Nikon pictures. Finally.

Okay you guys.  I have a shit load of photos to share with you.  65 to be exact.  The thing is, my camera has not been communicating with my computer, so I have been waiting and waiting to upload all the pictures I have been taking with my real camera until the new USB cord I ordered from Amazon finally got here. 2 whole days.  But we've had a lot of events that I have been procrastinating blogging about, so most of these pictures are WEEKS old. 

It has been especially annoying because I just bought a new camera cord last month when we had the same problem.  This time, I got an SD reader too for back up.  So hopefully no more delays.

Let's start with the totally awesome football stadium tour that Harry's soccer team got to go on.  The parents who coach and manage the team bought it in the same preschool silent auction that we debauched a couple of months ago.  The kids LOVED it.  Dorothy and I stayed home because nap.  

 Up next, more pictures of Harry's tremendously fun laser tag party.  17 kids.  1 really loud party coordinator.  5 pizzas.  1 Bears cake.  2 betrayed babies home with a sitter.  And a dad who got his ass kicked by a bunch of 8 and 9 year-olds.  Third graders are the funnest.

 2 more random shots of the Coopernator on his last day of preschool.  He has been so adorable at school this year-- so serious and interested in his routine and proud that he knows all of the pieces of his day.  He saw his friend Emma at the pool the other day and almost died of happiness, and we have plans to meet up with his friend Jackson when he gets home from vacation.  It;s all just too adorable.  And then!  In September, Cooper and Dorothy BOTH go to preschool for the same 10 hours a week.  I am so excited!  I mean, they are so excited!

Ben took Jack on the annual Cave of the Mounds first grade field trip, obvi, because I am WAY too claustrophobic.

I seriously love Jack's unsettling footwear choices.

 One of the little girls in Ben's group kept holding his hand because she was freaked out, and I feel her pain.  But Ben and Jack came home with a million cave factoids.

 And then, suddenly, the big boys had their last day of school.

At dismissal, the teachers always blast music and dance and blow bubbles, and I always choke up a little because it is so sweet.  I was so happy to see my friends with tears in their eyes, too.  But it rained, spoiling our plans for a park picnic, an the teachers moved the celebration inside.

He's an official second grader!

We moved the celebration inside, too.

 It was kind of rough because we had evening guests, too, so I was champagne drunk by 11:30, hungover by 4, and then nighttime drunk playing euchre at 9.  Summer is hard.

On Friday, Dorothy had her Little Gym show, which was the CUTEST and a bit of a sunrise/sunset moment for me.  I have been taking a kid to the Little Gym since February of 2007, when Harry was 8 months old, and I think this was my last semester of parent-child classes.  Dorothy has 3 mornings of preschool next year, so I think we will skip the fall semester and enroll her i a dance class when she is 3 in the spring and can take class without me.  It was a bittersweet class-- so fun because she loves the gym so much and Ben and the boys came, too, to cheer her on, but also sad because even though I act too cool, I will miss the Big! Red! Mat!  If you live near a Little Gym, I cannot recommend it enough.

 Harry genuinely enjoyed ball and bubble time, and Ben and I almost cried because it was so sweet and we remembered his baby classes, of course.

 As we were leaving, Harry looked at the pictures of Little Gym babies on the wall and was like "Wouldn't it be funny if Dorothy's picture was up there?"  And I was like, "Dude, it totally is.  Dorothy's the baby in the blue shirt."  And then she was all. "That's me?"  And it IS!

Today, Harry's cousins and grandparents came to town to celebrate his 9th birthday (my parents are in New York with my brother-- I didn't just neglect to take their pictures). We planned to go to the pool, but it was 65 and raining.  So.

 Obviously, it was a totally classy party.

 With lots of basketball.

 Dorothy's favorite thing is to be swung like this, but this swing was clearly EPIC.

 Ben's parents are cleaning out their storage area, and they brought lots of Benmorabilia like this drama letterman's jacket.

 Okay, guys.  We're all caught up.  I gotta wrap some presents.