Ivy's wildest dreams come true

Ivy has been begging to go bowling for months, but she couldn't convince the rest of us until a few weeks ago when she conned Sylvan into a Back to School Celebration Day!!

So off we went. Happily!!

Ivy was the score keeper. Natch.

Bowling balls are so stylish nowadays.

Bowling shoes are still ugly (and gross).

Here Nate gives Sylvan a few pointers. 

Because Nate, as everyone knows, is a professional bowler.

When it was all said and done, Sylvan was the winner.....because he got a blister. Everyone knows the winner is the one who worked the hardest, and you know who worked the hardest by how many blisters they have.

I would love to tell you that we had so much fun that my opinion of bowling grew 10 sizes bigger that day, unfortunately, even though we had fun, and I didn't kill anyone when I accidentally flung my ball behind me instead of down the lane that one time, I'm still not a fan of bowling.

Sorry Ivy.

Back to School

Wednesday was the first day back for these three. 

Here's Nate, all set to start his Jr. year. 

This will be Ivy's last year of elementary school. 

Where has the time gone?

Please note, the SILVER sneakers. 

I hope the 6th grade is ready for her.

Eli is now a Jr. High student. 

(Seriously, the time, what happened to it? Didn't this kid just start kindergarten a few days ago?)

I'm happy to report that the first week has pasted mostly without incident or complaints. 

Another summer flies by......

What the heck? Remember when you were a kid and the days seemed to drag on and on and you thought Christmas would NEVER get here? When did that go away? Time is going by so quickly now I hardly know what day it is.

July has been busy for us. 

We tie-dyed. 

(Here's how we did it)

It was super fun and now we all have so many tie-dye shirts that at least one of us is wearing one everyday and we look like a big commune of hippies.  

What must the neighbors think?!

Wesley and Nate went on an awesome trip to Catalina Island. 

I don't have any pictures of their trip, but here they are just before they left. 

Don't they look happy?

Eli turned 13!!!

I'm still adjusting to the idea. 

He had some friends over to celebrate and he made them sleep on the trampoline to prove their loyalty.

It got chilly during the night. I think it was a frigid low of 95.

Of course, we went to see Harry Potter. 

And Ivy stood next to this giant Smurf thingamajiggy.

(What the heck could a Smurf movie possibly be about? 

Or do movies not have to be about something anymore? )

Eli and Ivy finished another successful season of swim and dive team.

Sadly I only remembered to take the camera to ONE dive meet and ZERO swim meets. 

Here's Eli at the City Championship meet where he was awarded 6th place. 

And here he is with his coach Rusty.

It has been a busy month and we're looking forward to taking it easy for a couple of weeks before school starts. 

And then we blew some stuff up

When I was a girl in Kentucky we made our own moonshine fireworks. Living here in the dry, forest fire prone desert our kids have always had to settle for those silly professional fireworks shows.

No more!! 

Recently common sense has been tossed aside and it is now legal to purchase fireworks here, some cities even let you light them.

It's true.

So, like any good father, Sylvan set out to find some really good ones.

(Some of those are smoke bombs. I don't get smoke bombs. Can someone please explain the thrill of colored smoke to me?)

It was great fun. 

Please note the torch in Eli's hand. 

Not only did we let our almost 13 year old light the pyrotechnics, we let him do it with a torch. 

When I say we, I mean Sylvan.

The grand finale

In order to fully experience this video of "The Little Big Show", I suggest you turn off all of the lights and sit in a 107 degree room.

Untitled from Sue Lunt on Vimeo.

I don't even want to know how long the Big Big Show lasts. 

In the end, no one suffered loss of limb or eyeball, so we're calling it an Independence Day success.

A love story

I'm always trying to get my nephew Brandon to express his emotions.

For example, I know that I'm one of his favorite aunts, but he's a private boy who holds everything inside his tender little heart, and he would never want his other aunts to feel bad, so he just says things like,

"I love you all equally Aunt Sue." 

He so sensitive and kind.

About a month ago he was at our house and he noticed this giant lollipop (that has been hanging around for about a year and a half), if there's one thing Brandon loves almost as much as he loves me, it's candy.

"Is this for sale?" he asked. (Because, what? I'm running a candy store up in here? Sheesh.)

That's when I had a brilliant idea.

"Why yes nephew, it is for sale." 

We chatted, a deal was struck, and a few minutes later Brandon "found" me in a room filled with witnesses, where he hugged me, professed his love and my favorite status, then KISSED me on the cheek.

Proving that everyone has their price.

We make amazing things around here.

A request has been made that I post these pictures in a post of their very own so that you may all gaze in awe at the wonder of the block maze.

That's right, you are looking at a maze, made of blocks, by Ivy.

As you can see the details are impressive.

She would be happy to make one for you too. 

Just give her a call.

There were about 15 more pictures of the block maze, but we edited it down to these, the best ones.

You're welcome.