Summer Fruits

We love 'em all!!

strawberries... plums... blackberries...

nectarines... raspberries... apricots...

On the sunny non-rainy days of summer (a rarity in '09),
we find ourselves on the backyard swing
eating juicy goodness.

And don't forget the summer prunes ;-)

Posted by Bree

That's Our Girl

Her Favorites

Thomas underwear
Lightning McQueen slippers
Mack truck

Posted by Bree

Don't Mess

with caped crusaders...

in underwear...armed with bicycle tire pumps.





They are dangerous villians....
Beware.

Posted by Bree

Ordinary or Memorable

We take a lot of walks.

Almost every day.

They are a part of our daily flow, so they tend to feel rather ordinary sometimes. In a quest to keep life interesting and fascinating to my young children, I am always looking for opportunities to make an ordinary walk a memorable walk.

It is common to hear the kids say things such as "Mom, remember when we found the pill bug family?" or "I can't find my cherry collection from that walk we took" or "This huge stick was the one we found by the creek." Memories.

So the other day, when Evan asked, "Mom, can we splash in the puddles?" I just smiled at him and said, "Yeah."

There are memories waiting to be made

everyday ... everywhere,

just in ordinary life.

Posted by Bree

Through the Forest

Kitten trails through the forest on the deck this afternoon... in the branch clippings... this kid thinks of a new use for everything.

Posted by Bree

The Best Days

The best days are almost always the messiest.

The ones where my house is absolutely trashed by 3pm.

The ones where we have tents, tunnels, nests, toys and

empty toyboxes strewn about in every room.

The ones where my kids are stinky, sweaty

or have mud caked under their fingernails.

The ones where there are piles of dirty clothes

in the bathtub waiting stain treatment.

The ones where I am utterly exhausted

from the long long days

of playing with young kids.

Days like today are not perfect,

but I know they are

the best days of my life.

Posted by Bree

p.s. We miss you Todd!!! Hurry home ;-)

Train Museum

We took a drive into Ohio with my mom and Greg, Brook, Kaylan and the kiddos to visit a train 'muse-ay-um.' Pretty fun having the family all together for a big outing like this. Usually we just camp out at mom's :-)

I often end up not taking many pictures on outings since I enjoy watching the kids and experiencing the memory with them (translation, I try but they run away from me over and over so I give up). Here are a few that I did take.

Cousins watching model trains.

Cool display the kids really loved and spent most of their time on. Well, my kids did anyway. It was hard to keep track of what they all were doing!

They really wanted this hand car to move. It was not made to move.

Maybe with some more manpower.

Still trying to get this thing moving... Notice Chloe, now bored, attempting something new...

She stepped on the wood ties the whole way down. Her legs are so long now!

She spent a long time playing in the real caboose displayed with a locomotive and a freight car (which my children ran several laps around and around.... it was quite long).

I noticed after a couple hours that it was just mom and Greg and me left. The others had left (Landon was really sleepy). So we just hung out. The kids kept running laps. We stopped now and then for drinks, bathroom breaks and some book reading at the gift shop. Then back to their favorite display for some good pretending time. More laps and more caboose exploration... Then they ran laps in the large yard next to the museum.

And to wrap up the afternoon, Chloe required that I drag her out of the museum screaming and kicking and yelling at me... this is our usual drill when we are anywhere new... and we got in the car where she and Evan proceeded to fight the whole way home... this too is our usual drill when we are...well....when we're.... together. Other than that, a fantastic time!

Posted by Bree

New Toy

Evan and Chloe got a new water slide (from Gramma) to share for their birthdays. We set it up yesterday while Todd's brother Tim and his two beautiful daughters were here visiting (I mean tagging along with our "tech support" who spent hours fixing our computer ;-) Good times.

Evan really loved diving in on the floatie board over and over.

It was not exactly warm out and Chloe hadn't had a nap... but I know she liked it anyway.

Cami and Courtney loved being a part of the fun too!! My camera lens didn't open all the way for these first two pictures but they are too cute to throw out!

Cami is a wild child!!

These two sisters are so fun to be around. They love each other so so so much.

Splash fight!!

Posted by Bree

FYI

I'm still here. Our computer crashed unexpectedly on Friday. We're up and running again thanks to wonderful "tech support" (although we lost everything not backed up on our hard drive... not a huge loss except for July's pictures... minus the ones on the blog). Anyway, more to come tomorrow.

For Gramma

We'll see you tomorrow on your birthday.

The kids have been making you lots of cards :-)

Posted by Bree