Budding Model

A good friend of mine and her husband own an optometry business here in town, and when the time came to advertise their new pairs of Ray-Ban youth sunglasses they went first to their own children. Their two gorgeous daughters modeled the girl pairs of sunglasses, but their son - despite being one of the cutest little kiddos on the planet - couldn't model the boy pairs of sunglasses because he's just five months old. Have you ever tried to keep sunglasses on a baby? It doesn't usually go very well, or last very long.

Anyway…these friends asked Will if he would model the boy sunglasses, and me if I would take the photos of him, on behalf of their business. Will and I both agreed, and then we got to work.

First we took a few "clean cut" photos. Neither of us liked these very much though - the parted hair and striped shirt just didn't say Ray-Ban like we'd hoped they would.

So we switched things up a bit - hairstyle, tee-shirt color, and tee-shirt style - and ended up liking this look much better.

I also took a few photos of Will in poses of his choosing. These are his two "go-to" poses these days - he's very zen.

And finally, here are the two pictures our friends chose, and the little photo collage they put together to advertise the sunglasses on their Facebook page.

Perhaps a career in modeling lies ahead for Will...once all those teeth come in.

July Wrap-Up

I'm back!

Today I begin my attempt to get caught up on posting photos and stories from July and August. And on a related note, today I also begin a commitment to spend a little less time here and a little more time on writing opportunities outside of Wiggles and Chasing Roots. I plan to keep posting on Tuesdays and Thursdays, but I'm not going to hold myself to posting new content every single Tuesday and every single Thursday like I did last year. (Sorry Mom!)

So, on to July...

We spent a wonderful July in Wisconsin. I covered our week at the Lodge here, and posted a few of my favorite pics from the month here, but there were still quite a few photos I held onto intending to share them here. Let's get started!

Using his best baseball swing to attack Morgan's birthday piñata.

Hallie made me this beautiful purse out of
painted notebook paper and stretchy string.

Enjoying his Fruit Loops at the Union.

Pound it! Sort of.

Reading at Barnes and Noble.

Enjoying their art table in Grandma's dining room.

Hanging out at Concerts on the Square. 

This chair kept her entertained for two hours.

Playing tag on the road.

King of the fountain.

Working on our survival skills in the (dried up) fountain.

There's still a little Girl Scout in me.

Fang-tastic.

Our for a walk with the girls. Yes, they're wearing swimsuits.

Waiting for the others to catch up.

Nothing like a sprint through the cemetery. Reminds me of our high
school soccer team's "fun runs"…except we weren't wearing swimsuits.

We paused to squirt each other with the spray mister 2000.

Mostly they just wanted to squirt me...

…but eventually they agreed to squirt each other.

We also rang the cemetery bell. It takes the entirety
 of Hallie and Lily's body weights to make the bell
ring, so I got a good upper body workout lifting them
and up and down while they hung from the rope.

It didn't work as well when Hallie insisted
on clutching her purse at the same time.

Teamwork to get the mail in the pouring rain.

Reading books at Madison's new downtown library.

Texas caviar = yum!

The end result of their jelly bean hunt.

"Hot Mess Hallie" 

Trying to fix Grandma and Grandpa's back door on
his birthday. At least he got to wear the birthday hat.

Grandma bought a few new toys in preparation
for our visit. The kids' favorite was called "a box".

They played in it for hours.

I thought about letting them live there.

Consoling Lily (who didn't need consoling) on the helicopter ride.

Aunt Sara and the girls on the Ferris Wheel.

Watching The Little Mermaid.

Visiting "the castle" at Olbrich Gardens.

And a stop at "the tower" as well.

We had to take Clemmy to the vet for her pillow foot/fungus problems. 

She was very, very angry about it.

Will and I got a kick out of the vision sign in the vet's exam room.

More than once Hallie got dirty enough
that she had to ride home in her underwear.

Will and "camping uncle" Jody showing off their
matching toothless grins on the disc golf course.

Pouting on the ground at the Brewers game.

Will left a little note on Grandma and Grandpa's driveway. 

And he drew this cartoon of himself as well. Made Grandma's day.

Every once in a while the girls successfully slept in the same room.

Will fell asleep with his headlight on more than once.

Another day, another pretzel dunked in lemonade at the Union. 

Driving the boat with Grandpa.

Rockin' the new concussion prevention headgear
Grandpa's company is now manufacturing.

Late-night reading together.

Will volunteered with Grandpa at a local fundraiser and
got to wear the same get-up as the rest of the volunteers.

Whew!

A few additional pictures can be seen in these Chasing Roots posts:

Will and Hallie's integration into the Bean Game didn't go exactly as planned.
Our visit to the Olbrich Garden's butterfly exhibit was much scarier than anticipated.
My trip to Nashville had a few ups and downs.
Will is training to become the next American Ninja Warrior.

It's good to be back!