the diamond

for bumpa’s birthday, we promised him a night with the rascals and our very favorite people, the flying squirrels at the diamond.  so, when charlie’s baba and papi came into town, we knew that it was meant to be and a good ole game was in our future!  we had a blast!

take me out to the ballgame . . .

take me out to the crowd . . .

buy me some peanuts and crack-er jacks (or I will throw a fit!)

I don’t care if I ever get back . . .

for it’s root, root, root for the home team (have funn!  GO NUTZ!!)

if they don’t win, it’s a shame! 

for it’s one, two, three strikes your OUT at the old ball game!! 

(they did win—two home runs at the very end!  and we had a blast!  sister has been talking about “yutzy,” or "Nutzy” NON-STOP.  She even prayed for him last night, bless her heart.  She is the only girl I know who loves a squirrel!)

this is how we roll . . . in the summer heat . . .

 

. . . we climb up on things we know we are not supposed to climb on, and we pull the draw strings out of our bathing suits and tie the strings to things, because we are doing ‘trucktion (construction or demolition, perhaps?!)

we pull out the step stool and throw pillows on the floor to make an oh-so-dangerous slide . . . and then we let sister climb on it (and by “we,” I mean “they”)

we eat snacks in exciting places . . . and we continue the climb and exploration . . .

    

more than once in the past week, I have walked into the dining room to find this little chicken on the table.  sitting or STANDING.  she knows no bounds.  it scares me.  I wonder how she learned such wild behavior?!

    

wild pairs.

    

thankfully, we also sleep hard . . . let me pause, at this point, to say that I have friends who have sweet, precious pictures of their snoozing babes.  I do not have such pictures.  I have too much fear in my soul about waking my adorable little monsters in the night.  However, I did take this picture of Anna striking a pose . . . I just couldn’t help myself.  The cuteness was too much to bear!

in the heat, we put on our summer best and we snuggle up for pictures of our chub . . . I adore this pink bubble on anna.  I just want to eat. her. up.    

and, when it’s a tad cooler out, we play in the playhouse on the playground with our friends (notice anna’s sass in this picture with holland—I was asked if they were twins more than once yesterday!  anna is quite sad that her bff is moving next weekend! boo hoo!)

and, well, this one gets picture of the summer in my book.  it’s from last week, I think.  I can’t believe I haven’t posted it yet.  I may just blow this up and hang it on my wall . . . I love it!

keep walkin’ along and singin’ your song . . . and keep cool!

overheard & say WHAT?

these are so random, but I don’t want to forget . . .

 

william:  it is stinky here.  it smells like a thunder egg.

***

william:  it stinks.  it smells like a dead bug.

***

anna:  (at 11pm at night)  beeaaaaaaaaaaaaaach, mommy!  beeeeeeach!! 

me:  anna, it’s too late to go down to the beach.

anna:  beeeeeeeeeeaaaaaaaaaaaaaaachhhh, mommy!!  Beeeeach!  Pease!

***

boys: wanna tickle my armpits?  I am gonna tickle your armpits!

and

let me see your armpits!

***

hudson (to anna):  hi little anna.  you are so cute, little anna.  I love you, Anna.  I love your chubby cheeks.  And, you smell like bananas.

***

hudson:  mommy, why are your foot nails pink?  will they come off?

***

william:  jesus put a tiny baby in my tummy, mommy!

***

anna:  anna big.  anna school.  (vacation bible school nursery, with Sugie.)  anna c’y (cry).  momm-mee, momm-mee.  moooooooooooooooommmmmmmmmmmmmmmeeeeeeeeeeeeee.  anna c’y.  no school anna. 

***

boys:  mommy, where is your pen*s??

***

singing:  God’s been working on the railroad, all the live long day!

***

singing:  Fee-Fi-Fiddle-E-I-O, strumming on the old man Joe!

***

hudson:  thank you, jesus, for our family. and food.  and strawberries, and blueberries, and bananas.  and ‘quash (which he refuses to eat, by the way).  OH!  AND POTATOES!  Thank you for potatoes, Jesus.

____________________________________________________________

and, say WHAT?!  . . . (things we cannot believe are coming out of our mouths!)

 

put your foot back inside of the window, please.

please get your hand out of my cup.

please do not drink out of my cup.

fingers out of your nose.

fingers out of your mouth.

toes out of your mouth.

please do not dip your food into your milk.

please do not climb in the refrigerator.

no talking about bottoms, please.

do not lift up mommy’s dress.  mommy needs to have her clothes on all of the time.

DO NOT peel paint off the walls.

keep your hands to yourself.

no talking about bottoms.  no talking about poop.  no talking about tinkle.

please get out from under the table.

please stop hiding at bedtime.

we only tinkle on trees when it’s an emergency.

OUT OF THE FRIDGE.  NOW.

 

and, with that, a good night!

 

 

livin’ the dream

for me, in many ways, motherhood has been a tad more challenging than I had expected ever imagined.  don’t get me wrong, I love it, but boy do I feel my limitations.  it’s hard work having an ongoing job that has no real guidelines or FAQ manual or training seminar!  ha! 

this weekend, was one of those weekends that we’d always dreamed of having . . . my very sweet and generous aunt invited us to use her place at the beach on thursday . . . so, on friday, we packed up and headed east!  (this is one of the beautiful things about living on the east coast!)  we went from the tree tops on friday to the sand on saturday!

anna has been asking to go to the beach every. single. day. since we left Charleston in april, so her Daddy was making her every dream come true . . . and, well, mine too.  I LOVE THE BEACH.

and, I don’t think I’m alone in feeling that way.  check out this trio!

we arrived to the beach with buggies full of gear, and we didn’t waste any time before the digging began!

inspecting the shovel . . .

it’s hard work getting those legs into that chair!  (thank you, sugie, for the new PINK chair!  sidenote:  anna has started to ask for pink things.  it is wild to me.  cup, mommy.  pink.  pink cup.  or  paci, mommy.  pink paci. I am not sure if she is excited because she knows that color . . . or because all of the pink things are unquestionably hers, but it is quite cute and hilarious all at once!)

success!  and with mama’s water bottle and all . . .

there’s no such thing as sitting too close together when you are building a sand castle . . .

little bit really loves being with her mama these days.  you see, she will not be left out of anything her brothers are doing (including going into the ocean), and well, due to my popularity, I will not be left out either!  this was my view from above while she was holding my hand and digging away . . .

after all of her hard work digging on the beach and playing in the waves (we did go under a wave together and she loved it—wild woman!), sister took a snooze on the beach in her stroller.  it was amazing . . .

Sugie and Bumpa came down for a while, and the boys got some special time with Bumps in the ocean while Daddy took a snooze . . .

Daddy got his turn in the waves, too . . .

The next day, we met up with some friends and played and played until we were just too hot!

Sweet Carter and Anna shared a snack . . . and a chair!  How cute are these two?

William was giving me his thesis for why he really needed more snacks—or something.  I don’t actually remember the details, but I know it started like this:  “well, you see mom, the thing is . . .”  rascal!

beach boy soaking up the sun!

our littlest peach!

and the post nap snacker . . .

little lady holding down the fort!

it was such a fun weekend, such a treat for our family, and such a fun, spontaneous getaway.  we just loved it!  oh, how I love summer!  (have I mentioned that before!?!)  thank you, brookie!

happy mama! {and this week}

I happened to be turning 29 (again) and I had a wonderful little birthday!  For the first time in a year or two, I did not spend my birthday at the pediatrican’s office!  And, no one threw up on me!  Hooray!  One of my birthday wishes was to have dinner with sweet baby Jakey, and that we did.  It was delightful, the food was AH-Mazing, and Jakey was quite the perfect angel!

On my big day, our sweet Sugie had us over for a fun dinner!  We missed our Nana a lot, and our Bumpa wasn’t feeling well and couldn’t join us . . . but we still had a lovely time!  Another of my birthday wishes was to have a picture taken with me and each of our kiddies.  It was quite the task!

We started with this turkey:

and picked this one as the best of them all . . .

then this other rascal jumped in . . . don’t they look thrilled?

so, we tried again with this little ham . . .

and, we got one . . . I think!

we got one with sister, cute little bug!

and tried our best for a group shot!

and, the winner:

I managed to snatch a picture with Sugie, too!

What a fun day!  Thanks for celebrating me, sweet family of mine!

***
This week, we are continuing our summer of fun!

Anna has decided that she no longer wants to sit in a booster.  Anna big.  Anna chair.  ANNA BIG, MOMMY.  I have decided that there are some battles I am not willing to fight!  (Sidenote:  This girl is stringing together words and sentences like crazy!  It is so fun to hear what she is thinking!  I love it!  She has been talking a lot about going to school this fall, which is funny, because I have never mentioned it to her.  In fact, I am still debating if I am actually going to send her at all . . . but, it seems to me that Sister has a plan of her own!  Anna big.  Anna school.  Anna TWO, Anna SCHOOL.  MY SCHOOL, MOMMY!  She has also turned a corner at “church school” on Sundays . . . usually she cries, but since she is so very excited to go to school now, this week she stuck out her little, shaking bottom lip but she held it together and had a great morning.  And, she was QUITE proud of herself, too!  Adorable!)

After washing dishes yesterday, I turned around to find this—a chilled climber and a little lady singlehandedly unloading my fridge!

We had dinner with this love, who was being smooched in alternating intervals by his cousin Anna (“MY BABY JAKEY!”) and William (“Every day, Jake looks at me and smiles.  He likes to look at me, I think.”)

we went on a walk with our friends yesterday and stopped to look over at the garden!

round and round and round we go . . .

today, we went to the pool, and little miss walked up and down the picnic table and had a little taste of everyone’s lunch!

And, on the way home, we had a series of meltdowns that ended in hilarity!  I love this picture because of the look on Katie’s face—we were dying laughing, and thinking how is this our life?  this is hysterical.  Here is the story:  Twice this week, we tried to pack up our four big kids (sugie had the baby) and walk to the pool from Katie’s house.  Monday, I ended up walking home while pushing a double stroller and pulling a Mr. P backwards on his bike-car.  Today, it took Katie, Hudson, and Charlie about 15 min to get one block to the pool because they were walking so slowly . . . and when they arrived, Katie was pulling the bike and carrying Charlie.  It was so funny.  Right after we got to the pool, the wind picked up and we were certain that the skies were going to open up and rain down on us.  So, Katie took the stroller and the bike/car home and picked up the car, which was supposed to have four carseats in it . . . after wrangling our rascals and convincing them that we had to leave the pool for naps, we got to the car to realize that we only had three car seats!  We strapped in Hudson and Anna and told William to get in his chair, but Charlie climbed into it instead.  I climbed in the driver’s seat and Hudson started bawling crying because he wanted Katie to drive.  Charlie threw himself nose first into the front seat and hit his head on the steering wheel honking the horn, but otherwise unfazed.  Hudson was still crying, Anna started yelling, and William and Charlie were arguing about who would get to sit up front with Katie (since we were missing a car seat).  In the midst of the screaming, I looked at Katie, told her to close her door, and began to drive off.  Then I stopped the car and took this picture.  OH MY WORD.  These tiny people are RASCALS.  (if you can’t tell, Charlie is sitting ON William’s lap.  And, in case you are worried, the pool is only one block from Katie’s house!  We all made it home alive, and they all took naps.  Success!)

I have a hunch that there is more fun to be had with this crew of crazies!!