August

Highlights from the month of August:

• Grandma Geri came for her annual August visit and we tried not to wear her out too much. Which is pretty hard to do, but she did tackle about six months' worth of ironing, and that would wear ANYONE out.

• Half-Price Cheesecake Day @ the Calorie Factory! (This might have actually occurred at the end of July. Who can remember anymore.)  No one experiences pleasure quite like Antonia, and she experienced the heck out of her piece of oreo cheesecake. I don't know what I enjoyed more: eating my own cheesecake, or watching her eat hers. 

Just for funsies, here's a picture of Dorothea's thorough 
enjoyment of something blue and tasty (frosting?) 

• Every August our ward engages the rec center pool/splash pad/water park for a night. The kids love it. Most of the adults would probably love it more if swimwear was not involved. This particular year marked the first time at a social function that Charlie was off with his friends from the moment we arrived until I finally hunted him down at the end of the night. My little guy is growing up. Sigh. 

Some of the ladies, lookin' gooooood

Antonia and Dorothea try to decide where to test the waters

• Friends who moved to Buffalo, New York a few years ago came back for a visit and we had a fun night of swimming, bbq-ing, pinata-ing and such. One of the dads, probably trying to impress his wife, started tossing the kids like logs in a strong-man contest, which of course was a huge hit with everyone. It was super exciting for the moms, especially, to see the wee ones flying through the air in full-length double and triple flips :) I'm sure it was all perfectly safe, and the dad doing the throwing is a doctor, so even if something had happened, we would have had on-site medical attention. 

I believe this is what Antonia is thinking of when she says that she knows how to swim. 

All the kids queuing up for a turn to get flipped

Charlie gets hurled through the air, an experience which may have inspired him to 
want to become an Olympic trampolinist.

• Charlie started first grade at the end of the month, which of course means that sometimes he's too cool to show his teeth in pictures. He has since told me that he likes first grade better than kindergarten because they get to do more math and more writing. Sounds good to me. Antonia also started preschool at Miss Marsha's, but I neglected to take a picture of her on her first day. Yep, I'm neglectful like that. She LOVES preschool, and skips/practically dances her way up to the door every day, even now after she's been going for several months.

Aaaaand, that's it for August!