Father's Day

Father's Day around here started early Saturday morning-I decided that it was time to get Matt a new TV, so we spent all day long shopping and ended up with this:

And you can see who _really_ likes it:

Nothing like watching Mickey on the big (?) screen right?

Sunday Morning Matt took the big kids swimming-they are doing so well! They can swim without waterwings across the shallow end (which they are not quite tall enough to reach) and have learned how to swim under and come up for breaths (important skill) and then keep on swimming.

Here they are with daddy lifeguarding:




This was just a random picture I took of the three of them...

St. Simons

Two beach trips within a month! I wish I could say that I was "beached out"...but no-I miss St. Simons already! This year was supposed to be our last at this particular conference but they all had a meeting and decided to do it again next year!! Im already counting down the days...

We had so much fun this year! We have really gotten to know our way around and where all the fun places to go are (aside from the beach and pool of course ). The kids favorite part of it was probably swimming in the pool without water wings-it was shallow enough to allow them to stand up and when they got tired instead of relying on me to catch them so they loved the freedom of it. Hannah liked it too-as long as the water was warm...which it was!! REALLY warm. Even the ocean was like bath water...(a little ew, but whatever). Hannah was scared of the waves though..It was noisy and a little intimidating to her, so every time we would go near it she would just cuddle up to me and bury her head in my shoulder-lil' sweet thing!

Everyone slept well there-Hannah had a closet all to herself and Caitlin and Matthew shared a big kid room-and so it felt like we had plenty of space when we needed a break from the sun. During that time C and M learned how to (sort of) play yahtzee and monopoly. Its so great that they are getting big enough to play games with!

All in all it was wonderful! We just love St. Simons....here are some pictures!




Laying out...and digging.
Hanging out with daddy in the waves! They managed to find a ton of little crabs and sand dollars-I guess the warm temperatures brought everyone out to play :)
Caitlin at the beach
Hannah eating at one of the restaurants-she loves french fries!
At the playground by the pier...
Eating after a long day at the beach!
"No pictures here please!"
Mommy and The Babies
Daddy and Caitlin and Matthew. In their new bathing suits. Which we had to buy first thing because mommy forgot to pack them.

This crocodile (alligator?) was swimming around skippers fish camp..where we had dinner...(it was right on the water)...hoping that someone was going to fall in...yikes!
At the pool! These shots are a little blurry...I think my camera was sweating :)

The fam...(the crocodile/alligator was right below us)
Lil' Caitlin. Doing her latest camera smile-

Rub a Dub Dub, Three...

...babies in the tub!!

Happy Birthday...Dragons!

Today we decided to celebrate Mr. Diamond and Fire's birthday-the two dragons belonging to Caitlin and Matthew. They apparently turned 199 today! So the kids and I made a cake, decorated the kitchen table and had a pizza party in honor of the occasion. Here are the highlights:



Greasing the pans....
Stirring the batter

Licking the bowl!! (the best part)
Waiting for it to be done...(the hardest part!)
Sad because she can't have any cake...
Eating pizza with the dragons
Blowing out the candles
Hooray for Funfetti!
Enjoying the cake...I guess it was too good to share with the birthday dragons...

Hilton Head

Here are some pictures I took from our trip-these are only from the days that Matt was in class-we were too busy playing to take any when he was able to hang out with us.

On the beach

I asked them to do something silly for me...this time it wasn't sticking out the tongue!

Some of Hilton Head's wildlife-Actually we were hoping (?) to see an alligator-one of the notices in the complex we stayed in was "please do not feed the alligators". Um...good thing... We don't have any small babies to spare anyway...

Hannah at the beach-thank heavens for the Bumbo! (though she was not all that thrilled with it-)
Close up on the beach.
About to take her first taste of sand

Armed with beach balls and ready to go to the (freezing cold!) pool

Lil' grease monkey...covered from her head to her toes in bulletproof sunscreen-They were so brave! That water was about 33 degrees-but they still swam in it.
Matthew didn't last all that long of course...he gets cold so quickly!
Hannah 'getting her drink on' at the pool while the big kids play...

Matthew Story

This morning I took Caitlin to school (Matthew stays home on Tuesdays) and as I was letting Caitlin out of the car, one of Matthew's teachers approached me and said, "Ok. I have to ask you a question" (never a good start...especially regarding Matthew).
"Who is Zarr?", she asks.
(a little background. zarr is a stuffed animal kitty of his that we make up stories about)
"Oh! Zarr is just Matthew's stuffed animal kitty, we sometimes make up pretend stories about him" I said...feeling relieved that this was all she was asking. But then:
"Is he flat?"
"F-flat?"
"And did he die?"
"wh-what?!"
"Is he flat and did he die?" she repeated, this time speaking slowly and giving me hand gestures to indicate flat...like that might be the reason i am acting confused.
"Noooo..I mean, he's just a stuffed animal. Fully stuffed, so, no. Not flat. And never really alive, so Im pretty sure he didn't die...why?"
"well...."

Eventually I got to the bottom of it...apparently Matthew's class has morning prayers and they allow the children to pray for whomever is sick or needs a prayer. I know for a fact that Matthew had been just praying for actual people that we knew early on in the year. But I guess that got boring, so Matthew decides to make up all sorts of horrific things about his animals thus creating a need to pray for them. Evidently zarr was "squished flat and he died" so Matthew told his class to pray for him.

Im gonna kill that boy! The preschool already thinks we're the Clampetts....now we are also running some sort of stuffed animal pet cemetery-esque fantasy land....

Weekend at moms..and other stuff

Here are some pictures from our visit to Grandma and Grandpa's house-and some other pictures that were hanging out on the camera-