Games Boys Play...

"Mumma, you want to know about the game me and my friends made up?"
"Sure!"
"It's called the spitting game..."
"Ewww, that's gross. I don't know if I want to know about that game."
"No it's fun! You have to sit in the stick throne that we made and then you spit! If you hit the ground, it's zero points, if you hit a stick you get a hundred points, if you hit a leaf you get a hundred kadrillion points, and if you hit the rock wall you get a hundred kadrillion six thousand points."

Man......whatever happened to hide and seek?!

Favorite Photo Friday

Wow, a whole week without posting, sorry! It's time for another Favorite Photo Friday, onto the letter F...

F is for Fangs

Yup, this is what Ana looked like for several weeks. This picture was taken on June 1st, we called her our little vampire! She has since filled the space, and has her two front teeth (and she didn't even have to ask for them for Christmas!), but it was pretty funny for a while!

F is for Friends

I have the great fortune of keeping contact with many of my friends from high school. Not as often as I'd like, but we do keep in touch through various means. Last night I was able to get together with four of these fabulous women, and we had an awesome time reminiscing and catching up! Below is from the left, Michelle (with a belly full of identical twin boys!), me, Cary (the tall one in the back), Amanda and Tammi. Check out Michelle's blog for a picture that she dug up from high school, it's crazy funny to see the "then" picture along with the "now" picture. Thanks ladies, I had a ball and can't wait to get together again!

Favorite Photo Friday!

Favorite Photo Friday - E

E is for Earrings

Yup, don't think I mentioned it before, but we had Ana's ears pierced a few weeks ago. We started with these cute little flowers which I chose just because they were cute. As an afterthought, they are October's birthstone and October happens to be the month we first held Ana in our arms, kind of a neat coincidence, huh? Anyways, it doesn't matter too much now as one night the week before last Ana was in our bed and was completely awake, talking, laughing and rolling around. When we woke up the next morning I found the back of her earring laying on the bed next to me. I was kind of freaked out that maybe she had eaten it, so I called the doctor who had us just do some poop watching to do over the next few days, ugh. I still cannot find that earring! Luckily, the hole was still open enough so the nice lady at Wal-Mart was able to get a new one through. They didn't have any more pink flowers though, so she has little silver balls, which are still cute though!



E is for Entrepreneur

Okay, here's what I was talking about in my last post. At Ana's birthday party at the beach, Ian took all of the "camping junkfood" (yeah, he really enjoyed shopping for "camping food") out of the cupboards and set himself up a little shop through the RV door. He even wrote out his price list on a plate, spelling everything himself. For those not schooled in "Ian spelling", I'll translate the list below...

Okay, that is:

Doritos - $5.00
Sun Chips - $5.00
Donuts - &5.00
Goldfish - $5.00
Cheetos - $5.00
Oreos - $5.00

Yikes! So to recap, don't take your car to Ian's car wash, don't shop at Ian's junk food shop, oh, and if you see Ian's Lemonade stand open soon, take my word for it, run the other way! I hear the going rate for a glass of Ian's Lemonade is, you guessed it, $5.00!

I've updated a lot last night and today, so scroll down!

Greg's Birthday

Just wanted to post a couple pictures of Greg's birthday, particularly his present from Ian. Greg and Ian watch the discovery channel together sometimes. They particularly enjoy "How it's Made" and "Myth Busters". Well, Greg has long been fascinated in the Diet Coke/Mentos phenomenon, have you heard of it? You know, you drop Mentos candy into a bottle of Diet Coke and something cool happens? In case you haven't heard of this, and you are still wondering what happens, here are some pictures of Greg's present from Ian this year...two bottles of Diet Coke and a package of Mentos candy. He of course had to go directly outside to experiment!

And of course, we can't get through a celebration in our family without the ceremonial pelting with "silly string"!

Oh, and Ian made Greg's cake again this year. He decorated it completely by himself, including the spelling which I am so impressed by. I love that he put the "d" on upside down:

Happy 34 Birthpay Dad!

Our One Year Old...

Beautiful Girl...

Last year this time you were but a dream in our hearts. We were still three weeks away from seeing your beautiful face for the first time.

Amazing how much can happen in just one year. One July to be anxiously waiting to meet you through pictures, not even knowing if you were yet on this earth, to the next July, now having the absolute joy of rocking you to sleep each night. You are such a gift, and I am so honored to be your mummy.

Love you so very much,
Mumma, xoxo

Catch Up, Part Five, Camping Day Three

On to our third day camping, also Ana's birthday! It was a pretty relaxing day actually. Our good friends and neighbors the Bernhardts joined us for a few hours for some beach fun early in the day and we finished off with a barbecue, cake, ice cream and time with the family. I took a lot of pictures, so we'll just get on with them!

Ana started out in the awesome pack and play that my friend Marcia passed on. It's hexagon shaped and has a tarp bottom and tent canopy to provide shade. Thanks Marcia, it's gotten so much use already! Anyways, Ana kept alternating peeking out beneath the canopy and just smushing her face up against the mesh sides. It was pretty darn funny!

Eventually she grew tired of being contained so we let her loose. Let's just say she enjoyed her freedom immensely! I spent the rest of the time chasing her all over the beach! Here she is doing her "signature crawl"!

One of the biggest events of the day was flying the kite Greg bought at one of the shops down on the beach strip the night before. He brought a gigantic ball of string from the RV and his goal was to get the kite in the air and to let out not only all the kite string, but to attach his ginormous ball of string and let that out as well. He really got it extremely high, spanning all the way from the beach to up and over the camp ground, but I ruined the fun by pleading him to reel it in before it crashed in someone's camp site. I was afraid of making enemies! Greg's thought was that by the time they followed the string all the way back to it's source that he would be gone...nice philosophy to teach the kids Greg! Anyways, here's a few shots of the kite flying adventures:

Elizabeth trying her hand at kite flying:

This was when it was WAY up there!! Greg had all the kids lined up on the string, I couldn't even bring the kite into focus with the camera!

Ian and Eric...I Love this shot...the excitement is just so obvious!



Alex getting his turn:



Most of the time though, they just had a ball swimming, splashing and digging.

Poor Alex, I can't tell you how many of these photos I took. Every time I looked up there was Lightning McQueen staring back at me!

After a day on the beach, we geared up for a barbecue with our family where we had more presents, and more cake smashing action! Thanks Nannie and Papa, Mimi, Auntie Agnes, Uncle Steve, and Auntie Amy for joining us down at the beach on her birthday!

Enjoying her cake, and the dolly from Gramma Char and Grampa Scott

Lovin' the musical card from Sharon. She figured out how to open it to make it go, and close to make it stop. Every card there after was opened and closed carefully, I swear she was trying to make it play music, little smartie pants!



What's wrong with this picture?



Ian had a little venture going on during the party, but I'm saving that for tomorrow's favorite photo Friday, so come back and read all about it! Ana had a quick wash up in the RV sink after everyone left, and enjoyed a nice pacha before drifting off to sleep.



What a nice first birthday.
Thanks to everyone who helped us celebrate!

We Interrupt This Catch Up Sequence...

For Favorite Photo Friday! Let's see, we're now at D...

D is for Doggie

Ian attached himself to "doggie" when he was about 9 months old. He was the perfect friend, squishy and soft, with all embroidered features (which was important for mummy!). Doggie quickly became a tag along, and still holds a special place in Ian's heart. He still sleeps with him almost every night, and when it gets really quiet in the house, I'll usually find him curled up in a corner somewhere cuddling with his buddy (or watching tv with him!). We've had many a night over the years searching frantically for doggie before bed time because Ian is well known for "protecting" him by stuffing him in random spaces (like the piano bench, drawers and other small toys). For the love that doggie has received he has aged quite well, only requiring a few surgeries here and there (an almost lost ear, neck and armholes and a stuffing transplant!). He's not as white as he used to be and is balding in areas, but he's still a treasured pal for Ian and holds a lot of sentimental value for all of us!

Christmas of '05, all Ian asked for from Santa was a stroller, bed, and carrier for doggie. Isn't Santa great? Ian carried doggie around in the front carrier on and off for quite some time, it was so cute!

Last and certainly not least,
D is for Daddy!

And it's so fitting today because it happens to be Greg's 34th birthday! Happy Birthday Daddy, we love you so much! Wait until you see the party Ian (aka Franz the party planner) has dreamed up for you! For the rest of you, you know I'll have pictures later. Until then,

Happy Birthday Honey!

Catch Up, Part Four - Camping Day Two

This is how day 2 started, my two little ones curled up next to me in bed, love it! This is how we slept every night, Greg took one of the fold out beds and the kids and I slept on the bed. It would have been too squishy for all of us together (I think it's a full size, we make do on our queen size at home, but this would have just been a little too smushed!) and it was a good compromise for me! Ian has long been a "crawl into our bed in the middle of the night" kid, and even though I have many days where I wake up plastered to the wall teetering on my side (and he's the kind of child that sleeps UPSIDE DOWN on TOP of the covers, arrgh!), I know that in no time at all he won't be crawling in with us so I'm taking the cuddle time as long as I can. When Ana first came home, this wouldn't have been comforting to her at all, so this is new and wonderful for us that she seems to enjoy snuggling in with us when she is having a hard time sleeping. In fact, with this heat we've been having, we have AC in our bedroom and she doesn't (well until we hung a sheet between Ian and her room so the two rooms could stay relatively cool on these awful sticky nights!) so she was waking up a lot and just couldn't seem to get comfortable. We brought her in with us and she snuggled up next to me and drifted off quite content! When Ian came in later, Greg pulled her over a bit so Ian could slide in next to me and when she woke up, she crawled over to me, gave me the biggest grin and laid her head on my chest before climbing up and falling back to sleep on top of me. Can't imagine anything better than that! But, I digress....back to camping.

If you have never been to Salisbury Beach, there is a strip where there's an arcade (Joe's Playland), and several food vendors (beach pizza, yum!). Not to mention the best candy store ever! Joe's happens to be one of Ian's favorite places on this earth! He's been numerous times with not only us, but Greg's mum, and my parent's as well! Since we all drove in the RV and we didn't have an extra vehicle, Greg thought maybe we could just walk from the Reservation (where we were camping) down to the strip. I must admit I was a little skeptical as the road driving in seems to drag on forever! He thought that maybe we could just walk down the shore line letting Ian play along the way stopping when we needed to, so that's what we attempted. Now, beach sand is not one of my favorite walking surfaces, not to mention the whole pushing the loaded stroller through said beach sand. It was about mid-day and really hot and bright! We petered out pretty quickly making it probably only 1/3 of the way to our destination. We stopped just as Ana woke up from her nap so we decided to sit down and play for a bit. Ian again had a ball in the water becoming braver than I was comfortable with, he definitely got his father's love for ocean swimming! Ana still didn't like the water but had a great time playing (well, trying to eat, mostly!) the sand. We sat for a while before heading back to camp and taking a little rest, the heat sure does wipe you out!

Ian digging a hole as the waves continually filled it back in...Ahhh 6 year old determination!

Ana, resting comfortably as we trudged along the beach:

Look how she held her hands up high, she was not letting them touch that cold water!

But the sand was fascinating! This was undoubtedly moments before that handful went into her mouth!

And lastly, here's a picture of Ian looking pretty grumpy. Why is he grumpy you ask? Well, we decided to talk that walk after all. It was still very hot, and very sunny and we told Ian it would be a long walk but he decided that Joe's Playland was worth it! It took us about an hour to walk there and about 45 minutes to walk back due to the swarms of mosquitoes that joined us (that'll kick you into gear!). Ian had a grand time playing at the arcade, indulging in Tripoli's beach pizza and carefully picking out a treat from Willy's Candy Store. I was pretty proud of him to walk all the way with minimal complaining. We measured the distance on our way home and figured that we walked close to 6 miles that day (including our failed attempt), not bad for a six year old, never mind for the two out of shape grown-ups pushing the loaded down stroller! I'm really glad we did it, and even though he looks pretty ornery in the picture I'll bet he'd tell you he was glad too!



We concluded the night with more movie watching (Hercules!) while enjoying our Willy's goodies!

Catching Up, Part Three - Camping, Day One

Okay, onto the camping! We had Ana's party on Saturday, and left for camping on Sunday. We weren't even sure we were going to go because the weather forecast had been looking gloomy, but we decided Sunday morning that we would give it a try. We didn't get out of the house until about 3:30, and still had to stop at Wal-Mart for groceries, but there was no rush. We had originally planned on leaving Monday, so getting there anytime on Sunday mainly served the purpose of being able to have two full days at the beach instead of one! Ian was so excited, he had been looking forward to this since before school ended. He was especially excited because he got to ride in the RV to the beach. We were actually able to all ride together as Ana's car seat went nicely in the backwards facing front seat. Anyways, we pulled into our campsite around dinnertime and it promptly began to thunder, lightning and downpour. My parents came down to show us how to set up the awning, but were unable to because of the wind that the storm kicked up, so they just gave us the audio version. We sat in the RV and ate sandwiches and listened to the rain pelt the roof of the RV (which I love the sound of!) just waiting for the storm to pass. It wasn't too long before the rain slowed and the sun started to peek through the clouds again. We decided to go for a walk down to the beach, which, believe it or not, took some convincing to get Ian to agree to! He just wanted to be in the RV I think, but he finally gave in and he ended up having a ball of course! The parking lot we had to pass through to get to the beach was all enormous puddles! He was in heaven splashing his way through, and would have been happy if that was all we did, but we did eventually make it down to the ocean. He lost no time getting into the water, even though he was wearing pants, and thoroughly enjoyed jumping over the waves. Ana enjoyed watching him for a while but soon wanted to get out of the stroller so we took her out and walked her down to the water, which really didn't impress her all that much...she cried every time the waves lapped above her ankles!

Ian especially enjoyed climbing the trees. Every site has one, and they are perfect for climbing, all crooked and bumpy.

Splashing in the puddles on the way down to the shore...



The waves were pretty big after the storm and Ian was caught off guard a few times!



He loved to stand still and let the sand bury his feet, look how deep it got, up around his ankles!



On the way back to camp, he kept saying how his legs were tired, and they felt heavy. We told him it was just because he was wearing pants, and they get heavy when they are wet. Well, after the umpteenth time of hearing him complain, we took a look and discovered that his pants, stupid cheapy Wal-Mart design, had pockets on the ankles! What do you need pockets there for?! Anyways, the sand had filled the pockets and he was carrying probably a pound of sand on each leg, poor kid! We emptied them and he was much better!



Back at camp, we got Ana to sleep, then opened up the two beds in the main area and put on The Lion King while eating ice cream and s'mores made over the campers stove top 'cause we weren't building a fire right then! Ian didn't seem to mind and seemed to thoroughly enjoy his snack! It was a nice start to our camping trip!