Random Pictures

I don't remember what the deal was, but Max sure doesn't look happy.
And then there's this guy...who's looking a little bit too happy:

Sam's Preschool Program

Getting caught up here. At the beginning of May Sam had his spring preschool program here are a few highlights:
Max was very interested in watching the kids singing:Mrs. Berends - the best art teacher in the great state of Iowa:

A Scary Sight

My sweet, sweet hubby came up with an ingenious 'addition' to the back of our tent for the Iowa Arts Fest this past weekend. We knew we needed to be prepared for rain or being in the sun all day, so he rigged up PVC piping for us to velcro one of the sides to, creating a shelter off the back of our tent where we could sit and stay dry or shaded! I wish I'd taken a picture, it was so great - right up until the wind almost carried it away and we had to take it down. We were so busy battling rain and wind and we were constantly busy with customers and ended up not taking any pictures at all. Maybe next time. I DID however manage to get a picture of this scary sight:
This is what Damon looked like after cutting all of that PVC piping. He wore his goggles, obviously, but maybe he should have worn a mask. Breathing that powder can't be good for you. He came in from the garage and said, "Do you think I need to take a shower?" About scared me half to death when I got my first look at him.

Sam's "Graduation"

Sam graduated from preschool and they had a little "ceremony" to honor the kids.



This happened to be the same day that I was leaving for Austin. I think what he actually must have told his teacher was, "I'm going to buy myself a bakugon" (they're these little toys he'd been begging me for and I'd been telling him maybe when I was gone, he and dad could go get some.) I doubt his teacher knew what he was talking about so it got a little lost in translation! And wasn't it nice of him to include his dad in his plans?!

Bronze Leopard Challenge

To culminate the ending of the school year and the successful completion of the Bronze Leopard Challenge, an official dedication ceremony was conducted at Lemme recently. It was so exciting! Parents were invited and there were speeches by the superintendent, the principal, the artist who created the statue and meteorologist Joe Winters from KCRG.
At the end of the speeches - which seriously brought tears to my eyes - the kids readied their bubbles while the dramatic music from "2001: Space Odyssey" played!
Mr. Bacon and the Lemme Leopard revealed the covered statue at just the right place in the music!

Everyone cheered and blew bubbles!
It was a great moment.
I'm sure this statue is going to be here for years to come and we got to be a part of making it happen! Lots and lots of kids will have their picture taken next to this guy at the start or end of every school year. As the kids filed back inside, they were encouraged to each stop and touch the statue.
As Mr. Bacon always says, "It's grrrrrreat to be a Lemme Leopard! We want to be the best school in the great state of Iowa!!!"

Here's another article from the Press Citizen.

MIA

it's been eons since I've posted. Austin was a whirlwind of fun, and then it was on to getting ready for the Iowa Arts Fest which was this weekend. I'm exhausted, but it's a good kind of tired. We had a great day of weather and sales today, which made up for the rain and wind of yesterday.

i'm so behind in posting pictures it's not even funny. Austin alone could be a hundred posts, we've got so many funny stories and pictures - and don't even get me started on the videos. There may be a rumor out there about these so called 'videos' - well let me assure you. they're not true....whatever you've heard...

So here's a little something to tide you all over until i get back into it-

Austin Here We Come!!!

I'm off to Austin tomorrow for 5 days of fun! Hurray for girls vacations!!!!

Wii Woes

It's been kind of a hard week for the kids because the Wii is broken. Evidently it doesn't like it when a baby crams more than one disc into it at a time. It stops working. Damon found out from the nintendo website that we qualify for a free repair. You can even print out the shipping label and send it federal express on their dime, all we have to do is follow their packaging instructions. Damon came home yesterday and announced at the dinner table that he'd talked to the "Wii People" who asked him if we had a Sam Brown in our house. According to Damon, they could tell from their records that Sam Brown was an excellent Super Smash Brother's player and therefore they would fix our Wii for us. This got a big "REALLY?!" from me. It also got my husband's napkin thrown at me and a good laugh. Ok, so I'm pretty gullible. But in my defense, I wasn't the only one who fell for it. He had the boys going too.

Yellow Day

I missed a call on my cell phone during preschool from my mom. Since she's the art teacher at Sam's preschool, and is supposedly WORKING :0) I immediately thought something was wrong. I called her back and found out she only wanted to tell me a funny story that has kept her laughing all morning. During circle time, Sam's teacher asked several kids if they could spell yellow (today is YELLOW day!) When she asked Sam if he could spell it he said something like, "I've got a question first. Did you know that my dad's middle name is Paul?!"

Guess he just thought that it would be an appropriate time to throw out that random piece of information. You gotta love preschoolers!!!!

Playing the Faces Game

I don't know if I could possible remember all of the emotions that my mom and niece were portraying - they all kind of start to look alike, but I'll try...

Mad
Scared?
Surprised?
Sad....
don't know what the rest of these are...




stinky?!

Being the Little Guy

It all started out innocently enough....these things always do. ...there were smiles and toothy grins....and lots and lots of dimples showing....
....hmm....what's this? Looks like something of my brother's....
Ohp! Yep! That's definitely something of my brother's - and he wants it back! "Max, can I have that back?" (Watch out folks, things are about to get ugly.)

"Why, oh why does he get such satisfaction out of taking things away from me!? I'm just little!"
M0-0m!
He took that thing away!
....and I still really want it....
....but I guess I've resigned myself to a life of always being the little guy.

Our Tree

It's lovely.

Messages for Emmy

We've been made aware that Emmy's been missing her nephews so we decided to send her these messages:

The Many Faces of Sam

These freckles basically have my heart:Looking pretty proud of himself:
contemplative:
Bored? Sleepy? Barely tolerating having his picture taken?