Swimming Fun!

We love having friends over to swim!  Slap some life vests on the non-swimmers, add some pool noodles, noodle connectors, goggles and the Millenium Falcon, and watch the fun unfold!

Rub a dub, dub, three men in a tub!
Splash Wars!
Henry learning to dive.
Anna pedaling around the pool.

St. Patty’s Day Party

Shockingly enough, this was our ninth annual St. Patty’s Day party. Next year we’re going to have to do something super special I think!

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Anna insisted on wearing the blue dance skirt all day, and Carrie had a blast hanging out with all of her friends.

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I forgot to buy a silly hat this year, so no silly hat pictures. :(

Strawberry Picking…er…Eating

We went to Jenny’s Strawberry Picking Party today, except that (surprise, surprise) it was raining.  So we didn’t pick, and instead we went to Jenny’s to eat yummy strawberry shortcake instead.  Anna and Carrie certainly enjoyed themselves despite the lack of picking!  (And Carrie got to see Wallace and Grommit while we were there.  She keeps asking to watch the dog and the silly man, I’ll have to see where our DVD ended up.)
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Superbowl Party

I always feel like such a neglectful mother, keeping my kid (now kids) out late at a superbowl party, but since Anna fell asleep while we were there and Carrie wouldn’t be sleeping until 10 or so at home anyway, we decided to stay for the whole game and hang out with friends we don’t get to see very often.

My favorite commercial? The Mr. & Mrs. Potato Head one. (Was it for tires or brakes or something?) Oh, and the game was good too. (I was, as always, rooting for the Bills. We all know how that turned out.)

And we brought our new favorite potluck dish and addicted a few more people to the yumminess that is the soy-ginger dressing.

Strawberries!

Today is Lisa’s birthday, and to celebrate we went strawberry picking. Or, in Carrie’s case, strawberry eating. I really think I should have given them an extra couple of dollars for all the strawberries she ate! I wound up with something like six pounds of strawberries. Yummy!

We also picked some raspberries, which was much easier for Carrie to do – if they come off the bush easily they’re ripe. So she ate even more of those.

Is it any wonder she didn’t eat any lunch?

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St. Patty’s Day Party ’07

Our 6th annual St. Patty’s Day party was today. It was a blast! The power went out an hour before everyone was supposed to come. Luckily, I had already vacuumed. Unluckily, the corned beef and scalloped potatoes were still cooking. Denis went out and fired up the generator so the crock pot (with the potatoes) would keep on cooking, and then he fired up the grill and stuck the giant roasting pan of corned beef in the grill.

Shortly after the first guests arrived the power finally came back on. But all things considered, it wasn’t a huge problem, just a minor inconvenience. A generator is a good thing.

And now for the really crazy part of the day: at one point, there were 10 children five and under in my house. That’s a lot of small humans in one place at one time. But they all got along really well and everyone played really nicely.

I also decided that I haven’t taken enough pictures at these parties throughout the years, so I chased people around with a silly hat ($1 at Target!) and took pictures of (almost) everyone in it. (I think I missed a couple of the kids – they didn’t stay still long enough, and if they weren’t willing I didn’t push the issue.)

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More silly hat pictures are here.

O.K.

Off to go call the power company again, since the power just went out again. Yay for laptops and DSL…the power going out didn’t cause me to lose my post!

Pool Party, ’06

I’m pretty sure this was this very first pool party I’ve ever planned where it didn’t rain! I’m so thrilled! And it was so much fun, too – we had 11 adults, 6 toddlers, and 3 babies. All the kids had a blast in the pool, and Carrie was so excited to see all her friends from playgroup “swimming”. (As a side note, I was floored when I told her that we were having a party and all of our friends were coming and Carrie actually started naming all the kids in her playgroup. The fact that she understands the concept of “friends” makes me all warm and fuzzy.)

What with trying to make sure all the kids had adequate supervision in the pool, I didn’t get my camera out. I should have put Denis in charge of picture taking, since he was chatting with people who weren’t in the pool and not in charge of any kids. Oh, well.

The only downside to the day was that by the time everyone left we decided that it was too late to try to give Carrie a nap, and that we’d just put her to bed a bit on the early side. I can’t even describe the meltdown that started at about 6:15 and lasted until I finally rocked her to sleep at 7:15. I think that will be the last time we ever voluntarily skip a nap!

Of Strawberries and Birthdays

Have you ever wondered what might happen if you took a toddler who could eat her weight in strawberries to a strawberry patch?

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This was before the carnage really got started. Carrie stood in between the rows while I picked (when she wasn’t trying to trample the berries and plants) saying “eat-ing? eat-ing?” and trying to take a bit out of each strawberry in the box. (Well, she was really just trying to make sure they were all tasty before we brought them home.)

Why the strawberry picking? Mostly so we could all get out of the house on a gorgeous morning, but also to celebrate Lisa’s birthday. Happy birthday, Lisa! We all went to lunch afterwards, and it was a fun way to spend the day.

Not so fun? Having to wash the carseat cover as we had a bit of a diaper leak in between strawberry picking and lunch. Sigh. I’m thinking of ordering one of these, as I’m sure between now and the end of potty training there will be more accidents in the seat. To be honest, I’m shocked that this is the first time I’ve ever had to wash the cover!

Apples, Peaches, Pumpkin Pie

20050930_applepicking.jpgWhoever’s not ready, holler “I”!

I never did post about our apple picking adventure last Friday. Carrie and I met up with Lisa, Henry and Sammy. We picked an unbelievable number of apples – I ended up giving half the ones I picked to my parents and I still, almost a week later, have a lot of apples. And we’ve been eating them daily, too!

Next time I think a wagon might be a good thing to have. Lisa was slinging Sammy and I was slinging Carrie and we were each hauling a bag of apples which weighed about 5 pounds. Needless to say, the walk back from the far end of the orchard was sloooow.

But the kids had a fantastic time. There are pictures to prove it!