Marley's "fall" photo shoot

OK,so if we purchase the kids' school pictures in the fall and spring when they are taken, and we buy enough to send off to grandparents, aunts & uncles, as well as a few for here at home . . . it seriously ends up costing about $250/year. Half the time, the kids look stiff and miserable in the pictures, and are posed in front of backdrops that should be named "Radioactive Red" "Plutonium Purple" and "Gosh-I've-never-seen-this-color-in-nature Green". Awful, unnatural colors--uncomfortable kids with glued-on smiles. I just can't stomach shelling out so much dough for pictures that I usually don't love. I'm not one to toot my own horn, but I'm pretty good with ye olde camera, so this year, I'm doing the kids pics myself. Marley and I did her "fall" (it's technically fall, but 91 degrees outside) photos today. Write me a comment to vote for your favorites!
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I have my favorites, but I happen to have the inside scoop on her little personality, so I know which ones I think show her true Marley-ness. I can't wait to see which ones other people like best!

Seen and Heard at the Huffman House This Week. . .

I swear, the stuff my kids come up with is funny enough to (almost) make up for all of their collective rotten-ness.

Casey, upon being asked if he made any new friends in kindergarten: "Yes, but not ______, I don't know what he eats but his 'foats' smell really bad."

Keller, after spending 10 minutes on the toilet, yells out grenade thrower style: "Fire in the hole!"

Keller, while contemplating body temperature: "Why don't people just pee in their socks if they want to warm up?"

Keller, while the kids and I played a torturous game of doctor, where I was the unwilling patient: "What appears to be the problem, miss?"
Me: "I get headaches when my kids are too noisy."
Keller: "Oh, and you appear to have a bad case of wrinkles."

Later in the same 'game'. . . Keller: "Miss, you are so sick that you might slip into a colon."

After I explained the difference between a colon and a coma. . .Keller: "Now that you mention it, you seem to have a swollen gluteus maximus."

Casey, after watching Zathura: "Hi, bee-ox!" (bi-atch)
Me: "Where did you hear that?"
Casey: "Dora."

Keller, to Casey, after watching Zathura: "You're such a ditch" He missed the mark by a few letters (drop the 'tch' and add a 'ck'), but he doesn't know that, so I sent him to time out anyway.

That concludes my parental warning on the movie Zathura ;)

Two days ago, Keller wrote me a note after getting in trouble. He is an amazing reader, but his spelling is truly atrocious. See if you can figure out his message:
"dear mom, i cod ov mad a bettr disison. i just want you to no i wil aways be wiht you."

Marley had her own little funny today. She spilled crackers all over the place and I told her to clean up her mess. She shoved one in her mouth and said, "I did clean up." in her sassiest speech-delayed tone of voice.

And I'll conclude with my favorite "out of the mouths of babes" for the week . . .

Last night I was helping Keller and Casey straighten their room (ok, really, I was yelling and stomping and having a fit about their messes). I asked, "And why do I keep stepping on pieces of scotch tape?"
Keller: "Oh, that's from when I waxed myself."

Casey's initial foray into organized sports

Casey had his first soccer game on Saturday, and the verdict is. . . he doesn't like it! Dave and I were suffering some painful deja vu. It was exactly like when Keller played soccer the spring before he started kindergarten. Coach says, "We can only have four kids on the field, who wants to sit out?" Casey's hand flies up in the air. When it is his turn to sub in, he moans and groans, argues, and grudgingly goes on the field. Where he is actually pretty good. Until he decides he's ready to take a break again, which is about 2 minutes into the quarter. We had to chase him out onto the field every few minutes throughout the game. He's a good hustler on the field, got some great kicks in, and other than one time, the kicks were actually in the right direction (which is more than I can say for many of the other kids on the field!!). He summed up his feelings after the game by saying, "It was okay but I'm not going back to do that any more." Uh. Yes you are. I'm sure he'll enjoy it more when the weather is cooler, he's gotten the hang of it a bit more, and we devise some sort of end-of-game bribe to keep him on the field ; )

And they're off! Back to school they go : )

I know that I am grossly overdue for a blog post, but we've had so much going on around here with end of summer, Marley's big surgery, etc. so this smattering of photos will have to do the trick!

Keller and Casey started school yesterday. Keller is a big 2nd grader and Casey is in Kindergarten. I loved seeing them walk into school together--Keller helped Casey find his classroom both days so far.



Marley was finally feeling well enough that we felt comfortable sending her to school this morning. The awesome teachers and assistants in her program ooh-ed and ahh-ed over her when we showed up today. She was eating up all of the attention!



The weekend before last, we went hiking at Shenandoah National Park. We ambitiously set out on a short-ish hike before I took the time to read about the elevation change. Oops! Fortunately, all three Little Huffmans are troopers in the great outdoors, and we were rewarded with amazing views from the top. Keller & Casey choose to hike barefoot on most occasions, and that day was no exception ;)







I bravely (stupidly?) took the three kiddos to the zoo on a hot day at the end of August. We walked for 3 1/2 hours straight, I bought the kids their first cotton candy, and we all shared a fresh-squeezed lemonade. The monkeys were well-behaved. . . all 3 of them.