It was one of the not-too-hot summer days, with cloudy skies and a little drizzle. So we decided to go for a walk. The trails around our house are wonderful. So here's just a bit of a photo/video dump.


Trevor letting Rachael know she just walked through a cobweb.


Ariel showing off something or other she found. And looking like she has been cursed with cuteness. heh


Ariel found a piece of chalk on the trail and drew things everywhere with it.


Mushroom, Mushroom! But no snakes...


Scary poison ivy!!! It is everywhere on the trails. They chop it all down in the spring, but it's back by summer.


I am pretty sure this is Virginia Creeper. We are not nervous of this.


I am pretty sure that THIS is poison Ivy. The kids, for all their tromping through the woods, have never gotten poison ivy. Spider phobic me does not tramp through the woods, so I ahve never gotten is, either.


This was when Rachael's mood started deteriorating. She was mad we wouldn't take the short cut through the woods back to the house. Then she didn't want to carry her bag anymore and so tried to wear it on her head. But it wouldn't stay on her head while she walked. Rachael's life is full of tragedy.


Trevor gathered up all these sticks to make a house with and then was having trouble carrying them all home. He found a piece of rope laying around the trail and we tied up his sticks in a bundle. He was quite satisfied.


We were apparently not giving Rachael enough sympathy so she tried to take a shortcut home that was not close to us. But then she realized she would be walking through someone's yard and she couldn't get back up the hill. Her sis helped her up.


They were checking out a hole they saw a mouse run into. But now I think Ariel is checking out the taste of her yummy blue (hm) leaf and Rachael is checking to see if any snacks are left in her nose.


Ariel just being cute. We tend to call all sticks with legs on one side "stickbugs". We didn't find any actual, real stickbugs. That would be soo cool, though!


"I am sopped!" If Rachael is not drenched, she is getting sopped. It was spitting out- not raining, really. We didn't get rained on in the woods, but did a bit outside the woods. This was when we were about to head in.

Birthday!!!

Rachael, my teeny little middle child, is FIVE YEARS OLD! I can't believe she is 5. It seems like yesterday we were bringing her home from the hospital, only to be rushing her back because of heart problems which she, thankfully, grew out of. We celebrated her 5th birthday with an impromptu trip to NC to visit the grandparents and celebrate with them. Rachael was ecstatic to go visit, as all the kids are constantly asking when we are going to go see grandma and grandpa (on both sides).

We went to the Wet n Wild waterpark for Rachael's actual birthday on Saturday and had a blast. Rachael, who loves the ocean, is slightly afraid of water parks and is a little slow to warm up in general. So, as long as we were patient and gave her some time, she was fine and by the end of the day she was having a blast in the kiddie area going down the little slides and playing "neigh" with her sister. Trevor, who deems himself too big for the kiddie area, hung mostly with the men and went down the bigger slides and into the deeper water. Since I didn't have the water proof camera with me, I didn't take many pictures of the actual park. The pictures we have are us in the cabana we rented. Yes. We rented a cabana.


The private cabana was worth it. We had a covered area with table and chairs and 4 lounge chairs all to ourselves. Rachael and Ariel are taking a break with their favorite food.. sugar. The cabana was especially useful when it rained in the middle of the day and we had our nice little place to retreat to. Rachael, who was being miss princess, kept saying "I am getting DRENCHED!" And we would say, "uh-huh, the rain will stop soon." Finally, Rachael, just peeved we weren't leaving stated "I am getting DRENCHED! I will stay here one more minute and then I am taking the keys and driving MYSELF home!" It was hilarious and we laughed at her.


Trevor, who can't have a photo taken of him without posing, eating cotton candy.


Ariel helping us set the birthday table back at home for the princess Rachael.


Our poor exhausted princess resting on the couch with her poison dart frog from the previous day's science museum trip.


Trevor, Rachael, daddy and Ariel. Rachael seemed to barely stay awake for dinner and was not really hungry. What she REALLY wanted to do was open presents!


So we did! She got Hungry Hungry Hippos from her big bro, who picked it out all by himself.


And from mommy and daddy she got an Our Generation doll she had been eyeing at the store. She was thrilled and named her doll, Rachael. heehee


But... what is in this box that makes Rachael smile so much? I love Rachael's smile in that picture.


A NEIGH! OK, A horse. She got the horse for her doll to ride. She was thrilled and played with the horse and doll for the rest of the evening.

I don't have a pic of her CD player. But grandma and grandpa gave her a CD player with Hello Kitty on it and the CDs of High School Musical 2 and Kid's Bop 80s. Rachael listened to both CDs all the way home from NC and has been quite possessive of the CD player, not allowing any one else to use it. I think it was a hit, too. heh. Her other grandpa and grandma gave her this really cute stuffed horse that you can color. So she, Ariel and Trevor decorated the whole horse. She loved that, too. Thank you grandmas and grandpas! xoxo


Rachael asked for an M&M ice cream cake. Ack! He's been attacked by crayon candles!


Blowing the candles out. Happy Birthday, Rachael!


The cake was really good, with M&M pieces in it and chocolate cakey stuff and vanilla ice cream. Yum!


Playing hungry hungry hippos.


Thanks grandma for a wonderful birthday!


Can't forget grandpa! xoxoxoxoxo

Just a busy summer

I have been meaning to update this. We've been doing a lot this summer and lots has happened. Trevor turned 7!!! His bday was June 28th and we took a day trip to Ocean City to celebrate. We spent the day on the beach, splashing in the water and catching sand fleas. We rode go Karts, tried to eat birthday cake that dry ice had frozen into a rock. Had lots of laughs over that (even Trevor thought it was funny!).

We've gone swimming in the local area pools, and basically hung out. It's been a very relaxing summer for the kids and a busy one for me. I didn't quite prepare myself for the amount of writing my english 2 class would have so I have basically spent my summer trying to keep up with two classes which require a deal of writing and one class which, while not being writing intensive, seems interpersonal communication intensive. Argh.

ANYWAY.. this is not a blog about me. This is about the kids. Rachael celebrates her 5th birthday this weekend. I can't believe she is basically 5 already! Time sure has flown. We're making an impromptu trip which I am sure will prove to be very fun and Rachael will be so excited when she finds out.

Trevor has maintained his obsession with all things lego. He checks the mail everyday for his lego magazine, he spends countless hours building lego creations. Lately, he has become obsessed with Mindstorm. He got about 5 books about robots out of the library this afternoon and spent some time looking up lego mindstorm creation videos on Youtube with us. Then he designed his lego mindstorm to build with daddy when he saves up his money and can buy one. We have agreed to put forth 75% of the purchase price if he can save 25%. We're betting on a 200+ dollar price tag. I'm thinking it will end up coming around christmas time as a gift.

But here is a picture of his robot design. What I thought was cute was his spelling of 'remote control". He hears it as "Mokin trol". We talked about what remote control means, etc. I still call windshield wipers "wincher wipers" because that's how I heard it as a kid. heh.


"mejr mint" is measurement. :) His robot is apparently a bug, which can walk and hop and has an arm to pick up things and a camera that moves and takes pictures of things. He is not sure what the fan does, but wanted one on his drawing.



Lastly, we have a Roomba. We LOVE Roomba. The cats are totally, just completely disinterested in Roomba. I finally got video of just how disinterested Chaos is in Roomba. He can't even trouble himself with getting up. heh.