First Bike Ride

Abbie opened her birthday present from Grandma and Grandpa early. It was quite the ordeal! Grandma and Grandpa told Abbie, when we visited them in Tahoe in June, that they would buy her a princess bike for her birthday. Abbie has talked about it every day since then, and she cried when she next saw Grandma and there wasn't any princess bike. (Birthdays and long waits are a tough concept for a two year old!) Grandma brought the wrapped present over and said that we could store it in the garage until the birthday. Abbie wouldn't leave the garage and wouldn't stop talking about the bike. We made an executive decision (for mom's sanity!) and let Abbie open the present early. She had so much fun watching Dad assemble the bike and then going for a ride up the street to retrieve C.J. from a friend's house. Baby had to go on the back, and she put a cell phone in the front.

Roommates... bedmates

Just in case the boys ever complain that we forced them to share a room, I'm saving this photo. Apparently, sharing a room isn't enough for them. They like to sneak into one bed after we tuck them in. Why own multiple beds? Sleeping sideways, I'm thinking we can just line all 3 of them up... maybe we should convert Abbie's room into a craft room. You think it'll be a problem when they start to grow again?

Swim Meet 7/15

I'm a little late on posting, but we had our 3rd swim meet on Saturday. Both boys swam in four events, and it was another long, hot day. You could see the effects of the day, because they definitely swam slower in their last events vs. the first events. I was one of the coordinators for the 6&under boys team, which meant I had to make sure that the boys were properly in position for all their events. It's a bit stressful, and I'm happy to return to my potato-baking job this weekend.

In between events, the boys hosted a poker party. Brendan managed to rake in the chips.


John decided to take a break from the swim meet and check his e-mail. While his sociability might have declined with the arrival of the blackberry, his e-mail response time has shown remarkable improvement.

Great America

We used our season passes to Great America today. I was meeting a friend at the park, but Nana decided to join us (Hip Hip Hooray!) to help corral kids and make it easier (or, more accurately, possible) to ride with the boys when Abbie couldn't/wouldn't participate. Abbie prefers the milder attractions. Carousels are a big hit with her. Fortunately, Nana seems to like the as well.

Nana did convince Abbie to go on one of the kiddie rides all by herself while her brothers were often doing something scary. Abbie loved the first ride, but she did not like the second ride at all. Nana probably now believes us when we call Abbie a little bit of a chicken. It's hard to imagine that she is the same girl who gets into so much trouble.

It was fun to see C.J. and Brendan have fun together and discuss the various attractions. Even though it was a bit cold (80 degrees), we headed over to the water park. C.J. went down a few waterslides, but Brendan didn't go. He said that he didn't know how to cross his ankles. Hmmm. C.J.'s favorite part of the day was watching the big bucket of water fill up and dump out on the huddled children below. Of course, he had to be one of those huddled, shivering children.

Since we have season tickets and free parking, we only went for a few hours. We got there at 10am when the park opened and we left before 2pm so that we could get a nice lunch outside the park. Nana agreed that it made the day much nicer than arriving at park opening and leaving at park closing, which was our usual mode or operation in my childhood.

My goal is to make it back to the park every two weeks for the rest of the summer. I don't think the kids will object.

Aiden Andrew

Our good friends gave birth to their third son on Friday. They decided to go for the third child when we proved that the elusive girl could be obtained. Alas, they are working on developing their own sequel to My Three Sons.

Aiden Andrew was born three weeks early. He's spending a bit of time in the NICU working on being able to breathe and eat at the same time, but he is expected to come home soon. In an effort to prove that he wasn't, in fact, named after my FIL, Aidan, they decided to spell the name wrong. I'm sure it was an effort to keep us on our toes for the next x years of correspondence!

Oops! Apparantly, the father just can't spell. The birth certificate has the "correct" spelling of Aidan. Phew.

2nd Swim Meet

The boys participated in their second swim meet on Saturday. They both improved on their times and had a lot of fun. In between events, they occupied themselves with Game Boys. Kids flocked from neighboring blankets to check out the excitement. It may seem odd to promote video game usage during a sporting events, but swim meets can get loooong. From warm-ups to the last event, about 5 hours elapses. Consider that each child swims all of 4 events for about a 1 minute each, and you have a lot of waiting time.

Earache

Abbie whined for several hours last night about her ear hurting, so I booked a doctor's appointment. Of course, she woke up this morning and promptly said "Ear don't hurt anymore!" I was willing to pat myself on the back for an escaped visit, but a little voice in my head said that Abbie doesn't normally complain about "nothing" and has a high threshold for pain. I brought her to the doctor, and she has an inner ear infection and swimmer's ear (middle ear) infection in the same ear. The doctor was pretty shocked that it didn't hurt anymore. Just to prove what an experienced mother I am, I managed to put the ear drops in the wrong ear the first time. Duh!

To round out my fun-filled morning, Brendan threw up for the first couple of hours. He appears to be doing better, but I'm adding food back slowly. Of course, he is now asking why he never got breakfast... yes, I am the mother who starves her children.

Party Time!

After over 6 years, we finally got invited to a party at our neighbor's house! It's not that we don't get together all the time, but they don't host many official parties. We spent the day in their pool and sitting around eating some BBQ. After dinner, a competitve (at least on John and Jim's part) volleyball game was started. Fortunately, John and Jim were on the same team, so the good-neighbor-relationship is not in jeopardy. I expect my family will be very tired tomorrow.

Happy 4th of July

How do you get 3 kids to smile/laugh for a picture? Have Abbie tell her new joke!

Abbie: "Daddy I have to tell you something!"
Daddy: "What?"
Abbie: "Your butt stinks!!"

Gee, can you tell she has two older brothers?

Hope you have a wonderful holiday!!

Family Camp

We just returned from the 5th Annual Family Camp Trip! As always, the kids had a great time. They love being able to run around and play all day. It's amazing how you give them a dose of nature and you don't get one single request for a Game Boy or T.V. or whatnot.

We headed down to the river on our first day, and the boys (big and small) got to work moving rocks. They like to dam part of the river to create more rapids for boat riding. They also create a designated reader/kiddie area which is nice to keep the little ones a bit contained. Brendan took the job most seriously, and he hauled some large rocks! The job continued throughout the weekend, and one of our friends commented on how "rock moving" must put out testosterone, because males were flocking to help. If only they could be so eager to assist with household chores!

After dinner, we went swinging. (No, not THAT swinging...) Abbie loved the swings so much that she spent the rest of the weekend recruiting "swingers" after every meal. She even convinced everyone else, including Nana - excluding Gramps, to give it a go!


We headed over to the kiddie campfire where Abbie amazed us by volunteering to lead a song. The girl obviously has confidence, because she immediately claimed to know every song they suggested singing. Her bossy tendencies do go beyond the family, as she spent quite a bit of time telling the older girls where to stand for their performance. And, just to prove that I do exist, John agreed to snap a photo of me roasting marshmallows with Abbie. I try to get myself into every 200th shot or so.



C.J. and Brendan tried archery on Saturday and Sunday. It was supposed to be for ages 7 and up, but somehow Brendan talked his way into it. C.J. was very proud of his bullseye!

We made our traditional trek over to Rainbow Falls where you can swim in a very cold pool of water and jump off some rocks. C.J. and Brendan decided to walk with my mom and Eric. Gramps decided to run there, and John and I graciously offerred to drive over the lunches, floats, towels, etc.

C.J. said that the best part of Family Camp was archery. He must have really liked everything else, though, because he is petitioning for 4 nights instead of the customary 3 next year. Brendan said that the best part was "everything!" The rest of us agreed that the only things that could have made the trip better were the inclusion of Anna (who stayed home for pregnancy complications) and Becky (who stayed home in case anything happened). It would have been fun to have Uncle Craig as well! Up until the day before, I thought he might be planning a surprise trip to participate, but I realized when he was on the phone instead of a plane, that it just wasn't going to happen this year. Maybe we'll see him soon!