...with a mind like a diamond

This is the fruit of Maggie's first solo note writing endeavor. I think it is excellent and darling. For those who don't get to hear Mags chit-chatting, this is actually a perfect application of phonics - there is no "r" in "from". She was working on it very busily during Ian Lugg's sermon that night and was quite proud of her accomplishment when she gave it to me. She said she had missed me that day (she had spent part of it with some friends) and wanted to write me a letter. I will be treasuring this indefinitely.

(Gold star to anyone - other than skh or Kimmy - who knows what the post title is from.)

benaiah vs. david

I have been informed quite a few times that my blog is a little lopsided -more pictures of Calvin, less of Maggie and more stories about Maggie, less of Calvin. I have thought about this quite a bit, and this is my conclusion...it is true, and I don't know why. Maybe I'm trying to stop the unstoppable truth that the first child has more pictures than the subsequent children. (By the way, I'm not even close with Calvin - I think I photographed each hour of Maggie's first year and a half.) Maybe I am just currently enthralled by Calvin's white halo of hair...it's the only angelic thing about him. I don't really know, but here's another story about Maggie to push the blog even further out of balance.

Here is a (sort of) recent piece of Maggie's Sunday School "art"... it is appropriately titled "Benaiah Dot-to-Dot". Apparently the green and orange crayons were available that day. (For those of you not up on your flannelgraphs, Benaiah was David's "mighty man".)



When I asked Maggie what the things were on either side of Benaiah, she told me they were his weapons. I asked her what kind of weapons, and she told me - spears. Then she told me that David "did fighting" also, but he used different weapons than Benaiah. When I asked what his weapons were, her answer was "oh, he used golf clubs".

I'm really not sure what to say about that.

kids in the sprinkler

We've been experiencing some very nice weather here for the past few days, which resulted in some sprinkler play time in our yard.

Here Calvin is avoiding the squishy grass - he got over this aversion quickly, though. Maggie thought the whole thing was great. (Yes, they both own swimsuits, but this was spur of the moment, people!)



Here, apparently, we are experimenting with the sprinkler as a drinking fountain and a hair washing station.



And, of course, anything that Calvin gets involved in has to incorporate a beloved "dodo".

kids in a van

One of my favorites from the cell phone genre - this is from our California trip in February, but I still wanted to post it.

betcha didn't know...

that my Dad was 18 months old when he first met Tom Pennington...


(Ok, I admit that this post is a little bit obscure for most of you. However, if you know Tom Pennington, it should be pretty funny. Or weird.)

what to do while stuck in a jogging stroller

Spend the entire 30 minutes picking lint from between your toes...

look out, sucka!

We have a very nice teller working in the drive-through portion of our bank. Her name is Susan, and she always asks how many little ones I have in the back of the van and sends the appropriate amount of lollipops with my receipt. Last week was the first time I actually let Calvin have his designated lollipop. I haven't in the past because I wasn't sure I could trust him to not rub the wet candy all over his face, hands, shirt and car seat. I also wasn't sure I could trust him to just lick it instead of bite off pieces that he could possibly choke on. Apparently, I was right not to trust him (don't worry, he didn't choke), but he did enjoy the process of eating his first lollipop.

you can tell a man by his bike

Cal was so excited about this motorcycle, we thought he was going to have a seizure. The owner saw Calvin admiring the bike and suggested that he hop on to check it out. Cal loved it.



On another note, here is Sean checking out a different kind of bike. Maggie had proclaimed, "Dada can't ride my bike - he's too big!" Apparently, she was wrong. He actually rode it around the gym for quite a while.

speaking of that...

Tony, since you brought it up, I wanted everyone to see how nice you look in yours as well...


(Yes, I know it's bad photoshopping. I'm no Pyro or Tohu...oh well.)

politically incorrect schooling

Here is Maggie in her (short i) I-I-Indian headdress. She cut out all the feathers by herself...and yes, that is glitter. It's a very glamorous headdress.