I fly to Boston...Darin holds down the fort...

Sarah, Christine and I went out to visit Rachel in Boston last weekend. She's there doing an accounting internship. Darin gave me five full days to fly away and be free. Thanks Darin, you are the best!! It was so fun and much needed. We will definitely have to find a way to do it again. Loved every moment of it...Stephanie's...Newberry Street... Pedicures...Taking public transportation but a cab never hurt anyone every once in a while...Ice cream way past bedtime...June always being happy...Three sisters in a king size bed, one on a fold out couch...Running along the Charles River...Self-tour of Harvard and the Freedom Trail...Jail-Bird George and the Duck Tour...and the list could go on and on. Thanks girls. I love you all!!

All before 8 o'clock in the morning.

You know, it was already one of those morning where I didn't want to get out of bed. I thought I would ease myself into the day by going down to the computer, and leaving the girls in my room to watch TV. It seemed like a good idea until Ruby showed up next to me with something black all over her. I had to retrace her steps to find the root of the problem. And it was a problem. Mascara! Let me know if you need any tips for getting it out of carpet...

They seem so proud.

This falls under the catagory of writing it down so we won't forget...

We have had some extremely adorable summer visitors so far this year. Most recently my college roommate/best friend Liz came with her too-cute-for-words, baby Grace. Before them we had my cousin Lisa come with her fun boys and adorable Ariel. And we were also visited by our super fun cousins, Brenden and Oliver, who are out-shadowed in cuteness by little Baby June. So my boys have seen one cute baby girl after another come and visit us this summer. And George has loved them all dearly....

So yesterday, we were at the pool spending the afternoon swimming. George says to me, "Mom, when we get home, don't forget to have four glasses of milk. Do you know why?" I say, "No I have no idea." He says, he'll tell me later, and goes on swimming. We spend another hour or so swimming and during that time he reminds me again about drinking my milk when I get home. So when we get home, I reminded him, "George weren't you thirsty for a glass of milk?". And he replies, "It's not for me mom, it's for you. Don't you want to have another cute baby girl?" I say, "well, not really, but why?" And then he tells me that his little second cousins told him that if his mom would drink four glasses of milk in a row, I could get a baby in my tummy too!!

Oh, but to understand the world in such a way. I will let his father sort this issue out with him in a few months, or years, if we can let the milk theory work for a while! But do be careful when drinking milk, that you not go past three glasses of milk in a row, unless your little kids too have heard such a rumor!!

Happy summer. And thanks to all our super fun visitors. We've loved having you all!!

Friday Afternoon

We just needed a little bit of fresh air and exercise this afternoon. I made everyone sit outside and find a way to be entertained. Can you guess which little girl is Ruby?

We just up and went to the movies on Monday (almost a week ago)...

Monday was a coolish non-summer like day. We didn't have too much that NEEDED to get done, so I decided we could just go to the movies. That's something I've been avoiding intently for a good six months or so. Jane and Ruby have very poor movie going skills. But we've been practicing this summer. We have chosen Strawberry Shortcake movies as our training material. We watch them non-stop in the car. We have started trying to sit still and watch them inside. So I thought we were ready for the real-deal. We took the girls with us to the theater. It was funny as I yelled down the stairs to the boys that it was time to go, George saw the girls all dressed and he said, "Mom, aren't you going to leave the girls with a babysitter? They can't go to the movies!". I guess he remembers the last time we tried. Anyway, thanks to the re-fillable bucket of popcorn and about three bathroom breaks our little girls did a remarkble job at watching "Ratatouille".

Of course, the funnest part of going to the movies always are the video games that we pass on our way out. This is my kids playing on them and with them, but without ever sticking a quarter into a slot. I just stood back and watched. I wanted to see how long they could be enteretained. It lasted a good twenty plus minutes. I'm glad the boys have taught the girls how to have a good time!

The 4th of July

So we don't have any pictures from our celebration this year(this is an old photo just to add to be festive). Probably becasue it was mostly a non-event. We didn't think a big fireworks show two hours past bedtime sounded like a blast, so we stayed home. We tried to make it fun with the boys and just played games. Then right before they went to bed we stepped outside to set off some poppers we had left over. We counted to three, and I said we would yell "Happy 4th of July". (Just trying to make it fun for the kids.) Anyway, Henry had to stop me and say, "but mom, George isn't American, he's from Germany. He's a German person.". George heard him and yelled out in agreement, "Yeah, I'm a Germaner!". Darin and I started laughing pretty hard, which only made him yell it out a few more times. All along Henry nodding in agreement, "Yeah, he's a Germaner." Well anyway, Happy 4th of July from those of us who are American.

Perfectly Dressed for a Bunny Hunt

This bunny lives in our backyard. I heard today that he has a name. But he's an impostor. An uninvited habitator (I guess that's not a real word.) of the backyard. He randomly eats my flowers, when I'm least expecting it. And then sometimes, when I most expect it, he doesn't eat them. So it's frustrating, and I allow the children to hunt him down. That mostly means whenever we spot him, they go run after him. They think they are chasing after him to make him their pet. I know that chasing him means he'll leave the backyard.

Today, Jane was the only one around when I spotted him. Her dad told her she needed shoes on before she went to hunt for the bunny. Thank goodness she got shoes on. That made the outfit much more appropriate. I just kept hoping the hunt never made it's way out to the front yard. Of course, it did.

George and the next-door-neighbor friend come to help Jane.

Once again, the bunny gets away. The kids don't have a pet, but the flowers live one more afternoon!!

Why does it have to be so hard to get one little picture of the kids?!