Sweet strawberries and lots of pictures

Saturday we went strawberry picking. In New York, it seemed like Pick-Your-Own strawberry joints were every few miles. Here? We have to travel about 30 miles and leave the state just to get to the closest one. But we did. And it was a fun time. Full of red stains, busy mouths and smooshed berries.

Afterwards, since we were so close, we took an impromptu trip to Six Flags. The kids spent alot of time in the tiny houses. Again....fun.

Lest I make it look like every day we have is just full to the brim with fun and excitement, let me assure you we have our boring days as well. They just aren't interesting enough to blog about. Today, we laid around while the kids played (the current game is Harry Potter Wrestling). Mike mowed and I made dinner. I also napped but if you ask me...? You can't get much more fun that that.

All about Lu

!!!!SMILE!!!!

She's changing so much lately. It's exciting and sad all at the same time. Her language is just exploding and she's the funniest, silliest, cutest thing that has ever hit the ground running.

Her stroller is a "walk" and food is "sauce." She loves to play Little People and asks by saying, "Pa-pa-pa-poople?" She loves our neighbors' twin babies. Recently, I caught her holding two dollies, one in each arm, and rocking them in the rocking chair. She was making them talk, "Wah! Wah! I want muna's! (nursing)" Then she'd respond, "It's ok, babies."

She loves playing with her siblings but she also plays so nicely by herself. She loves running and spinning and jumping. She prefaces nearly everything she says by yelling, "YAY!" When she messes up, instead of saying "Awww man!" she says, "Awwww, baby!" She's a daddy's girl and Mike just soaks that up like sunshine. Her favorite thing is "Backpack," (Dora). She's got a way of tilting her head and gesturing when she asks questions that is just so cute and grown up.

She still loves to nurse and recently while at, of all places, Wiggles World at Six Flags, some nosey nelly took it upon herself to tell me, in a not so polite way, that I should go somewhere else to breastfeed (among other stupid but common falacies about nursing.) It was the first time in five years of nursing that I had ever received a negative comment and it was a doozie. Little Lucy just sat there, nursing away, completely oblivious, gently patting my face and twirling my hair, never breaking her eye contact with me. As long as she had me, she didn't care what anyone thought. I could learn a few lessons from that girl.

(There's another new post after this one.)

Note to self - charge camera battery prior to leaving for trip

For Father's Day, my wonderful husband wanted to go to Six Flags New England in Mass. So off we went. We surprised the kidlets with camping over night nearby. It took some planning and we managed to keep it a surprise even while driving around the campsite looking for our tent site. When we finally broke the news, Eli spent the next hour or two saying, "OH! So THAT'S why you (brought matches, packed our pillows, brought us here to this KOA ground, etc.)

Afterwards we went to Six Flags. It rained a bit and we got to see the most amazing rainbow. The pictures do not do it justice. The colors were brilliant and it was a full rainbow, from one end to the other. It was also a DOUBLE rainbow. You don't see that too often.

We went out to eat and headed back to our tent. What is it with kids and tenting? They just think it's the most fabulous thing in the world. Meanwhile, I'm laying there while everyone else is asleep, having panic attacks about someone slashing our tent and attacking us. Do I have anxiety issues, you ask? Why, yes I do!.

The next day, we decided to drive another hour or so to the shore. We went to a beach in Connecticut and the kiddos just had a blast playing in the sand, collecting seashells, and splashing in the water. The beach had a great playground and sprayground as well as a beautiful lighthouse. Of course, at this fantastic photo opportunity, the batteries in my camera died.

Just some photos

Nothing much going on around here except for a case of the chicken pox and a bad bout of the stomach bug. So I don't have anything for you except for some photos. But I'm sure that'll do. Because these kids are pretty darn cute.

Saturday Fun

Last Saturday, our town had a Bike Safety Day. It included some cute ways for the kids to learn how to be safe on their bikes as well as a free lunch and free helmets. The girls got their faces (and arms) painted.

Charlotte's showed just how much of a dichotomy her personality really is:

Lucy got a cute little duck on her cheek but the woman who did the painting wanted to paint a rose on her arm that would match her dress. And it truly did! Lucy pointed to it all day. She was so proud of it.

Afterwards, we went to the local art museum to see Eli's own work of art. Every year they have a show of local childrens' art. Elijah's class did a large painting of the art museum, with each of them in charge of one small section. All of us tried to guess which painting was Eli's. He's so hard on his artistic abilities, claiming he hates to draw because he's no good at it. So, while I did recognize one painting as the best of the bunch, I was sure it wasn't his and picked another. Guess which one was his? The best of the bunch! I was surprised and actually slightly annoyed. The boy is way too hard on himself. He has a real talent and none of us knew. If only he could be more self-assured and worry less about perfection, I think art could be a real passion for him.

The first photo is the whole project. The second is a close up of Eli's piece. The third photo is Lucy point to her favorite piece in the show. I thought, "Wow! She's showing interest in art!" Then she said, "Me. I did it." She thought it was her drawing. :)

Chuck E Cheese

and other random items...

A few weeks ago, we took a trip to Chuck E Cheese. The kids always have so much fun there. They can run around and play games as they please.

Once when Eli was maybe 2, while we were playing there, our shy little guy built up the nerve to go up to Chuck E Cheese himself and get a hug. As a first time mom, my heart was just bursting with pride. He was overcoming some really big issues with shyness and strangers! He waited patiently behind the guy in the giant costume. And then.....! Chuck took a few steps backward, knocked Eli flat on his bottom, and walked away without even noticing the poor kid. Oh, my heart was practically broken!

No such catastrophe happened this time.

Since the weather has been so beautiful, we've put the kids to work.

Here's a photo of the girls this morning. These two love each other so darn much. Even right now, Lucy is going on and on about "Charzy" in the photo right above this. She's the first thing Lucy mentions when she wakes up in the morning. And Charlotte is so sweet to her.

Look at those long legs! And the cute chubby ones too!

This is what sweet looks like...

Poor baby. Yesterday she came down with a sudden high fever. Then today, she's perfectly fine. We'll take whatever snuggle time we can get.

Heavy on the photos

We just came back from a week at my parents house and we had a blast. After church and shopping this morning, we came home to play outside:

A while back, I mentioned that we had painted our bedroom. Here's the "finished" product. I say finished because we have plans to buy some new dressers for ourselves. We painted the recessed window a darker green as a contrast. You can see my anniversary gift to Michael: The lyrics to our song over the window as well as some framed photos of us hanging on the walls. Our song, "Waste" by Phish, is all about how he would rather waste his time with his love than do anything else in the world. Even 11 years later, Michael and I still feel that way. The headboard was his gift to me. It's perfect and I can't wait to get the matching dressers to finish our room.

Changes

Charlotte has been very different lately. She's always been a bit of a tom-boy. She always pretended she was a boy character and didn't care much for dresses or girly things. Lately, though, she's been acting very different. She loves to dress herself in dresses and skirts, wants to wear makeup, and is into everything frilly. Today I found her playing school with her stuffed animals. It's just always so enjoyable to watch her grow. Eli was always so mature for his age that he never really seemed to be a little boy. In fact, the times when he acted up, getting loud and rambunctious, were a nice change of pace. Charlotte has always been such a caricature of a little girl, always playing pretend and dress up, acting silly all the time, and now playing school.



Yesterday, she was a "hair do-er" and gave us all mah-sausages (massages). Here she is "wearing" my hair.




Lucy is beginning to get very frustrated with her inability to communicate to us. She does have a few words, include calling Charlotte "Sha-zhit." Her words include (Becca, this is for you) : Mama, Dada, up, hi, bye, baby, muna (nursing), uh-oh, uh-huh and nuh-uh (yes and no), ice, water, and Sha-zhit. Still, she gets by with pointing her finger and crying. We're beginning to teach her some sign language because she seems to enjoy it. She understands them when we do them and likes when I teach her how to do them herself but she only does "more" and "down" on her own.



Eli lost another basketball game but is becoming more sure of himself. He attempted to make a basket this time and while he didn't score, he did hit the rim. This was a big deal for him because he tends to hang back and get out of the way of the ball.

Dancing 'round the room

You're informally invited to a dancing party in our living room. Take your place on either the couch or the table and shake your booty.

Eli's basketball team won their first game! It was such a blast to watch because they're really learning how to work together as a team. And Eli's individual skills have improved as well. (How do you like my mad photoshopping skilz?)

So beautiful

Thanks to Uncle D and Aunt Dawn, Charlotte and I made jewelry today from a bead set she got for Christmas. She made me a necklace and I made her a bracelet. Aren't they beautiful?

Speaking of beautiful, here are some shots of the kiddos sleeping last night. How come they look so angelic while they're sleeping? Especially that little one. Because we all know she's definitely NOT an angel in the day time. She's full of it!

In other news, Elijah had his first basketball game on Thursday night. They lost...by alot. This morning, Charlotte started ice skating lessons. Mike brought her and said she had a blast. She had her own "coach" named Matt and she was very excited that her team won the game they played.

No basketball pictures because Mike wasn't there and I had to imprison Lucy on my lap but here's Charlotte skating.