Welcome to the world, baby boy!

I spent most of yesterday supporting my friends A&S as they labored through the birth of their first baby. I'm so grateful to have been part of their miracle :)

The baby is positively adorable, and the new mom and dad are doing well.

I feel so blessed to do this work with parents. It's such an honor to share in a couple's pregnancy and birth.

did I say love/hate?

about my gym?

I think I'll have to take it back. The fact that it includes membership to the pool makes it totally love/love right now. School hasn't been out for an entire week yet, but I think we've already gotten our money's worth for the year. OK, maybe not quite. But still, we're all having a blast.

Ethan's been a little fish for a while now, but it seems like he's becoming a stronger swimmer every day. He's perfectly content to do the waterslides 50 times in a row, and still begs for "one more slide" when it's time to leave. Noah loves playing the "jumping game", where he leaps with wild abandon from the edge of the pool into our waiting arms. He's getting braver with getting his face wet, and is becoming more comfortable doing supported floating on both his back and belly. He loves the beach-entry side of the pool with it's sprinklers, where we can hang out and splash and watch his brother slide. We've caught up with friends that we haven't seen for months, as well as been able to hang out with friends from school, etc.

I'll have to brave the splashes and bring my camera down to the pool for a few minutes.

All in all, yay for the pool!

i have sons. and a husband who is still a big kid himself.

Sunday morning I'm heading out for a yoga class, leaving the rest of my family hanging out in the back yard.

I return, feeling all happy and supple and blissed out, and what do I find? Why, the Murray Grand Prix has been constructed in our woods. In this case, I think pictures are worth waaay more than a hundred words.

and a close up, because this project is so deserving...

Of course, it's been too miserably hot for them to do too much playing with it. I mean, the boys were fairly wiped out after hauling the rocks around to build the darn thing. But they sure were proud of their handi-work. I'm envisioning many "Piston Cups" being held in our future.

He did what in his cup?

eensie weensie teeny tiny creepy crawlie

My eagle eyed 3 year old spotted this guy in one of my rosemary plants yesterday. This little critter was so tiny, you can't really appreciate his size from the photo - he may have been an inch long, probably less. Noah wasn't sure what it was, and asked, "What's this thing, Mama?". I finally figured out what he was talking about (took a bit longer for my older eyes to spy the mantis among the rosemary stalks) and told him it was a baby praying mantis. He ran off to get his dad and brother to see the baby "commander" -- no idea how he ended up with that one. Ethan ran around the corner of the house asking, "What in the world is Noah talking about?" Despite the nomenclature confusion, we were all spell-bound by this tiny creature. It was so tiny and delicate, and hopped around in the rosemary bush for our admiration.

my yoga date with Kevin...

Our gym. I have a love/hate relationship with it. In general, I'm inherently against the idea of having to *go* somewhere to get exercise, especially when you live in such a beautiful place with tons of outdoor recreation possibilities. But, Kevin and I finally reconciled with the fact that, at this stage in our lives, we not only need reliable, indoor exercise opportunities, but need the childcare aspect of a gym even more.

It costs an arm and a leg, but it is fairly cool. I don't have a lot to compare it with, as far as actual facilities go. But their childcare area is awesome, the staff is caring and attentive, they have two locations, indoor pools for winter swimming, and a really sweet outdoor pool complex that we've gotten to enjoy twice already this summer.

Anyway, this post isn't supposed to be an ad for how wonderful our gym is. Mainly, I'm still glowing from my afternoon rendevous with my husband. No -- get your mind out of the gutter -- it was totally "G" rated. We met up at the ACAC for a lunch time yoga class. It was K's first go at yoga ever, and my first time back in a looong time. The class was great in terms of range and pace, and I left feeling like a happy, loopy, walking rubberband.

So, yay for ACAC, and yay for yoga. I'd love to make this a regular Monday habit, but that may not be in the cards for K's schedule. We'll see how it goes...