Chickitee - Check This Out

I just realized that I could give a shout out on my own blog. So, here's to Calico. You should check out Cally's blog and enter her free give away. She's no joker. If you win, you'll delight in this su-weeeeeet bag she has made. It's cute. It's quality.

So go.

Get out of here and enter her drawing.

You'll be so glad you did when you see her on Oprah and can say, "I totally have one of her bags, and it was free."

Food, Glorious Food

I'm dieting in earnest today. If I were eating anything I wanted, I'd start with this

Then I'd chase it with this little saucy baby.

Add a little bit of this.

And finish with this. Oh baby, that's the way I like it, except with a little more frosting. Uh-huh.

Then I think I'll linger over a slice or two of this.

Okay, just one more of these.

Oh, what the heck. I'll have ONE MORE slice, and then I'm done.

I'm full now.

The Cruze's Very Special Olympics

The Summer 2008 Cruze Family Olympics were held in Knoxville, Tennessee at the exciting Cruze Compound. Though many locations lobbied for the privilege of such a prestigious event, the grand matriarch and patriarch (Shane and Kay) prevailed. At this lovely venue world-class, er, I mean, family-class athletes competed in the following challenging areas:

Tug of War

Girls

Vs. Boys

(They never had a chance.)

As you can guess from the trash talking face here, the girls won. Repeatedly.

Triathlon

I can't even pretend that we did anything remotely close to a real triathlon. Competing in teams of three, we ran about .10 of a mile, biked about 1/2 mile, and shot 10 hoops.

Don't underestimate this guy. He whooped up on all of us with his bike.

Conan claimed that these shoes, actually designed to wear in ping pong tournaments, gave him the extra edge he needed to win the running leg of the race. Uh-huh, right.

Here are the twin runners still gloating in their victories hours later.

Wyatt with the hoops champ. Dude took us to school. That's why we call him the bus driver.

100 meter (or however long the field is) Dash
Run, Emma, Run!!!

Eldon posing beside Mandy, who is Emma's Slovakian running coach. You can tell from her face that this is a serious matter.

Water Fight
Go see Calico for better pics. Calvin just wanted to drink the water, but hey, it was a little hot outside.

Guitar Hero

No real winner here, unless you count having fun and then we were all winners.

Photography

Just kidding. We didn't really compete in this area, but Cally certainly looks like she is, eh?

We Shafers Can't Do Without . .

Eating Popsicles on our porch. We usually eat the cheapie ones from the grocery store. However, for the first time ever, I got the boys some treats from the ice cream man. Mostly I haven't because the ice cream guy in our old neighborhood was a little sketchy. Okay, the WHOLE neighborhood was sketchy, but we indulged this week because this truck seemed a little cleaner. I'm not exactly sure how you rate the cleanliness of the ice cream man, but I think that should be addressed. I'm thinking a scale of 1 to 10 based on the following attributes:

1. condition of the truck (i.e. no rust, no crazy engine noises, no chipping paint)

2. friendliness of the ice cream man (nice, but not creepy nice, smiley, but with most teeth, etc.)

3. loudness and quality of music (no run down, dragging lackluster melodies)

4. availability of your favorite flavor (don't give me vanilla on a chocolate day. seriously.)

Enough of the lecture, enjoy the photo share as much as we enjoyed our treats.

Bye Summer. We'll Miss You!

High School Friends & Their Blogs

• Christian Hawley
• Cathy Stevens and Erik Ching
• Kristen & Jeremy Osborne
• Kristen and Zach Pumphrey
• Leigh Ann and Chris Rogers
• Leslie and Bryan Reynolds
• Liza and Jamie Dewald
• Stacey and Nathan Hill

First Day of Preschool

Shalom. That's how we say hello at Calvin's new preschool. He just had his first day at the Jewish Community Center. Despite his shyness, I think he is enjoying himself. Noah and I both went to drop him off for his first day. Like his Dad, he was a boy of few words. When I picked him up, he said,
"I think I went to preschool or sunthing (something)."

Me: "Did you make any friends?"

Calvin: "I don't know."

Too cute.

In honor of starting his journey into learning, I will share some things I have learned about him. Calvin is very smart. He studies things out and defines how he feels about them clearly. He loves very deeply and because he does, he doesn't love just anyone. You've got to work for his affection. He loves to play with my hair. He loves trains. He doesn't like to lose. He always wants to win. If I can't get him to do what I ask, I just challenge him to a race, talk a little sass, and then he jumps right in to beat me. Calvin is determined, energetic, and happy. When he plays he likes to organize and classify objects, putting alike things together in a straight line. Along those same lines, he likes to see a project from start to finish. If he feels like his plan is becoming disrupted for whatever reason, he gets upset (Wyatt has really thrown in a wrench into a few of his projects). Calvin likes to sing and humm. Sometimes in the car I like to listen to instead of the radio. One of the things I love most about Calvin is just how much he is like Noah. I have learned a lot about Noah from watching Calvin and vice versa. Calvin is a blessing to our family, and I love him so much.