What is it they say about Pictures?

Guess what Avery learned how to do? I could wax poetic about it, but I think it would be easier to just show you:

You'd never know it by looking, though that this little six year old literally *just* had her training wheels taken off. The training wheels were crooked, make her lean to one side, and I-- personally-- had enough of it! (I don't think I wrote about the time she said she'd ride her own bike to the park last summer when we were going on a family bike ride. Suffice it to say, she didn't. Lots of crying. Lots of drama. And walking. Waaah. It's still a bad memory...for me, at least!)But look at her now! She's got it goin' on! Not five minutes of practice, and she's able to ride all by herself. Can you see the pride on her face? Go Avery, Go Avery, go, go, GO AVERY!

And, unlike her mother, she managed to ride up and down the sidewalk without running into anything. Like the mailman. Not that she could, because our mailman stays in his little mail truck and does not venture out onto the sidewalks of our neighborhood. But still. If he had been there, he would have been safe.

So, although our bike riding days are winding down for 2008, the summer of 2009 is looking to be very, very, two wheelish. If that's even a word.

Our little football player...

Little being completely relative. He's a small member of this household. He's small compared to Amazon warriors. He's small compared to the trees in our backyard. Small compared to his fellow 3rd grade team members? Not so much. See? Relative. Right?
He's lined up here to block that unsuspecting blue garbed boy. (Well, he's probably suspecting it in some manner, I shouldn't speak for him.They are playing football, after all.)
Hunter made THREE catches, and scored an extra point for his team. They actually..... WON!! Their first win of the season, for their second to last game of the season.

This is what Kaia thought of the whole experience. She l.o.v.e.d it. She had such a great time! She laughed, she ran, she yelled "touchdown!" Errrrr.... something like that. Maybe she just had a two year old moment. A loooonnng two year old moment. Heck, life can't always be sunshine and happiness. Sometimes, it's fog and temper tantrums.

A pair of Princesses live here.

And they live with a Queen, who happens to sometimes pretend to be crafty, in a very basic (like glue and construction paper) way. We were bored. We wanted to do a project. So we made construction paper crowns. Here is our handiwork:

Look at this little beauty! Doesn't she look like someday she'll rule with a benevolent hand, just like she was taught by her royal mommy?

And this little bit of loveliness has already figured out that a Princess must always wear dresses, must always have on the proper shoes, and must always use a tissue to wipe ones nose. She's such a quick study.

I should have made my own crown, but we were out of green construction paper. And since green is my favorite color in the whole world, anything else just wouldn't do. I have standards, I tell you.

You can say "Fall", if that's what you please.

But I say, "I like Autumn!"

(Anyone know that song? Show? Name it! Never mind... you'll never get it! Jeff, of course I know you'll get it. At least you better!)

So, it's completely and totally Autumn here. Don't believe me? Check this out:

I took out the camera this morning because our trees are real purty now, and after it finishes raining today, it's doubtful that they will look as loverly. Rain has a tendency to hurry up the leaf-falling process.

Did you notice the little baby tree we planted a few weeks ago? It's a Pin Oak. We also planted a yellow maple, and two teeny tiny flowering pear trees. Why, you might ask? That's because the yellow and red trees in the above picture are ash trees and they are probably going to perish sometime in the future due to the evil Emerald Ash Borer and gosh darn it, I like to plan ahead. I don't want to have dead trees and THEN plant baby trees. I want to have juvenile trees when our trees die. And if they DON'T die, then we'll just be all tree happy here in our little ole' piece of suburbia.

Here's yet another Ash tree... this one is in the front of our house. Why didn't they use a more diverse landscaping option? I don't know. Probably has something to do with the fact that Ash Trees grow fast. They're hardy. And they're all going to die. Waaaaaahhhh.

Enough of that. Seriously, I'm done.

Some things heard around our house last week:

"Mom, why are we having "old rotten" potatoes?" -- Hunter (Can you guess what we were really having?)

"Mom, Colton told me to go away! Was that nice? I think not!" -- Skylar

"All this walking is making my legs fall off!" - Skylar

"Is it the weekend yet?" - Avery (On Monday)

"I didn't mean to hit him. I just was holding the stick!" - Colton

"Dahdee go?" Kaia (Numerous times, every blasted day)

So things just continue to move along here. The kids are off school today for inservice or Columbus day or some such reason. Since it is, in fact, raining, we're getting some chores done and playing quite a bit of Wii. Highly recommend Mario Cart. It's a good time.