Just like dad

Happy Father's Day!  And to all you dads out there, Graham is trying to take your job, so watch out!  He watches Ian very closely and then mimics everything he does.  Grab a baseball cap, check.  Grab your lawn mower, check.  Stop to pick up sticks, check.  Sit and have a cool drink with your dad, check.  Think your dad is the greatest, check!

Baby doll walks

Boy or girl, you love to take your babies, horses, rockets, or trucks for "baby doll" walks EVERY DAY if you live in this house.  Harper asks every day.  Every day.  Whether in the stroller, the scooter, the wagon or just dragging something behind you, it is all good.  Now it has gotten even better since Graham has discovered that our neighbor down the street has rasberry bushes and has welcomed us to the feast.  So now we walk down to his house, grab handfuls of rasberries and Graham eats a rasberry at every driveway we pass.  He now refers to them as "rasberry walks".  Add lightening bugs and you have a real evening on your hands!

Strawberries!

Our annual trip to the strawberry patch with the Butlers, one of our favorite spring traditions!

Lucy at Daisies

Lucy and Taylor at our Daisy field trip to Huntley Meadows.

Kyle and the slip n slide

What is better than your good buddy, popsicles, and a slip n slide, not much, if you are Lucy.

Time Trials

It's official, Lucy swam her first 25 freestyle race today at her swim team's time trials.  If she would stop looking up and smiling at me, she might have been even faster! One race today, they will build up to doing relays, backstroke and eventually the other strokes.  Good start, she earned a blue ribbon for her heat!  Once she got out of the pool, she ran up to her Pops and he said, "good job Lucy!"  to which she replied, "thanks, did I win?" 

And yes, once again Lucy is the smallest on the team so that means the coaches pick her up constantly.  In this instance,  she was held while the coaches led the team in cheers.

Kids and their music

Harper loves her new cd player and regularly plays music on it. At full volume.  It is something that I didn't think I would have to say for quite some time, but today I had to knock on Harper's door, which had been shut "for privacy" and "so Graham doesn't mess my room up" and ask her to turn her music down.  She was blaring her princess cd and singing full tilt, twirling in the middle of her room with her new bday bear.  It was cute, but I still made her turn down her music.  Better to start now!

Swim Team

Lucy has now finished her first week of her first swim team's practice. After much nerves and uncertainty about swimming in "11 feet deep", the first day they lined up the kids in order of height. This means Lucy was first in line, at the "11 feet deep" and was told to jump in.  Well, she decided to ease into the water rather than jump, but after that, it was full throttle swimming all the way down the pool.  She did terrrific and got to the other end, looked up at me from across the pool and flashed a thumbs up.  I couldn't have been prouder. 
Since that first day (we've only had 4 practices) she has overcome her fear of the depth of the water and has swam repeatedly down the lane without needing to hold the lane or wall once.  She takes breaths like a (semi) pro, smiles everytime she looks up and is eager for practice every day.  She said after practice on Thursday, "my body hurts".  45 minutes of practice, after school is a lot, but she is relishing it and is disappointed that she doesn't have practice on the weekends.  She even has a new team suit and loves that it "makes her swim like a dolphin".  We always did call her our little fish.

Obsessed

All of the kids, their friends and friends' little brothers are obsessed with the prospect of seeing our slithering friend. There are supposed sightings, screaming at the sight of every vine and twig in the yard and the conversation is one topic only: snake. Even Graham is on topic yelling periodically, "snake!"
I am ready for a new topic, maybe the mice will return thus giving the kids and the snake something to focus on.

Shirtless summer

Graham dies nOt like taking his shirt off. He battles each and every change of shirt. It doesn't matter if it is a pj shirt or a favorite shirt or just a plain old tshirt, he wants it on for good. Wet, covered with pizza sauce or mud, whatever he has on is a keeper. So the impending summer shirtless weather is not boding well for our little man. He threw a fit for 20 minutes today when I put swim trunks on him to play out in the baby pool. Until I shut the door to his room and forced him outside to witness his sisters splashing it up did he forget the current favorite turquoise colored polo shirt that now lie on his floor, awaiting his return to dry clothes.
Perhaps it has been the months of asking, "hey Graham, where's your situation?" or the constant squeezing of his muffin top or the calling him chubs, pudge, or piggy that have made him insecure. Or maybe it's just a demonstration of having some control for little man who just simply doesn't get much say around here, being the baby, one year old boy with two older sisters. Either way, let's hope that he gets over his shirt obsession- the pool opens in just days and he's just about the only boy up there that I think can turn heads!

Watch out woodpecker!

They're baaack! The kids and I just watched a very long black rat snake climb about 20-30 feet up the trunk of a tree in the backyard. It disappeared into a woodpecker hole. Not sure if I prefer them living on holes underground or up in the trees.

I love...

I love...
Lucy- and the fact that when she draws people in her pictures she always draws them naked, and then adds their clothes, just like they are getting dressed in the picture.
Graham- and the way he twists his whole upper body when he runs, leading with one arm so that he looks like a little tornado coming at you, and that he usually does a fair bit of destruction as well.
Harper- and that she honestly thinks that brown and pink striped shorts with a purple fairy tshirt go especially well with pink socks and dirty "red heart" tennis shoes, on the wrong feet, nonetheless, as well as a big white bow in her hair and the "super sparkly hair barrett" she regularly chooses, just to spice up her outfit.
Ian- and the fact that on the way to picking strawberries Lucy proclaimed that she wanted to be called "bandaid elbow girl" for the day and Ian remembered to refer to her as that for the remainder of the day.
Graham, and the fact that when he saw me light a scented candle the other night, he broke into "Happy Birthday" and tried to blow out the candle from across the room.
Harper, and the fact that she wants to keep her bucket of strawberries all to herself, just so she has her own supply.
Lucy, and the fact that when completing her P.E. "homework" of 50 jumps over a line, gets to number 43, loses count, and starts all over again.  And did this 3 times!

3!!!

Harper turned three on Friday, a day she has been (quite literally) counting down for weeks.  She woke up jumping up and down, not at all able to contain her excitement.  She had cinnamon rolls for her birhday breakfast, wore one of her new birthday gifts from Grandma and Pops - a kitty cat shirt and Gramzie was here so we went to Mt. Vernon, Harper's choice, to see the animals and walk the grounds and have lunch.  She opened a few presents every hour or so and was thrilled with each and every one, even clothes (that's my girl!) 
Harper has been asking for a teddy bear for months so to surprise her, we went "on a bear hunt" and ended up at Build A Bear where she made a very colorful teddy bear complete with a pink satin dress and hot pink jelly sandals. We then went out to dinner where she and Graham could watch the boats on the river.  We ended the night with ice cream and more presents. 
Saturday was a day of relative rest in order to ready her for Sunday's big birthday party.  While it didn't rain for the party, it had all night long so we moved her "purple horse" party inside until the sun came out and we were able to do a few stick pony races in the front yard.  My favorite parts of her party were seeing Graham play musical chairs like a big boy, seeing Harper's friend, Rachel, put her tiny little arm around Harper's waist when the cupcakes were coming out, and seeing Harper and her friends distance themselves from the bigger and littler kids and hang out together by the slide.  She really has a friends now and they are so cute together!
I can't believe this little peanut is 3!  She acts older, but is still so tiny.  It's sort of nice though.  We get this grown up girl in such a tiny package, it makes watching her grow up a little bit easier.
Her favorite gifts were a cd player, which she plays nonstop, whether playing music or stories, a Ken doll, her teddy bear, a bubble machine, a cd of stories, a Repunzel tiara and necklace, Tangled the movie, a lego set, and a new baby doll stroller which she uses daily to take her babies for a walk.  She also got a new basket and bell for her tricycle, which she is now able to ride by peddling only! 3 brings on so many new adventures.

Karaoke at Bon Bon and Grandpa's and Fishing with Pops

Karaoke at Bon Bon and Granpa's

Lucy with the larakeets at the zoo:

The kids went fishing with Pops while in Kentucky, here are some of their catches.



Trial Run

Harper did a test run at her future preschool last week and it was a huge success.  She skipped in, with her lunch box in hand, ladybug backpack on back and a huge grin on her face.  No looking back, no tears, no fears, she was in PRESCHOOL, for a day anyway.  And the scene was much the same on her return, so many smiles, stories and love for her teachers, new friends and classroom fun.  Now she's looking forward to next year's fulltime schedule of preschool love!

Kentucky in April

I'm a month late and don't even remember the stories since we have had a zillion things going on since our return from Kentucky.  I do know the highlights: tea party with the Derby princesses, Bon Bon and my little princesses; Easter bunny train ride with Gramzie, Pop Pop, and Parker; fishing with Pops at Uncle Mark's house; a 30 inch pizza; sleepovers with Bon Bon and then Grandma; lots of tornado watches and warnings; breakfast at Keeneland the morning of the Bluegrass Stakes; bowling with Max and Molly; lunch with Nanny and Pa and lots of ice cream making with Gramzie.