escaping the heat

sometimes you think

cramming a handful of cousins

into varying vehicles for a Free Summer Movie

is a pretty genius idea.

until you get to the theater with 5 minutes to spare

(see earlier "cramming" and "handful" and "cousins")

and get turned away...

No Room in the Inn Air Conditioning.

but we kids can find joy and festivity elsewhere--

even when slightly overdressed for the party.

i beg you to click and enlarge this picture. my brave boy :)

madi tries to encourage the shu

steven

starting to enjoy himself

steven, of course

our little logie

miss madison

logan bobby, afraid of no thing

this is the bean in a nutshell

there you go, buddy. its meant to be enjoyed, not endured.

lessie

the crew, minus one pair of shorts.

family camping 2010

we did it again. 

loaded up several families,

a near-ridiculous number of children,

enough tentage, luggage and foodage 

to house & feed the small army we were,

and headed to the lakeside campground.

this year's pull: a serious lack in picture taking

coupled with, as i've mentioned, my child's header

off a tricycle and resulting stitches.

 on day 2, 

to have some respite from the asphalt-lined campground,

mark and i took the shu on a ride along the lakefront.

he's into throwing some things into other things lately

(read: rocks into bush, shells into lake, 

pinecones into dzaidzi's birdfeeder),

so having up close access to the water was pretty ideal.

we went back for lollipops with haleybop.

or, for a certain L-apprehensive child,

"yawyeepops with hayeybop."

here's hoping 2011 is slightly less eventful.

wishful thinking, i'm sure.

national donut day

sweet home wrigley

do you have a happy place?

because we do.

we hung out there last saturday.

heading into the fun

a stroessler trifecta

one of my favorite parts: the miller lite billboard. (we played the cardinals.)

taking it in

men walking around with buckets of hot dogs? definitely a happy place.

whoa, dada. back off the hebrew national.

it is all mine.

look at those shiny eyes! he's in love, he's in love, and he don't care who knows it!**

rolling out after the W flag was raised.

the 7th inning stretch... sung by jim belushi 

and a few thousand of his friends :)

(joshua looks confused because this is one of his bedtime songs!)

**be the first to name that movie reference, 

and you'll be the receiver of the next Scribble Card!

umbrella

Yes, its 85 and sunny.

ouch.

ever run full force into a car door?

hard enough to place a large, 

hard-to-stop-the-bleeding 

dent in your forehead?

well, joshua has.

 you may not be able to tell through this picture,

but he most certainly does not recommend it.

(neither does his mother.)

new phone delights

it takes me awhile to warm up to a new phone.

new buttons, new settings, 

new annoying ringtones to sort through...

only to leave the phone on vibrate.

while waiting for the Beaner's bus to come,

shua and i discovered 

this crazy cool feature 

in the camera settings:

4 quick snaps of the shutter to make one picture.

i handed little man a pillow and clicked.

check the intensity on his face-

my boy was committed.

and for that, 

among so many charming little tidbits,

i love him.

oh, mr sun?

normally, i love this weather.

Sctd t-storms after 9am

Showers and thunderstorms developing by 9am.

Cloudy with temperatures warming into the mid to upper 60s. Winds SE at 10 to 15 mph.

its a major reason i wanted to move back here.

yes, yes... mark hates it.
but i hate his weather-love: humidity.
so there.

but today?

today we could use some of this:

h, i, j, k...y?

lately, joshua's been substituting "Y" for "L."

so instead of the common 2 year-old "lellow" for "yellow,"

he says "yeyow" :)

or "HeYo, mama!"

or, in this case, "Yook! A smiYey face!"

PRO TOUR--8 MONTHS

we found ourselves lacking mid-day entertainment;
we went bowling.

(mandy, did i use that semicolon right??)

no afternoon is complete without a temper tantrum.

its become apparent
that one of our charming two year old's goals
is to keep us in check/on our toes.
at all times.
even at buckeye lanes.

because heaven forbid
we should do anything too fun for too long.

**for the record, the Jaj has still got it. he smoked mark and shua. i was close :) however, i should probably share that i am currently wearing a wrist guard, an ice pack and taking ibuprofen every 6 hours. well played, dad. well played.