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Wednesday, May 30, 2012

Sports-a-thon

What kid doesn't remember field day? Best day of the school year, right. Well Dylan has been waiting for his for two years now because last year it got rained out and then rained out again on the rain date. Well this year started out the same. Sure enough it rained on field day...but today was the rain date and thankfully no rain!

Here are a few action shots of some of the stations:

Luckily, Sports-a-thon lived up to all the hype.

Wednesday, May 23, 2012

Just another day in paradise

In an effort to maximize the little amount of family time we have with John, I took on one of his chores. I never thought I would utter these words but...I now mow the lawn.
At first I did it so that rather than riding around on the lawn mower watching the kids play, he could actually play with them on his day off. But I have to admit I've grown to like it. It's not like when you clean the house and no one even notices because it immediately gets dirty again. It's instant gratification. You can physically see the difference. And I find something calming about methodically creating those diagonal lines.
Anyway, it's grass cutting season again and I'm back on the tractor. But today I kind of got it stuck in a ditch! One of the back wheels was off the ground and I couldn't reverse. So I kept creeping further and further into the woods and wasn't making any movement back towards the yard. After about 15 minutes, a 102 point turn and every ounce of my upper body strength, I managed to pull it out and finish the front lawn. All in time to get Dylan to baseball practice!! And damn, does that lawn look good if I do say so myself!

Monday, May 14, 2012

Explorers extraordinaire

Having dogs has made hiking a daily event. We've been taking the kids since they were days old strapped to our backs. They have become so accustomed to it, I think they look forward to it as much as the dogs.

They love to scale rocks, jump rivers and collect nature along the way. Usually they serve as trail guides leading the way and then duck behind a tree so they can pop out and scare us.

On Mothers Day they both found me a present!

And this afternoon, Camryn fell off the plank walk into the mud! Resourceful Dylan grabbed a skunk cabbage leaf to use as a cloth to wipe her off. But he pulled so hard that when it broke loose he fell backward into the mud too!!

But the muddy troopers kept on trucking. Nightly tick checks and brown murky bath water don't even deter these explorers. And the symphony of snores coming from the dogs as well as the kids validates why it is an essential part of our day!

Thursday, May 10, 2012

Stay in bed

I guess I need to be more specific with my bedtime rules!

She did indeed stay in bed....she just brought all her toys with her!!

Tuesday, May 8, 2012

Oh to be 4 again!

Remember when you were little and your birthday lasted all month long. Now we hope to avoid them at all costs so no one notices we are getting older. Camryn had quite the birthday run this month. She celebrated twice at school with a birthday snack, close family came over for dinner and a Fancy Nancy necklace making party with her friends....all on top of her actual birthDAY!

Here's a look at the festivities:
Make your own parfait (that's fancy for ice cream sundae)


Rainbow cupcakes

Check out the inside

Rainbow fruit kabobs

Fancy Camryn

Making accessories




The finished product
And that concludes Cam's birthday until next year....and she is already planning!

Friday, May 4, 2012

Flashback Friday

Dylan uses every ounce of his energy all day and is exhausted by bedtime.  He has been this way since he was born.  He slept through the night at 8 weeks old and continues to be a superstar sleeper! The child can fall asleep anywhere, anytime and sleep through anything.  Here are some of my favorites over the years:
On dad
on the boat under the seat

eating his cheerios

on a pizza delivery bag at daddy's work
on the hard, cold kitchen floor with Callie

1st in Times Square


rocking out after a long day at the beach


and most recently on an ice cream bench in the middle of a huge parade in the Bahamas

Wednesday, May 2, 2012

Oh nuts!

Little league rules require that all players wear a cup. Since this year they are using hard balls (no pun intended) Dylan and I ventured to the sports shop to purchase one.

He was less than thrilled to tell the salesman what we were looking for. I wasn't convinced I was even going to be able to get him to wear it, seeing as though the past few times I've done the laundry I found five pairs of pants and only two pairs of underwear...you do the math.

But before practice he did indeed put it on. He was intrigued by it and let me know he barely noticed it. Well all his teammates and their parents probably did because he spent more time banging on it then he did playing baseball.

On the car ride home, I explained how it was inappropriate and that he just needed to focus on the game. He agreed to leave it alone but only after he said: "Mom, I have a joke" and then proceeded to knock on it and expected me to say "who's there?"