This is the first summer I have ever spent at home with my kids. It was, therefore, met with much fear and trembling on my part. I am not a homebody, and it remained to be seen whether all four of us would survive. It is now June 17th, and I am pleased to report that after one month there have been no casualties.
We have managed to have quite a bit of fun, and I have LOTS to post. So much that I keep putting it off because there never seems to be time to post it all. So I won't post it all today either. I am posting, instead, the summer pictures I have taken with my iphone. I will post more birthday and beach pictures and Sara's preschool graduation pictures from my camera sometime later. They'll be out of order, but my camera is all the way in the car, and my phone just happens to be sitting beside me. So here goes... (Also, some of these will be facebook-repeats. My apologies.)
We left for the annual Head Beach Trip on Hallie's "real" birthday, May 18th. Upon pulling out of the driveway I discovered that Brooks had broken our car DVD player. Lovely. So we played every Disney princess CD we have, slept, and maintained our sanity as best we could. (Notice the marker on the headrest below. My poor, abused minivan.)
The kids were able to play self-sufficiently on the beach this year, which was nothing short of miraculous for me. They had a great time with their cousins, whether in the sand or at the pool by our house.
We took quite a few snack breaks.
Uncle Jon made a UT "Power T" in the sand, which the rest of us tried to ignore.
We completely ignored Mommy's constant warnings not to throw the sand...
My goodness, I love this little face...
And this little bit just cracks me up.
We also took our fair share of naps.
And Daddy (and Hallie!) even went out on a kayak. Mommy went out once, but once was enough.
Brooks and Charlie raced. Charlie, it turns out, is quite speedy. B needs to get some practice in before next year.
There was a little dune lake that the kids loved.
See that tiny speck way out there? That's Jason in the kayak. I had our life insurance providers on standby.
One night we walked down to the beach at sunset. On one side the sun went down...
On the other side, the moon was rising...
After the beach, we came home and celebrated Memorial Day with James, Heather, and Jake!
Jake seemed to like his first swim!
Jason made a delicious spread of food, as usual.
And a few weeks ago, Sara got her cast off! Yay!! She was very brave while they cut it off with the saw.
And then brave while they checked everything on the x-rays. The doctor said she looked perfect!
We have spent countless hours at our neighborhood pool.
And at the public library, where we make bookworms (and TRY VERY HARD to be quiet!).
My office plant has received no attention because I have been spending time with my hoodlums. I went by the other day to pick up some things in my office, and the poor thing looked like this.
We've been on many shopping excursions, which require our fashionista sunglasses the size of our head.
We try very hard to be patient in Lowe's. We do NOT understand why Mommy likes that place.
We've read lots and lots of books.
We have had naptimes every day. This is when Mommy and Archie regain their sanity.
We celebrated National Doughnut Day appropriately!
Mommy's lillies FINALLY bloomed.
We watched our first Superfriends episodes ever. And we are officially hooked.
We've done some chores. As you can see, Hallie thought something was missing...
We've also enjoyed several picnics in the Quad. It's important to accessorize.
We've taken some walks that have led us to centipedes and roly polies!
And we've bided our time while Daddy was on a work trip.
We lost our first tooth!
And we put shutters on the house last week.
That about sums up our month o' fun. I'll get to the camera update sometime.....
