35 and counting

I can't lie, I know how to plan a good birthday.

First, "kidnap" birthday person when he leaves his work.

Take him to the local newly redone botanical gardens, where, as luck would have it, the sunlight is magically pouring through the trees, and there is a cash bar. I kid you not. Pose with pumpkins, scarecrows, and magical plant sculptures.

Do your best to get decent smiles.

 "OOOOH, MOMMA, get a picture with me and Ariel".

 My favorite.

It has been years since we've been to the botanical gardens and they have done a splendid job improving the kid's area.

 Bees! Neat.

 

 Right before we walked through this C looked right at me and said "Man I love a tunnel". That kid cracks me up.

 I need to adjust friar tuck's haircut.

 The best way to end the afternoon is with a picnic at the park overlooking the Atlanta skyline. We did this so many times when we lived intown. Ahhh. Memories.

 Happy birthday, Dada.

Tomorrow's the day...

...for a very special birthday. And we have special plans to celebrate away from home, and there might not be time for presents, so we decided to have a pre-birthday celebration today at home.

Who is our guest of honor? Dada, of course.

So we prepped the house before he got home. We set the dining room table for a special meal. No shirt required.

 Then we sat and waited and waited for him to arrive. And when he did, we met him at the back door with a cold one, and made him close his eyes so we could lead him to the pile of gifts.

 There's no sense in wasting time with pleasantries so gifts were opened.

 It is pretty hard to surprise a man that gets himself anything he needs, but from the look on his face I can see that he had no clue about this gift. Mission accomplished.

And now I'm so tired that I cant remember what it was either, so off to bed. Tomorrow is a big day!

Stop playing with sticks!

Our boys did well at soccer game #2. Three goals for G, one for C, and G nearly took out another kid for elbowing his brother.

Video of C shooting his goal, with an assist from G. 

Soccer

The sport of this season for us is soccer. A sport I am clueless about. Really. So please expect nothing from me in terms of play by play reports. But cute pictures and funny anecdotes? Sure.

First, here are our players and the assistant coach.

Our regular coach was a little late to the game, so assistant coach was promoted and got the game started. Team huddle to discuss strategy. And maybe to goof off a little.

Each team has six players, and the game is played three on three. Our team had one on vacation and another who is not so sure he enjoys this "playing" of the game as much as he enjoys sitting on the side of the field, so the other four got a lot of play time. 

We got into position.

And it was game time.

 In this photo you see G looking back. You might think he'slooking back at the ball, but he's really looking at the white shirt kid, #10. #10 shoved C earlier in the game and G did not care for that at all. So much so that G took it upon himself to spear tackle #10 for the offense. And then kept a watchful eye on the offender the rest of the game. If this were American football, G would make a great fullback to C's running back, assistant Coach said.

All in all, a fun game. We think we won, but we're not sure. Who was in charge of keeping score?

Life is good

Life is settling into a nice, maintainable routine.I say maintainable, but lord help me, if much more gets added to our plate I will flip out and will need medication. Like when K is gone for a week the end of next month. Ask me how maintainable life is that week.

But for now we're trucking along. Our fall sports pick up in a few weeks, that's always fun. Tennis for momma, soccer for the boys. Dada gets to be assistant coach for soccer, but no tennis for him this season. I trust that will give him plenty of energy to bring me water at the court and to give me massages after each match. Hahahahahaha....

Anywho, we've had a busy time, some fun, some work. 

This one night was definitely some fun. We left this gaggle of kids at home, and with our favorite cousins walked to our neighborhood park for a concert. Ahhh, good times. That was a fun night!

We've settled into school routines, had visitors, are doing some small projects around the house. Life is good, y'all. Nothing spectacular, but just good.