Ahem

**Some weird internet troll left a dirty comment on a post from many years ago and so I logged on to remove it and found this still in the draft folder. I think it is from August of 2015. That's terrible. But alas, better late than never, right?**

Hi there.  Remember us? No? That's okay, I don't blame you.  It has been a hectic past few months and somehow I don't think the tide is going to turn anytime soon.  I am back at work full-time with an insanely ridiculous commute.  Kids are enjoying their summer--Lou is at his same school and Norah is doing a mix-up of various different camps.  We've had lots of awesome visitors (which deserves it's own post), and fun adventures.  I am at a 5 day work conference in San Antonio right now which is the only reason any of these photos have been uploaded (and it's the last night so who knows how far I will actually get).

For whatever reason these uploaded in a different order than I selected, but there's no way I have the fortitude to go through and fix them at this point.

So, here we go:

Father's Day.  I have no recollection of what we actually did for Father's Day but I think it involved beer, bacon, and swimming.  The kids did their annual D-A-D letters.  Someone needs a haircut.

Then I attempted to recreate some of Louis' newborn photos, with hilarious (in my opinion) results. All legs and arms, these two.

Back in May (see what I mean about the stupid upload?), Norah and I did a school project together that involved a presentation to the class about her heritage.  We learned a ton about Dutch heritage and made homemade (and gluten free!) stroopwafels to share with her class.  We made the batter and then borrowed a neighbors thin waffle cone maker.  The tricky part is that you have to slice the waffle as soon as it comes off the griddle because if you wait until it cools you can't slice it (so very thin).  I fully burned off all my fingerprints slicing those bad boys.  Once sliced you plop some delicious homemade caramel concoction and then put the waffle back together as a delightful cookie.

Norah picked her favorite facts about the Netherlands for the poster and then we found some common phrases to translate to Dutch.  When we did our presentation, she wore her authentic dress from Holland and we passed around her wooden shoes (they are too small for her to actually wear). We were a huge hit.

This guy loves his sister (most of the time), but loves going to the grocery store without her because it means he gets to eat some gluten.

Just a super happy kid.

Who pretty much sucks at eating vegetables these days. She will however, eat as much salad as we can give her. She likes all the good stuff, like kale.

She is also now the designated scrambled egg maker.  She does it all, from cracking the eggs to soaking the pan. I don't eat scrambled eggs (a more disgusting food there never was), but she has rave reviews from the rest of them.

Friday night is pizza night and sometimes it is just easier to go out (all the dietary restrictions).  These two make good dates.

Norah finished another season of ballet and had her annual recital.  I am not sure if she'll continue with it next year--she's actually remarkably good (BVZ takes her on Saturdays so I was clueless what she was capable of until the recital), but she's also doing soccer so we'll see.  I can only handle so much scheduling.

There was a time I resisted giving them the beaters to lick because 1) gross, and 2) salmonella.  I'm over that time.

Norah sucks at bike riding.  We finally figured out the bike she was riding was way too small and upgraded her.  Now she sucks less.  She's not great at it, but that's partly our fault for being tired (and a little lazy) parents and the weather sucking most of all (rained for like 6 weeks straight and was then one kabillion degrees).  She needs practice and some confidence and I know she'll get there.

Because Lou has the most awesome school ever he got to beat on a ninja turtle pinata.

Mother's Day (see, again with the weird photo ordering).  Norah and BVZ worked for weeks and weeks on their secret project.  It is a treasure box built from scratch.  It's awesome.  It will also for sure give me tetanus because of all the exposed screws, but that just makes me love it even more.

Mother's Day swim party and cousin love.

Norah finished Daisy Scouts with me as her fearless leader. We are moving up to Brownies. Not sure how I am going to be able to handle that without my head exploding but we are sure gonna try.

Kiki officially got her PhD a bit ago, but this May was the first chance she had to "walk" in the University's graduation. It was a super big deal and so Amy, Bubby, and myself went out there to celebrate with her. On our flight out there we ended up in the very (very) back row of the plane. You know, that row right next to the crapper that doesn't recline? Yeah, that's where we were.

Lou continues to rock it out at Spanish school and participated in the annual arts fair.

Sometimes we still sneak away for a night out. Sometimes.

First grade came to an end with the student led conference. Norah continues to be an academic superstar and all around amazing kid.

And summer begins.