All Three

Clean and ready for bed!

Cousin Time!

The cousin, Michael Matthew came in town last week and the cousins got to spend a lot of time playing together.

We played in the backyard.

We took a trip to the park.

And we just enjoyed playing together!

Apple Orchard

We visited the apple orchard this past weekend and had a wonderful time. The weather was perfect, warm and sunny.

The kids tried posing for a few pictures, but it was nearly impossible to get all three looking at the camera and smile at the same time.

So this is as close as we got.

And we had a blast playing as well!

First Day of School

The two older kids recently started school. Andrew began 1st Grade and Cailin began in 2nd Grade.

Both were VERY excited on the first day.

It still is very surreal to put your kids on a bus with a driver you've never met and send them on their way. They came home with the very same smiles.

And we had a wonderful dinner out (our first day of school family tradition) before heading early to bed.

Helping in the Garden

I usually have a few helpers when I'm working in the garden. One little one likes to eat anything I pull out of the garden. Especially tomatoes. This is my only child that eats raw tomatoes.

However, that's good because she really likes them and we have lots of them. Andrew comes out and helps as well. But he would rather play and talk to me and dig and spray the hose and fun stuff like that.

Cailin sometimes comes out to help. But she would much prefer to play on the iPad, the iPod, the iPhone or the iTouch. Or anything beginning with an "i".

"PRETTY!"

Well, when she says it, it sounds more like "PITY". But she is "pity" or pretty - either way, she's pretty cute!

Kamp Dels 2012

We did our annual trip to Kamp Dels this year and spent a nice long, hot week there. Having it hot was perfect. We spent most of the day, every day at the pool. We had rain overnight one night, but otherwise, it was toasty warm and sunny the whole week.

We had originally planned to go solo (just our family) but then our friends, the Frasers surprised us and ended up joining us for the week. And it was awesome because they were right next to us as well! The kids love to play together so it was a really fun suprise. Maddy loved roaming around the campsite.

The kids did bike rides.

We played at the playground.

Saw some cool animals at their 'farms'.

They rode ponies (the older two, Maddy wasn't quite old enough).

And of course, we played in the pool. A Lot!

And Mike even seemed to enjoy himself a wee little bit. Evenings after the kids went to bed, the four adults hung out by the campfire and visited while enjoying cocktails. It was a fantastic week!! We are already counting the days until our next trip, and who knows, we may stay even longer!! :)

Tball

Andrew started playing Tball not too long ago. Last year, we had him in summer sports and it was a little bit challenging. We had him registered to play and he was even with a good buddy of his, Dawson. But when it came time to go, he would NOT go. We had some monumental tantrums surrounding going to his sports night. sigh. But this year, we have a new boy! He loves to go each week. His buddy Dawson is playing again (on a another team, but they still see each other and always play on the playground equipment after the games), so he looks forward to that.

He plays Tball like he does most everything else, very cautiously and carefully. And he's kind of a natural at it too. And he sure looks like he's having fun.

And he loves the two coaches, Al and Matt.

Maddy even goes along to play. And while we spend a lot of time redirecting her from NOT taking the kids bats or water bottles off of the bench, she has fun.

4th of July

Most years, we head out of town to do some camping over the 4th of July Holiday. This year was no exception. It was also no exception that the weather over the 4th was HOT. It was very hot. And the bugs were pretty bad, as they usually are. very

Poor Madeline got a mosquito bite around her eye, which caused it to almost swell closed. But she smiled none the less. And we did our best to do day trips to check stuff out, and go swimming a lot. One of the fun things we did was buy a small plastic kiddie pool and set that up right next to our camper. All three kids enjoyed that.

It was a nice week for us to be all together, playing and relaxing.

And we were also thankful for the wonderful air conditioning as well. Ok, so it's not real camping, just kind of camping. But it was fun!

Andrew's Birthday

Andrew had his 6th birthday party not too long ago. Last year, he was sort of shorted out of a party, since it was soon after Madeline was born. So we made sure to do a nice big party for him this year.

He invited several school friends, which he was happy to see since it had already been a few weeks since school had ended. He also invited neighbor friends and daycare friends. So it was a great combination and everyone got along very well.

We had it at a place called Jumps and Downs, which is a place very close to our home that has inflatable jumpers and a party room.

The kids were exhausted by the end, which was awesome and everyone seemed to really have a blast. And most of all, Andrew was beaming all day. Love it!