Sunny September

Sunny September.  You know, pics from before The Flood hit.

A September rainbow, as reflected in Dean's car

The boys riding in the shagmobile--the car Dean made for his Austin Powers Halloween costume from...well more than a decade ago, because that costume was before I met him.  Dean wanted the boys to play with it a bit before he got rid of it.

We spent the night at my parents' house the night before the Bagpipe Parade in Estes Park.  Liam declared that he wanted to sleep in the bed instead of the crib, so we gave it a shot.  They goofed around a bit too much before falling asleep, so Liam fell out of bed even though the chair was pushed up against his side.  But after they settled down, they did just fine.

Everybody enjoyed the bagpipe parade.

We actually got there early enough to see the beginning, for probably the first time since we had kids

At the beginning, Liam needed his Ama's comfort every time the "loud" music came nearby.  But he also kept asking "more song?!"  And by the end he was dancing every time the pipers and bands came by.

Waving to the people marching in the parade

Dean decided to get goofy and artistic with his Legos at he parade

And Robin pretending to be one of the Lego bagpipers

Making a candy grab

Talking to a man with a sword after the parade

And, of course, we can't go to the bagpipe parade without making a stop at this playground in Estes Park

We ventured a little farther than usual down the street (usually we have to head back and eat, but decided to eat further up the street) and found this neat statue.

Good spot for a family photo!

It took a casualty, though.  When we passed by it a second time, Robin wanted to climb on it again, and fell off, really scraping up his back in the process.

And then we saw some elk on our way out of town.  Neat!

 And now for a not-living elk

We ended the day (after naps at Ama and Poppa's house) with a trip to Red Lobster to celebrate Dean's birthday.  Liam thought Dean's singing Superman card was hilarious

And Robin learned to play tic tac toe and insisted on playing it three gazillion times

Liam also decided to be a culinary artist and add some mac 'n cheese to my shrimp scampi.  No thanks, kiddo

Summer Fun, part 12

I guess I'll stop using the "Summer Fun" title after this one, as these are the last of the pics from before Robin went back to school.  Most of these are from right before and through Labor Day weekend.

Robin, Liam, and I took a lot of bike rides this summer.  At the end of August, I finally got my hands on a working (so far) bike odometer, so I can clock how far we go and how fast.  This'll help me know when to turn back (if we have no destination) and also let me watch as they improve.  I didn't get many pictures from our bike rides, except of the boys or during stops we made, because I can't get pictures of myself while riding a bike.  Dean joined us for a ride at the end of August, however, and I had him get a few pics of the three of us together, to commemorate our first summer of biking together.

 The trailer is for when Liam poops out, which he does, though he usually makes it between a mile and a mile and a half.  I've had a bit of trouble striking a balance between letting Liam go as long as he wants, and satisfying Robin's desire to go fast.  But we've made it work.

Biking has been a really great pasttime from this summer!

Labor Day!  Getting a horsie ride at Grammy and Grandpa's.

Robin relaxing.  The sun on their white fence whited out the whole background.

We'd planned to take a family bike ride, and then Dean's dad discovered that he didn't have to work (he's been working 6-7 days per week lately, and we haven't seen much of him) so we combined our bike ride with a trip to their house.  5.2 miles on bikes (Liam made it 1.7 cumulative beginning and end) with Grandpa, and then a BBQ.

 They've got some nice bike trails near their house

You can see that Liam lifts his legs to coast now, and even tries to place them on the bars of his bike as he does so.  (My new bike computer tells me that he goes 3 to 3.5 mph until he gets tired.)

Biking with the Justice League!

And I will close the summer with a Liamism:  Liam says "thank you" when you give him something, but he also says "Thank you" while handing you something.  It's so cute.

First Day of School!!!!!!!!!!!!

Robin started Pre-Kindergarten today!

Packing up his backpack to take with him.  I had him carry his allergy-safe backup snacks to give to his teacher.

Liam saw all this and wanted his backpack too, so Robin helped him pack his monkey blanket and put it on.  What a good big brother.

About a month ago, we made a paper chain to make a "visual calendar," and Robin removed a link every day so he could see how close school was.  Removing the last link of the chain today.

The obligatory "first day" shots

And more with the little brother happily joining in.

Walking up to school

Finding his coat/backpack hook

Making a crayon with his name on it, which he will use to sign in from now on.

They had extras, so they graciously let Liam scribble all over one of them.

Putting the stuff he made into his backpack to take home

Playing on the playground a bit after school

Robin, and together with Liam, outside the school

Liam actually had a bit of a difficult morning.  We made pancakes for breakfast, which are usually limited to the weekends, but special day=special breakfast.  They were even more special, because they had chocolate chips in them.  Now, pancakes are a food we can generally count on them to inhale, meaning that we don't have to worry about them taking too long to eat.  However, Liam lost his steam after his first pancake.  What's going on?  When I finally asked him if he wanted to go to school, too, he nodded his head with a pout.  So he's old enough to notice that something is going on, and that it doesn't include him.  Poor guy.  I tried to reassure him that he and I were going to be doing fun things while Robin was gone, but he still pouted and didn't finish his breakfast.

Once at the school, Liam hung up his backpack just like Robin, and tried to make himself at home.  We were extracting him okay when we needed to leave, until he decided to play on a scooter in the playground and then fell off and skinned his knee.  Cue tears.  We took him to the car and cleaned him up, then got him buckled in and started to leave, although he was still putting up quite a fuss.  At this point, Liam started shrieking "Where Robin?" and pointing to Robin's empty carseat.  Apparently, three months is long enough to forget that Robin goes to school a few mornings every week.

Liam was upset the whole way home, and the irony was that with the skinned knee, we didn't know how much of that he would've done anyway.  Again, poor guy.  He moped a bit, and reluctantly helped me water my garden, and only perked back into his normal self once we headed out to his storytime--but the backpack stayed on his back the entire time we were out today, until we finished picking Robin up from school.  The epitome of the adoring little brother!