Sisters

Do you have a sister?

I have a sister and she's awesome. I can't imagine life without her. She and I are opposites in every way, but she's absolutely the perfect sister for me.

I'm so glad that my girls have each other. There's something unbelievably special about having a sister to share all of life's journeys--even if its just into the kitchen.



Someone to keep you company in time-out.



Someone to do your make-up for you until you are old enough to do your own without poking your eye out...and hopefully someday keep the eyeshadow on the eyelid.



Someone to ride bikes with.


Someone to play with.



Someone to give you chocolate (particularly nem-nems).




Someone to have lunch with (or breakfast, as the case may be).



Someone to hold your hand.


My girls fight, just like my sister and I did. But I hope they enjoy growing up together. I hope they realize what a precious gift they have in each other. I hope they realize how lucky and blessed they are to have a sister.

Six

And now you are six.



SIX?!??



Happy, happy birthday Micah Man!

Wishing you a day full of fun and smiles



And may all your wishes come true.



If only we could all be as cute as you :)

{this moment}

A Friday ritual. A single photo - no words - capturing a moment from the week. A simple, special, extraordinary moment. A moment I want to pause, savor and remember. Happy Friday!

Haiku...more or less

Yesterday the boys wrote their first Haiku. Kind of. It was a relaxed haiku. I told them the first and third lines should be about the same length and shorter than the middle line. It had to be about something in nature and it had to show an emotion. Here's what I got:

Micah's Haiku

Flying, stinging, biting
I collect nectar from my favorite flowers
And protect my home in the ground.

--------------------------------------------------------

Josiah's Haiku

Friends come over.
Happy, presents, fun, love and cake
I get one year older.

(Ok, so Josiah's isn't actually about something in nature...at least not by my definition. His defense was that it "naturally happens every fall, so it's about nature." He's in 1st grade, so I let it fly.) :)

Not So Small Potatoes

My mom tells me that when my dad was growing up he and his brother would eat a full plate of potatoes before they got meat and vegetables and whatever else was for dinner.

I have not confirmed this story, but I can see the usefulness of it.

I think my boys (and girls the way they've been eating this past week!) need to start something similar sooner rather than later.

That's right--I just got home from the grocery store.

Poetry Month

Did you know April is Poetry Month?

Well, now you know. :)

Here are a couple of poems the boys have written this week:

Josiah's Diamond Poem

Pie

Blueberry, yummy

Sitting, steaming, warming

Food, delicious, scrumptious, smells good

Waiting, calling, burning

Flat, circle

Pizza

------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Jumpy

Likes cOokies

Super

Intelligent

Awesome

Hilarious

Likes Cats

Likes "Sky High" (the movie)

Runs

Loves hIs mommy and daddy

Likes baSeball

sTudent

kId

Has A lot of imagination

Loves mommy so much he waNts to eat her!

Micah's Diamond Poem

Mommy

Princess, beauty

Singing, walking, watching

Love, kiss, parent, grown-up

Playing, mowing, working

Handsome, nice

Daddy

-----------------------------------------------------------------

Me

I am a brother

Caring

Awesome

Hopping

Likes Tom and Jerry

Likes Hats

I like the mOon

Likes Mommy

Likes A book--Toy Story

I like Somethings

Day 6

Last day at the beach. It always goes by so fast.

I stayed in bed through my last sunrise on the beach. I hated that I did it and loved it all at the same time. :)

John and I spent the morning packing our stuff into the car. The plan was to spend our last day enjoying the beach and then load into the car after dinner for the drive home. We'd get home in the early hours of the morning, but we had a pipe to fix before John went back to work on Monday. Audra, however, was NOT HAPPY that we kept going outside without her. Emilia stood by her side for the whole thing, but couldn't handle the crying.

Another fun game of UNO--it was the game of choice at the beach this year. Audra wanted to play this time, though. I suggested the boys move up to the table so she couldn't get in the cards.

You can see how well that solved the problem. :)

Karen gave Emilia a purse and she loved it (shocker). First thing she said, "It needs stuffs in it!"

I took the girls out to the beach to get some pictures that I could get printed for their 1 year and 3 year pics. I need to do some editing on them, but I got some that I can work with. The hardest thing was getting them to look at the camera--there were so many more exciting things to see!





Josiah was the hole digger this morning. But no one found any treasure there, unfortunately.

Micah and McCain playing in the ocean. It was FINALLY warm enough for it!
I think this picture is funny because it looks like McCain is running on top of the water!

My sandcastle for the day.

Once again, the tide was being too slow for us, so Emilia and Micah did their best to fill the moat.

I don't know what made all of the kids run for the water, but all of a sudden they all took off for the ocean!

Bruce found this little guy on the beach. Isn't he cute? They kept him in a bucket for a little while until Mom and Sue got back so they could see him. We all liked watching him swim around. He was so tiny!

Emilia even held him for awhile. She was all serious about it. Never smiled, just studied him and used all her concentration to hold completely still.

The kids in the ocean...
posing...

and playing!

Micah being mischevious (as usual!)

Emilia was using the bucket to mix up a special concoction for the moat. Stir, stir, stir!

I had high hopes that the afternoon would be even more beautiful than the morning had been. Sadly, by the time we got back out after lunch, the clouds had rolled in and it was WINDY!

Audra was still able to find some shells to show off to everyone

and she got to play on the rocks for the first time, which she thought was AWESOME!


But the wind was really blowing the sand around and up and it was right at the level of Emilia's eyes. Needless to say she was not a fan of that so it wasn't long before she was ready to go in.

We had a FANTASTIC week at Folly Beach! After an uneventful trip home, we rolled into John's parent's house around 1 AM. After some investigation it would seem that one of two things happened:
a) our water heater malfunctioned and send a charge back through the copper pipe. The pipe was touching the metal air vent and when the charge grounded out on the vent it blew a hole in the pipe which caused the leak.

OR

b) lightning struck our house or close to our house and caused the above to happen. Not too unlikely since our TV also was hit with something and no longer works, either.

And there you have it :)

Day 5

And so begins another wonderful day at the beach!

Josiah was chased down the beach by a flock of birds...or at least that's what he was pretending!

They were awfully impressive to watch fly off in their perfect "V" shape.

Digging in the sand and finding all sorts of treasures is always so much fun.

Audra likes to walk on the beach....

and pick up shells!

Today we built our first sandcastle. It was lots of fun and turned out beautifully!

Audra helped dig the trench that we thought we needed to keep the ocean out until we were done (we were so wrong about that)

Here we are with "The One Claw Castle"

And then we waited...
Micah threw more sand back into the ocean

Emilia was relentlessly chased by the waves

We dug a tunnel so our moat would fill up quicker

And we waited some more...
Emilia went rowing in the ocean

Audra played in the waves with Nana

And then snuggled into her shoulder for a power rest.

We all played around the castle and did a 'High Tide' dance to bring the waves in sooner because we were all getting impatient and antsy

And we waited some more...
Josiah said I could "borrow his face" to take this picture--and how could I resist?

Micah showed off his handsome toothless smile and tricked all of us by crushing sand rocks with his bare hands

And then there was the attack of the Audra Monster!! AHHHHH!!

F-I-N-A-L-L-Y the tide got up to the pool for the tunnel and trickled into the moat.

We were unimpressed.
John decided to take matters into his own hands--enough with this waiting business!

One, two, three--POUR!

YAY the moat has water! Now we can all go eat lunch.

That afternoon we were back out for more fun. Micah left his mark on a piece of the beach

Audra found a beautiful shell that she wanted to show you

And then Emilia got cold so she and I came inside where she devoured more food than I knew she could eat in a single sitting. The rest of the crew stayed outside and played in the tide pool.

Only one day left :(

This day also brought us the fun phone call from John's parents saying that a pipe broke in our house and we had water gushing into our basement. It's always something, isn't it? Wont that be a fun "Welcome Home" gift?