Summer, Part II

After a fantastic trip visiting family all over the East Coast, we came home to harvest this beauties in our yard.  They turned into some rather tasty treats.

                         

   

 

                                      

Fourth of July was a blast.  The kids went to the local parade through the Square, then we all went out to the Grove for games, food & fireworks.  Many fish faces were made.  I'm not sure why...

Also, crazy monster faces:

 

 

During the first few minutes of fireworks, Lily covered both her eyes and ears (with my help).  Then, she decided covering her ears would suffice.  By the last half, she actually managed to enjoy the full audiovisual experience for the first time.  

This tasty ginger ale float has nothing to do with patriotism, but it's what we had in the house, and it was delicious.  I think that's enough reason to try to make it a Fourth of July tradition, right?

Other summer adventures included swim lessons for Will...he was not always as cheerful as in this particular shot, but he made a ton of progress!  He can now swim underwater, jump into 5 foot water, and swim across the pool.  Future hurdles include jumping into deeper water, floating on his back and learning not to hold his nose underwater.
 

 We also tested out camping for the very first time with kids.  So as not to overwhelm ourselves, we picked a nice spot in the back yard.

 

They did a great job!  We made s'mores, looked at stars and made shadow puppets inside the tent. 

 

In July, we attended the Oxford Blues Festival, which was a blast in spite of the heat.  Lily practiced her air guitar, and they both found some friends to play with on the lawn.  Here's them reveling in the magnificent art (read: air conditioning) at the University Museum where the Festival was held.

I've also been educating the kids on William Faulkner bit by bit.  We sometimes chat with his statue on the Square, and we finally checked out his grave at the cemetery.  Just in case you're wondering, my children were not the ones who placed the whiskey bottle on Faulkner's grave.

 

Finally, what blog post would be complete without random pictures of my kids doing adult-looking things?  Here's Will practicing his Peter Gibbons "Damn it feels good to be a gansta" look, and Lily being a nerdy, hipster librarian.  I have no idea where she gets that, except that maybe the ether of Athens filtered into her brain while in utero. 

Lily's also been asking what it means to be a princess, so I'm trying to educate her on that as well. 

Just yesterday, I tried to describe to her how tortuously uncomfortable glass slippers would be, but she insists that Cinderella's shoes were really plastic. On a side note, does anyone know where I can borrow some evil step-family members?  I'm really trying to give her a full picture of princess life here...

So, that's about it for summer.  Next up: Fall, Part I!  

Bored yet?

Summer, Part I

It's been a long time coming, but here are some highlights from our summer.  I'll keep the commentary minimal, as I know we all just want pictures of these cuties :)

Yay, summer!

Yay, fire!

Why is it still so entertaining to take pictures of our kids sleeping in the car?  This is on the drive to...somewhere.  Georgia? South Carolina? Virginia? 

 

Guess who's winning this game?

   

 This is how we spent most of our time at Nana & Pop's place...

 But also a little of this:

 

Feral got star treatment while we traveled.

 

So great to see cousins & celebrate Julia's first birthday!

 

Popsicles on UGA's North Campus...

with precious old friends.

 

I showed Will & Lily where Daddy used to sing songs and try to win Mommy's heart :)

  

Zoo Atlanta with more special friends!

  

Seriously, it never gets old.  We consider ourselves SO fortunate to have kids that travel this well!

Quick catch-up...

Disclaimer:  If you've known me for very long, you know how (un)likely it is that I will still be posting on this blog two weeks from now.  Still, better to try and fail than never to try at all, right?  And I'm hoping that by making this a joint blog, my better half with fill in the gaps caused by my own procrastination and general laziness busyness (which I will, of course, blame on my children, or possibly even on said better half).

So, here goes!  A "brief" update on the Life of the Grems:

1) We live in Mississippi now!  Hopefully you're all aware of that one, since we've been here nearly a year.  Oxford is a charming and sometimes...interesting...place to live.  We've met some great people and are settling in pretty well.  Be cautious if you visit, though.  As Darren warns, "Don't stand still too long--you might get monogrammed."

2) Will is wrapping up his first year of kindergarten and continues to blow our minds with his academic prowess.

Warning: do not engage in Space Trivia games with this one.  Trust me, he knows more than you do.

3) Lily has spent most of this semester chilling with her BFF Anorah, who is as much of a character as Lily herself.  More incriminating photos to follow.

4) Darren is in the very last absolutely final stages of writing his manuscript.  He's hoping to ship that sucker out to Oxford University Press next week.  Thank goodness.  This also means he's working some late nights this week, hence my spur-of-the-moment decision to revisit the world of blogging.

5) I took up a new job as a part-time ELL tutor at Will's elementary school.  It is a wonderfully challenging job, as it involves a lot of high-energy five year-olds and a lot of talking on the phone in Spanish.  For all you introverts out there, you can imagine the awesomeness of talking on the phone in a second language regularly...but knowing how meaningful it can be to Spanish-speaking parents has helped me get past my phone aversion...at least a little bit.

6) Also, I started running?  While I wouldn't dare let anyone take my picture after running my first 5K last weekend, here's my bib for proof:

I think it was the first enjoyable run I've ever had. Perk of being in my thirties now? We'll see how long this lasts...

7) We're planning a major trip back east this summer.  We'll try to keep folks posted as the plan develops, but it looks like we'll be spending a good bit of June in Rock Hill, SC, with shorter trips to Atlanta and Virginia if the scheduling works out.  We're really looking forward to spending some quality time with the family and friends we've been missing!

That's all for now.  (Possibly for the next couple years, if my past blogging habits are predictive of future performance....)