Bus stop

Yesterday was Kira's first day of second grade, and today was her first day to ride a school bus to school. You can't imagine how much excitement that generated! Here she is with her friend Abbi, Abbi's brother Austin, and other neighborhood children.

She got on that bus so fast, I was lucky to get a shot of the back of her pink backpack as she climbed aboard!

Band practice

I took these from the car this afternoon. Hot, hot, hot out there! It'll be interesting to see their performances from football stands in another ten days or so.

My resident critter

If you look carefully (or click on the picture to "biggify" and see better), you can see the toad that has taken residence inside that drainpipe. He is just sitting on top of the black drain, just at the left of the downspout.

He loves it there, I guess. Whenever it has rained a lot - and we've had PLENTY of rain this summer and are due for some more - he sits in that drainpipe and croaks and croaks!

He's very noisy, especially at night or just after a downpour!

Kira - so much fun!

On a day when going to get big brother Austen a haircut was NOT high on Kira's list of fun things to do, she made some fun for herself anyway. She built the tallest Lego tower she had ever done -- right there in the waiting room. She had a good time even though she didn't want to go in the first place!!


Then there were her swimming lessons, and she has really improved, especially her backstroke.