Beach Day

Where are all their faces - well, in a hurry to get to the beach apparently.

We tried out a new beach at Sanibel Island, it was beautiful, but I'm not sure it was worth the hour drive. I love the top picture of Lydia - a very determined walk, and the skipping one of Becca.

The boys were busy at work catching fish.

Can you see it?

How about now?

There are two fish (not broken in half like Jeremy thought when he saw the picture).

It's so fun to watch my boys work together, they really are best friends and are always working together on some project or other.

My Best Helper

Lydia is my best helper. At 21 months old she is the perfect 'mommy helper'. This photo is a common occurrence - she climbs on the counter and gets my keys, sunglasses, and phone - because these are the things that mommy needs when we leave the house, and it is her cue to me that she wants to go somewhere.

She is also really good at helping me with other things. She is really good at picking up and at taking things to the trash. The cutest is when she helps with dishes. She knows where the silverware drawer is and can reach her little hand up just high enough to get the silverware up and over the drawer and gets it in there in a hap-hazard fashion.

The cutest is watching her climb out of the van and pushing the button that closes the door - she has to stand up on tip-toe and reach as high as she can to reach the button, but she loves to be the last one out of the van so she can close the door.

Lydia radiate pure sweetness and she gets such joy out of life. Today she was peering down in a crack in the sidewalk saying "bug, look mom, bug" and she wanted me to get down and look at the bug.

She has thus far been a bit timid at the pool, but tonight when we were there she was warming up to the idea of getting in with us. At first when I was trying to coax her into the pool she would run away and say "no" and if any of the other kids would get near her, she would bolt away. Later Becca was jumping into the pool to me and it caught Lydia's attention and she wanted to try to. Then I was doing "ring around the rosies" with Becca and Lydia really wanted to do that. She wanted it again and again and was even okay when I would dunk her on the "all fall down" and she would say "ashes, ashes" to indicate that she wanted to do it again.

These are my joy

Lydia likes to hide, especially if I am asking her to come to me - like to come get dressed.

Do you see the feet?

Here's the cute face peeking out.

Cute, cute. I don't know how I got such blond little girls, my hair is as dark as theirs is blond.

Friends at first are friends at last.

These are my joy.

It's a Bug's Life

We are all about bugs and creepy crawly things around here. The boys are constantly finding bugs, crickets, lizards and such things to make into their pets.

This was Max, a pet bug for Tom. Last week, when Tom adopted "Max" they spent the afternoon together in the back patio, building with blocks and crawling around. Tom literally spent hours with his new bug friend and was very sad when Lydia got ahold of Max and pulled off all his left legs. Poor Max didn't handle the trauma very well and his life ended soon after.

This picture of Charlie doesn't need much in the way of words, it is just a funny picture of how dramatic and silly he can be.

This beautiful little dress was given to us by a neighbor (thanks Liz) and the girls are having all kinds of fun dressing up in it.

Singing in the Rain

It rains a lot here. Yesterday and today lots of rain. Today it rained all afternoon. I love the rain and I love walking in the rain. Charlie got out his umbrella and went outside and I couldn't resist, I had to go out too. I borrowed Becca's mostly-broken umbrella that still provided enough protection to take my camera outside and snap a few pictures.
Later we pulled out the rain ponchos and went to the deserted beach for a family walk in the rain along the shore. We only have four ponchos so the little girls were wrapped in towels and carried. I didn't feel brave enough to take my camera to the rainy beach - so there are no pictures of our lovely walk of the blue covered figures roaming the solitaire beach (it was awesome - not a single soul in sight - I guess we were the only ones crazy enough to go out on a lovely rainy afternoon).

Awsome

Here is a video of awesome things. It will definitely bring a smile to your face.



And here is a link to the blog 1000 Awesome Things

That blog held a contest to give away his new book and asked for people to post comments of what they thought was "awesome". Here are some of my favorites:

ya know what’s awesome? Generous Fellow-Customers. I work at a Starbucks, and some dude couldn’t get the coffee he ordered because his debit card didn’t work. a lady noticed this while she was doctoring her cuppa at the condiment bar and came up to buy his coffee for him. i also appreciate the little generosities of that stranger behind you in line at the groccery store who will lend you the 5 cents you’re missing. or how about this: One day at a Starbucks drive-thru, someone decided to buy a drink for the person behind him in line. when that person drove up and found out his coffee was paid for, he decided to return the favor for the person behind him. this continued for 11 cars! true story. big or small, whether it’s for me, or even if i’m just a witness, those donations always make me smile and renew my faith in humanity. Awesome! :)

Pumping gas to the exact dollar.
You’re watching the numbers digitally whiz around, dollar amounts climbing at a disproportionate rate compared to the gallons you’re getting. No matter, when that thing shuts off you have two options (given that you’re willing to disregard the warning against “topping off” at the pump): 1) leave the amount as-is, forcing yourself to pay an uneven amount: $23.47. OR 2) Squeeze that pump, watch those numbers after the decimal, and work your magic until you can click off at an even $24. Yes, that is awesome!
Note: There is a rare third option which is that your pump randomly and accidentally shut itself off on an amount that just so happened to be an even dollar amount. With this you’re scoring, like, triple awesome points, so be sure to celebrate the rarity of it.

 

Our Adventures

We've been busy out and about having fun and learning about nature and animals.
We went to the "U Pick" farm to get strawberries to make strawberry freezer jam. We met with three other families, so there were 14 children total. The kids had a fun time gathering strawberries. Lydia was the cutest to watch. She had a little green basket and gathered her own strawberries. She was insistent to carry it herself and every time I tried to carry it for her she protested, holding it tighter to herself. She dropped the basket many times and re-gathered her berries into the basket, covered in dirt. Even when I put her in her car seat she insisted to hold them on the ride home.

The picture of Tom in an apron fast asleep in his bed was from last week when Tom had been playing "kitchen" in the girls room at bed time. He was sad when I said it was time to put it away and go to sleep. Always one who wants to be prepared, he went to bed in his chef uniform, ready to play when he woke in the morning.

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These last pictures are from the "Imaginarium" - a wonderfully fun, hands on learning place. The kids got to pet a baby alligator, a tarantula, a snake, and stingrays. Even little Lydia petted each of them - she was particularly taken with the tarantula. Charlie got to feed the stingrays, the other kids were a little too nervous to feed them.

I don't have any pictures, but my sister Susan came to visit for the weekend. It went all too quickly. We picked her up Thursday night at the Ft. Lauderdale airport and had dinner at the IHop before coming home. Friday we went to the beach for a few hours. Saturday we spent many hours at the pool with other friends and later Sue and I went to the California Pizza Kitchen - so I could share my favorite dinner of "Pear and Gorgonzalla Pizza" with her. Sunday it was rainy all day, but we were able to take her to the beach one last time at sunset, so she could enjoy it one last time before she had to leave early this morning.
Thanks Sue for coming to visit - it was short, but worth it, we enjoyed having you.