amyj

Photo of the day: vacation friday

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Originally uploaded by amyj's pics

Swimming in the pool has come a long way since the beginning of the week. Ben skills have ome a long way - diving for keys and generally being comfortable. Nora loves the pool and has really benefited from the zero depth pool. Josh and I have also enjoyed the opportunity to play in the water.

Photo of the day: vacation thursday

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Originally uploaded by amyj's pics

I didn't take out "big black" (my big workhorse camera that I shoot with for work and pleasure) at all today. In fact I didn't take any photos until Josh and I were at the elevator waiting to go out for dinner without the kids. "Little silver" took one of three pictures from this thursday of our vacation. There was lots of fun playing in big waves earlier in the day but today I played and didn't photograph. And then I got to play again with my husband alone at night - I am getting used to this vacation thing.

Photo of the day: vacation wednesday

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Originally uploaded by amyj's pics

My family is realy good about playing along with me when I want to take photos. Sometimes I have to bribe the kids a bit (we had ice cream after today's shoot) but in general everyone is on board. I got tons of great shots at Gulf State Park this overcast afternoon (perfect for photos - no harsh shadows) - but my favorite was this outtake of ben and nora running through the sand - I will have fun editing the rest of the pictures some other day when I need to remember the feel of the nice sand beneath my feet.

Photo of the day: vacation tuesday

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Originally uploaded by amyj's pics

I took a ton of pictures today. We went on a dolphin cruise and I managed not to throw up (though I think it really may be my last boat ride) The dolphins were cool and the pictures are okay, but in the end they were dolphins...you can picture it. I also had tons of swimming pictures. We got some swimming noodles and ben and nora are making some great progress swimming in the water....but my favorite pictures of the day came from the beach. I asked jrh to make a sandcastle on the beach and after a short time both ben and nora were interested. I was happy to see them playing happily side-by-side - and there you have my photo of the day!

Photo of the day: vacation monday

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Originally uploaded by amyj's pics

It is hot here in Alabama. We are spending most of out time either in the pool or on the beach. It has been a bit of a surprise that Nora is not a fan of the Gulf. She is perfectly content to stay in the sand and play. Really avoiding the water at all costs. Ben on the other hand has been going head first into the gulf from the get go. Waves seem to be a source of enjoyment for him - kinda the opposite of what we expected.

photo of the day: vacation sunday

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Originally uploaded by amyj's pics

I don't really ahve the time or inclination to detail everything about our vacation while we are on it but I thought that I would do a photo a day. So here it is - nora in the pool. She is lovin' it!

Ben's last day of school

Today was Ben's last day of school He was very excited about it, which surprised us when he expressed it because he really loves school. However, he said that he was excited for this year to be over because then the next time he goes to school Nora will be going with him.... very sweet.

In addition to the fact that the end of the school year meaning that the next school year is that much closer, for Ben's class it meant a program presented to the parents. I took video beause jrh was in chicago but have not done anything with it yet (and honestly I had a pretty bad postition so we will have to see how it works out) but I did manage a few pictures os the "extended day extravanganza"

There was singing, dramatic reading with sound effects, numerous kinds of dancing, and a very short play. Ben had been talking about this for a while but i really had no clue what to expect. It was very sweet to see all of the kids working together and  very obviously so proud of all that they acomplished. Most of the students in the extended day class are moving on to other classes next year (either other schools like the public school or up to the first elementary class in our school, so it was a bit sad too as it was the last time that some of these kids will be together like this.

They sang all sorts of songs -  including leading the audeince in accompanying Louis Armstrong's What a wonderful world - seriously I think at least half of hte audience was tearing up... not so nice to the parents Anna :)

 

They did partner dances from around the world. Here Ben is dancing with Ellery (who is the other person who will be staying in the class to lead the extended day next year)

The kids insisted that the bunny hop get added to the program - and so it was

I didnt' get many great pictures during the play - basically it involved the two oldest kids play set up the situation and then the rest of the class being jumping beans - they took their role very seriously and they had lots of paying attention to do - but the crowd of beans didn't lens itself to great pictures! It was great to see it though as Ben has had nora and I act out the play mulitple times at home where he plays the lead - and I neer knew if we were doing it right - it was good to know we were on track!

Afterward there was a short graduation presentaiton for those "moving up" and all the kids got a personalized (down to the color) I t-shirt with their classes artwork. Thank you anna. He is upstairs sleeping in it tonight - even after bath he just wanted to put it back on - very cool gift.

oh and there was an ice cream social....a lovely day outside and ice cream with all sort of yummy toppings hit the spot.

Ben humored me and allowed me to get a few pics with his teachers (which he would not do last year - he would not even say goodbye last year)x

This is Mary - she is Anna's assistent and as far as ben is concerned she is the funniest person on the planet. Really she cracks him up. She is the biggest fan of all of the kids in that room and we are so lucky to have her.

And Anna - who is single handedly responsible for our wonderful first impression of the school (since then we have learned all of the other wonderful and amazing things about it, but Anna really did a great job listening and anwering questions trying to help up find the right educational environment for our kid. As a result of getting to spend muiltple years with students (for some 4!) she really gets to know the kids in a way that I think most teachers are not able...I can't wait for Nora to start with Anna next year. Anna has been a great teacher for Ben and though ben and nora are very different the ways that she is awesome mean that she will be a great teacher for nora too.

Nora's last class

Nora isn't in preschool yet - so she has other activities like a music class, going ot the regular gym with me and a class at the Little Gym (a paretn tot gymnastics/play class) to keep her busy. This week was the last little gym class for the semester. I brought my camera go get some shots of Nora in action. Mr Bob is the owner of our Little Gym and though it took Nora a little while to warm up to him, he won her over.

 

 

Milwaukee Kite Festival

We have been doing tons of stuff lately. This past weekend we started a garden (from scratch - I mean we dug up the sod and everything!), went to a birthday party, a BBQ, had friends over for dinner, and went to the Kite festival at the lakefront in Milwaukee. It was windy (which was good for kite flying) and a little chilly (thanks mom for having coats for the kids!), but the kids got to see all sorts of kites and Ben got to fly our new frog kite. There were tons of dandelions to blow. We had a lovely picnic and hung out with grandparents. Here are a few shots.

A play structure for unstructured play

I swore that i would never have one of "those things" in my yard. We live walking distance from many parks. There was just no need. Then we moved and though our new neighborhood is superior in almost every child friendly way, we are not really easy walking distance from a park that is available to play in for most of the day (several school playgrounds are close but not available during the day)... and our kids are not old enough to go to the park by themselves anyway.....

So then I got this bee in my bonnet. It started in September and I started stalking craigslist for used swing sets. I knew what I wanted, I knew about how much I wanted to pay...but these things come and go quite quickly....it got cold, I let it go.....until march...the sun came out a bit more...I thought of all the work we wanted to do in the yard...ll of the BBQs with children yearning for something fun to do. I started the search. I found it. It was in the Northern Milwaukee burbs. It was old, it needed some TLC. But it was solid and the price was right.

I convinced jrh and my dad to go with me to get it.  It ended up taking two trips (one with a rented truck and after waiting a week for the frost to release the fort boards from the ground) my uncle came for support on the second trip. We filled our garage with the pieces. We borrowed a power washer, begged babysitting from grandparents so we could wash and stain (even cooped up in the garage in the rain)  Recycling is hard work.. all of this was done in the hopes of being able to relax a bit in our yard while the kids play!

Though we had carefully labeled and photographically documented the parts and assembly with the intent of installing it ourselves, we decided that it would be in the interest of the rest of our summer to have Rainbow reinstall the set. Wow were we right - six weeks after we took it from milwaukee and rehabbed it, a pair of guys came and set the thing up in 2 hours! The kids watched our the window almost the entire time.

We learned that Nora knew the words "play structure" when she asked to go outside to play on it when jrh got home from work.... their bodies twitched yearning to get outside in the yard.

It was a lot of work. But it looks as good as a large playset taking up most of your yard can look and more importantly the kids love it and we have gotten some BBQing and tons of yard work done while the kids played til their little dirty feet were content. I am a convert. Thanks to everyone who contributed to our play structure raising. Mission accomplished.