The time is here

Yep - starting Tuesday, Priya is starting pre-school. That's a pretty momentous occasion for us. It means that she is now venturing into the world on her own, and we will lose a bit of control over her environment. I suppose the latter is a good reason to consider homeschooling, but that's a whole another topic. We picked a school really close to the house, and a number of families we know sent their kids there. Tish really likes the place, and I will see it on Tuesday. Priya was there for a brief visit, and shows no signs of separation anxiety. In fact, she has been talking about going to school for months.

I think I see a couple of good deals hidden in the back

What're those for?

I think this is a much better way to rollerblade

The tail end of summer

Summer of '08 is almost coming to an end. I think we'll get a few hot days here and there, but no more week-long stretches of 80+ degree temperatures. We're trying to get our usual summer things in, but it's always never enough. One of the things we've been talking about for a long time is to get to the Shedd aquarium. Hopefully that will happen before it gets too cold.

We've been going to the Lake County Fair for the last several years. We made it there on opening day, and that seems to be the way to go. The crowds were quite thin, and it made getting around easier.

Priya on a pony ride. Can you tell that falling would not have been fun?

Armaan's first carousel ride

Armaan's very first bike ride

We got this really nice Burley from a friend

Priya helping bathe her brother

Still attached to her "kitty"

Look who's one!

Armaan's favorite way to chill out - crossed legs

Here are the studio pictures for Armaan turning 1 and Priya turning 3.

Middle of summer

The dog days of summer are here. Temperatures are well into the 90s. Last night we had a very severe thunderstorm, and the power was out all night. It still hadn't come back on when I left this morning. We had fun "camping" out in the basement with a flashlight. Camping out means all of us sitting on a comforter with another one thrown over us like a tent. Both Priya and Armaan slept through the thundering and lightning. I'm glad that neither one is so far afraid of storms.

We've been managing to do little things here and there. We just got a kids bike carrier (the one that hitches to the back of the bike) as a permanent loaner from a friend, and so there's some more bike rides coming up.

John Mayer's target audience

Hmm... I wonder why...

Priya with her perpetual shock of falling hair

A present for mama

Every girl looks good in an updo!

The kids with Joo Yeon and Jin

Singin' in the rain

Priya has graduated to arm floats

Trip to the zoo

Armaan likes picnic lunches

Not so sure about bleating animals

Week in Michigan

Warning for the bandwidth-challenged! This is a long post with a lot of media content. Hope no one's seeing this over dial-up. Posts like these make you wish you had gone for the faster DSL plan! :-)

Here we start with Tish's grandma's 80th birthday party.

The grandkids and great-grandkids

The cake was pretty good!

Now on to grandpa and grandma's...

Have bouncy ball, will travel... in style

Armaan loves it when boys are around

Grandpa with his little ones

Priya with Chase

Austin and Chase

Then we come to Armaan's birthday party

That's right - I'm 1!

Hey this stuff is pretty good! Moooore...

I know you.. Santa!

Priya and Kayla

The kids went on their first visit to the beach last week while Kayla was in town.

Rub the belly for good luck!

The ultimate fate of Barbies everywhere

Tish and Kayla

Armaan finally had enough...

While Priya found bigger holes to dig...