No Balks

I was brushing Sarah's hair this morning, and she was stretching and wiggling her hands. Charlie was sitting near us.

C: Sarah, why are you making those weird hand signals?
Me: Maybe she wants you to throw a curve ball.
C: I can't throw a curve ball.
Me: Why not?
C: Because I don't know how. Maybe she wants me to throw a balk pitch.
Me: That doesn't make any sense. Why would she want you to balk?
C: No, not to balk. To throw my balk pitch. You know, I go like this (makes chicken arms) "Bok bok," to distract the batter, and then while he's laughing I throw my fast ball and I strike him out!

Plan B

Allison: When I'm a grown-up, who can I marry?

Me: Well you get to decide that yourself, when you're a grown-up. And it's probably someone you don't even know yet.

Allison: Well, I think I want to marry Uncle John.

Me: That's sweet, but you can't. He's already married.

Sarah: Plus, he's too old.

Allison: OK. Then I think I'll marry the dogs.

Holy Guacamole!

We were at a pool party this afternoon, and it was really hot. I was holding David, and he asked me for a drink. I walked into the clubhouse, carrying David. He said to me, "Holy guacamole, it's hot out here!"

Our New Cousin Mallory

We were so excited to hear about the birth of our new cousin, Mallory Caroline Hanlon. She is adorable.

When we first told Allison she said, "Oh! Can we go see Auntie Caroline in the hospital tonight?

The second time we talked about it, she got worried and said, "Does this mean we can't see Sydney anymore?"

"No," I told her. "It just means that Sydney is a big sister, like you. She has a little brother Jack, and a new baby sister. Do you know what her name is?"

David: "His name is, my friend Jack!"

This morning at Mass, during the Prayers of the Faithful at the Children's Liturgy, Allison raised her hand and had all the children pray for our new baby cousin.

We can't wait to meet Mallory!

Back to School!

Today was the first day of school. Charlie started third grade, and Sarah started first. They had a great day and are very excited about their teachers and their classes this year.

This weekend, Sarah asked, "Why does everyone keep asking me what I'm going to wear on the first day of school? Like, why does it matter what I wear?"

Yesterday I set out clothes for them, but told them they were only suggestions, and they could decide for themselves what they wanted to wear. Sarah went with my suggestion, but Charlie neatly replaced the outfit I'd laid out, and pulled out a Braves T-shirt.

Me: "So I see you decided to wear something else."

C: "Yeah. What you picked out is really a golf outfit, not a school outfit."

Me: "Well, I think it would look really handsome for your first day of school."

C: "But Mommy, you don't want to look handsome on your first day of school. You want to look cool."

Allison and Emily

Allison and her dolly Emily wore matching dresses to church this morning - they were adorable! (And for the record, Allison's mother actually bought these dresses at Parisian - I couldn't resist the cute sundress that came with a doll dress!)


She also looked so sweet in her dress-up clothes as a bride. She was very specific about how she wanted the veil. In another 25 years she will be ready to coach her daddy on walking her down the aisle.

Cetennial Olympic Park

On Friday the children came to work with Mommy. They helped a lot, and made some beautiful posters. Then we had a really fun lunch in the cafeteria -- their favorite part is the Icee machine with all different flavors.


In the afternoon, we went to Centennial Olympic Park and played in the fountains. It was 103 degrees, so they were happy to cool off. David wanted no part of the fountains, but he had a rainbow popsicle to beat the heat.

Daddy had the day off and got to play golf. What a great day!

Slumber Parties Galore

To celebrate the last week of summer vacation, one night last week, we had some really fun slumber parties!

Sarah invited her friends Alice and Samantha to spend the night:

Samantha's sister Ellie, invited Allison for her first spend-the-night party:

And the boys got in on the action. David slept in a big boy bed for the first time, and had a slumber party with Charlie in the bunk beds:

I'm David

David walked upstairs carrying Ramona the Brave.

D: "I'm on Chapter Three, Mommy!"
Me: "Oh, that's great. You're such a big boy."
D: "I'm not a big boy. I'm David! Remember, Mommy?"

Family Bike Ride

Friday afternoon we took advantage of my summer work schedule and went for a family bike ride on a bike trail across town.

We rented a Burley bike trailer, and Bryant towed Allison and David. Charlie and Sarah did great. We rode 8.2 miles and the kids were pretty worn out by the end, especially given the heat of the afternoon.

Allison was disappointed at first when she heard she wasn't going to actually ride her bike, but once she climbed into her chariot she was pleased.

Early in the ride, Sarah and I were chattering as we rode far behind Bryant, Allison, David, and Charlie. Sarah said, "I wonder how the little ones are doing."

"Oh, I'm sure they're enjoying it. As soon as they passed us in that little Burley, both of them yelled to me, 'Mommy, this is so fun!' "

Sarah laughed. "Just thinking about them is cute!"

Dinner with the Mackeys

Dinnertime chatter from Wednesday evening...

Allison: So what should we talk about?
David: Baseball camp!
Sarah: Mommy, I had art camp today and we did this really cool thing where we took these, um, things, and we kinda like, turned them into these other things. I can't wait for you to come to the art show tomorrow and see all the cool stuff I made.

Allison (interrupting): So what should we talk about?

David: Baseball camp!

Sarah: ... and then after camp we went to see Dr. Barfield - oh and guess what color lollipop I got?

Allison: Guess what color my lollipop was!
Mommy: Red? Blue? Purple? Yellow? Green? Orange? I give up.
Allison and Sarah: Pink!
Sarah: And Charlie and David got green ones. Oh, and Mommy? After we left Dr. Barfield's office ... [continues]
Charlie: Mommy? I'm going to be doing a fantasy baseball league and I already know who I'm going to put in it.
Mommy: Cool!
Daddy: I can help you set that up if you want, Charlie.
Charlie: Thanks. I want to work on it tonight.
Sarah: [still chattering in the background, encouraged by occasional smiles and eye contact from Mommy]
Allison: Mommy, really what should we talk about?
Mommy: You.
Allison (smiling): Me? What about me?
Mommy: I want to hear about your day.
Allison: Well, first of all my fingers were sticky from my lollipop. Second of all, when we got home I washed all the sticky off my hands. And third of all, I didn't have a nap today!
David: I'm going to baseball camp.

Farewell, Junhyung

Charlie had a great night out with his friends Junhyung and Liam before Junhyung moved to Illinois with his family. Bryant took the three boys to the Braves game and they had a blast. Then the boys had a slumber party and stayed up really late.

After a pancake breakfast and the exchange of email addresses, we said goodbye for now. We will miss you, Junhyung!