Back to School

The time of year has come when parents load up their children like ants with their weight in school supplies and send them on that magical yellow school bus to broaden their minds. Here you see the elementary school kids assigned to Hannah's bus stop. They are each holding up the number of fingers of the grade they are in. Yes- Hannah is holding up three. That can't be right! I am not old enough to have a third grader!!!
Here's a shot that shows off Hannah's stylish first-day-of-school garb. I think its probably a good thing that she only had a half day. This might have been a hot outfit for today - but there was no talking her into shorts.

Poor Madi has to wait another year to board the big yellow bus. Don't worry Moo - next year it will be all about you.
The bus arrived right on time. Unlucky driver, sorry we made you wait for hugs and pictures.
Bye Hannah, we miss you already. So glad I had the summer to store up the love while you are away. Hope you are going back with a full bucket too. 

New Outfit!

Apparently Madi no longer shops in the "baby" section at Old Navy. I wasn't along for the shopping trip, but I am told Madi can make the same selection from the racks Hannah shops. This was the same trip the girls bought several pairs of shoes. I'll let their mother tell that story. She has a certain intensity that is hard to convey in words. Needless to say I went to go play poker last night and sincerely had to win money for the kids new pairs of shoes! Three games and I came out with two firsts, and one second. Still not enough to pay for the shoe bill. 

Sisters

Look at these pictures of the girls being so loving and kind to each other. Here's a hug after a long day of swimming.
Hannah helped Madelin put on her tap shoes at her recent dance lesson.




I'm so proud and happy that our camera takes fast pictures. 

Twins!

Check out this weird tomato from my garden. Unfortunately it doesn't look like Lincoln, Jesus or Elvis so I can't sell it on ebay. It does have a somewhat duckish quality about it though.

I think I will keep this one out of the sauce - it doesn't pass inspection.
Processed another 5 quarts today. Even the herbs I use come from my garden. Takes a bit of time and effort but it's pretty good. 

Sunday on the Lake

It's good to have friends. It's even better to have friends with boats.

Spent the day today cruising the lake with our neighbors. Hannah tried to ski and got up but couldn't stay up for more than a second. Madi enjoyed tubing with her friend. She caught some air over a cross wake. There is something about her smile and laugh. She's a small girl but holds enormous joy.

Aaron and I skiied too. The thing about skiing when you don't do it regularly is it knows your age even if you would like to forget. We may be a little sore tomorrow! I went tubing with my girlfriend. Pretty sure we maxed the weight capacity on the tube.

With five children and four adults, thankfully, no one was sunburned, injured, and no spats. It was a good time had by all. Sorry, no pictures. Too risky taking the camera on the boat.

Good 'N Plenty

Each year, our family suffers from an overabundance of garden vegetables. While I do preserve some of them, such as freezing zucchini bread and canning enough spaghetti sauce for the year, we still turn green from eating the same veggies again and again.

This year, I am drowning in a sea of cherry tomatoes, fairy tale eggplant, and banana peppers. In fact, my plants are producing so much that I stepped out of my comfort zone and made some calls to try to find them a home.

Turns out that the Bloomington Salvation Army takes excess garden produce and uses it to augment its soup kitchen offerings. There is actually a service called "Plant a Row" that enlists local gardeners to plant a row in their gardens expressly for this purpose.

So, goodbye garden surplus; hello humanitarianism! My neighbors will be relieved that I am not at their door trying to peddle fresh vegetables and I will sleep better at night knowing they didn't go to waste. 

Famous summer quotes by Madelin

1. Mom: "Madelin, get a good night's rest. Tomorrow, you will have to demonstrate your skills in swimming to pass to the next level."
Madelin in a voice wrought with anxiety: "But Mom I don't have any skills!!! ......Wait - what are skills?"

2. Mom: "Madelin, come play outside. You need the fresh air to keep you healthy."
Madelin: "Healthy? Is that like getting more life points?" (Maybe this is a sign she is watching too much yu-gi-oh.)

3. Mom: "Madelin, why did you take mommy's gardening shears and cut the party lights into segments? Come here, I want to talk to you!"
Madelin: "No, I'm in my room punishing myself!"

Top 10 things I miss when Aaron is away

10. Lawn mowing. Hannah asked me yesterday "What will we do if dad doesn't come back soon? The grass is getting really high!"
9. Unloading the dishes - I keep trying to load but there are already clean dishes in there.
8. Opening jars and screw on tops- sorry kids, no speghetti this week (aaaw mom!)
7. Getting down things from the top shelves - like the lightbulbs.
6. Changing lightbulbs - our hall has been dark for several days now.
5. Taking the kids when I have had enough
4. Keeping me from the kids when I have really had enough (a.k.a mommy why are you using that mean voice?)
3. Having a photographer
2. A co-conspirator to stir the neighborhood pot with
1. Hugs and kisses and other things I misses

Hurry home! We miss you!

Once upon a time in a land far, far, away

Have you seen this man? If so, tell him to blow out the candles already -it's 100 degrees in the shade. :)

Happy Birthday Pop! 

Hannah Places 10th in Twin City Finals IM

Our own Hannah has placed tenth during the Twin City conference finals for the Individual Medley(IM.) This is a particularly dificult event to swim. Not only must the swimmer have the endurance to keep pace for 100 yards but they must do so while swimming all four strokes, Butterfly, Back, Breast, and Free, with acceptable technique.

This is more difficult than it sounds. During preliminaries 8 kids were disqualified and then 4 more during finals. Hannah concentrated hard and swam a clean race.

Not bad for her first season!!! Go Hannah! 

A&G

This is a recent picture of the two of us without the kids. It is a rare and unusual specimen. It's unique beauty can only be fully appreciated with an understanding of its atypical qualities. Note the dual smiles, the lack of puffiness beneath the eyes, the coordinating shirts...

Why is it so difficult to have pictures taken together once you have kids? I have scrapbooks filled with pictures of the kids, with one or the other of us in a supporting role. ( Look at how cute Madi is in the bassinet - and oh there's dad's hand. Here's Hannah riding her bike and who's butt cheek is that? Oh, I think it's mom's. ) Together, we maybe score one or two photo's per year.

(Incidentally, I have noticed that in those yearly one or two pictures since the kids, we often look like someone has sucked the life out of us. Coincidence? )

What a fun Saturday with Madi. It just all seemed to work out perfectly. FIRST and foremost, she slept in this morning. It sure does beat the other morning when she woke up at 4 a.m. and decided to crawl in to bed. My side of course. Well, after a couple of waffles, we headed off to the library to return some books and DVDs. I was just going to drop off the items, but I decided to ask if they had Hoodwinked. Well, the gal checked and said it was out. Fortunately the guy next to hear was listening to our conversation and he asked for us to wait. See, it appears the 20 something year old decide to watch Hoodwinked last night and hadn't checked it in yet. That's one rental from Blockbuster we don't have to pay to view...just 1499 more of those and the property taxes we pay will be a wash. Next it was off to the zoo. It's been a while since I'd been to the local zoo and it was the first day below 90 degrees. Well, we got there a little early and Madi decided to play in the park. She loves Underdog! We usually make it through the zoo in 50 - 60 minutes tops. This is partially due to the fact that it's relatively small zoo and we have been there several times. This time was different. Madi seemed to want to linger at the Creature Feature, Sea Lion feeding and then the goat petting. The "creature" featured today was a bald python from Africa named Tiki. He's 26 and weights approximately 5 lbs. Madi spent 25 minutes around the snake. Most kids came up, touched it and moved on to the next exhibit. Madi had to recite all the facts she just learned from Tory the zoo lady. Mostly she liked it when Tiki kissed her with her tongue.Next it was watching the sea lions and otters for their morning meal and then to the goats' pen. Madi brushed all the goats and didn't step in much poop. Of course Madi rode the merry-go-round. She always wants to ride the merry-go-round. Back home with some Avanti’s sandwiches and Cheetos. Hoodwinked is playing and life is good.


 

Can you say Georgia O'Keeffe

What is this?

Answer: This is the inside of a saddle - a stubben edelweiss. I took this picture for my ebay listing. Sold it to someone in NJ for $200 more than I paid. I'm using the proceeds to buy a new laptop so that Aaron and I can stop fighting over our desktop.

I Found my thrills on Blueberry...

Well, not really Blueberry Hill, but the girls and I sure did pick a bunch of berries...20 lbs. worth. At a buck a pound, it almost offset the price of gas to get to the farm.
Tammen Berry Farm in Braidwood IL is something to see for anyone visiting the area in July. The bushes are about 6 feet high and loaded with blueberries so you don’t even have to bend over to pick. They create their own shade and don’t have any thorns to deal with. There also isn’t a whole lot of walking involved because the bushes are right next to the parking lot.

The 20 lbs took us about 3 hours to pick and measured about 7 quarts. We froze most of them. They are much sweeter and firmer than the store bought variety.

I would rank the experience right up there with Funks Grove Maple Sirup Farm in March and the Morton Pumpkin Festival in October as one of the great Illinois day trips.

Hannah ate her weight in berries while she was picking. I told her it was OK with me because they can’t charge you for the ones in your belly! :)

Cars

Madi and I visited the Cars in State Farm Atrium. She took my picture.
 

Tool Shed

Just another summer project by Pop and me. It's a 4'x8' space that holds everything from the wheel barrel to the lawn mower. It was a first for us to apply shingles. We did pretty well except for the supply estimate. We thought 1 package of shingles would be more than enough. We were short by 1 single sheet. In fact it was one half sheet off. Oh well, we improvised. Lot's of silicon. We had a good storm the other day and it held up well against any leaks. The structure itself is again over engineered for stability. Unlike the deck, we didn't dig post holes, yet I suspect it would pass any city inspector's code for free standing building. The great thing is it is at a corner of the house that isn't very visible from either the front or the back. 

We taught Madi a new trick...pull the hair in grandpa's ears. He loved it...or was it she loved it. We went to the Bloomington Children's Discovery Museum the other day. Part of a science exhibit was a scope that showed a magnified image on a tv screen. Well, after the obligatory hair and skin views, grandpa checks his ear. Remember the hair from above? It looked like a forest in there. 

2006 Photo of the Pommier Grandchildren

Well, we were successful once more in gathering all the grandchildren currently living in Illinois from the Pommier tree for the annual photo. Now, you try and get 10 children to smile at the same time. It isn't going to happen. 

Swim Team

We are about half way throught he season and Hannah is excelling - litterally- at Swimteam. Her favorite stroke is Butterfly. She has a powerful dolphin kick.

It has been incredible to watch her progress. When we started she got tired after one length of the pool; now, she can swim the 100 IM in her sleep. Four to five hours of practice a week will do that for you!

Big Home meet t0night with Lakeside. Hannah says they'll "Eat her bubbles!" (I can smell the college scholarship.. ha . ..ha) Go Hannah! 

We finally have ICE in Bloomington! 

This is what two new haircuts look like.






Sending our love to you. If only we had a stamp.

Cute famiy.

What happens when two adults eat whip cream from a can?