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!!

the 4th and lately . . .

 

so, along with the heat wave of 2012, we continued with our july 4th celebrations!  we weren’t sure how the littles would do with the fire works, but, overall, they really enjoyed them!

william and I made some blue cream cheese icing and dipped strawberries into the icing for dessert.  he may have snatched one or two before our dinner!

we had dinner and watched the fireworks over the river at cousin marshall’s house—it was amazing!  anna snoozed in Marshall’s basement, while the rest of us watched in amazement!

charlie with his mama

oooooh!

loud, but entranced!

and, on the 4th, we caught some fireworks on our way home from dinner.  this is one of my favorite pictures.  oh, my heart!

Lately, we’ve been celebrating shannon & katies summer o’ fun, and doing a lot of this:

lunches at cousin charlie-arlie-arlie’s house

and playing around the house in the morning.  Anna’s new favorite spot to play is behind my door . . . hmmm . . .

the boys have had some evening fun with their daddy too . . . this was the exploration of these HUGE nasty beetles with pinchers outside of our house.  I love how the boys are leaning in their heads together to watch Daddy’s every move.  So sweet.

this past week, Anna had her first real haircut!

and, I had to take a picture of the back after her trim . . . I am so worried these curls aren’t going to stay!

We woke up to this sweet face on Saturday morning!  I adore this blue-eyed babe!  She is so snuggly right now!  She wants to kiss and squeeze and give “pat pat pats” all of the time.  I just love seeing how tender-hearted she is—she is so dear to me.  Now, don’t get me wrong, I believe that just as very cute as she is, she is equally as LOUD and FIESTY.  This little love is a beautiful little hot mess.  I adore her.

and, the boys were invited to big cousin shawn thomas’ 5th birthday!  and, a super-hero party at that!  it was the boys’ first dress up party, and they were thrilled!  cousin charlie came with us, and we had a blast!

this handsome big batman led the small bats around . . . oh, hey, batman!

three little bats, all in a row . . .

sister was not a bat, and she was just fine with that.  she played some and colored some . . .

and the birthday fun continued into sunday . . . more to come!

let freedom ring!

 

(from our very hot walk yesterday morning!)

Happy Independence Day to you!

lately . . .

 

we’ve been doing a little of this . . .

riding on “mama’s boat” . . .

and Bumpa’s boat . . .

smooching bee-bee jee-kee after all the tots are in bed . . .

swimmin’ in da poolz wit dada . . . keeek (kick), keeek!

catching a fish or two (really, just one.  only one. but great effort!) . . .

 

and driving around the lake . . .

we’re back and we are tired, but we had SO MUCH FUN.  It was LOVELY. 

This was supposed to be our vacation with our Nana this summer.  We missed her so much, but it was such a treat to all be together and relax and play, play, play.  That Nana, her generosity succeeds her!

 

More pictures to come!