At the Black Swamp Art Festival

Liam was supposed to have his first soccer game Saturday, but it was canceled because of heavy rain during the night and early morning.  By mid-morning the rain had stopped and the skies started to clear.  In the afternoon we went to the "Black Swamp Arts Festival."

 Every year there's a photo-op spot at the festival.  This is the (fairly basic) 2014 version.

Liam:  I am riding this kind of weird bike and getting my wheels all painty.

 Liam:  Here the person is helping pushing me on the bike.  I am not doing very much, but I am steering.  I was also trying to pedal, but it was not very easy.

 Liam:  Here I am on a little bit better bike, but it is still long for my legs.

 Rachel:  Devin didn't have much use for the activities.  He's still getting over his cold also.  He enjoyed dancing to some of the music being played nearby.

Liam:  I am making a collage at one of the art things with one of my friends from first grade.

 I am painting a tile.  It is a picture of a rainbow, but it is a very bad rainbow, so now it is not a rainbow, it is just a tile of colors.









I am putting feathers on my hat.  I also put tape and flowers on my hat.  I use a can to mold my hat.

 I am wearing my hat with a smock on.















Me and my friend are playing together.  We are by the library.

 I am making my tank.  My friend is watching and I am holding the piece of wood while the person is sawing it.  Isn't that cool?!

 Me and my friend are drilling in the wheels of my tank.  I only did the trigger.

 I am painting my tank.  The paint that I thought was black was not really black, so my wheels are green.  I really wanted them to be black.

 Rachel:  Our church gave away hotdogs and water to people attending the festival.  After church Sunday we stayed to help give them out.

 Liam:  I am eating my Popsicle. 

 Rachel:  People were pretty surprised that we gave water and hotdogs for free.  We did it to show God's love in a practical way.

Liam:  Here my friend is lifting up a hotdog thing to give someone a hotdog.

Soccer Game and Labor Day

 At this very moment Liam is at his second soccer practice.  He is playing in a "Developmental League" organized by the city.  After his first practice he announced that he will be playing soccer for "the rest of my life."

Last Friday we took the boys to a soccer game between the University team and IUPUI - a team from a school associated with the one Allen and I got our graduate degrees from.  Liam was interested in the game, but there was also time to play with his brother.

 Our team scored one goal before we had to leave at half time.  They ended up winning the game 2 to 0.  Liam said it was "kind of " fun to watch.  He would have rather been playing.

 This is a "writing folder" we created for Liam to use at school. 

 Monday we went to Columbus for Labor Day.  We had a picnic at the park with Grammy and Grandpa, and lots of cousins and aunts and uncles.  It rained for a few minutes, but we mostly managed to stay dry.

 Sammy was getting to know Liam a little better.

Uncle Isaac is usually happy to share his thoughts.

 Grandpa Kenny came by bus. 

 Devin discovered mud.

 He thought it was pretty great, actually.

 We'll see if that washes out.

 Aunt Kitty joined us.

 After the picnic we visited at Isaac and Cindy's for a while.

 Liam thought Benny's bedroom was pretty cool.

 Uncle Titus did some serious Lego work.  The hats were left over from Benny's Lego birthday party.

 Pictures were taken.

 I had to resort to using the flash.

 Back at home we continue to fight some annoying colds.  I thought about taking Devin to the library for story time today, but thought it might be better not to share our germs.  He got his literary exposure by playing with coupons.

He's pretty snotty, but he's still happy to reach out and "beep" your nose.

First Day of School

Liam started first grade yesterday.

 This picture was taken the day before school started.  We went for an open house.  We got to meet Liam's teacher and see his new classroom.  As he was hoping it's right across the hall from his kindergarten room.

 "I am reading my list for the stuff that I need to do.  The stuff tells me where to put stuff like bags, tissues, crayons, markers and pencils and glue."

 Here he is, about to head out for the first day of school.

Allen took him to school.  Devin and I stayed home and took a morning nap since Devin woke up earlier than usual.

Liam's thoughts on first grade:  I think, first grade, if you took like one or two hours off, it would be less tiring.  They're not teaching me the stuff that I need to know.  Because they're like teaching me how to count from one to ten and all that stuff, so they should teach me harder stuff.

Liam also reports that the first day was mostly spent learning the rules.  They went outside twice.  ("My tummy hurted when we went out because it was really early - only on the first day.")  He tells us that some of the kids in his class talk a lot and are bossy. (Retraction: "They're not bossy, actually.)"

"This is my homework.  It was The Kissing Hand.  I didn't make the story, but I made one of the hands by tracing out Mommy's hand and then painting it.  But I didn't really paint her hand.  I painted the paper."

Liam's Birthday!

 I haven't gotten to do any of these paper planes yet, but I'm hoping to do them tomorrow or at the latest this weekend.

We started Liam's birthday with present opening.  Normally we would wait until after supper (to prolong the suspense) but this time we had big plans.

 There is one of my Lego sets.  It is a Star Wars tank.  It has a Star Wars trooper inside.

 This is my Curiosity Rover.  I had to come a little bit closer so the camera could see what it actually was.  Now it can't see me very good.

 Devin liked the wrappings. 

After this we went to church.  Then came home for a quick lunch and to get some supplies and friends before heading to the ZOO!

 I had just thrown a penny.  It is the fountain where I always make wishes with pennies.  I can't tell my wish, but it was a very very good wish.  Kind of, at least.

 I got to touch the water.  Devin did too.  At least with his feet. 

Devin really wanted to get into the water, but there was as sign saying not to. 

Unfortunately when we got to the zoo we discovered that neither of the two extra pairs of batteries we brought were fully charged.  So we didn't get as many pictures as we usually would have.

 We are pretending to be raccoons in a cave waiting for coyotes to pass.

 Jonah and me are on the Lion.  Roger is on the ground.

 We are in the train.  I really like it.  I saw animals on the train.  Well, not exactly on the train, but beside the train.

I think the giraffes want to eat the food that are on the picnic tables.

 After the train we stopped for a snack.  It was a pretty hot day, so we had to take breaks to stay hydrated.

 Here's me with my Superman holding up a giant spinning wheel as a shield.  I squeeze the legs together to make the shield go up and I let them down to make the shield go down.

The Polar bear exhibit was mobbed.  The whole zoo was pretty full.  It was a "half off for non-members" day.

 You can hardly see Jonah, be he is still there.

 This is my birthday cake.  It looks like a birthday cake, but it's actually a cookie cake.  I designed the cake.  We also put on the sprinkles.  The cake didn't come with sprinkles even though we said for them to.

Allen would also like to point out that although this is a very attractive arch it's not actually a representation of a rainbow since the order of colors is not what would be produced in real life.

 Here I am blowing out the candle.

 We had supper at this picnic area near a playground.  I think the boys would have gladly spent the rest of the trip at this playground.

 I also got a watch for my birthday.  It is a Star Wars watch.

After this we went to the children's area of the zoo.  For some reason our family had never been to this area before.  Liam enjoyed checking out the ants, playing in the stream and playing on the play structures.  Devin enjoyed an area designed to let babies crawl around a little.  Roger and Liam saw the penguins while Allen and I found seats for the concert.

 Here we are at the concert. 

It was a free concert of the Toledo Symphony Concert Band.

In addition to the band there was a female barbershop vocal group and a tap dance group.  Since we had the stroller and wagon with us we sat at the back, but we could hear pretty well and the view was good.

The concert ran later than we were expecting.  It was 10:30 by the time we dropped Roger and his mom off and got home.

I had a really fun time at the zoo.  Bye zoo and concert and friends and bloggers!