The kids

One night when Dad was taking pictures of Evelyn in her softball uniform, Jilly wanted in on the action. She wants to play softball now too, just like Evelyn. We're probably going to buy baseball gloves for her and Gordon, so they can practice alongside Evelyn. 

This is Jilly's bed "set-up." It's been like this since she got her Littlest Pet Shop toys for her birthday last fall. All of her precious things are on the bed somewhere, and she gets quite upset when Gordon or some other unauthorized individual begins re-arranging or cleaning (ahem) this stuff up. She's got about half of her mattress to sleep on. She's finally excited about going to kindergarten this fall, telling me last week that she wishes she could go now. The other thing of note is the way she pronounces R2-D2 from Star Wars. "Ar-tar-dee-too." I think she's corrected it recently, but every time I think of this I smile.

 Evelyn is the softball girl and is really enjoying it. She's improved quite a bit since she started and was really bummed that her game yesterday was cancelled due to rain. She worries about being injured "for the big game." I predict we'll be doing this again next year.

 Here is some of Evelyn's art work. She likes to draw and write letters and lists of things. I can usually count them as homework. She's a diligent student thus far. 

 Some pictures from her first game. The games are about learning skills, so the entire lineup will hit each time they are up to bat and there are no outs. The score for the first game was 33-33, the Mighty Mermaids vs. the Banana Splits. 

 Gordon and his buddy dressed up Toy Story style. Sorry for the bad back-lighting.

Taking a nap one afternoon (rare these days) when they were both feeling under the weather. Ben loves it when Gordon will snuggle up next to him to sleep. 

 Gordon helping out during an FHE puppet show. 

 So who's heard of a show on National Geographic about extreme emergency preppers? I hadn't, until last night when I came back from the gym to see it on the TV and my kids ripping the couches apart and constructing a shelter. Ben finds the show fascinating, in part because the people on the show structure their whole life around this notion of prepping.

The episode that was on was about a guy in Colorado who had invested more than $300,000 in a mountainside bunker 12 hours from his house. He's preparing for what he believes is an impending shift of the earth's poles, which, of course, would cause a lot of grief. The show really struck a chord with my kids, they've rebuilt their "shelter" today. 

 Random shot from Ben. We've been able to see some really bright stars recently, which thanks to an app, we've figured out are planets. The only downside to the app is the fact that we can also see all the stars we're missing due to the light pollution here. When we were in McCall, Idaho last summer, there was no light pollution and Ben and I went outside at midnight to check out the moon-less night sky. It was amazing. 

 We've got church at 9 am this year, which means we have the whole afternoon to relax and find ways to keep the kids busy. This is a temple they built one afternoon, complete with a petting zoo in the back (the rock and tree area) and a place for you to pose for pictures. I'm surprised Gordon didn't knock it down 1/4 of the way into construction.