Lorikeets -- wow!!!!

One of our all-time favorites at Sea World was feeding the lorikeets nectar. How amazing to have a beautiful bird alight on your arm and feed from the little cup in your hand! Here is Josh's "I'm excited out of my mind and must scrunch my nose" grin.

Here's Isaac:

And Daniel:

And Emma:

A little competition?

Celestial experiences on the way to Sea World

The temple in San Antonio is about two hours from our house and right on the way to Sea World. So we stopped by to show the children the outside. It is hard to see it in this shot, but the text reads, "Holiness to the Lord, The House of the Lord."

The pictures of the stain glass don't look nearly as spectacular in the day as they do at night with the light shining through them. This is the window you see in the Celestial Room, a tree of life with prisms as the fruit -- how they sparkle! What a beautiful image to consider as we sit and ponder in that lovely room!

Feet with traction!

My sister said Daniel, age 3, must be pretty brave, so I thought I'd post this picture of Dan's expression as the creature settled on his finger. Cicadas have the most prickly feet -- great for them, but it feels pretty queer to be held, almost pinched, so tightly.

"Mom, I found an animal!"

Thats what Daniel says every time he sees any sort of creature.

The children sure enjoyed holding this aging cicada. It looks like some medieval work of art and armor. What an amazing world this is!

What a guy!

I bought Ben a book for his birthday --- a book we already had. Oops! He looked all through it with full interest for a number of minutes before he reminded me that we had purchased it three or four months ago.

This happy smile wasn't even jeering at me -- nice chap that he is. I got a good laugh out of the whole thing. What a flub! Here are some more birthday smiles:

Soccer!

Josh is playing soccer with the YMCA this summer.

Games are early in the morning, but it still gets pretty hot!

Texas is funny!

I reached under the counter for my Bosch bowl the other day and found it occupied!

Who knows how the gecko got in, but here's a close-up:

Another bridge for Matthew -- graduation to middle school

Ben and I were amazed and very proud of our son Matthew's accomplishments this year. He entered fifth grade as a timid student, unsure of his capabilities. How delighted we were to see him jog confidently up to the stage to receive his many awards.

He flourished as a reader, winning the top trophy for the most points accrued in the whole fifth grade for reading. You can see it here, pictured with his homeroom teacher, Mrs. McCoy.

What a gem that dear one is! I feel honored to be a part of his life.

Emma's kindergarten graduation

A flower for a lady...

Two happy smiles...

How can the summation of days and nights that seemed to last forever add up to a fleeting memory of time passing so swiftly -- my little one is growing up! People tell you it will be so, but you never quite imagine how quickly your children will transform!

All in the eye of the beholder

Emma wanted a castle cake for her birthday party with her friends. I tried, but when it was done, it looked more like a skirt for a princess -- with turrets!

Too many ideas in my head without a really good sense of direction and a limited amount of time. It makes me laugh! The children enjoyed it, whatever it was.


Here's the butterfly cake she had for our family party for her. (She's sporting some of her presents: clip-on earrings and fancy, very fun to spread all over, lip gloss.)

Scout excitement

Matthew graduated from the Webelos den in May. Here he is walking across the bridge to Boys Scouts. You can see his "Arrow of Light" award on the table. He was very proud to receive it with his good friend Riley.


Here is the cub master and his new 11 yr old scout assistant leader. See the paint on Matt's face? He was pretty colorful as they "marked" him with paint representing all of his virtues, present and hoped for.


Josh and his good buddy Joseph (they were born only hours apart!) enjoy presenting the colors.


Joshua was very proud of his pinewood derby car, Sunflash. (His dad liked it, too!)


He won 2nd place for speed in a race where the top five cars had a racing time spread of only 0.1 second! I think he lost only two races, and those by only fractions of a second.