Memorial Day

We dare not forget that we are heirs of that first revolution.

-John F. Kennedy

Water fun

Today we took a lengthy trip to our neighborhood splash pad. The weather here in the southeast has been horrible, but we caught a break from the rain this afternoon. The upside was that the park was not crowded.



Gracie was very territorial about the water cannons:





Lauren was a good sport about taking "fire" from Gracie:

Splash from Cathi Lindsey on Vimeo.

Friday's quote

The will of the people is the only legitimate foundation of any government, and to protect its free expression should be our first object.

-Thomas Jefferson

Outtakes

So I have been attempting to figure out the lens that Skip (and the girls) gave me for Mother's Day. It is a 50mm 1.8, and it is manual in nature. While I may tinker with the manual settings on my camera from time to time, it is not an overstatement to say I really have no idea what I am doing in that regard. No idea whatsoever, if truth be told.

But, it is really refreshing to not rely on all of the automatic features, to actually control the end product. Of course, by the time I focus, the shot is sometimes gone, the 3 1/2 year olds have darted away, leaving me to capture an image of the carpet. I still enjoy it, though, and when I do manage to capture a picture that I intended to capture they are much improved.

Some of the outtakes are fun, too. Below are a few of my favorite. While I wouldn't necessarily have these developed, I sort of like them:

Finds

First, I stumbled upon this adorable creature:



at Urban Outfitters via sfgirlbybay.

I think this would be an adorable gift bag for a bottle of champagne, perfect for toasting the arrival of a new baby. Cheers!

Next, I found the below organization chart from Walt Disney Studios, circa 1943:



Via Staple Design. The girls are a smidge young to appreciate the processes of their favorite princess stories, but their nerdy parents find it mildly fascinating.

The news

Skip watches the evening news on the weekend. Recently Gracie took over the remote controls and declared that she was going to watch the news:



...and then she got carried away with all of the new-found power:

3.5

A couple of months ago pictures were taken at school. It took a few weeks for the pictures to return, and then it took a couple of weeks longer for the disc. Long story short, I am just now getting these posted (and mailed).

Fresh

We were feeling healthy this past weekend. We spent some time Saturday touring a local aquatic club and, later on, a gym. The aquatic club was uneventful. However, at the gym, we noticed that we were in store for some drama when there was a fire truck on the scene. As we parked, Skip saw that the glass of a car window had been broken. Not to be deterred, we entered and asked if it would be possible to either have or take a quick tour. Forget the administration of CPR, we wanted to see the pool!

We waited a few minutes, and then they explained that there had been some excitement and would we mind simply walking ourselves around. We are not shy, and had no difficulty whatsoever checking the place out ourselves. We eventually caught up with a super energetic and outgoing employee who helped us complete the tour. As it turns out, she was the engineer of the window breakage. A coworker had inadvertently locked her child in a car, and our tour guide insisted on breakage. "I was gon' get that baby out," she said. Make note: don't lock the children in the car at that gym.

After the tour, we had lunch because watching all those forms of exercise made us really hungry. Then, we stopped by the farmer's market. Delish!

Happy Friday

Friday's quote

"To be able under all circumstances to practice five things constitutes perfect virtue; these five things are gravity, generosity of soul, sincerity, earnestness and kindness."

Confucius

Wedding book

We aren't very wedding-y, and the fact that we have two girls is further evidence of God's sense of humor. We had a tough time making wedding plans and ultimately threw things together once the crunch was really on. We certainly took the event seriously; we simply were more focused on marriage than the wedding.

Ultimately, we were thrilled with how things turned out.

That being said, I'm not made entirely of unfeeling stone, and I can appreciate the beauty and fun of most wedding traditions. I also like unusual twists on standard conventions.

Recently, I read about this idea for a guest book. Check it out.

(I also liked the chair idea.)

The pool

So the pool water was clean and clear for approximately one day -- actually, not even that long because Skip mowed the grass Friday night after I had installed the pool earlier that day.

Since then, I have been working to find the right chemical combination to restore order. Being an ardent fan of bleach, I have more than taken care of this part of the maintenance. In fact, if you were to walk out our basement door, you would likely be able to smell the chlorine in the air. It is so chlorine-y, in fact, that Skip asked, "Did you use more than the recommended amount?"

Of course I did. Who wouldn't?

If the recommended three tablespoons is good, then a full cup (=16 tablespoons) is better. Right?

The real issue has been all of the grass clippings and other unidentifiable matter that the filter doesn't seem to eradicate. I broke down and purchased a skimmer yesterday, you know, the net device. While obsessively fishing out detritus yesterday, I began wondering if a Polaris could be used on a pool this small, proving that we have purchased the highest maintenance children's pool ever invented.

Flyover

Lately, we have been spending most of our mornings outdoors (and much of our afternoons, too). The only brief interruption to our playing is the sound of an airplane passing overhead. We stop, locate the plane and, depending on the size of the plane, exclaim loudly:

AIIIRRRPLAAAAANNNEEE!

We have quite a few throughout the day. Most pass over thousands and thousands of feet in the air (shown above), but we've gotten to know the schedules of the incoming flights and the predictability of their arrival. Skip explained that we live in "flyover country," meaning that a small percentage of planes actually land here.

It suits us just fine.

Weekend update

We kicked off the weekend by..... drumroll..... opening the family pool! We went for a slight upgrade this year. We have had three consecutive years with a relatively low maintenance inflatable pool, seen here. However, this year we upgraded and took the next step up in pool size. I assembled our new baby Friday afternoon. Instead of the "10 minutes" promised (the pool, in fact, did take 10 minutes; the pump, however, took another 35), it took almost an hour from start to finish (set up, etc., etc.). Regardless, it was a big hit.




Saturday, we went to my nephew's wedding. Because I had the honor of some serving duties, I only managed to capture a couple of pics.

My dad's brother, Aaron, was seated behind us. The girls kept an eye on him the whole time (actually they were intrigued by the resemblance).




We also sat next to Hope, the girls' second cousin, and Lauren got a warm embrace!


Our weather was miserable (rainy) all day Sunday. We had to have fun by amusing ourselves. Here are a couple of shots of the girls singing silly songs. Speaking of songs, Gracie came home from preschool Friday singing. She sang and sang the whole time I was making lunch. Finally, the tune took a familiar turn, and I asked, "Gracie, are you singing 'Rock the Boat'?" Indeed she was. Some classics never fade.

Friday's quote

Words are also actions, and actions are a kind of words.

-Ralph Waldo Emerson

Happy Friday

Favorite books

This blog addresses favorite books this week.

We're big readers, although we read less now than before the girls were born. Truthfully, we're still voracious readers, but we find ourselves reading children's books or books relating to parenting.

Some of the girls favorites include:

1) The Gossie & Friends series. These were the first books that the girls were really obsessed with.





2) The classics: "The Wheels on the Bus" and "Old McDonald," are favorites for Gracie and Lauren, respectively.




3) No list would be complete without the requisite Dr. Seuss:




4) We're currently reading all things princess:



When we aren't reading Sleeping Beauty or Snow White for the gazillionith time, we peruse some reading material of our own.

5) Our all-time, undisputed, favorite author is David Foster Wallace. Of his work, "Infinite Jest" and "A Supposedly Fun Thing I'll Never Do Again," are probably my favorites.




Lastly, his 2005 commencement speech, published posthumously (in book form), is worthy of study and adoption ("this is water... this is water") as well:



6) I think the Hemingway versus Steinbeck argument is analogous to the Beatles versus the Stones debate. I side firmly with both Steinbeck and the Beatles.



7) Finally, I have some renewed interest in Mark Twain, probably because I am eager for the girls to enjoy him.



Have a great weekend, and happy reading!