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Our one-night camping excursion has ended.
The last of the camping equipment is washed and set out to dry; the tent is drying out, ready to be folded and put away; the ticks are all picked off.
We had a really fun time. Jon took all the kids for a ride on the little 4-wheeler,
and with all the kids that were there (20 in total!) it was hard to pick who would get a ride. Fortunately not all 20 children were up for a thrill ride through the woods.
Here is a picture of beautiful India. Isn’t she delicious?
What was there: campfire, music, lots of food, old roads through the woods, poison ivy, ant hills, talking, dirt, s’mores, and lots of laughing (the best part). What there was not enough of: blankets and clothing, and consequently, sleep. I think I got about 45 minutes total last night. Good excuse to go to bed early tonight though!
Now we’re ready for a busy week ahead…family in town again, and then traveling to fabulous Beaufort to visit Scott’s family for a couple days. Next week we celebrate 8 years of romance and bliss, and to celebrate he’s taking me here. Our favorite place (so far) to stay in Charleston.
The wink is unintentional, but cute.
Hope everyone had a wonderful, relaxing Memorial Day. Thanks for serving our country, Dad!
Scott’s dad was here for couple days this week.
The kids had a good time…Opa was like an extra playmate! I asked the girls a few times yesterday what the best part of their day was, and each time they said “Playing with Opa!”
While he was here, we had a terrific storm. The news channel said there was a tornado headed towards us and advised to see immediate shelter, but it ended up dissipating which we were happy about. We got some terrific hail, though…I have never seen hail this large before. A streaky picture, sorry about that…but you can see how much of it we got. The sound of it coming down and hitting the house was deafening.
Afterwards, though, it was puddle time! Whee!
“Mommy, can you please take a picture of me jumping?!”
Now that the girls have bicycles of their very own, Asher has taken over the tricycle.
My sweet, chubby, curly-headed, Mommy-lovin’ boy.
Mom and Dad bought this tricycle for Ivy, and each babe has used it. Perfect.
Asher must be growing through a growing season. All three of them are, I think…all of a sudden clothes don’t fit them that just fit a couple weeks ago. This was Asher’s menu for breakfast today: an entire banana, 2 pieces of toast, and entire adult-portion of yogurt, and a cup of milk. I’m sure he could have had more but I didn’t want him to explode.
The girls have spent many afternoons lately “making tea” out back. I give them a jug of water, and some thrifted teacups and teapots, all on a little wooden serving tray, and they go at it. They made “flower tea” the other day, after Mommy gave them permission to pick some lantana blooms from the backyard.
Aunt Abby comes this afternoon for a short visit, on her way to New Attitude. We are happy to have so many visitors lately!
Here are some more pictures from our Maryland trip. I usually don’t have this many pictures, but Judi sent some great ones that she took (thanks Judi!). Family pictures are so fun! The best ones came from Harper’s Ferry, where we spent one evening just hanging out and throwing rocks into the river.
Who doesn’t love a pile of dirt?
Here are a couple more pictures of the children, from various times during our weekend.
Here’s a couple more.
We are well into learning to read around here. I think the girls pretty much have the idea, although I am not positive. We are trying right now to remember the difference between the “w” sound and the “y” sound. Tricky, I tell ya.
Asher has been talking a lot better in the past few weeks. He now says “Ma-meee!!” at full volume and it’s wonderful! And he says it all the time! But we love it. Every time anyone sneezes (including himself) he giggles and says “Bless!”. He has also learned it’s not the end of the world if he says “Hi” to someone that we meet. For a little boy who has always especially loved women, this is a wonderful thing to discover. The check-out ladies at the store just about eat him up after seeing his sweet grin and hearing his shy little “hi”.
So, yesterday I had a humbling moment. I took the girls on a walk (two almost-40-pound toddlers in a heavy jogging stroller on an 80-some degree day. I definitely got my exercise), and after we got home they sat down for a little snack. Ivy sat thoughtfully munching on her grapes and staring at me.
“Mommy? You are really much bigger than Daddy.”
“Really?” I said. “I think Daddy weighs more than Mommy.”
“Well,” she replied, “you are really much bigger than him.”
Sigh.
The night before I was putting them to bed, and after I gave hugs and kisses all around, Ivy says sleepily, “Mommy? I am really looking forward to loving you tomorrow.”
So we’re home now, from visiting Chad and Judi, silly Silas and cutie-pie Caitlyn. We had such a nice time. Thanks, guys, for letting us descend on your home.
Isn’t she sweet?
The highlights will be in two posts here because I can’t find half of the pictures I uploaded to Smugmug, and I don’t have time right now to upload them again. So I’ll post the other pictures I have soon.
This trip was especially nice because the children are older now, and it was very fun to see them play together. Asher and Caitlyn more tolerated each other, but it was good practice for sharing.
The three older children really had a good time together, and it was all very sweet.
There was lots of playing
and running around,
reading together,
and crying (inevitable with 5 kids 5 and under).
We visited beautiful parks (and got some great pictures to boot!).
We also visited the National Zoo in D.C. on Monday. No pictures from that, but everyone did really well all day and we got to ride the train! (metro) With Silas! That was certainly a very exciting part that the girls were really looking forward to. And who knew we could fit 2 large strollers into the Metro during rush hour and have room to spare?
One of the highlights of the weekend was a local farm that has calf-feeding time every Saturday at 4pm. Oh boy!
Charlotte’s cow was a little too excited about feeding time, so she got turned off to it real quick.
We also got to see cows getting milked by a milking machine, which was very exciting.
Here are a few more sweet pictures.
More pictures coming soon, as soon as I can find them.
