A tribute to Matthew

My sister-in-law, Alice, wrote this wonderful tribute to our "baby".  He just started Kindergarten without even looking back.  I think she really sums up what makes Matthew so wonderful.  If you're interested in what makes him exasperating, you probably just need to watch the blog for some of my stories.

http://frodoseven.blogspot.com/2011/08/celebrate-good-times-special-award.html

Alice comments on his attempt to skate.  This video below is of him skating the very next time that I took him to the rink.  Still wobbly, but he can stay on his feet.

Haircuts

So, we decided to boycott haircuts over the summer.  The boys wanted to grow their hair long, and school requires them to have short hair.  So, they had a couple months to grow it.  Alex's was really driving me crazy, though.  It was in his eyes, covering his ears and a complete mess every day.  I did decide that I liked it on the long side.  But, with school just over a week away, we needed to get their school hair cuts.  I made the mistake of going to a new place, a Hair Cuttery that was along our route of errands today (rather than going to our normal Hair Cuttery).  I was very disappointed.  I asked them to keep their hair on the long side.  I'm not sure Matthew's could be much shorter without giving him a crew cut.  Alex's cut required me to pull out the clippers and scissors to fix it when we got home - never a good sign.  Zack's was OK, although I would have liked it a little longer.  Oh well.  The great thing about hair is that it grows back.

Pranking gone wild

In celebration of Zack and Grace's birthdays, we had a surprise party in the pool.  Grace and Zack were thrown in while still in their jammies (with much resistance from Zack).  Brendan then got his Uncle Dave and knocked him in the pool as well.  Dave told him he would get him back, and I guess Dave and Chris were working on a plan to get Brendan.  They finally decided on a plate full of shaving cream.  Unfortunately, Dave took the opportunity to smash it in Brendan's face without than giving us warning to turn on the video camera.  It was pretty funny, though.  And, Brendan took it like a champ.  As we were preparing to take a picture of the two of them together, Alice gave Brendan the plate to hold.  He snatched the opportunity to smash it in Dave's face.  Again, no video camera.  Then, Brendan got Madeleine (not sure what she had done to deserve that), and he tried unsuccessfully to get Chris.  I have to say that I was impressed with the way they all handled the fun.  It definitely provided us a lot of laughs!

Spinning girl

Here is my very talented niece.  This is 5-year old Lauren, Tara's daughter.  She apparently watched a friend hula hoop and then practiced herself to get this good.  We were all quite impressed.