Family Reunion

We've been away from el blog for way too long. I started this post last week, but then we lost our internet connection for a few days. I may not have had time to post it anyway, though, because we have been so busy visiting with friends (college friends Christine & Cam, and then St. Thomas friends Philip & Ella and their three kids). And then we "helped" Aunt Kay move house (she is 9 months along with Baby "Viutis" and can hardly be expected to pack or lift boxes so we chipped in where we could, unpacking whatever had just been freshly packed and standing in doorways and on stairwells while Dave and everybody else tried to load the truck). We were really, really helpful.

But before all that, we went to North Carolina for ten days to attend our family reunion. We saw P-roc and Eloise and mommy's cousins and we had so much fun we cried (literally) when it was time to come home.
There is quite a crowd of us now, so we needed two big houses to accomodate us all. The beach houses were mere steps from the ocean, and there was a swimming pool in one of them, so we were really suffering the whole time.

We ate, we swam, we slept, we played with cousins, we played dress-up, we danced, we had folks read stories to us and organize crafts, and then woke up and did it all over again. For a whole week! Now you know why we cried when it was time to come home.

BR met his great-grandparents for the first time, Granny and Papa stopped by on their grand Southern tour, and we finally got to pinch those Eloise cheeks (we discovered that she doesn't always like that, so it's actually best not to)!


I even got to see Kristin and her (four!) girls. They spent the better part of a day and played in the sand and the pool with mine. We are sad that she is moving from N.C., one of the perks of visiting my grandparents over the last five years (or more?) is that she was living in the same town!

cra-a-azy!

me: "L, isn't A. so cute and pretty?"

A.: "But sometimes I am a little crazy!"

naked

BR loves this book by Steve McCurry. (remember that one, Leia?) Sometimes he requests it as his bedtime story. It is a book of photo portraits taken from all over the world. He loves the ones of people in extravagant headdresses, or unusual (to his eyes) makeup.

But what he loves most is to flip through the pages and point out which people are "naked!" and which are "not naked!" His sisters love to help:

***************

L. has discovered "Google images." Want to know what an emu looks like? Find an image instantly! Want to see some silent and non-scary fireworks? Google it!

The other day J. wondered aloud whether we should monitor this more closely. How long before a search for a snake or dinosaur turned up something...um, distasteful? I agreed, and he wandered over to see how she was doing on her current search.

He caught her at "n-a-k-e-"

Aack!

a haircut for BR

we love to paint

what I didn't tell Stacy...

Aunt "Sassy" was out of town for the weekend, and on Monday and Tuesday we went and kept our cousins company. We had a great time, but I didn't tell Stacy the whole story...
First, the plumbing backed up and flooded part of the basement. She knew that part. What she didn't know was that as I opened the door to let the plumber in, the dog escaped and ran throughout the neighborhood. Not just across the street, but around the corner and across several more blocks. Sam chased her for about 20 minutes before finally succeeding in luring her back.
It was about this time that I realized that I hadn't brought along enough diapers for BR, so he got to wear an extra pair of the girls' underpants while I held my breath.
Later, A. took a fall and gashed her knee and bled on the floor and the rug. It took quite awhile to get the wound to stop bleeding (while I started doing pre-strategizing on how to get us all to the ER) and she was terrified from all the blood and HOWLED the whole time. At least we weren't denied all the appropriate sound effects.
Kay helped out by putting BR down for his nap so I could attend to A. Then I tried (unsuccessfully) to soothe her down for a nap. I walked out of the room ONCE to check on something and she didn't make it to the toilet on time. So I came back and cleaned her up, and then got to work the toilet, the tub and the sink.
I checked in with my cousin Daniel (who had taken himself to the Urgent Care during this time) and he reported that he had now finally reached a heightened level of concern since the doctor informed him that his recurring ear infection could spread to his brain, and/or he could also lose his hearing in that ear if he didn't get this resolved. (Ack!)
Meanwhile--and unbeknownst to us--BR had woken up from his nap prematurely and gotten a hold of a can of shoe polish. Who knew that the lovely wooden box within reach of his crib would contain shoe polish, of all things. Me. I SHOULD have known this. There is ALWAYS some hidden can of toxic poison within arm's reach of toddlers when you least expect it. Luckily, he didn't ingest any, and he didn't even climb out of his pack n'play to spread it on Stacy's bedroom rug or bedspread. He simply decorated himself, the pack n'play and (most mysteriously of all since she was nowhere near him) the front of L's dress.
We got him cleaned up just in time to pull the dog's tail and she barked at him and he got scared and wailed for awhile. Then A. took a turn provoking the dog and she bit her and A. wailed. Then the dog barked to warn us all that BR had escaped out the front door somehow and so we forgave her for biting A. (who was probably sitting on her head or something at the time, anyway).
I found pieces of my new phone on the floor, but I found all of them so I was able to put it back together again. I found BR climbing on the kitchen island and understood how and why there were pieces of my phone on the floor. And the dog escaped, again, and Sam went after her, again.
Then we had a nice game of badminton and played in the sprinklers and I gave them pizza and brownies and it was wonderful. And then we went home and they all went to sleep at 7:30.


When I stopped to think about it, I realized that for the kids, this was a totally awesome day. They probably didn't even notice all the rest of it because they were having so much fun.


So my question is: why are THEY the ones in bed at 7:30?

summer fun

we've been having fun this summer and getting outside as much as the weather allows. Grammie was here in late June and the fun didn't stop. check it out:

little patriots

L. was not pleased that our yard did not have any flags in it today. So she fixed that.

Happy 4th, everybody!

two weeks from today...

...the dance party will begin!

Below are some clips from the family reunion 3 years ago. We were in our pre-BR days; when L. was 2 and A. was 4 months old.

I just realized that because the last reunion was exactly 3 years ago and since my kids are less than 3 years apart, BR will be older than L. was then!

my cousin E. (a little younger than L.) is playing "fetch" with her: Git!"

and who could forget this one:

finally...

...since I've been sorting through old family movies, I just can't resist posting this one from when L. was 2 and A. was 4 months old.

mom's double failure

L's been in a vacation bible school program this week. A. is too young to attend, but she's been trying to figure out what it's all about. L.'s pretty sure she's got it all down. I overheard them talking after I tucked them in last night:

A.: "L. did you learn about Jesus at your VBS?"
L.: "No, we learned about Moses."
A.: "Oh, I don't know that guy." (I had read her the story that very morning)
L.: "Well, he was a man, but first he was a baby and he was born in a basket."