and coordinating gloves) -- maybe at the skate park in our neighborhood or on TV? Or why she thinks she needs them, but that's okay, because to her they are awesome. Also, we play doctor with them now, natch. Lots of broken bones around our house.

{Look very closely to spot our first tomatoes. They've come so far! Loving the EarthBoxes, thanks Mom and Dad and Marsha and Dave!}