kick it!

Ava is playing soccer this summer. Heather was out to visit in mid-June and got some great pics of her first game. If you've never seen 5-year-olds play soccer, I highly recommend it...It's pretty entertaining to watch! Some kids stand there, hands in pockets, others are doing cartwheels and handstands (yes, that would be Ava), and then its monkey-see, monkey-do and you've got six kids doing cartwheels on the field :) At this age they just play 3 on 3, no goalie, coach on field, but Ava has already clearly shown what her position on the team is: DEFENSE. She is not the assertive forward who charges after the ball, but she is there to block and defend her team's goal. Definitely not a trait she acquired from her dad. LOL!

smile!

run!

play!

goal!

(this is my favorite action shot...notice how she is kicking, but the ball is behind her...
5-year-olds, I'm tellin' you...hilarious!)

cheer!

thanks Heather!
miss you!

swim

After a VERY wet (flooding) spring, we have really been taking advantage of the hot dry summer! I LOVE SUMMER! ...and I really love that I don't have to work in the summer! ha ha ha!!! One of our favorite things to do is head to one of the big city pools to cool down. These girls are a couple of fish. I don't think you could wipe the smiles off their faces if you tried :)

Here's a video of Zoe swimming

Here's a video of Ava walking as far as she can touch

Timberbeast

We drove up to Troy, MT the first week of June for the Timberbeast disc golf tournament. The girls and I went along to go camping. It was a long drive (about as far northwest in MT you can go), but worth it...Jamie tied for 1st place! He's now leading in the points series for his division. It starts with recreational, then intermediate, then advanced, and finally pro. Next year he'll need to bump up to advanced :)

read on!

Ava finished reading her first chapter book today! She read the first book in the Junie B Jones series. We're so proud of her!

number 1

Jamie played in a disc golf tournament in Bozeman on Saturday and won 1st place! When I picked Ava up from school on Friday, I told her daddy went to a disc golf tournament so he wouldn't be home until Saturday night. She asked what a tournament was and I explained that they play games to find the best of the best. She said, "Dad will for sure win then, because he is the best disc golfer ever!" she was right! :)


here he is with his loot...a new hat, an innova shirt, a load of new discs and his plaque :)


Heather, can I get some help with photo editing? I need to add some pigment to these legs! Whoa! ;-)

warhol inspired photo art

I've had this on my want-to-do list since I saw it in september's issue of family fun magazine. Here's how I did it:

Photo-copy a photograph with high-contrast portrait onto a variety of neon colored papers. I had 5x7 frames I was planning to use, so 4 wallet-sized pictures worked for Zoe's. For Ava's I had to play around with shrinking the size of a larger print until I got her head the size I wanted it because I didn't have any wallet prints that worked.


Next, I cut out the silhouette making sure that it was no bigger than 2-1/2 x 3-1/2 inches (so 4 would fit on a 5x7)


I also cut out 4 plain rectangles, 2-1/2 x 3-1/2 inches and found a layout that allowed each photo to be on a different background and not directly touching the same color in the adjacent pic.


When I found layouts I liked, I glued the plain rectangles onto a 5x7 sheet of cardstock.


Then I glued the photo cut-outs onto the rectangles.


Finally, I set the stack of paper on top while the glue set so all the edges adhered and it dried flat without curling up.


Voila!

Zoe at 1 year

Ava at 1 year

i want to do it!

Zoe fixed her hair all by herself :)