We celebrated the 10th anniversary of 9/11 by paying no attention to it at all. Instead we had a birthday party. Now that's patriotism. So the happy park of Funderland was overrun by cute girls and boys, including: Autumn & Danielle (accompanied by Amanda & Virgil), Juliette & Amelia (with Debra), Tobin (with Manny), and Jenk & Tavi (with Kyle). And of course, Nana & Uncle Gabriel were there too.
First we got a table in a nearby park for lunch & cake...
Then we spent a couple hours on the rides...
Then back to the park for presents. We asked everyone to bring toys they were tired of, so no one had to buy anything and they got to clutter bust a bit in the process. It was a big hit.
In particular, the dinosaur that had been hiding unused in the back of Tobin's closet for a couple years became Audrey's #1 favorite thing in the universe. She carries it around everywhere now, saying it's her baby.
Hey, there were even some pictures of adults!
And finally, when it was time to head home, Audrey & her new baby were tuckered out:
So, the rest of the summer came and went, thank God. I couldn't wait for it to end. I was still recovering from the whole Uncle George thing, I was having a career crisis and mid-life crisis all at once, and then to top it all off I crashed really hard on my bike in the last week of July, smashing up my face, arm, and leg. It was really ugly. I didn't feel like doing much besides hole up in my house and wish everyone and everything would just go away. And pray for summer to end.
Now it's nearly November, and I've finally hooked the camera up to the computer to see what the hell happened while I wasn't paying attention. Hadn't done that since July 24th. Turns out, there were some good moments. And I'm going to talk about them for a bit now, as a reminder to myself that I am blessed with a beautiful family, an extraordinary wife, and a charmed existence. (Seriously, the crash should have broken limbs and/or nose and knocked my teeth out. Very lucky, me.)
Way back in early summer we bought some K'NEX kits. If you haven't seen these before, they are for building models of roller coasters. They are really fun to build. Kind of like Lego, but a bit more advanced. The girls have found so many oodles of creative things to do with the pieces, but this one is my absolute favorite by a mile: Aria placed them on a table like notes on a staff, and turned them into a melody. Watch:
Then one day in early August I caught Audrey "reading" a book to herself. This girl is crazy about books. She yanks them off shelves, devours them, and yanks more. Some days she'll go through every single book in the shelf. I feel very lucky to have finally caught it on camera since she doesn't like to be filmed.
I was doing a little bit of music earlier in the summer. As a gag gift for Dave's birthday, I made a techno cover of "Ten Years Gone" by Led Zeppelin. Although the whole thing was tongue in cheek, it was a good introduction to Logic Studio for me - it's been sitting on our computer for years and I've barely used it.
At some point during that time, Audrey got on the mic and we got this picture of our budding superstar:
Hosanna took the girls on a camping trip in late August, along with her friend Amanda and her daughters Autumn and Danielle. The girls had a great time - especially making S'Mores over the fire. When they got back, Aria drew this picture of their trip. It is a self-portrait: Aria is at the campfire, with a bag of marshmallows at her feet, and one on a stick that's she holding in the fire. The sky is blue and the grass is green, and all is well.
One of the sillier things that happened as a result of my bike crash is I finally learned what I look like with a full beard. I couldn't shave for several weeks while my face healed up. I was too embarrassed to take a picture of the wounds, which in a way now I sort of regret, but here's a picture of the short-lived beard. I couldn't wait to shave it off; it was hot, itchy, and abominably uncomfortable. I think Aria took this picture.
For their birthdays this year, we got Aria a bike and Audrey a trike. They love them. Aria loves to get out and ride the bike at the park or around the block, whereas the trike has become something they ride around in the backyard (or occasionally, around the house).
