It's US Open Time!

You know summer has come to an end when you can turn on the USA Network at night and catch the US Open tennis tournament.

Unfortunately, the other night, the volume was not working on the broadcast. We could hear the sound on the commercials, but nothing during the matches. Sure, it was nice to watch the matches - and some people don't like the commentators anyway - but it would have been nice to have known what the two guys were talking to the chair umpire about. (Dad looked it up the next day on the Internet.)

This also caused Dad to pause to remember great US Open tennis tournaments of old... Like the time Todd Martin's match went into the wee hours of the morning, or when Andy Roddick tore through the 2003 field to win his US Open title or the great matches between Andre and Pete (and those great Nike commercials that featured them).

If you're in the mood to look back, take a look at these pictures from two years ago on an afternoon with the YD girls at the tennis court.

Veronica Plays With The Camera, Part II

Veronica just loves to hijack our digital camera. Yes, we know that's not a good thing because she tends to destroy or break things. But it can be cute to see what she comes up with in her picture-taking.

Our camera also allows you to capture video. As we pointed out in a previous post, she can be quite the picture taker. But sometimes she gets the video button and camera button confused. Here's the result (watch video):

Who Says We Don't Have A Pet?

Meet Buddy.

He's our adopted pet squirrel. We've watched him grow for the past nine months or so, thanks to the food the girls put out on the deck. Thursday morning, Veronica came down for breakfast, grabbed a bucket of peanuts and said, "Buddy. Breakfast."

For the most part, Buddy enjoys all kinds of leftovers or peanuts we put out there. Sometimes, his friends even join in the feast.

And he's not the only animal we have roaming the backyard. Last night, Dad scared a gardener snake out of its hiding place in our yard as he was mowing. The girls chased it and tried to capture it. (Eeewww!)

Dressing Up

The girls got seriously goofy playing dress up.
If you saw the "album cover" that Uncle Jon designed (posted yesterday), you were probably asking yourself a couple questions:

- Why are Emily and Julia wearing referee shirts?
- Why are they posing like they're "bad"?

We're still waiting to find out the answer to the second question. But the picture above explains the referee shirts. The girls decided to raid Mom & Dad's closet to play "dress up." Unfortunately, at the time of this post, none of the clothes have been returned to their owners (or at least hung up in the closet).

Veronica tried on Emily's bra while Julia played "Reed."

So who is Reed? He's one of two soigneurs for the Toyota-United Pro Cycling Team. The girls met him at the Nature Valley Grand Prix stage race in Minneapolis in June (he's pictured at right).

Apparently, he made quite the impression on them, because they like to put on Dad's red Toyota-United T-shirt and say that they are "Reed."

If It's A School Function, Count On A Storm

The radar's view of the storm bearing down on Omaha.
It was "Curriculum Night" for Mom and Dad last night and that meant thunderstorms were bound to hit the metro.

That's because on every other night there has been a school function so far this year, we have had severe weather. Last night's was the most severe so far - a tornado warning. The last time, it was a strong thunderstorm that ended up knocking out the power after we fled to Grandma Bep's house. Before that, it was a strong thunderstorm that knocked down a huge limb in our backyard.

So we'll check the calendar and let you know the next time there is a school event so you can plan accordingly that night.

Fun From Uncle Jon

There's a story behind this photo, no doubt.

Thanks to Uncle Jon for adding his creativity to it!

At The Twilight's Last Gleaming...

Lauren joked with us the other day that she could probably shimmy up the flagpole that stands outside our house.

At the time, most of us wrote it off as "oh, that Lauren. Always up to something."

But when she was spotted peering into our second floor bedroom from eye level outside, we all did a double take. Yep, little Lo-Lo can definitely climb. And she found out that spiders like to hang out near the top of the pole, too.

Olivia's Fifth Birthday Party: Parts I & II

Olivia gets ready to blow out all five candles.
As faithful YD blog readers know, birthdays are always marked by big celebrations at our house. (Mom will almost certainly weigh in with a comment on this.)

So Sunday night marked the first of a multiple-day celebration of Olivia's fifth birthday. If you're keeping track, this was the "family and friends" part. Monday night (no pictures, sorry) was the "family and friends" eat-out segment. And Saturday will be the "classmates and friends" party.

Olivia enjoyed a wonderfully delicious (homemade) cake Sunday, along with the opening of many presents. The presents consisted of many new outfits, plus a cute scrapbook from Grandma Bep and Papa (pictured at right). The birthday fairy brought a fun book that plays songs, too.

Listen for Veronica's version of "Happy Day Do To You."

Veronica: Future Photographer

It's no secret that children often latch onto something and carry it all the way through their lifetime.

For instance, we already know Olivia is going to be some kind of model or fashion designer or simply a teenage trendy socialite because she is a five-year-old diva.

So, using the same school of thought, we have deduced that Veronica is going to be the photographer of the family. Although we have strict rules about the use of the digital camera, sometimes "Ver'OWN" gets her hands on it and goes crazy. Can you imagine if she had an "old-fashioned" camera with real film in it? Thank goodness for digital!

This is just a sample of the more than 200 photos she took in about 10 minutes on Sunday:

Arrows to Aerospace Parade

The parade participants pose in front of the 1954 Plymouth Savoy,
St. Mary's of Bellevue School's parade entry.
Saturday, we got to participate in Bellevue's annual "Arrows to Aerospace" parade as part of St. Mary's of Bellevue's entry - a restored 1954 Plymouth Savoy that will be raffled off later this year as a fundraiser.

The entry was a late one (two days before the parade), so we were stuck as the last of 81 entries. That meant that we didn't start walking until 47 minutes after the parade had officially started.

Nonetheless, it was a fun experience. The girls and their cousins alternated between walking and riding in the car (or, in Veronica's case, riding in a stroller). When they were walking, they were selling raffle tickets to people along the parade route. The weather wasn't too hot, so it really wasn't too bad.

However, when the parade came to an end in Old Towne Bellevue, we faced a long walk back to the starting point (Bellevue East High School). So we decided to use the car to shuttle everyone back. Unfortunately, it ran out of gas just a couple blocks from where the parade ended. Making the situation worse, we didn't know it ran out of gas because Dad's cell phone doesn't get service in Bellevue. What a disaster!

It ended up that Grandma Bep came to our rescue, driving her big boat of a car down to the park to pick us up after dropping off some gas for the car where it had broken down.

The car that Papa Aube restored looked great.
So, how can you win this car? The YD girls are selling raffle tickets for $10 apiece. You can win the car or $3,000 cash. E-mail us at "teachingangels2fly(at)yahoo.com" if you would like to buy a ticket.

This is NOT the car that is being raffled off.

The Girls' Teachers

Mrs. Lewis will be teaching Olivia in kindergarden.


Ms. Gaspers is Julia's first grade teacher.


Mrs. Embury is teaching Lauren in third grade.


Emily has Mrs. Schutt for fifth grade.

It's The Shoes

It's bad enough having to buy shoes when your children outgrow their current pair. It's another thing to have to buy new shoes because they're the wrong color.

That's what happened this school year after the administrators decided that only shoes that are predominantly white would allow to be worn. That meant new shoes for nearly everyone - which became everyone so no one would go to school this year with a worn-looking pair.

Unfortunately, what we did not know was that shoes with blinking lights were not allowed. So Olivia ended up getting two new pairs of sneakers. Special thanks to Aunt Bridget for going out to get them on short notice!

The girls did enjoy another half-day of school Friday. Barring some kind of heat wave (if the forecast high is 90 or above, they get early dismissal), Monday will be their first full day.

Seriously, It Can Stop Raining Now

So we can blame Dad for all the rain we have received over the past four days.

He spent the weekend in Chicago, where it poured non-stop. When he returned Monday afternoon, it was only a few hours before it started raining here in Omaha. And it's been coming down pretty regularly ever since.

Not only have we had our share of rain, but the strong winds, powerful lightning and tremendous thunder has made it hard for the girls to get any sleep at night. Plus, our skylight in the kitchen continues to leak (yes, we need to get it fixed!) so there are puddles of water on the floor every time it rains hard.

The girls enjoyed their first half day of school on Thursday. Olivia said her teacher (Mrs. Lewis, her aunt) was "mean." Of course, she was smiling when she said it, so we know she's fibbing. Dad has a wager with some of the other girls that Olivia will fall asleep at naptime during the first full day of school (Monday). He predicts that because Olivia used to fall asleep on the way home from preschool last year.

Poor Veronica. She's kind of left out of the whole getting-up-and-going-to-school routine. Her sisters wake up, get dressed, eat breakfast and get ready to load up in the Suburban. About that time, Dad comes into her bedroom, grabs her out of her bed and carries her out to the Suburban. About the time she's waking up, she is well on her way to Bellevue to spend the morning with Grandma Bep.

Back To School: 2007

Olivia (left) is in a uniform for the first time.
Dad isn't sure why he decided to take this picture horizontally.
You can't see them, but the girls have to wear white shoes this year.
The first day of school is always a special one in the YD household. And, for only the second time, rain prevented us from carrying out one of our traditions.

It is customary to take photos by the tree in the front yard on the first day of school. But some early-morning showers made the grass wet, meaning we had to go with the front-of-the-fireplace backdrop.

Another tradition we have is Aunt Bridget's early-morning delivery of donuts on the first day of school. She didn't disappoint again this year, bringing some fine pastries from Hy-Vee for the girls to devour.

Unfortunately, Veronica slept through the whole thing (we wanted her to sleep as long as possible before waking her up for the drive down to Grandma Bep's house.)

If you are wondering just how much things have changed over the years, be sure and use the links below to browse our archives for other "first day of school" photos:

(Click here to see pictures from the first day of school in 2006.)

(Click here to see pictures from the first day of school in 2005.)

Lauren was grumpy for pictures last year, too.

Growing Up ... Fast

Notice anything about the two pictures above? (Besides the fact that one of them is downright goofy?)

It's only taken 10 years, but Mom and Emily are finally starting to see about eye-to-eye. Kind of scary, huh?

Summer Recap: Dad's Bike Team

Dad has been doing his share of traveling this summer and this weekend was no exception.

He accompanied the Toyota-United Pro Cycling Team to the USPRO Criterium Championships in Downers Grove, Ill. Unfortunately, it rained nearly the entire time he was there, making it pretty treacherous for the guys. In the end, they came away with only a top 10 result from two days of racing.

The next major race for the team is the USPRO Time Trial and Road Race Championships.

Summer Recap: Computer Woes

Veronica did a number on the computer keyboard.
It's a question we've received quite a bit over the past couple of weeks: When are you guys going to update the blog?

Well, it's been hard for two reasons: Dad has been extremely busy and we have had a bit of a computer problem lately. For one, Veronica decided it would be fun to tear more than half the keys off the keyboard of the PC (pictured above). Dad tried his best to glue them back on, but they just did not go back on straight. His IT buddy, Grant, suggested using a separate keyboard and plugging it into the USB port on the back, but the USB ports are dead. (Some computer, huh?)

Veronica also decided to put the hurt on us by spilling water into the keyboard of the MacBook (laptop) computer. That one hurt the most. The computer was in the shop for more than a week and the bill was not a pretty sight.

Summer Recap: Tea Party With Grandma Bep

The girls made Grandma Bep feel right at home.
A tradition we have in our house that has been carried down from Mom - through her Mom - is to have a tea party on a fairly regular basis.

The girls enjoy it, especially when Grandma Bep is a part of it. So they hosted her to one at our house and enjoyed an afternoon of tea, cookies and some fun fellowship.

As is tradition, Dad was nowhere to be seen...

Summer Recap: Nightly Chores

Veronica likes to get up-close-and-personal with the dishwasher.
Keeping the house clean is near the top of our priority list (you wouldn't know it if you stopped by, unfortunately). And one big step in the right direction is making sure the girls attend to their nightly kitchen clean-up chores.

There are four different chores on the list: dishes, table, floor and refrigerator. We assign two people to dishes - one to scrub and rinse and the other to load. Both of them are also in charge of unloading the dishwasher, too. All the other jobs are pretty self-explanatory, with the exception of "refrigerator." That person is charged with attending to condiments and drinks before and after the meal.

In order of easiest to hardest, the girls would probably agree that refrigerator is easiest, followed by floor, then table and finally, dishes. We try to rotate the schedule once a week, making sure that no two people have the same job two weeks in a row.

Unlike her sisters, Veronica loves being part of the dish crew.

Summer Recap: Toyota-United Team Car Visit

The girls had fun pretending they were riding in a bike race.
It's not too often that we get a chance to see Dad's co-workers but we were fortunate to find out that Amy Walker, the general manager of the Toyota-United Pro Cycling Team, would be driving through town on her way home to Colorado from Pennsylvania.

So we invited her to stop by for dinner on a Friday night as she was passing through. The girls had a great time showing her what it's like to have five girls running all over the place (Amy has said she would someday like to have five children of her own). Plus, they got to sit in the Toyota-United Team Car (one of the Camrys). Afterwards, we took her to a pool party before she headed to her hotel for the night.

Summer Recap: Sarpy County Fair

During the last school year, the girls all did special art projects that would be put on display at the Sarpy County Fair over the summer. So we marked our calendar with the dates of the fair and looked forward to attending it.

Unlike the Douglas County Fair - which has been moved to a suburban location (outside the Qwest Center) - the Sarpy County Fair is where it belongs: out in the country. This means we spent about 25 minutes driving to Springfield, where the fairgrounds take up a good portion of the town.

We easily found the school exhibits building and enjoyed the fact that it was air-conditioned. The girls had fun finding their artworks and pointing out their classmates' names on other pieces. Even Dad was impressed with how well the display represented the girls' school.
It was neat seeing all the girls' artwork on display.

Summer Recap: Attending A Graduation

We haven't been to many graduations lately (is that a good thing?), but we got to attend one for cousin Laura.

She is going to be a nurse - and some of you might remember she got to hang around in the delivery room for the birth of Veronica a couple years back. Friday night, she graduated from the Methodist College of Nursing. All the girls were on their best behavior, and afterwards, we got to go for pizza.

Congratulations, Laura!

Summer Recap: Friends Sleepover

Sleepovers can be memorable and this one certainly fits the bill.

Each of the four oldest YD girls got to invite a friend over to spend the night. That made for quite a household. After we made homemade pizzas, we discovered there were enough bicycles in our garage for each girl to have their own. So they rode their bikes down to the park to play. Some were faster than others on the ride back, but everyone made it back to the house safely.

That night, the girls who stayed awake more than 15 minutes got to watch a movie. For some, the bike ride was enough to sufficiently tire them out.

The next day, Dad made waffles and French toast for everyone. Then it was time to hit the pool. It may be some type of record - having so many girls in one inflatable swimming pool - as you can see from the picture.

After a few hours of splashing around, parents started showing up, cutting short all the fun. The good news is that nobody got hurt and nobody got homesick.