Too bad the neighbors are quiet

One of our must-haves when looking for our new house was a backyard where we could supervise the boys from inside. Our new backyard is flat and with windows across the back of the house, we can see most of it. We had no idea that when the boys started kindergarten, we would NEED the backyard so much. After a whole day cooped up inside (except for snack and short recess), the boys need to run and run and scream and shout.

There have been some EPIC fights in the backyard since kindergarten started but all that time alone together has led them to come with some amazing games. This is the latest, hockey ball. Here they are having a quick face off.




They each got one of these enormous balls as part of their Fun Run fundraiser. The other one is already super deflated from being whacked by hockey sticks. And to keep it 100% real, this fun game was full of giggles until someone broke a rule and then there was insane shouting and screaming at each other.

No worries though, they were back to laughing when I played the next game with them, which involved throwing the frisbee super fast to hit the fence without nailing a kid in the face.

(Mis)Adventures in photography

I was on a run the other day when I stumbled upon this sea of fall wildflowers:




I knew I had to come back with the boys for photos. Tuesday we decided to split up for a date night with the boys, so I took Alex to the library and we stopped by here quickly for some photos. Alex was really excited about our nature hike and really excited about the photos until he saw the SEA OF BEES on all these flowers.

Alex + bees = INSANE FEAR.

As I carried him through the flowers, he clung to me, shaking. There was no way I could put him down so he stood in front of the flowers/bees. And hid from them.




We tried to go to an area with a few less flowers and he was still having none of it. Then I got bit by a fire ant and he was done done done.




We still had a great time at the library and had a nice nature walk. And now I know to look more closely for bees whenever I see that many flowers in one place.

I'm turning into that kind of mom

Age 5 has brought a new level of questions to our house, where answering a why question is no longer enough. Nate, particularly, will push and push for an answer that is "acceptable" to him. Last night the boys were setting the table while I cooked dinner and this conversation took place.

Nate: Can I touch that blue stuff? [The gas flame!]

Laura: You can touch it, but it would burn you really badly. The bluer a flame is, the hotter it is. This is hotter than a wood fire. [Engineering degree, holla!]

Nate: Can I just touch it for a second? Before it burned me?

Laura: It is so hot, it would burn all your skin off. The burn might be so bad, they would have to cut off your finger. Then how would you use a pencil? How would you pick your nose? [Nate has a nose picking problem we are trying to fix.]

Alex: hahahahahahahahaha

Nate: I don't use that finger to write with a pencil.

Laura: Then go ahead and touch it and burn off your finger.

More on the kindergarten transition

One thing you may have noticed missing from all the kindergarten transition posts is talk about our jobs. Jon and I have a VERY FIRM rule about not discussing our jobs "publicly" because we want to keep those jobs. We both work in software, from home. And for the last year, I've worked Monday-Thursday, with Fridays off to run errands and/or work on my photography business.

Now my Fridays consist of volunteering in the boys' classrooms and in the library as well as errands. Nothing has made me feel better about my boys' school than being in the classroom every week (that Type A thing again).

And depending on our daily schedules, one of us gets to see this sight every day:

Oh, fall

First, thank you everyone for the kind thoughts and donations on Friday!

I have a love/hate relationship with fall. The end of September marks the most beautiful time in this part of North Carolina, with lack of humidity and perfect (75) temperatures. All of mother nature explodes in color here. The mornings feel crisp and there is so much to do in fall.

But... I can always feel winter coming. I can feel summer winding down. The sun starts to set earlier. I often have cranky moments when I realize the weather is going to be bad on the weekend. As much as I enjoy fall, I also feel this sense of urgency to suck every last minute of enjoyment out before winter comes.

This weekend was full of last-minute summer activities. An amazing evening with my church ladies' group, laughing and chatting with the windows open. A playdate for Nate and Alex that included coloring on the porch. An evening with friends, sitting on their porch with cocktails. Sports in the backyard.

I've given a lot of thought into how I can avoid the crankies of fall and I've decided to start a 365 Project - one photo a day for a year. I started on Friday, the first day of fall. In the past I failed because I started in winter (hate winter), and I tried to take all my photos with the big camera. This time I'm being gentle with myself.... and others.

The first step in this process is to STOP asking the boys to "be good" for the camera. I wrote more about this on my photography blog. If they are in pictures, I am going to let them be themselves. Two minutes with a camera letting them act however they wanted led me to this:



We'll see how the year goes.

PS. After almost 6 years blogging, I finally hit it big time (sarcastic) as someone stole my photos and pretended they were theirs. Unfortunately that means all the photos posted here will have watermarks going forward.

Time to party

I don't pimp my blog out for much. Long time readers may remember a couple of years ago when I wrote about Love, another blogger who was adopting a son from Africa. Two years later, Clay has been a source of so much joy in their lives. Since then, I have learned so much from her blog about different conditions in Ugand a - good and bad.

Earlier this year, she wrote about child prisons there and the work non-profits are doing to help the situation. I read her post and literally sobbed. I've become a softie since becoming a mom and I could not stop crying, thinking about children the same age as Nate and Alex in prison. Children age 6 getting just one meal a day, if that. (If you read that post I just linked, you should know Love was able to raise money to bring clean water to that prison.)

Right now, Love is in Ugand a again, in the process of adopting two more boys, brothers. She is throwing a party for one of the children's prisons. To bring them food. I can't even write this post without crying! They ONLY need to raise $750 in the next 24 hours to bring 800 children food.

Love has thousands of readers, so I know it will happen. I want to be part of that. I want you to be part of that. If every one of my roughly 500 readers gave $1.50, it would be done.

CLICK HERE to read more and find a link where you can help.

Can you spare just $1 today? I know I can.

You say good-bye, I say hello

One thing I've learned as a (forever rookie) parent is that when you say good-bye to something, you always say hello to something else.

Good-bye bottles! No more making and washing 16 bottles a day!
Um... hello, sippy cups.

Good-bye immobile babies crying because they are bored!
Um... hello, mobile toddlers into everything.

Good-bye diapers!
Um... hello, pee on my bathroom floor.

So I've learned this lesson right? I've learned it over and over in the last 5.5 years. So why what this a surprise to me:

Good-bye dressing kids now that they are old enough to consistently dress themselves to the correct temperature.
Um... hello, daily check to make sure they are not going to school COMMANDO.

Win-win situation

Mom got a new office desk....




And the boys each got their own playhouse.




The boys worked on their houses the entire night while I cooked dinner, cleaned up from dinner, picked up the house, and assembled the desk. WIN.

Last day of the pool 2011

With the weather cooling down, rain in the forecast, and Jon out of town, I decided last night would be the last day at the pool this year. Looks fun, huh?




Yeah, no. It was pretty much a fiasco. Here's Alex crying at the end of the slide because the water is too cold.




They sat on the same chair to eat dinner and did nothing but fight. I'm sure the neighbors whose windows are closest to this chair LOVED IT. You know the fighting is bad when I'm looking at them AND photographing them and they don't stop.




I asked them very nicely to please sit in the same chair for one picture so I would have a comparison picture to First Day of Pool Ever 2007. (Please go see those pictures, omg so little and so cute!) That was awesome. They let me take one shot.




So.... yeah it was one of THOSE nights. The thing about blogging is that I could have posted the picture below (they were pretending their rockets were pencils and were writing things in the water) and pretended it was a perfect night.




I hope as you go through your blogs and see amazing photos and beautiful children and super crafts and mind-blowing baking and moms who seem to "have it all" you think about this post. That you remember there's always more to the story. Generally I focus on the positive. Generally I focus on that last photo but that last photo comes with all the other insanity.

And the only thing I can say about how insane last night was is that I really enjoyed that glass of wine I had after the boys went to bed.

Good bye Summer 2011!

Yes, another girls' trip

This winter, my friend Gillian and I watched Top Chef All-Stars together. While watching, we hatched a plan to take a weekend road trip to eat at some of the Top Chef restaurants. At the top of our list were Richard Blais' (liquid nitrogen fool) and Kevin Gillespie's (pig tattoo Kevin) restaurants. This past weekend both of our spouses were in town, all five of our kids were well, and our stomachs were ready for adventure so we road tripped it to deliciousness.

On the photography front, it was a big fat fail. I didn't take a single photo of the two of us together. On the food front, ZOMG AWESOME AMAZING. The meal at Kevin's restaurant was perfect. PERFECT. Every single item was executed flawlessly. It goes in my top 5 meals of all time.

I also stopped by to see a college friend Joe, who I haven't seen since my wedding. He had a 5 week old that slept on me for 90 minutes. Nice to see Joe? Yes. Baby sleeping on my chest? Heaven.




Even though the food was amazing, the best part of the trip was getting a chance to chat with Gillian completely uninterrupted. Thank you to both our husbands for making this trip possible!

Boooooo.

Our high went from 87 yesterday to 60 today. It will be back up in the 80s again next week but the overnight lows mean the (outdoor unheated) pool is going to be FREEZING next week.

We've had so many great times at the pool this year but I still feel sad about saying good-bye to summer. My favorite season.

I can clearly picture this, can you?

Nate and Alex have been very excited this week because their classroom schedules changed and they have recess at the same time. At dinner they were talking about some race that Alex wins or almost wins every day. There was a lot of convoluted conversation to understand why/how/when/where they were racing and here's the outcome.

Every day at recess, as soon as the outside doors open, a pack of boys from Alex's class busts out the door and runs an entire lap around the big field while the rest of the two classrooms cheer them on.

Can you just see that in your mind's eye? A wild pack of 5 year old boys running out the door like they're on fire while a crowd of 5 year olds scream their names?

I had the giggles all night over this mental image.

How you can judge me

All I can say about the comments yesterday is STEVE HOLT! Love you guys.

I had grand plans to work on photo editing last night after the kids went to bed but instead, I had to spend my evening getting organized. FOR KINDERGARTEN. I pretty much blame every parent who reads this who has kids older than mine for not warning me HOW INSANE the paperwork for kindergarten is. Add in TWINS and things are even more insane.

(I filled out FOURTEEN field trip permission slips yesterday. And 8 field trip lunch order forms in duplicate.)

So I set up a little school organization system in our kitchen. I took crap pictures with my iphone because it's been that kind of week.




Up until now, we had been using a monthly calendar to manage things. But after a month of kindergarten, it was clear we needed a bigger calendar. So I switched us to a weekly calendar. Here's our next week, actually a pretty calm week.




I can not tell you how much better I feel after a night of getting things in order, with everything having a home and a system. Before this, our entire side counter would be covered with piles. Now it is back to exactly how I like it. Clean and organized.

And you can go ahead and judge my "sad empty" fridge doors... but the reason they are sad and empty is the two long drawers under that counter are junk drawers. #1 reason I love this house: INSANE STORAGE.

How I judge you

I put people into three categories:

1. People who've seen and get Arrested Development (love them)
   
2. People who haven't seen Arrested Development (try to get them to watch)
3. People who've seen Arrested Development and don't get it (don't understand them)

The first day of vacation, I read Divergent by Veronica Roth. Best book I have read all year, and I finished it in one day. I recommend it to everyone. PLEASE READ.

The only problem is they named one of the characters Tobias. Tobias is a ruined name for me after AD. When I think "Tobias" I think "leather daddy" or "I blue myself."

After reading Divergent, AD was on my mind. The next night an old nasty sponge washed onshore so Jon and I decided to re-enact GOB throwing Michael's letter into the ocean. (Alex photobombed us!!)




Nate saw us laughing and wanted to get in on the action.




That thing would not stay out to sea! It was a perfect re-enactment!



So tell me, have you seen Arrested Development and what do you think of it?

The most overloadiest of all photo overload posts of all time

Good morning! Hello Monday morning! I hope you are sitting down with a big cup of coffee to relax and enjoy this post because there are a LOT of pictures.




I am posting so many photos I am so insanely proud of this collection. This was THE BEST vacation we've had with the boys, and I feel like the photos captured the essence of our week at the beach. I feel like these pictures also best represent me and how I see the world, whether I took them with a big fancy camera or a little point and shoot.

And how I see the world is filled with joy.

****************
First up, the candids.

Again this year we stayed in a triplex right on the Atlantic Ocean in North Topsail Beach. Since all four of us love the beach, we tried to spend as much time there as possible while also being sun-smart. This meant lots of dinners eaten on the beach when the sun was not too strong (and early morning walks in PJs).




As predicted, Alex "aired out" quite a bit, running around. Throwing sand. Chasing birds. Screaming and yelling. Doing cartwheels while ALSO throwing sand.




The boys graduated to the big boogie boards this year, and a tropical storm provided some huge waves for boarding. (They also provided the road rash that is under Nate's band-aids on his chest.)




Nate slept in a few days. Not Alex, nope, not ever Alex. That kid wakes up early at 100% every day.




We collected a lot of shells and the tropical storm brought in tons of sea glass. Since sea glass is foreign to the Florida Gulf beaches where I grew up, I love love love collecting it. I just love that the sea turns trash into something so beautiful.




We also experienced some new things. I've seen TONS of dolphins in my lifetime but this trip, we saw an entire school jumping and jumping in the air. It was amazing.

What was not new: the boys fighting. The people down the beach really enjoyed watching this as their two completely calm granddaughters played quietly in the sand.




Because we are awesome parents we made a lot of sand castles and pools and buried the kids. Okay fine, we did it to stop the whining.




We had one day of crazy rain from the storm, so we headed out for a day trip for some time at the aquarium...




and a battleship. We learned our family will never cruise because all four of us were panicked inside the battleship, wanting to get out. The boys were OF COURSE most fascinated with the guns and pretending to shoot down helicopters. They were big guns. Really big guns.




There was also lots of general tomfoolery.




We took the ferry from the island for some ice cream (my baby is so big now!!).




And we got some fresh peel and eat shrimp and hush puppies. The boys stuffed themselves on hush puppies.




Now... for the portraits. I had this super amazing awesome kickass idea for a photo of Nate and Alex on the boardwalk that led to the beach from our beach house. They did not cooperate.




Nate did agree to take a photo of me and Jon...




if we would pretend to be robots first.




What can I say? The kid is obsessed with robots right now.




You may have noticed a theme, that Nate was not the least bit cooperative for photos. Alex, on the other hand, was super cooperative. He does a close mouthed smile, which I do not understand. Smile like your face hurts peoples!




If I only had one kid, this would have been perfect!




Fortunately the kids are almost always cooperative for photos with Jon.




Don't worry. I still managed to get the shots I wanted. Favorite picture of Nate. BOOM.




And... favorite picture of Alex. BOOM.




Fortunately despite the out takes from last week and the general craziness, I still got the perfect picture I wanted of Nate and Alex. The beach does that to them. Also threats and bribes. (This is definitely going on our walls.)




2011 beach trip vacation = BEST EVER. (Nate wrote the letters. Makes it perfect to me.)

#3 in a series, a diptych

Subtitled: "Let me take one quick picture of you. A nice picture. No, not that face. A NICE picture. Never mind. TIMES TWO."

#2 in my future award winning series

Subtitled: "My children do not appreciate good light"

A new photography series, by Laura Case

I just know when I hit it big in the photography world, my premiere show in New York will be:

"WHY I CAN'T PHOTOGRAPH MY KIDS ANYMORE"

Photo 1, in a LONG series: