First Day of SCHOOL

It's that time again... the first day of school.

Here they are, bright and early:

Ephraim (3rd grade)
Azael (5th grade - final year of elementary-how sad!)

Silas (1st grade)

Silas started at the school where Azael goes (there is a wait list and Ephraim hasn't gotten in yet). Silas already likes it better than the other school because he made a good friend today.

Jane & Lorelai watching the boys get on the bus

(Lorelai starts preschool next week)

So Long, Farewell, auf Weidersehen, Adieu...

Jane and I will miss all these school-agers.

Summer Fun with the Fam

Our final summer fling at a local waterpark. We had a great time!

Within 5 minutes of arrival, Jane was accidentally splashed by a gigantic bucket dumping 200 gallons of water (thanks to Daddy) and she almost never went in the water again. Instead, she stayed hidden in various places of "safety," like this:
On day 2 we did snap a photo of her on this horse thing (still safely not touching the water, however):


So, Jane and I had ample opportunity to bond on our shared lawn chair. She enjoyed wearing my sunglasses and eating all the snacks.

Diva

The 4 older kids had a great time, too! There were TONS of fantastic rides for them.

We even did some mini-golfing!

Our 2 days at the waterpark were absolutely PERFECT. I couldn't ask for a better vacation.

Mystery Man & the kids are really fun to be around, and it gets better and better the older we all get. :)

Banjo Day 1

I love the banjo. LOVE IT! I love bluegrass music. I love Mumford & Sons (thanks to a tip from my friend Jenn P). Last week I decided to take the plunge and buy a banjo.

It arrived in the mail yesterday. Today I opened the box and gave it a try. I'm going to teach myself to play without an instructor. I have an instructional DVD and lots of YouTube videos to watch. Today's lesson plan, with each step learned semi-successfully:

1. How do I attach the strap to the banjo?
2. Hmm... looks like the bridge needs to be upright.
3. Tuning. and tuning. and tuning. Took me 30 minutes of watching the DVD to learn the strings are G, D, G, B, and D (a G triad, for you musicalis)
4. Play the G cord (no fingers on the frets)
5. D7 cord
6. C cord
7. Add rolling (finger picking individual strings to make a nice sound)
8. Play a few songs using my 3 cords and the rolling method. Very tricky.

Here's the end result of day 1... Please don't laugh. I realized today that I have years and years AND YEARS of practice ahead of me. :)

Jane loves Justin Bieber (Bacon style)

In this video, Jane is singing "Bacon, Bacon, Bacon, Ohh..."

This is from a silly rendition of Justin Bieber's "Baby" song.

Enjoy!