Beautiful trees

With all the lovely flowering trees, and pleasant weather, I thought I'd try to get some pictures of my kids. Tommy wasn't happy about the idea, my older kids wanted to be on the other side of the lens, and the one good shot I loved was overexposed because I forgot to check settings when I moved from shade to sun.








Poor tommy, getting lugged around like a sack of potatoes. The baby in the family sure has it rough!

A yep on the step

Tommy has entered an exasperating phase we call the "yeps on the steps" phase, named after a Dr Seuss line in the book a wocket in my pocket. He can climb up, and is very proud, yet he still needs to learn how to go down. After we safely navigate this phase, we have the "nink in the sink" phase to look forward to. That's fine by me. Long as it's not the toilet, because, hey, we have some standards around here!

Spring Break

No one else does the beach quite like these two! Being with mom-mom and pap-pap at the beach is the best. All the kids, not just my kids, have learned the shell names like "turkey wing" or "olives" from my mom, and they all run over to her to show off their finds. She gets excited every time and makes the kids feel that they'd just unearthed a rare treasure.


At first tommy was scared of the sand. He tried to get it off his hands. He looked worried.


Later in the week he really warmed up to it!





That's my favorite pic. Captain tommy of the beach onion as we affectionately called our inflatable canoe.


Libby never wanted to get out of the pool. Although, there was a serial pooper who struck three days in a row resulting in the pool being closed for a couple hours.

The kids made some great friends and together they made an epic sand castle.





We chartered a fishing boat, but you won't see me in the pics. Let's just say I don't have my sea legs about me.
We didn't catch anything edible, but both boys caught something small/inedible and James carried it around in the boat calling it "my precious."



We had to cut our fishing trip short, due to the deteriorating condition of all adults on board. And the kids were so upset, as the choppy surf wasn't bothering them in the least. Thankfully their friends invited them out to fish again, and that time they came back with a tuna. Those were the proudest kids I've ever seen as they pulled into dock stroking their prize catch.



We slapped that puppy on the grill and everyone got a very small taste of victory.

It was a fantastic week for all of us!

Mad Scientist Party

James 7th birthday party happened today. I really enjoyed this one. The experiments were so fun and I loved the expressions of awe on the kids faces.





This ice cream jello was a hit!


Swirled colors in milk was our first experiment. So simple and several of the kids said this was their favorite.


Elephant toothpaste, a hydrogen peroxide experiment, was another crowd pleaser.




We made slime with glue and borax, which also doubled as the party favor (you're welcome moms and dads!)




We had specimen jars to guess how many.



Make your own molecule with fruit, mini-marshmellows, and toothpicks.



The kids were so cute in lab coats and safety glasses.

My sister's shower

Becca's shower in New Jersey was so nice. I've really enjoyed being a part of all the excitement!

We are enjoying the first signs of spring. Each year there is an element of surprise on that first day when the air is warm enough to shed your jacket. It's almost as if you'd forgotten it was possible during the months of cold. Almost like you doubted if spring would ever actually come. Maybe your memories of past summers, were actually some trick of your imagination. This feeling was heightened when I lived in cold grey upstate NY. But I could see the surprise and excitement on Libby's face when she ran outside in her t-shirt. Tommy was quite perplexed by the grass. I was happy to sit on the step in my barefeet and watch libby ride her bike.
I like spring. I like seasons, and probably, in the fall, I'll be just as glad when the cool breezes start again.

Why do I still blog? Momma blogs were all the rage back in 2007, but not so much in 2015. Yet I'm still at it. Mostly because I never journal and I'd like to keep some record, however minimal. And there are a couple people that still like to see it, like Jer, when riding home on the train, or my dad, or miss Erin, or heff. I think grandpa checks in now and then. So I'll keep em coming.

Libby and I went to the zoo today. Not a great pic, but great evidence of the tongue thrust problem that Luca inherited from me. The orthodontist is working on it in his case, but I fear it might be a losing battle.

This is a game we played for family night, to see which team could build the taller structure with 10 minimarshmellows and spaghetti. Jer and Libby just edged out a win over the boys.