Another week has come and gone. It’s startling how little time it seems to take to move from Sunday to Sunday. Part of the motivation behind our recent weekend roundup posts is an attempt to be more deliberate in taking note of the contents of our lives, hoping that looking back on recent happenings might help them find a sturdier place in our memories.

So then:

As some of you know, Robbi and Alden have both gotten serious lately about Tang Soo Do, a Korean martial arts form practiced by Robbi’s Dancing With the Stars partner Mark Pagano. Saturday was the big end of year picnic and promotion ceremony. We were to eat some hot dogs in the sunshine and Robbi was to be presented with her yellow belt in recognition of her promotion to the rank of 9th gup.

When we got to the picnic, the Tang Soo Do-ers were practicing their forms.

August was stunned.

All his life, has known is mother as a loving, gentle giver of life.

Suddenly she was a nimble ninja who could break your wrist with a casual glance. The contrast was so jarring that he needed a change of scenery. So we wandered down to the water to give him some time to process.

In no time, he found a fishing pole.

And proceeded to use it.

When Alden finished practicing her forms, she came down to join us by the water.

Eventually the aforementioned hot dogs happened.

As well as some badminton. In our actual game play, the BAD was emphasized, and so I will limit the photographic illustration of this sad stretch of the day’s events to this shot of Robbi posing alluringly with her racquet. Which matches her shirt, if you hadn’t noticed.

After hot dogs, Alden conned some older kids in to giving her a tour of the swimming pool while pretending to be a queen.

Good work, if you can get it.

Later that night, to quench a sudden craving, August helped me shop for seltzer.

This is a recap of our week. I didn’t say that all of it was exciting.

On Sunday, we got up early and headed to the Baltimore Zoo. The occasion was Iris’s birthday party. Iris is now five. This, too, is startling. The last five years of Iris’s life have passed about as quickly as this week has passed, which is to say, without my even noticing.

August spent the entire party climbing up this yellow ladder. By Robbi’s count, he scaled it 31 times.

Kato spent the entire time consulting his zoo map. His goal was to see the polar bears, and yet, all he could find was the playground. It was galling. He grew increasingly agitated.

But then the cake was served, and the agitation evaporated. Cake is amazing in this way.

After the cake, we were off. To explore the zoo in style. Alden and the birthday girl set off in search of adventure.

The first stop was the tram that took us to the far end of the zoo.

Before we got to the polar bears, we took a detour into the petting zoo.

The petting was a big hit, especially with August, who almost never meets anyone shorter than he is.

He begged us to let him bring the baby goat home.

But when we said no, he contented himself with whispering sweet nothings into the ear of any goat that would listen. Apparently, goats have very low standards, so August made a lot of new friends.

Like cake, goats are awesome.

As are polar bears.

The zoo has a train. It takes you on a short loop through the trees.

Kato loves the train. I almost wished that I had made him choose between eating cake and riding on the train. It would have been fun to see the internal conflict play itself out.

As it was, he got to ride on the train and eat his cake, too.

It was that kind of day.

As I was saying, trains are great. But, apparently, I make an even better conveyance.

But perhaps not quite as good as a lion? the kids loved sitting on the lion.

I said, the kids loved sitting on the lion.

Much better.

Here’s my advice. If at first the claim you want to make is refuted by the photograph, simply take more photographs. Eventually (as with the infinite monkey theorem, which states that if you give a monkey sufficient time, he will eventually write Hamlet), the exact photo you desire will come along.

It just might take a while.