Speed Cushions

They've been a long time coming, but they're finally in. Let's hope they continue to be as effective as initial indications suggest. 

They're held down with 48x 8" lag screws set in epoxy and this crew was able to install about one per hour.

Monster Catch

Bluegills are delicious, but it's going to take a while to get together a fish fry for 9 at this pace... 

By the way, Mami caught the biggest fish!

Making Scones

Making scones is always a highlight of the morning at Nana's house!

Hanging out at Graydon's Swim Meet

Graydon did very well at his swim meet (as usual). He's swimming in the bottom of his age bracket (7/8) but came is second in 25m freestyle, first by several solid seconds in 25m breaststroke, and completed his first ever individual medley (IM), which is 25m of each stroke back-to-back. He won that one by default since nobody else in his age group swam it.

The rest of us had fun just hanging out and cheering him on. We're glad Großmama is here to climb on and snuggle with!

Traveling Well

Großmama and Mami are headed back to Austin today. A slight delay in flight schedule left us enough time to have a nice lunch, plus coffee and a cookie for Großmama! The nice young man waiting next to us even offered to take this photo.

Portia and I (Maggi) enjoyed our boys-free morning!

Since the boys have church camp in the morning this week, Portia and I have our girls time in the mornings back and used it today to go to the library and swimming afterwards :-)
( I forgot Portia's clothes at home and had to improvise a little bit and found Graydon's pants in the diaper bag. I think it looks super cute and she liked it so much she wanted to leave them on even when we were at home again )

This is the kind of situation you will probably see when you hear Wiley scream : somebody please heeeeelp meeeee !

Proud Pepper Farmer

Graydon decided last fall that he wanted to grow some red bell peppers, because he liked them so much. So, we collected a bunch of the seeds out of a store-bought pepper and planted them in little red solo cups. Almost each single seed germinated, and so we had over a dozen little seedlings. We kept them more or less happy in their solo cups through the winter until it was planting time. We had more than we could plant in our garden, and so we gave about half to Nana and Gramps. And that was good, too, because all of our plants were eaten by our garden bandits! (It's a story for another day, we didn't get much yield out of our garden this year...) But the plants at Nana and Gramps' garden thrived, and so Nana brought in the first full pepper for Graydon this weekend. It looks even better than the ones you buy at the store! :)

Hi from Montreal!

Mami is having a good day hanging out with Großmama, whose birthday it was yesterday, and Granddad, on Father's Day! Here we are at Mt Royal.

First day of soccer camp was a success !

(What you can tell easily by looking at his red head)

Summer break

First week of summer break is almost over. We had a nice first week with great weather and a lot of fun at the water!

Biking Wiley

Wiley completed his first 10 mile ride this afternoon on the South Walnut Creek Trail. 

Encounter with Freddy Kruger...

... or a swimming Labrador? 

Note how far apart the three scratches are. She really spreads her toes while swimming. 

Going to Canada

While Mami and Daddy were working in the garage, all three kids loaded themselves in the truck and announced "We're going to Canada!"

The Eyes on Piano

Graydon decided this week that he wanted to learn "The Eyes of Texas" on piano. So Mami figured out some fingering in an easy key (no, he did not play it in the customary concert E-flat!). He learned all the bits in about half an hour and then diligently practiced it until his next piano lesson. His teacher was so impressed that she asked him to play it again and captured this video:

Happy belated birthdays

Just in case you were wondering, we did actually celebrate Portia's and Mami's birthdays last month. Here's proof - Portia opening presents on her birthday (May 7). Mami was out of town for her birthday (May 15) but had a very nice dinner out with Daddy the next week, facilitated by Maggi offering as her birthday gift to stay late with the kids. Thanks, Maggi!