Calisthenics with Carrie

The four kiddos had a blast doing 'Calisthenics with Carrie'!

They grooved to my new favorite kids CD "All God's Animals"
by TJ McCloud.

Even the dad's got in on the fun demo-ing their golf swings.

Ben, golf teacher extraordinaire!And Carrie, being a sneaky leader, "instructed" all of the kids to line up and say "cheese".

All 4 kids smiling = Success!(Eli Bennet 20months, Carissa Joy 2, Caleb Jackson 2, Joshua Howard 3)All smiles, 'Calisthenics with Carrie' ended with goodnight hugs all around.

America the Beautiful Park

America the Beautiful Park is my new favorite park! The kids and I met up with my dear friend Carrie and her boys who were visiting here from AZ.Our reunion was sweet - a reunion that I had been looking forward to for over a year.

The park has a fabulous playground in addition to the spectacular Julie Penrose Fountain. Water flows down from the sculpture and collects at the bottom - perfect for little ones to splash and wade in.


(Caleb, Carissa, Joshua, Carrie, Eli)
After playing for awhile we had snacks. The watermelon and raisins I brought for the kids didn't cut it for Caleb and Carissa. Clearly the airplane crackers and the Welch's fruit snacks that Carrie brought were the snack of choice. Onlookers witnessed my severely deprived children malling Joshua and Eli for their fruit snacks. It was corn syrup envy at first bite! Embarrased (just a tad) I tried to restrain Caleb and encouraged the eating of our naturally sweet watermelon.
All smiles for a great play date.

Eleven Mile Reservoir

The Eleven Mile Reservoir loved it when we showed up for an enjoyable weekend of camping with the Robert's family.

4 parents, 5 little people, and 1 incubating baby=FUN!Just as we arrived at our campsite a torrential downpour forced everyone to pile in to our camper. When the rain showers didn't let up we made the best of it by making the kids 'beanie weenies' and the adults 'taco pie' for dinner. After several 'delightfully' crowded hours in the camper we called it a night and folded in early. We awoke to a beautiful sunny morning and had sunny skies the rest of the weekend. The kids were in their glory playing along the shoreline of the 'beach'.

(Sophia, Sahra Marie, Carissa, Elizabeth, Caleb)

(Carissa & Caleb 2.5 years old)

(Sophia 2.5 years old)

(Sarah Marie 5 years old)

(Elizabeth 6 years old)

(Jeff and Jack: oldies. double trouble)A wonderful weekend!

Bugged

Caleb and Carissa have a new fascination with bugs.

Moth season was particularly dense this year due to extra rainfall. Much to my dismay Caleb and Carissa have become our resident moth catchers.They like to catch moths by hand and then take them outside while yelling "go outside moth!"

I did not, nor would not teach my children to catch moths.

Disgusting.

But when Jeff was globetrotting earlier this summer a church friend introduced the tots to the 'joy of catching bugs', particularly moths. She didn't want our small children to fear bugs as much as her big children do now. Thanks Deanna!

Trying to nurture their affection for bugs (not) I bought the tots bug catchers. To my surprise (and joy) they are currently intrigued with catching ladybugs in our backyard. Ladybugs...my speed.

But if they start catching our native Garder snakes you'll definitely hear me screaming.

100th Post

This entry marks the 100th post on this blog.

While I kicked and screamed for over a year about starting a blog, I finally succumbed to the peer pressure of my good friend Carrie. And now, thanks to her I have this here blog.

Thank you to all of you readers who click on our blog address! I'm curious to know who's lurking out there so if you haven't ever left a comment please do so.(clematis flower in my back yard)

Fashion Forward

Since the 1940's sunglasses have been a popular fashion statement. Now, thanks to Nana, Carissa and Caleb can show off their very own.
Batman.
Hello Kitty.
Fashion Forward.

Uncle B and Aunt Angela

My cute sister-in-law Angela and my younger brother Brian bestowed their presence upon us in June. The last time they were here our small children were mere babies. It was good practice to hold our bitty ones back then because now they are expecting their first little guy in November. One evening we had a picnic dinner in the Garden of the God's Uncle B was a bit excited about his idea of feeding the horses in our neighborhood. He asked the owners permission and 20 pounds of carrots later...