August of 2017

a quick trip to Tampa for Emily's 1st birthday!

Happy Birthday, sweet Emily!

Abby was all about her little cousins this trip :)

birthday gift tattoo pens, the kids have had lots of fun with these

Belly Flops for Babies!

trying to win cousin Emily a spot in the High Risk Hope calendar[which she did!]

Cutie girl in her new owl shirt, thanks Grandma 

[and two weeks into school, we finally got new shoes!  thanks Grandpa :)]

Sawyer, Ryan, Lucas, Cooper

a typical after-school afternoon, I had nine kiddos here, love my kids and all their awesome friends.

[check out Ryan's shoes - high top Under Armour - he's growing up, eekk!!]

sweet, sleeping bums.  this is what I have to work with at 6:20 in the morning ;)

sweet baby Eden Bond

8.21.2017 - the Eclipse!! 🌞🌙

we're ready! thanks Dr Choi :)

homeschooling with NASA's live feed, we loved watching this all day long!

cereal box pin-hole viewers

I was very proud of myself, I gave up control and pretty much just supervised as they made their pin-hole viewers almost entirely themselves ;)   and they decorated their boxes - Abby's says "I love the solar eclipse"

such a fun day, we were pretty much giddy by the time the eclipse started

thank you Abby for always being willing and excited to take selfies with Mommy :)

another pin-hole viewer.  This was a last minute accidental discovery.  Abby saw the sun on the ceiling - coming in through the window and off the shiny sink.  So we created a pinhole viewer taped to the kitchen window to watch it on the cookie sheet.  .... and then another accidental discovery - my kitchen window prism was leaving crescent rainbows!!  This was probably my favorite part, sooo cool and unexpected!

Note : In case you were wondering, 98% is not even close to totality.  It was a great day, but I really thought 98% would be close enough.  If I could do it over, I'd drive an hour north in a heartbeat to experience totality.  Compared to the live feeds, it was quite anti-climatic :)

you have no idea how hard it is to be Maya

Madeleine is back!!  We've enjoyed reconnecting and playdating with them. 

We took this same pose right before they moved two years ago :)

Thanks to Abby for documenting the fun playdate that Chloe, Couper, and Alice had!

Ryan and Cooper by Abby

This ended up being our last swim of the season, I miss the summer days already!

a fun evening swim complete with Pizza Hut for dinner

Ryan and Daddy went to the cub scout adventure quest