Ten on Tuesday.

1. The sunflower is magically opening! Photos to come.

2. Alla started "fall" soccer tonight. Which I think means that most of it takes place in the fall.

3. We sat on the field for her first "fall" soccer practice and we got eaten alive by the mosquitos.

4. Fisher spotted a street lamp while we were there and said that it was a flashlight but the reason it didn't work was because the battery was dead so "you hap to tuwn it on."

5. Kindergarten countdown: one week from today.

6. Tomorrow is Open House at Alla's school - she gets to meet her teacher! She is over the moon.

7. I seriously hope her listening skills at school are much better than the ones she uses at home.

8. Just a friendly little PSA: check your diaper bags, purses, totes, etc., for leftover snacks. After noticing some fruit flies in our coat closet, I was encouraged by the husband to check the diaper bag I haven't used in ages. Needless to say, the bag got thrown quickly into the garage, all the contents tossed, and is going to live in the garage until the washer is free. No idea what was actually rotting in there.

9. This Saturday = State Fair!

10. Favorite books this week: The Mysterious Tadpole (Alla) and Go, Dog, Go! (Fisher)

Eight weeks and one day later.

Our glorious, tallest sunflower has gone from this little looked-down-upon sprout - to this taller-than-the fence giant!

And from a tiny seed she planted!

It appears to be a late bloomer, but we're waiting patiently.

We grow 'em big.

Also, we sometimes forget to go out and look for garden goodies, resulting in overgrown garden goodies.

Ten on Tuesday.

1. So, this summer I've really come to the realization that I'm not a morning person. Maybe it's just that Ron saying it for the one millionth time has finally made it hit home. Truth be told, if I were a morning person I'd be up before the kids, dishes done, breakfast ready, have already gone for a run and had a cup of coffee. The real me is going to eek out every moment of sleep until the kids come and wake me, and then when they do, I'm going to try and convince them to come and lay (I mean sleep) with Mama.

2. I also can no longer do the splits. Tight hammies.

3. The house is painted!

4. Fisher cannot get enough of zucchini muffins. He's very sad that they're gone.

5. Fisher also cannot get enough of banana-oat bars, which I think he's calling 'ganona bars,' or granola bars, so we'll just go with that. He's very sad that they're gone.

6. Fisher also just realized that he loves roasted beets.

7. Kindergarten countdown: 2 weeks. Two weeks?!?!!??

8. I am the worst shoe-buyer-for-my-kids ever. Starting over.

9. Fisher got some hand-me-down Wall-E jammies from our friends and the kid will not get out of them. Today he was still in them when he woke up from nap and would still have been if we hadn't been heading out to the Farmer's Market. I tried to get an actual outfit on him before nap, but he told me he liked his Wall-E jammies. What he actually said was, They're berry nice.

10. The children walked into our room this morning at 6:23 am, so I promptly walked their little butts back to their beds and told them number one it is still dark and number two the rule in this house is seven a.m. so go back to sleep. I got a reprieve until seven-something. Totally do-able, thank you little children.

Haircut day!

Alla really likes to get her haircut, so to console her since we were just getting Fisher's cut today, I let her be in charge of the documenting. Point-and-shoot to the rescue again!

So she took the before shot. And here's the after! I actually really like his hair longer, but think he looks adorably handsome with it super short, too (kinda like his Dada!). Who knows, maybe next time we'll keep it longer and just have them shape it up.

He's also 29 months today, so happy 29 months, Buddy!

Ten on...Wednesday.

1. My husband hijacked my computer last night, so now it's Wednesday. I'm totally blaming him.

2. Kindergarten countdown: three weeks from today she'll be IN kindergarten. Sigh.

3. The backpacks have arrived and are hanging on hooks, just waiting. Pictures will not be taken until September.

4. Shoes arrived, too, however, since I am the worst about sizes, both kids shoes have to be exchanged. Fisher's were too big, Alla's too small. Ugh.

5. Yesterday our next-door neighbor (she's 16) gave Alla some of her old Polly Pockets. I seriously cannot think of a more perfect toy for a five-year-old. She's in story-telling heaven.

6. Fisher is now saying marshMEWwohws instead of marshFEHwohws and avocaDOH instead of kamama. Don't know where he got that last one but it's been around since he could talk.

7. Last week our friends on the street behind ours had a tree stump removed. Of course the machinery that removed it is named "Stumper," and it was the highlight of Fisher's week.

8. The highlight of this week was probably yesterday morning, seeing the crane at the hospital where we went for his quarterly check-up. At some point, the construction will be over, and that crane will go away. Then what will I do? We came out of his appointment yesterday and he said, That was fuh-uhn!

9. Alla's favorite show at the moment is Sid the Science Kid, and the movie she watched last weekend was Horton Hears a Who.

10. The big news this week: Alla learned to tie her shoes!

Sunday ride.

Yesterday was the most gorgeous day, so Alla and I were off on another adventure.We put on our new sneaks and headed out.We had a destination in mind, one from our summer list, but there was lots to see along the way.Like this amazing sky that followed us everywhere.Under-the-street murals.Egrets.The Shoreview north water tower. I recently read it would cost 950K to paint the south one.
Giant sunflowers.Great hills.And then, forty-five minutes or so later, our destination.Golden Lake Park, isn't it lovely?

You can't go wrong with a park and a lake put together.

What a really nice Sunday afternoon with my beautiful daughter.

Lunch to go.

We didn't have the energy to try the beach again today, probably because the sun was out in full force. So we read, painted, played, and then at 10:30 decided to make lunch and pack it up for a picnic at the park. Again, I ran in and grabbed the point-and-shoot. Love that thing.

Fisher was in charge of the picnic basket. He wouldn't take off his Wall-E pajama top. Whatever.

I love that kid.

And this one.

She spent the morning collecting nuts, presumably for the squirrels.

And then pushing Lily in the swing.

What a beautiful [hot] sun!

I did mention it was hot, right?

Time to eat, Alla.

We got right to eating and stopped with the pictures, but I did remember that one September I snapped a photo of her here, so I put her right back on that spot to compare. You can't really tell that she's under the picnic shelter on the same table, but I know.

Ten on Tuesday.

1. I just can't win. It's miserably hot, so I decide to take the kids to cool off at the beach this morning. We spent 20 minutes in the parking lot watching it pour. Alla counted thirteen lightning "strucks."

2. I love that she's five and funny things like that still come out of her mouth.

3. She starts kindergarten four weeks from today.

4. Backpacks have been ordered and are on their way!

5. Both kids need new school shoes.

6. Despite the heat, I spent nearly all of Sunday in the kitchen making and baking: Zucchini butter (who knew!), beer bread, coconut shrimp with pineapple salsa, and strawberry cake.

7. The heat is totally messing with my runs.

8. I finished The Penderwicks, which was completely delightful, and will be picking up Catching Fire today at the library, yay!

9. It's been too hot to go to the Farmer's Market - imagine!

10. Paint the house update: way more than 50% complete! The end is in sight!

Proof.

That we actually did go out for our anniversary! Here we are driving five houses away to drop the kids off at our friends' house. They were most excited to just sit in the backseat not in any kind of way strapped in. We had a two-hour, uninterrupted dinner for which we are so very grateful to our friends Craig and Nicole! Fisher was bathed and in jammies when we got back! Thanks for a wonderful eight years, babe. Here's to eighty more!

Best lunch ever.

I have very clear memories of being about thirteen and standing in our bright kitchen with a knife and about a billion different fruits, making myself a giant fruit plate for lunch. Kiwi, a nectarine, strawberries, banana, melons, pineapple, apple. Whatever we had I cut up an put on my plate, most days, for lunch. So today, when I realized we also, thankfully, had about a billion different fruits (thank you, summer), and that I had just pulled zucchini muffins from the over, well, the simplest and best lunch came together and had me remembering hot summer lunchtimes spent slicing and peeling in barefeet and a bathing suit (not that we lived near the beach).

It really doesn't take much coaxing to get them to the table when there's simply fruit and fresh muffins involved.

Morning at the Mississippi Park.

On our way to Mississippi Regional Park this morning, I handed the point-and-shoot to Alla, thankful I had grabbed it on the way out. I knew there'd be water there, but I also knew we were going someplace new. Must have a camera. So glad I did. Here's our morning at the Mississippi Park, as the kids called it.