Monday, June 22, 2009

Go Jack!

We are so proud of our man! He learned how to ride a 2 wheeler!
He'd been asking to have his training wheels taken off for some time but we resisted because we didn't think he had a clue what he was getting into. Turns out, we were right, and he spent about 30 minutes whining, crying, freaking out and gave Eddie quite a work out because he wouldn't even TRY to balance. Then, just as I was about ready to give up, I looked up the street and Eddie had let go, and Jack was flying away all on his own. He made it about 20 yards and Eddie grabbed him. After that, he was like a little maniac, yelling, "Let go, Daddy, let go!" and racing away. I honestly cannot believe he picked it up so fast- that is not to say that he has it completely figured out, or that we won't be heading to the emergency room for a shiny blue cast in the next few days, but I didn't expect him to be going at ALL at this point, and he was zipping up the street within an hour. We love our neighborhood kids and friends, who all stood on the sidewalk cheering for him!


Eddie about to let go....

There he goes!

Showing off his muscles after his victory


And as usual, a night with Jack ends about like this. No, he did not fall. I still don't know what started this, all I know is that this kid turns into some sort of evil creature after 7pm.

Friday, June 19, 2009

A Neily funny

This was so funny, but it is a little sad. A quick preface to this, at 6, Neily has lost 8 teeth, 4 on top and 4 on bottom (front two with the help of banging them on Jack's head), and 6 of the permanent ones have come in. We talked to the dentist about it and she has a very narrow mouth, so we were concerned about the spacing. She will have an expander put in in August to widen her mouth to allow the teeth to come in straight.
So... on to the story:

She has been at camp this week, and today she tells me, "I have a new bff."
Now... first I had to get over the shock that she'd turned into a 14 yr old, going all 'bff' on me. Once I did that, I said, "Oh yeah? Who?"
She says, "Drew, this boy at camp." Uh-huh. Always a boy.
Me: "How do you know he's your bff?" (feeling like an idiot for using that term)
Her: "He always wants to sit by me, and he likes my teeth."
Me: "Really? How do you know that?"
Neily: "Because he sits next to me, and tells me I'm fun to be with, then he asks to see me smile. Then I do, and he says, "Those are ENORMOUS!"
At this point I nearly peed myself. She goes on to tell me proudly, "He calls them buck teeth!"
She obviously had no idea what buck teeth were, and she apparently thinks enormous is a compliment. I told her the other day after we found out about the expander, "Neily, big teeth are *in*, you're lucky."

Monday, June 15, 2009

Slip N Slide Fun




$10 was well worth it for an afternoon full of fun for a cul de sac full of kids! Neily and Jack were so excited to invite the kids over to play on the new Slip N Slide. I stayed out to get a few pictures and everyone was so well behaved, I went inside to put away groceries. Within 3 minutes, they had moved the slide and created a new way to slide that was apparently way more fun- they dragged the slide to the base of the swingset and wet the slide, creating their very own little waterpark. Give 'em an inch... ;)

Monday, June 8, 2009

Froglets


We're just a regular zoo around here lately. First we had the butterflies, then Jack was on a caterpillar craze for a while (sadly, when we went to PA we forgot about him and he did not make it). Over Memorial Day weekend, we were at Grandma Gayle and Grandpa Doug's and the kids were really into the tadpoles. Neily was a little concerned as to what was going to happen to them when they opened the pool for the summer, so we decided to take in a few strays.
After reading a little about them online, we wondered if we'd bitten off more than we could chew. There are only about 43,267, 892 varieties of tadpoles and frogs, and they all seem to eat something different. And, apparently, the reason that there are millions of tadpoles is because only a very small percentage survives into froghood. Great. So thanks to my brilliant idea of bringing home tadpoles, we were now going to end up with dozens of dead frogs?
The fun began the night we got them home and Neily dipped into her water to show us that she had a frog already, only to find that he was no longer with us. She poked at him a little bit and when reality sunk in that he was definitely gone, she was REALLY upset and I felt horrible!
Knock on wood, but it seems like we have some success. We've been feeding the tadpoles dried seaweed (Petsmart) and they are eating it and mostly alive. One tub is doing well and the other entire tub croaked.... so we lied and told the kids that we combined the tubs. We now have about a dozen tadpoles with legs and arms, and we have (I think) 3 baby frogs. They are REALLY tiny but seem to be making it out of the water onto the rocks and lilypads okay. Except now we don't know what frogs eat, or when we should release them into their new home, the creek that runs through our neighborhood.


Congrats Eddie and Erin!


We are finally coming up for air around here after about a month of traveling. I still owe everyone our San Francisco pictures but they'll come later. Right after we returned from San Francisco, we headed to Erin and Eddie's wedding in Pennsylvania. We saw a whole lot of the above on our 7 hour drive there, but it was great to get there and be a part of their big day! As always, it was awesome to hang out with Lindsay and Phil and Erin looked beautiful!




This is what happens when you have had a few glasses of wine and try to use an expensive camera.





No one drank a drop. Really.


Thank you again to Eddie and Erin and hope Aruba was amazing! We certainly loved it when we were there.