East Coast Summer Tour

 

 This summer we extended our east coast tour by another week, in hopes of escaping more of the brutal Texas summer heat.  While we had great fun, I think we brought the heat with us for part of our trip. We began our trip by heading to Pennsylvania first...me, Matthew, Ellie and all of Matthew's "babies".

 In the few summers that we have been doing this trip, the kids have already made their list of "must-do's".  An old fashioned train ride in the Pennsylvania country side is at the top of Matthew's list. This year he was not as scared of the loud train whistle as he was before.

We added a visit to the Winterthur Museum Children's Garden!  This life sized bird nest began two weeks of playing "baby bird".  More "baby bird" pictures to follow.

 The Enchanted Mushroom Fairy Circle was a close second to the bird nest.  As soon as you entered the ring of mushrooms, a cloud of mist began pouring in...it only took Ellie a few minutes to find the sensor that tripped the mist machine!

 Matthew enjoyed gently fanning away the mist while perched on a mushroom.

 Next we headed down to Rehoboth Beach, DE!  This sand pit was a daily feature, and yes, needed re-digging by myself and Nana, with the "help" of Ellie and Matthew.  The kids had a ball chasing waves (bigger than our Gulf waves), building sand castles, and hunting for sand crabs.

 This is what happens after a full day at the beach.  So, sweet!

 This sweet, calm picture may have been taken only seconds before the arrival of the massive wave that Nana and I had to rescue both kids from, while accidentally throwing my Kindle into the ocean...thanks for the new one, Amazon!

 Matthew made anew best friend on this trip.  Now, that's some of the best sharing I have ever seen...both from child and cat!

 We spent a day at Sesame Place again this year, and convincd Nana to come with us!  We even convinced (tricked?) the kids into going on some of the bigger water rides.  Matthew loved them, sitting tall, waiting for the spray of water!  Ellie...was pretty mad at us for a while.

 Once we got to Grandmas house in NY, the three (Stooges) cousins were right back at it....fun and games and silliness all around!

 This time they welcomed cousin Ian into the games...I think they ate just about every meal at this little table outside.  Now that's one way to keep the crumbs to a minimum with seven kids 5 and under, in one house.

 We went to Gilbert Lake twice! Matthew is my little fish, actually swimming with the little fish :)

 Ellie, again the cautious one, preferred to stay in the shallow water where she could see her toes...I know how you feel Ellie :)

 Cousins! Friends! Even though they haven't seen each other since Christmas they picked up right where they left off.

 Ahhh...the "baby birds" return.  With nests made out of pool noodles covered by towels, this game went on for days.  They even fed each other "worms" (spaghetti).

 Ellie took a real liking to "baby Shane" who with the addition of Keegan and Sloane, is no longer the baby of the bunch.  She said she felt like a teenager, helping Shane in her new bathing suit.

Matthew in a fleece...in July.  What a wonderful opportunity to be cool for a while!  Although the kids were a little confused by the cold mornings.  They kept asking when it was going to snow! Thanks for a wonderful trip everyone!!!

Texas Bluebonnets

For five years now I have wanted to do the required Texas Bluebonnets photo shoot. That is, it's required if you have children, and live in Texas. Year after year I have ooh-ed and ahh-ed over everyone else's photos. They are all so beautiful...the children and the flowers.

The grow everywhere, on the sides of the highways, in the cow pastures, in the oil fields. The only trick is getting to them safely. I spotted a field between here and Ellie's school that had a piece of the barbed wire missing, and I knew that was our spot. As I was talking this up to the kids, here's what was really going through my mind....this is a Texas field...poisonous snakes, poisonous spiders, scorpions. This was worth it, right? The pictures were going to be great!!!

I had them both by the hand, I tried to push the long grasses down ahead of me and have them walk behind me. Well...the very first thing Ellie did was step in a patch of stinging nettle....and shriek and scream uncontrollably. And what did I think? "....this is a Texas field...poisonous snakes, poisonous spiders, scorpions." Fortunately it was just nettle. Yes, it did hurt, but she calmed down enough to get some slightly red eyed pictures. Poor thing. Oh, but I wanted those pictures.

Eat Your Heart Out, Eric Carle!

It is no secret to anyone that Matthew is involved in his very first love afair...with the Very Hungry Caterpillar and Eric Carle. He can recite the entire book, he has a blanket, two caterpillars, two copies of the book, Eric Carle's framed art on his wall, a quilt, curtains, a caterpillar birthday cake....and then he learned how to draw...

In the last week, his artist switch has turned on. I remember when this happened with Ellie. One day she was scribbling, and the next day she was coloring inside the lines. I thought someone else had drawn the picture for her!

I went into Matthew's room the other day and found this....

He had done this all by himself, found the tape, figured out how to cut a million little pieces, and he hung his work of art, his very own Very Hungry Caterpillar, signed by the artist. He nestled it in it's rightful place, amongst the other Eric Carle artwork. Melt my heart!!! It was so sweet that I waved the rule about not taping thing on the wall. Since then, I bought some frames and have made him his own little gallery wall in his room (without tape).

The first is of course, the very famous caterpillar and his piece of watermelon. The second is a family portrait. We are all sporting new hair dos.

Western Day

It's been much too long since the last post. We have moved on from Christmas trees, to gardening. You'll be happy to know that Matthew has recovered from his Flat Stanly incident with the tree quite well. (non-teachers...Flat Stanly is a little boy who is flatten by a falling bookcase, and is then able to fit in an envelope and mail himself all across the country.) However, the great Christmas Tree event will never be forgotten, thanks to Ellie...it has become her favorite story to tell, even months later. What are big sisters for!

After having been in TX for eight years now, I think I must finally admit to myself that my children are Texans. They say "y'all", have each already owned several pairs of cowboy boots, and don't even realize that not all bathing suits come in the form of sun-repelling long sleeve shirts. I now have some great pictures to document their Texas roots. The Child Study Center recently held their very first Western Day. The idea began as a day to let everyone wear their best boots and western garb to school, but you know TX...go big or go home!

Oh Christmas Tree, Oh Christmas Tree, You Are So Very Heavy....

My best story of the season is lacking a picture, but when you hear it you'll understand why. This morning, Tony was tending to the turkey, and I was cleaning. At some point the kids had been told to get dressed. I hear, from upstairs, a scream, a crash, and breaking glass. I race downstairs to find the 9ft tree on it's side, broken ornaments everywhere, and two little legs coming out from under the tree. This is another story, where now that we know he's ok, is really kind of funny. And he was NAKED. AGAIN. Naked, and pinned under a decorated nine foot tree. Seems he wanted to move an ornament to a higher branch, got his little chair, lost his balance, and everything went over. He was of course screaming, Tony had raw turkey all over hands, and the tree was too heavy to lift by myself. At the time, we really thought he could be hurt, so of course Tony grabs the tree and I pull his little naked three year old body out from under. (I'm sure our tree is now contaminated with raw turkey germs...don't tell the food police). He was fine. A little scratched up but fine. Ellie was beside herself. Not sure if she was most upset over her brothers impersonation of the wicked witch of the west, or over the ornament massacre. Funny - just yesterday I has given them a big speech about not touching or breaking the glass ornaments. Sigh. Such is life with little kids. I should have taken pictures.

In other holiday news, Ellie had to dress up as a pilgrim for school. Nana sent my Little House on the Prairie dress that she had made me...hmmm, 25 years ago? It was perfect for Pilgrim wear. Unfortunately, no one else chose to dress up so we took it off once she got to school. She made up for it by wearing it for Thanksgiving at home today.


Here she is taking a break from tree decorating and choosing to direct instead. Telling people what to do is her favorite past time.


And this one....as sweet and innocent as it looks, is quite contrived. We have an Elf on the Shelf who flies back to the North Pole each night to report to Santa what when on during the day. This is Matthew and Ellie after they cooked up a plan to hug in front of the elf, so he'd see how nice they were being to each other. Sweet, but sneaky.


Happy Thanksgiving!

Halloween

Happy Halloween! As the web and facebook are inundated with every mother's adorable photos of her kids, I just had to add mine to the bunch. As I was watching the kids in the neighborhood trick or treat, I realized that we are thankfully still in the stage where I have major control over the costumes. They have ideas, sure, but I get to influence them, and ultimately, get the costumes. That's why moms of little kids are out there taking so many pictures. We've worked hard at this! You don't see the moms of all the tweens, who are dressed in some combination of ripped things, makeup, fish nets, and wigs, out there taking pictures. I think they'd rather just forget. I hope when we get there, my kids are not wearing ripped things and fish nets. For now, here are my adorable trick or treaters!


And Eric Carle presents....the Very Hungry Caterpillar....before and after he ate through one piece of chocolate cake, one ice cream cone, one pickle....


Below is our gang of cuties who trick or treat together every year. Hmmm....we parents vaguely remembered promising last year to dress up this year. We'll have to remember earlier next year.


They had a ball, remembered to say thank you, and didn't get to scared. They did get tired though. Below is my view from behind the stroller after Matthew gave up for the night.

The Pumpkin Patch

After three years now, we seem to have developed a family tradition at Halloween...the Pumpkin Patch! The kids LOVE it, and I can't resist such a wonderful photo opportunity. With Ellie in Kindergarten this year, I was worried that she was going to miss it. It just wouldn't be right without her in these pictures. I was considering taking her out of school some morning, but then a teacher development day popped up right at the end of October, and I knew right way what we would do.



This pumpkin patch is really a great find. It's very child oriented, which sounds like it should be a given, but so many places like this have tons of rules, and lots of "dont's" and "can'ts". They don't want this kids to touch things, or run, or pick. This place lets the kids sit on the pumpkins, carry them around, pull them in wagons, throw hay...I've never heard them say no to anyone.



My two little Texas babies have gotten very attached to thier cowboy boots and what better place to wear them than a pumpkin patch. Although, to specify, Ellie's are "cowgirl" boots. (Please don't tell her that I bought them for Matthew, but they were too big, so I put them on her.)


And now, I've just got to do this....

2009 (there was major mud this year)

2010

2011

Still being coerced into pictures, but, Oh how cute!!!