cousins

Last weekend it was fun to get together with the cousins from two different generations.  The littles played while the bigs caught up and enjoyed a fun fajita lunch.  

brothers

A little TGIF edition of the brothers snapshots...  love looking back over the last month at all these snaps ;)

guest dj aiden

This was pretty fun!   Although we waited for over an hour and I even had to call back to see if they were actually going to play it.... turns out they thought they'd already played his...  So here is the most patient DJ of the day:

P.S. Sorry that KC is whining over most of my recording, but he'd just woken up from an epic car nap. At least he was asleep when they recorded Aiden. Here is the transcript: "Hi everyone this is Aiden, I'm six years old and I'm calling from Fairfax, Virginia, and I'm in kindergarten and my favorite thing is math work and maybe I can use math when I have my job as a zookeeper, and this song you are going to hear is Indiana Jones, thanks for listening to Kids Place Live!"

around the sun

Aiden's walk around the sun is a Montessori tradition I think is really sweet.   The kids all get a chance to light the sun in the middle of all the seasons.  Then they hold the globe and walk around for each year of their life.  They stop in between each year to ask the parents what he did that year and then they say, "but did Aiden stay 2 years old, noooo, he went around the sun again..."  They sing a little tune as the birthday boy marches around the sun circle.  I remember the first time he did this on his third birthday in WeeThrees in RI and I nearly cried.  This year I just couldn't believe how many times he went around! 

family

A few extra family shots from our visit!  It is so great to visit family in such a sunny place...makes it even sunnier! ;)  Thanks for joining us on so many fun adventures and knowing what makes the boys smile!  I think this is the last of the Tucson photos to share... until next time!

born to segway

A very belated birthday present to J to take a tour on a Segway finally happened - is over three months from the actual day still a valid present?  My Segway was named Ms. Beazley.  Our guide had me give it a try first.  I hopped on without any trouble and shimmied forward and backward, then he dubbed me "born to segway" and went about getting everyone else geared up.  It is really fun and surprising workout on your ankles and feet after 2.5 hours touring from one end of the mall to the other.

Thanks to my folks for taking care of our under 16 year olds that would've loved to segway too... 

bells

Our very last stop was a perfectly timed trip to Ben's Bells right on University.  They had a table of clay waiting for us to make a bunch of beads that are added to their bells.  They have expanded so much from the days when we would sculpt and glaze in the courtyard.  It's really a wonderful organization. Kindness is their mission, doesn't get better than that?!

life tidbits

Extra teacher conference days off from school meant extra time with Gran and Pop... Storytime (with kids telling stories - which is a good idea in theory), music class with a step board pretend boat, a trip to Ikea, crafting some new presents (painted treasure chest is a hit - thx S fam - and a stitched pirate hat - thx G/P - fun perplexus - thx Lulu - and lotsa Imaginext - thx Family and Legos!) check out that giant ceramic Lego Aiden handmade by Auntie Lizzy!

campus

On our last morning in town, we checked out of the hotel and cruised over to campus for a late breakfast.  It was fun to see the sunny campus spots that are so familiar.  The boys were excited to be in wildcat country.

meet the author

We are Kids Place Live XM radio fans in our cruise mobile.  The van is filled with the top kid's songs, the Story Pirates radio show, and interviews with cool authors and musicians.  This particular afternoon Aiden was excited to hear about a new book series called Origami Yoda and his paper puppet pals.  They are chapter books written about a kid who talks through his finger puppet paper Yoda.  They were taking calls to talk to the author.  Aiden always asks to call and so I pulled into our driveway and made the call (just like I always do to appease him although I never get through).  Believe it our not on my second try, Absolutely Mindy picked up - I threw the phone at Aiden and he told her his name - she put him on hold and thennnn Aiden's cheek accidently turned the phone off somehow!  Ug, Aiden stayed amazingly calm while I called back over and over again, thinking that the excitement was lost - but, by some miracle I got through again!  He waited for his turn to talk and share his idea.  The author claims he gets his best ideas from his fans, so Aiden thought he needed a character called Darth Inkious.

When he got through and introduced himself he was smiling ear to ear.  That giant smile grew wider when he shared his idea and the author went nuts with excitement and called Aiden an inspiration.  Then he asked what his favorite part of the book was and Aiden shared that he hadn't read it yet - they were surprised and said to turn straight around and head to the library or bookstore.  Aiden shared that we were already parked in our driveway. ;).  He said he'd get the books soon though... He hung up and was flying high with excitement.  

He was psyched the next day to go to a local book signing, drawing, origami folding with the author.  We were some of the first people there and my guys were pumped.  Aiden dug into the book while we waited.  Keaton marched around pretending to be Yoda while I tried to keep him quiet.  When Tom arrived with his very distinctive, loud voice, Keaton thought he also needed to be told to use his indoor voice.  Tom really thought Keaton was funny and even took his special request to draw a Yoda - but then when adding his name he ignored Aiden's spelling and pretended his name was Larry.  Every kid became Larry at that point.  

He was pretty funny and even introduced his other books.  The funniest was when he asked the kids what they would do with the power of the 'fake mustache' - some would buy a big house, another would learn to drive, but Aiden said he would get a credit card - ha!  It was pretty fun and he even taught them how to fold their own origami yoda finger puppet.  We left with a new set of signed books.

Here is a link to Aiden describing the fun:

Here is Aiden describing how Tom taught him to make an origami yoda in five folds:

desert walks

Despite the big drives all around town, it was so nice to stay out in the foothills. The sunrise out of our balcony was like "a rainbow rise" and our sunset hike around the property was on a beautiful clear night. (There was a bride and groom there and I had flashbacks to the very first wedding I photographed in Tucson at that same spot.) The mountains really agree with these giddy guys.

mountain

The boys were hyped to climb the big mountain in our monster truck.  So we juiced up at Jamba and started our way up the mountain.  The boys were excited to go higher and higher up the windy mountain and pointed out how the cool cactus disappeared the higher we went. Inspiration point (J and I have many photos up there from back in the day) was uber windy and the gritted teeth smiles were out. The wildfires that went through Mount Lemmon seem like a long time ago now, and the little town is mostly rebuilt. The Cookie Cabin was back with maybe a little less charm (and more unfriendly signs), but we still gobbled some cookies.  

desert brothers

These guys were pretty excited to be on a vacation and it felt like those first few weeks of summer when they love each other and really want to play.