get ready for some (un)organized chaos

i didn't mean for the pictures of my bike to show up first on the post, but that's how it worked out.

okay, so this is my favorite part of the bike. i made the bike shop throw in this seat for free when i bought my bike. i said "listen, i've had 5 kids and i need a really great seat. that's just the way it's got to be." i literally said that. i don't think that's too much to ask, do you? anyway, it worked, and they switched seats for me. and yes, that is a hole in the middle of the seat. it's heaven, i tell you.

this is the rest of the bike. it's very, very fun. i have to make myself not ride it. sometimes i get on it and just ride around the driveway for a bit. i know you all don't care, but thanks for looking anyway.

here are a bunch (okay, more than a bunch) of pictures from our last couple of weeks:

this is gretchen's reading finger. her kindergarten teacher sent it home with her the first day of school. gretchen absolutely loves it. she puts it on her finger to point to the words as she reads them. before she reads anything, it's "wait! i have to get my finger!"

pace and loren have become quite the air guitarists. pace's go-to guitar is a spaghetti noodle box. i'm not sure why.
madeline and gretchen finally had a swim meet! swim team is different here, as it's year-round. the meets are not really in the summer (=rainy season). notice the pouring rain. i think they had fun. we didn't get very many pictures (the rain put a damper on the whole photo op thing), but here are some shots of them lining up and then swimming butterfly (of sorts). gretchen spent a lot of time looking sideways to see what the girls in the other lanes were doing. don't mind gretchy's baggy saggy swimsuit. you wouldn't even believe me if i told you how many suits we have gone through this summer. at least i don't have to buy winter coats, right?
the girls had a "new york fashion show" the other night. loren and i were at the adult meeting of stake conference, and they had some friends over to help babysit/have fun. the kids took the pictures themselves. i like the facial expressions that go along with the new york fashion.
loren's birthday was monday. as you can see, we sang a very nice rendition of "happy birthday".
pace is my rain baby. i didn't even know he was outside in it until i looked out the window and saw him. he'd even had me take off his clothes, but i didn't know that going in the rain was his goal. i just thought he wanted to get undressed (not an unusual thing for him). we get spectacular rain storms here. pace loves it. i like it, too, unless i'm trying to determine if i should get the kids ready for swim team, or if the pool's going to be closed because of thunder/lightening. since it rains pretty much every afternoon, it's always a toss-up.