Life on the "farm"...and, this is just the first three days!

As always, our trip to "the farm" this year didn't disappoint.  It started with an insanely early flight out of Boston on Saturday morning that got us into WI at 9:30 AM.  If it weren't for a small mishap with our bags (people, including us, should really listen to the "a lot of those little black bags look exactly the same, so be sure to check your address tag when receiving it" advice), we would have been to Opa and Grandmas by 11:30.  As it was, we got there at about 12:30, so not too bad.  After lunch, we headed out to go strawberry picking, which the kids had never done before, so it was a fun experience for them.  Alex spent most of the time either eating the good ones or "chucking" the bad ones and Avery just loved picking anything she saw and putting it in the basket.  As always, we ended up with twice as many strawberries than originally planned, but between 10 ppl for the rest of the week, we actually got through them all!

 

And, just because I think that this is a cool picture...

That night, Opa and Grandma went to their college reunion, so we went out by ourselves as a family for dinner.  I was thrilled to find out that Saturday nights are Prime Rib nights at the restaurant.  Not so thrilled to find out that New England Clam Chowder should really only be consumed in New England - unless you want a thick, tasteless paste of flour and clam juice.  Oh well.  WI people  - don't get all excited.  Our fish fries still out beat New England fish and chips...Not to mention, our brats, our beer, our cheese and anything fried.  Here are the kids on the dock outside the restaurant - not a bad view, huh?

The next day, before everyone else arrived, we spent the day at the beach as a family...

And, that afternoon, we had a visit from the W's, including baby F, which was fun.  We have such a great time with them and unfortunately, don't get to see them enough...

 and then...the Davies arrived!!! Let the activities begin...

Monday was spent doing one of my favorites - hanging out on the boat.  I have to say - Avery has become quite the little fish these days.  Just 2 years ago, she wouldn't even put her toe in the water off the boat and now?  She's jumping off and bobbing around with me!  Al Man is still a bit hesitant and would prefer to spend his time in the floaty boat and/or in the big boat eating fishies and/or peeing off the side of the boat (the picture of which is just a bit too revealing, so will not be posted).

Char-Char did her best to stay away, but couldn't quite make it happen...

Tuesday was the big A Man's 4th birthday!  Although, at this point, he had already had his party with Josh's family at home, so he was convinced that he was turning 5 on his actual day.  He doesn't quite get it yet.  We were lucky enough to have Auntie Sara, Chad and Lila come to visit us for the day.  We managed to get all of the kids packed up and headed to the beach for a couple of hours. 

Unfortunately, it was a bit windy, so we didn't stay for too long.  Which, was fine.  We went back and relaxed outside while the kids played in the pool and the slip and slide. 

And, then?  The cake came out.  As my mom put it, for the first time in his life, Alex was able to have his cake and eat it too!  I have to say, this is probably my mother's most creative cake yet...all of Al Man's favorite foods in one (mac and cheese, broccoli, black beans and hot dogs).  It was pretty cool. 

After cake/dinner, it was present time!  As you can see, Alex got some pretty good gifts.  Josh is bound and determined to turn him into the next Tiger, so he has officially received his first set of "real" clubs.  So far, so good!  He's doing pretty well with them.

The next day?  TREASURE HUNT!  However, I hate to break it to you (if you are still awake), but this puppy is getting too long already (I am clearly not a professional blogger) and really, the treasure hunt deserves it's own post anyway, so I will end here and leave you guessing what it was all about.  I'll say one thing - we have one creative Grandma on our hands! 

Happy Birthday, Bugaboo!!!

Yes, just like with Avery - I have a nickname for Alex too.  That would be Bugaboo.  I have no idea where it came from and I totally realize that I sound insanely annoying when I yell "Hi Bugaboo!!!!" in  really high pitched voice whenever I see him, but whatever.  Onto the point of this post...

It was Al-Man's 4th birthday on July 2nd!!!!  Up until now, we have been able to play the "he doesn't really get the idea of birthdays" card. However, this year, we could no longer play it.  We have officially entered the "we need a minimum of 3 parties for this to even count as a birthday" stage.

It started with the family party with Josh's parents, Auntie Kristen and Uncle Ra-Ra, which was actually about 3 weeks before his actual day because Avery's dance recital was the next week and then the next week, we were leaving for WI.  But, he didn't care.  In an effort to keep things a bit easier than normal, we went with a truck cake that included a truck that did not in fact need to be frosted, but just shoved into the top of the cake.  In my defense, I did make the cake from scratch (and it was damn good, if I do say so myself).

 He got this cool castle from Grammy and Grampy, which he loved...

And, he officially has his own big boy sleeping bag from Auntie Kristen and Uncle Ra-Ra! 

His actual birthday was spent in WI, which as you know, requires its own post, which will come shortly - as soon as I sort through the 967 photos that I took. 

We then had Al's first "kid party" the weekend after we got back from WI.  At this point, I had kind of reached my hosting limit, so we decided to limit the party to about 7 kids (vs. the typical "invite the whole class" route that we normally do with Avery).  Fact of the matter is, he is really only close with that many kids in his class anyway and on a more selfish note - we really haven't become as close with the parents in that class as we have with Avery's class, so there wasn't as much of an incentive to invite everyone anyway. As it turns out, it was a pretty damn good thing that we only invited 7 kids because that day?  It rained.  But, not all day.  Just from EXACTLY 2-4, which happened to be the EXACT time of the party.  Awesome.  Luckily, I had told everyone to bring their bathing suits.  Although, their faces when I opened the door with "Good thing you brought your suits, because the party is still outside and you can play in the rain!!!!" were a bit less enthusiastic than I had hoped.  Needless to say, the party ended up being mostly indoors, which was actually fine.  The kids all just played with toys, which to my kids, are old and haven't been touched in ages, but to them, they were new, so it worked.  As you can see, the gift that we gave to everyone was a water gun, which would have been great for an outdoor party.  However, given the weather, we didn't give it to them until the very end of the party.  Little did I know that the kids would then decide that the rain wasn't half bad and would then proceed to play outside the the guns.  So, the party lasted a bit longer than expected, but the kids were having a blast between the guns and the slippery slide outside.  All in all, I'd say that it was a great success and the Al-Man was pleased.  More on the real day to come!

 

 

 

The S*%t kids say

So, we're on our way home from WI (annual post to follow) and we're on the plane, walking to our seats as we pass by a man who happened to have somewhat of a "beer belly," we'll call it.  So, my son says (more like, yells) to me...


"Mommy!  That man must have a baby in his belly!!!"

I. NEARLY. DIED.

Grandma to the rescue!

My dad grew up going to Rockport, MA for a couple of weeks during the summer.  His grandparents always stayed at the same Inn and he would go visit them so that he could do all of the fun things that little boys like to do...fish, swim, run around and (at least for my dad)...eat.

Needless to say, whenever they are in the area, he likes to try to get back there. Unfortunately, when I say "in the area," I mean our house, which is a good 2 hour drive from Rockport.  That said, it has been difficult to find the time to take the drive with the kids, but this last time they were in town, we actually had a couple of days with no real plans and figured that now that the kids are a bit older, it wouldn't be too much of a hike for them to handle.  So, the plan was to go to Rockport on the Monday that they were here.  Well, then, we had car issues and it had to go into the shop.  Not a huge deal, right?  We'll just go on Tuesday (and will tell both kids that we will go on Tuesday). 

Yeah...until Avery's homework sheet for the week came home on Monday night reminding us (of course, I swear that I never knew about this only to find out that it had been on the school calendar since day 1...ooops!) that her class would be doing some sort of standardized testing on Tuesday and Wednesday of that week and that it could not be missed.  WORST MOM OF THE YEAR!  So, here I had told Avery that a) she would be getting out of school and b) she was coming to Rockport with us and now?  Nada.  Not only Nada??? But, testing!  I felt horrible.  Not only that, but I had already decided not to take her out on Monday (because I didn't want her out for 2 days straight) and all of us (except for her) went to Newport for the day while she was in school.  WORST MOM OF THE YEAR!

In comes Grandma...she very selflessly offered to stay back and to pick up Avery after the testing was finished so that they could have a girl's day out and Alex, Dad and I could go to Rockport.  Unfortunately, when presented with the choice of what Avery wanted to do, she chose to go to a somewhat trashy mall to go shopping vs. going to get a pedicure, but whatever.  Needless to say, they had a great time. Avery got a cute shirt and dress and then got to come home and use her Easy Bake Oven with Grandma - one of her many favorite activities to do with her.

No wonder she loves Grandma so much...thanks again, mom! 

Kids' Minds

It's funny - I don't remember having such a creative imagination when I was little. But, I mean, surely I did, right?  Surely that even though I have grown up to be an accountant, I have at least one imaginative bone in my body??? 

Well, even if I don't, the big Al Man does.  He is too funny.  As with all younger siblings (I would assume), he is continuously attempting to compete with her for time and attention.  For those of you who know her, Avery commands (and most of the time receives) a lot of attention, so this is no small feat for A Man.  So...in order to do this, he will a lot of times just kind of make stories up.  We will be talking about something and he will all of a sudden bust out with a similar story, but one that is completely made up.  For example...

The other night, we were talking about the field day that Avery is having at school today.  They are going to spend the whole day outside playing, etc.  And, all of a sudden, Alex busts out with...

Alex:  "Well, mom.  We went on a field trip today at school."

Mom: (not realizing that he was making this up and feeling like a horrible parent that I missed a field trip!), "Really?  Where did you go?"

Alex:  "W. Point (abbreviated name of a beach near us)"

Mom: "Really?? (now clearly realizing that this is a story) Well, how did you get there?"

Alex:  "Well....we took a plane!"

Mom: "Wow!  Did you have to pack luggage?"

Alex: "Yep!"

Mom: "Well, what did you pack?"

Alex:  "Well...we didn't have to pack our pillow pets because, they already had them there for us."

Mom:  "Wow!  That is a nice beach!"

Alex:  "Yep!"

And, then..I'm sure Avery interrupted with something like, "Mom!  He obviously didn't fly to WP today!"  and the story stopped.  But, man - it was funny while it lasted.  And, fun to know that he has such a vivid imagination.  Ah...to be a kid again...