Swimming and Sliding

After Chloe's meet and greet with her Kindergarten teacher, we had forty five minutes for play time at the pool.  The kids changed into their suits in the car and were jumping into the water in no time.

Bean was so happy playing at the pool by herself.  Owen ran off to play with his friends, but Chloe was completely content without any interaction other than from my camera. :)

Then it was off to the slide...

Owen decided he had had enough playing in the water with his friends and spent some time jumping in.

And he wrestled with his guys....

Chloe floated around, barely keeping her nose out of the water.  I think she was intentionally keeping her feet pointed down and staying vertical to see if she could keep her face floating.  Or maybe she was just bouncing on her tip toes to keep her face dry.  Never really know with this silly bean.

When the sun started going down behind the trees, we knew it was almost time to go home.  The nights are coming earlier and earlier now.  It won't be long before it is dark when the kids go to bed at 8pm.

I just love this group of kids!

Before we left, Chloe was filling up that noodle she snagged and then blowing into one end to make water fly out the other.  She's surprised a few adults with this trick and is pretty pleased with herself!

Chloe's Meet and Greet

Can you tell Chloe dressed herself today?  She loves to be bright with not-so-matching tights! :)

She has been loving her sun glasses ever since we let both kids pick out a new pair when they came home from Minnesota.  Chloe thought she was pretty cute with the sun glasses and the pig nose and couldn't wait to meet her teacher.  Mrs. McMichael was Owen's Kindergarten teacher and she emailed Todd yesterday that Chloe would be in her class this year.  Yay!  We loved Mrs. McMichael!!!

Chloe carried in her nap mat.

We didn't recognize any of the kids in Chloe's classroom.

She was excited to sit in her desk.  But Chloe didn't stay long.  

She had to check out the room.  Chloe wanted to sharpen her new pencil that came in the goody bag from Mrs. McMichael.  I think she was a little disappointed there was not a home living section in Kindergarten...just a bunch of computers.  We're interested to see if she becomes more interested in computers this year, since she will be using them and playing learning games on a weekly basis.

Owen's Meet and Greet

This morning, Owen thought he was styling with gel in his hair to make a sharp mohawk.  He was excited to meet his new second grade teacher this afternoon.

By 1pm, his mohawk had fallen quite a bit.  Part due to fine hair and part to our wonderful humidity.  The ride from Discovery Point to Little River was filled with questions from Owen, mostly wondering if we thought his teacher would be nice.

Once we walked up, we found that Owen would be in Mrs. Keenum's classroom.  Haileigh and Luis were both in Owen's Kindergarten classroom.  Charlie was in his first grade classroom.

Owen was very quiet once we got to his classroom and was too shy to wander around and check out the other sections of the room.

As we drove away, Owen asked us if we thought Mrs. Keenum was nice and we did.  Owen agreed.  This little conversation was repeated over and over throughout the rest of the day.  

Momma?  Did you think Mrs. Keenum was nice?  Yeah, I did, too.

He was so sweet.

Summer Evening at Home

When the kids came home from Minnesota, we told Owen we thought he was old enough to start cooking dinner once a week to help out in the family more.  He was so excited.  This was his first night cooking dinner and he did awesome.  I turned on the grill so he could grill kielbasa and hot dogs.  He made macaroni and cheese on the stove and heated up a bag of steamers corn in the microwave.  Owen did excellently and made a most delicious dinner.  He asked if he could make breakfast for dinner and we agreed one time each month would be ok.  Owen is excited to make waffles for us next week.

Todd left early for tennis practice, so I took the kids upstairs for baths.  They were clean with brushed teeth by 7pm, so I let them go outside to play for a little while.  Owen played catch with me while Chloe rode her bike.  He took time out for smiles.

He has also been working on perfecting his silly face.  This is alternated equally with weird lip pulling and stretching with his fingers.

Chloe got bored with her bike after a few trips up and down the street and switched over to her scooter.  She didn't ride it very much...the girl was content to sit on it and watch Owen and me play tennis ball catch.

For the last ten minutes before we came inside for bed, all three of us played tennis in the street with our racquets.  We were all giggling and laughing at each other's attempts to hit and return the ball.  It was a fun night together and one of the best for all around good behavior.  They were even awesome going to bed tonight!

Homecoming

I flew up to Minneapolis this year (Todd flew up last year and I did the year before) to pick up the kids.  My flight got in about 30 minutes before I spied this group walking into the terminal.  I don't know what Owen was talking about, but I love how his arms are helping get his point across!

I remained un-noticed for awhile as I crouched behind some luggage carts.  I had fun watching the kids jump up in front of the pixelated umbrellas that would fall apart with their movements.

And then I was spotted...

After a few hugs, the kids ran back to break up the umbrellas so more.  I know they had already been in the car for 3-4 hours and was happy to see them running off some energy before getting on the plane for the next 2 hours and then our car for another hour to ride home.  A long day of travel for ALL of us!

While I was waiting for the kids, I enjoyed watching adults have fun breaking up the umbrella pixels.  The smiles on their face were awesome.  Not often I get to see adults have fun at childs play.

Then we walked to a nearby gate and called Daddy.  Chloe couldn't wait to talk to him.

And give him kisses!

Owen couldn't stop yawning....tired guy.

Chloe didn't stop smiling while talking to Todd.  I think she was a little homesick and really missing her Daddy.

Owen got to sit next to the window for take off and during the first half of the flight.  He closely watched everything happening on the crowd and was very inquisitive about how we moved backwards, what different noises were and if the pilots sleep while flying.  We go through these questions every time we fly and I love it. 

Half way through the flight, the kids switched spots.  Chloe watched the clouds for a little while, but really wasn't interested in looking out the window for very long.  Not even for the landing!

The kids were so excited to get home.  They ran around the house hugging and kissing all the pets.  They jumped up and down.  They danced.  They sang.  They shouted.  They got the dogs all riled up.  It took almost an hour for them to calm down and get in bed.  By then, it was almost 11pm.  

It's good to have them home again.  Going to bed every night while they were up in Minnesota felt strange.  We still went to their bedrooms every night to look in, although we knew their bedrooms were empty.  Now our babies are home and in their beds.  :)   Now it feels like home again.

Pro Tennis!

A pro tennis tournament came to town, which included some of the pre-qualifying matches to the U.S. Open.  Todd bought tickets for a Tuesday afternoon/evening.  Work got in the way of us leaving early enough to catch the 4pm match.  But we did see James Blake play Taylor Dent.

They wouldn't allow cameras with detachable lenses, so I brought my old Olympus point & shoot.  It did ok, but I was bummed seeing dozens of others who had snuck in their nice cameras and wishing I had mine.

Taylor Dent won the match.  It was a little disappointing seeing James Blake walk off the court with his head down and not signing autographs.  Although I can appreciate disappointment in self and knowing you could have played better.  Still.  He's a professional.

Once the sun went down behind the stands, my pictures got pretty grainy.  It waited until just after Andy Roddick and Mardy Fish walked out on the court.

It was pretty hot out, but I was still in jeans and a t-shirt.  We had a great time and were glad Todd's tennis friends Russ and Lori were there with their son.

Oakland Cemetery

My friend Tabitha and I got a day together to play with our cameras.  We had a great time together, even though we waited out a bad storm that blew through Oakland Cemetery and kept us in the van for a good 45 minutes.  

There were locked gates in the entryways of many of the mausoleums like this one.

There were also dozens of benches throughout the large cemetery, many right next to tombstones like this.

The angels were all pointing up.

Hard to tell in this picture, but it was a torrential downpour for much of the time we were staying dry in the car.

The only unlocked gate I saw, but I didn't reach out to try pushing it open further.  I'm sure it would have made a racket!

These faucets were EVERYWHERE we went.  I tried turning one to see if water would come out, but I couldn't make it budge.

Look closely.  She has tear marks staining her cheeks.

I loved this statue.  Her arm raised, pleading and her head bowed in prayer.  Her long curls pulled back from her face.  I wondered why she carried such a large cross.

Many of the mausoleums had stained glass windows on the backside, illuminating the narrow corridor within.

Lions were the guards of choice on the mausoleum doors.

This little succulent hung onto the rain perfectly once the storm had passed over.

Margaret Mitchell was buried here, next to her husband.

This cross was probably close to 12 feet tall.  I wondered how long it took to chisel into this shape and how many men it took to lift it into place.

These graves had interesting stonework laid into the ground to outline the plots.

The bathroom had good light coming in through the window :)

She seems so tired, doesn't she?

It seemed odd to stand in the middle of this cemetery with graves dating back to the early 1800s and then seeing the downtown Atlanta skyline behind them.

Many of the main roads for driving on suddenly ended on brick roads like this.  Cars were not allowed on the brick roads, which made for one eventful ride in reverse about the length of a football field.

After finding our share of photo ops in Oakland Cemetery, we drove over to Little Five Points.  There were the standard shoes thrown over phone lines.  But this was the first time I saw dangling flippers.

A street musician played his violin with many sprung strings on his bow.  His friend played a guitar.

Amen!