Maya and Erica swinging in the backyard.

Maya is attending camp at the Museum of Science and brought home this molecule today. She has named it “tricubic”.

Erica made an absolutely delicious lasagna for the family this evening. Nicolai has officially graduated to a normal eater and Maya has secured the picky eater crown.

It is fun to watch the boys play soccer with each other. This week they have been in the backyard every evening kicking the ball around. What’s really amazing is that there have been no fights.

Maya stayed up late last night and this morning is looking rather tired.

Mother and daughter sampling the birthday pie. We adjusted Jeanine’s crutches to the proper length and she is starting to move about nicely. Everyone has played with the crutches and all have a new appreciation for how adept Nicolai is and how much extra energy it takes to use them.

Apparently his wishes will be coming true this year.

Even though the official day was yesterday, we celebrated Kyle’s birthday today. He requested Chinese takeout (in consideration of his mother’s healing foot) and a chocolate peanut butter pie (Jeanine prepared it before her surgery). Earlier in the day Kyle had some of his friends over for a band practice and later dragged his father off the sofa for some one-on-one soccer including Nicolai. Although he beat me like a drum for 30 minutes, he made the mistake of accepting a next goal wins challenge in which I was able to score. Regretably, he will have to wait until he is fifteen before his next opportunity to claim soccer superiority over his old man.

After I got tired of chasing bugs around, I relaxed with this flower composition. I find something about it very satisfying.

After a day full of chores and staying close to Jeanine, who is recovering nicely, I spent a little time this afternoon shooting macros.

Kyle turned 14 years old today. Seems appropriate that today’s post should feature him. It didn’t take long before there was a reason to aim a camera at him. Nicolai kicked a soccer ball into this tree and Kyle volunteered to retrieve it. In consieration of his birthday, I would say that Kyle has graduated from monkey to ape.

AFTER – The surgery was successful and the right foot is now done. It will take 3 months before Jeanine can have the left foot done. She looked great after the procedure and was out of the hospital in just under four hours.

BEFORE – Jeanine immediately prior to her bunion surgery. We originally arranged for our neice Erica to stay with us so Jeanine and I could take a vacation in Fiji. Jeanine opted instead to have bunion surgery while Erica was available to help her recouperate.

Maya has learned needle point and is busy with a project for her grandmother.

Jeanine and the family are returning from Indianapolis this evening. Rather than returning home, I went into Boston while waiting for their flight to arrive. While strolling through the Boston Common, I came across this free performance of Taming of the Shrew.

On the final leg of their vacation, Jeanine and Maya traveled with Lauren to Chicago where they spent time with Aunt Karen. The highlight of the trip was a visit to American Girl Place (1 of three in the country) where Maya adopted Elizabeth pictured here. The group enjoyed a tea party as part of the “experience.” Maya insisted on introducing me to Elizabeth herself and wanted the entire affair kept secret until they returned.

While visiting with Jeanine’s dad, the kids did a little fishing off the dock. 

Although the date is out of sequence I am adding this photo from earlier in the month picturing the kids with Jeanine’s Aunt Barbara and Uncle Walter. 

The fast shutter speed fails to convey the speed at which these cars were moving. Here we have a rare moment when all three are vying for position in one of the hairpin corners.

On the way to the airport (I am returning to Boston while Jeanine remains in Indy with the kids for another week) we stopped by to see Kyle racing with his childhood buddy, Tucker(yellow car), who is also visiting Indy from south Carolina. Little suprise that Kyle’s smile was biggest when his car was in direct contact with others contrary to rules of the track.

Bradley was celebrating his second birthday and correctly identifies the letters of the alphabet on his toy computer for Nicolai.

Yesterday was consumed with business, but today I returned to Indianapolis for a Board of Director’s meeting for a small company called Cinetal. After the meeting, I got a chance to visit with Bradley, Gabriel’s son, for only the second time.

Regretably, my vacation has come to an end and this evening I flew to Madison, WI to resume my business travels. My flight was delayed on the tarmac in Chicago causing me to miss my connection and I did not arrive in Madison till well after midnight. On the way to my hotel, I passed by the downtown area and had to stop for this photo of the state house rotunda.

Jeanine is always happy when she gets to spend time with her sisters. Today’s outing was a real treat for everyone.

As we were leaving I got a really good close up of a very big bumble bee.

Despite being quite soggy by the end of our visit a good time was had by all.

The kids, and I include Erica in that group, seemed more interested in redirecting the flow of water from the garden’s fountains than enjoying the botany.

After the butterflys we moved outdoors to enjoy the gardens which were magnificent.

Ever wondered how baby butterflys are made. Now you know.

Butterflys have a miniature trunk like appendage which they unroll to feed on nectar with. Click on the photo for a closer view.

There were hundreds of magnificent butterflys of seemingly infinite variety. Pictured here are some of my favorites.