Tuxedo Boy

Cousin Sara decided to go with a different tux for her ring bearer, but doesn't he look cute?

Community Fair...and a touch of fame!

Took the kids out to the JPA Bike-Walk-Run street fair last weekend.  Seemed like the whole town was out.  The kids had fun checking out the fire engine:

And Abby ran a water balloon "gauntlet."  We were pleasantly surprised to see her picture in the paper the next day (that's her in the bright pink shirt):

Sleepover

Elliot reads a book to Benji

Birthday Clothes

A new outfit from Aunt Barbara, all ready to wear to school.

Girl Scout Pool Party

Nice to get everyone re-acquainted before the Brownie year starts:

Abby and Celia fooling around

The whole crew gathered up for a picture in the pool

First Day of School

They were both super excited and have had 2 great days back so far.

Hikers

On the new Rivanna Trail near our house.

Science Lab

They were trying to make things explode.

Water Fight!

Lazy Day

Benji and Kevin playing "fort":

Amazement Square

With his summer coming to an end (pre-week starts Monday), Kevin tookthe kids on one last field trip - Amazement Square - the mega-kids museum in Lynchburg. A few pictures from his iphone:

crawling through the ant tunnels

construction work

Digging Potatoes

From our garden.  They made a great potato salad

Splash Park

One Last Gift

Arrived in the mail just after we returned from our trip:

American Girl Doll case!:

I love how seriously she is concentrating on this:

Daddy's Birthday

Swim Banquet

With Champs behind them, the team celebrated with a swim banquet and awards ceremony. Benji enjoyed the desserts:

Abby and Lilykate, accepting their time improvement ribbons and team trophies for placing second in the division:

Champs pictures, at last!

Gathering up for Cheers:

Nervous girls, waiting for their first swim:

Hanging out between heats:

Last minute instructions from Coach Andrea:

Diving in for freestyle:

Start of back stroke (Abby is in the closest lane in the picture - lane 6):

Looks who is way out in the lead:

Victory!

The Key Shop

Apparently, it is loads of fun.  And they let the kids have free keys!

Hatching Butterflies

From the start of the summer, this one somehow slipped through the cracks. Here are some pictures of our butterfly hatching experiment, compliments of Uncle Chris and Aunt Annmarie:

Looking at the cocoons

Getting ready for the release

And there they go...

One little butterfly makes a pit stop on our walkway

Freedom!

Make sure you wear...

...some flowers in your hair.  Abby and her new clip.

Day #6: Golden Gate Park

Another day of rest, followed by our last big adventure: golden gate park.  We started at the academy of sciences:

Abby and Drew look at the fish in the "swamp" area

Benji looks at an alligator fish overhead

We moved on the the Japanese Tea Garden:

Kevin and the kids climb the "drum bridge"

in front of the koi pond

And lastly, we saw the bison herd: