Plan B

We tried to go to the splash playground on an early Saturday morning only to find after a major monsoon that it had broken and wasn't open. Bummer. The kids were really sad, so we walked around the rest of the largely new-to-us Brandi Fenton Memorial Park and found a really cool, fun playground to try out. I attempted to also catch some fun playground pictures, only to find that neither of the M & M's were willing to cooperate. What follows are the best shots I got (some actually pretty good!) as I tried to trick them, surprise them and catch them unawares. :O)

These pipes play like a xylophone when you bang on them hard enough!


A great shot of the Lightning McQueen shoes that Mom loathes (Dan claims they're just as ugly as my Crocs but I think they're worse!) but Michael adores them so what can I say? Someday they'll die, right?


Let's try it out together! That always makes things simpler!


King of the rock climbing wall


Not so sure about where she's gotten herself...


Maybe my favorite shot from the day


Trying to hide from Mommy's camera ~ but I found you!


RU-U-U-U-U-U-U-UNNNNNN!


Miranda was *very* interested in some tweeny girls who were braiding each other's hair, and she watched them from this perch for a long time.


A look of concern for a little boy who was very dramatic


And can I just close by saying that today I was *that mom* who wore her shirt inside out without knowing it to the grocery store because she was trying to do too much stuff on the way out the door and never noticed? My goodness!

Cousin's Birthday!

Last June we went to Albuquerque to celebrate Rulon's third birthday ~ cousins should be together as much as possible! I left my camera in ABQ there so these pictures are a little late.

The birthday boy and Miranda getting in on the balloon action


Michael with his own balloon


Michael and Grandma Gayle


Uncle B, Michael "helping" and the birthday boy


Cutie pie with his train cakes (did Mommy match his shirt on purpose?)


Miss Mimi loves her some cake!


Three cousins in a row

Get Ready to Race!

Racing is a MAJOR theme in our kid's every day lives ~ Miranda has picked it up because her big brother is always racing something or somewhere and now they race together. It's been so awesome to watch them start to play together and on their own. The other day we conducted races up and down the length of the house and I caught a couple starting line shots...

Getting ready


Start your engines!

(that's Michael's racing face!)

Everyone's Getting In On the Fun!

The kid's camera is always around somewhere and often easier to grab than our "real" digital cameras that's put away from little hands. Everyone has been getting in on the fun with Michael's camera lately!

Arrrr!


Miranda takes a turn catching her brother on screen


Late night silliness

First Day!

Michael had his first day of school yesterday!

It went great for him ~ all but the dropping off part that Mom was a part of. I stayed too long (wanted to watch him walk into his classroom with all the kids) and he was already not sure about it all and it was all too much. They say he calmed down pretty quickly once I was gone and by his account he had a lot of fun but Mom cried the whole time he was gone and in general was a wreak the whole day. Less so once he was home, but it was still a fragile-Mommy day. I'm doing much better now, thanks for asking, and hopefully tomorrow will be way better!

You can see from his first day pictures that he was already not sure about this big idea Mom and Dad had cooked up for him (he's wanted to go to school badly for months now and all of a sudden it was here and we weren't going to be there with him? No, no, not a good idea any more!) and a little annoyed that we kept insisting he go.

Classic First Day Photo (I can just imagine one every year for the next 13 years!)

New shirt for the big day!

Unsure little guy


Enough pictures already, NO I WON'T SMILE!


We go back tomorrow although we're not talking about it very much so he won't get nervous again, and so Mom doesn't get upset either (because we're all being honest here, right?).

Michael's Shiner

This is just a one-shot post ~ it warrants it's own spot on the blog if you ask me! Michael fell in grand style on Sunday and gave himself the best shiner he's had so far in his long life. Of course it was just in time for starting school the next day. Yesterday was his first day at St. Mark's Preschool ~ more posts on that later...