chess club picture day

today was photo day for school groups and madelyn had her first "official" chess club photo taken. i only wish we could have talked her into chess club sooner. she has enjoyed it so much! love.

preschool pictures

i really wish i had saved the letter from the preschool. these are the second round of pictures. the first, with a different company, were far superior but so many parents complained about the number of poses (too few) and less than desirable customer service experiences that the school returned our payments and hired another company.

the second photo day was forgotten by me. like, we were already in the garage to leave when i remembered. so i quickly had the boys strip while i ironed their shirts. somehow, we still made it to school on time and presentable. that is, until i got these proofs that scream "my mom cuts my hair."

i was so disappointed that i didn't steal a scan of the original photos from the first company. it was before this unfortunate haircut. sigh. love.

madelyn's picture day

my fingers are crossed that her school picture will look anything even close to this! i don't think i have ever really posted her actual school picture (but now i want to go back and look...) because it is always some sort of crazy smile that i can't believe any photographer would even consider to be in the realm of 'normal.'

she is so lovely that i am not sure how things go so awry every year... sigh. love.

mason's kindergarten picture

school pictures don't get much better than this... love.

picture day

mason wanted to wear his 'first day of school' outfit for picture day. so he did. love.

more derek and ashley wedding pictures - the 'official' ones

we were able to access the 'official' wedding pictures - and there are some great ones! love.

storm waters made for some great photos.

i lucked out by being dressed when i went to pick madelyn up from getting ready with the wedding party and got a few pictures with her.

i thanked the photographer for getting nice a close up on my squinty eyes.

last softball practice

poor madelyn is going to miss her last softball game (a rain make up) and her end of season celebration. so even though it looked like practice would get rained out too (this has been a really rough season weather-wise), we went to the fields. while we were waiting for practice to begin, i realized that maddux and madelyn were both wearing cereal hats from grandma.

they did have to stop practice for about 15 minutes while it rained. her coach took that time to distribute the team pictures (i sure am glad that we didn't miss this one!).

manning couldn't find his favorite (aka "jake shoes") before we left so i grabbed his rain boots as he screamed barefoot to the car. but once we got there, he was very verbal about how he was the only one who could jump in the puddles. i was so happy that his attitude had improved so dramatically. love.

sports picture day

of course both teams would have pictures on the same day. the boys had an early game so i had to take madelyn (and manning) to swimming lessons while daddy was left to make sure the boys look presentable for their pictures. we were able to meet up with them just as the game was getting started. 

and then it was madelyn's turn. she hadn't gotten her team visor yet, and i wasn't sure if she was going to today, so we went for some braids just in case.

in her complete uniform

the pictures were quite a bit before game time, so the boys kept busy with a deck of cards (the kids' newest favorite).

and we took pictures of their cuteness to pass the time...

mason has become quite the 'gammer'

update: here are some of the boys' pictures...

we got pictures of the two boys together but they retouched mason's eyes to the point where even he noticed that they look weird (aka super creepy!). we are going to retakes next week. love.