Long Lost Brother?

I've always remarked how much my friend's son looks like Sam. Here is Sam and Levi standing next to each other at swim lessons. I think they could pass for brothers... what do you think?

Three Flew Over the Robins Nest

While I have not ever considered myself an ornithologist of any sort, it has been fun to watch the baby robins grow. Bobby, who likes to work on his laptop on the back porch, enjoyed watching them even more than me. I was taking these photos of them yesterday...

Suddenly, the baby sitting a little higher in this photo flew out of the nest, across our yard, and into the neighbors yard! If you were wondering if I was running across the neighbors yard in order to get a shot of the baby bird in the grass, the answer would be yes. Yes, of course I was running like a loon across my neighbors yard with my camera to get this picture...

The adult robins were really mad at me for prematurely prompting this baby to fly the coop. They were making a racket. I felt bad for the baby and was a little ashamed of myself for being too exuberant with my photos, so I backed off for the day and left the nest alone. When I woke up this morning and went out to see how the other babies were doing, this is what I found.....

Then, right in front of me, the baby took to the air, hit a beam on the back porch and smacked down on the deck. Poor little guy! Here he is recovering from his not-so-successful first flight....

While I was watching the one little guy recover, I noticed I was being watched....

The other robin had already left the nest and was resting comfortably. Then, as if on cue, both babies flew away to their parents, who were waiting for them in the bushes. I now literally understand the feeling of having an empty nest! It is a little bittersweet. As I was walking back inside, I noticed a goodbye gift they left for me.....


Goodbye baby robins, we'll miss you (especially Bobby)!

Birdies

I know that this blog has disintegrated into highlighting my children's quirky behaviors or showcasing the living, dead, and sometimes believed to be dead animals we have encountered this summer. This is what summer is all about for us though. Unless you want to hear about the upcoming home inspection today, how my Friday closing was delayed until Monday, or that I have to visit a work site I'm managing, this is what you get; our boring, non-real estate life. So sit back and enjoy....=)

As soon as we finished our back porch and placed our outdoor speakers, we noticed a bird's nest taking shape. The nest is messy, but the birds are cute (they are robins) and it's very educational for the kids. Here are the birds a few days ago, there are three babies......


Here's the mom (or dad, I can't tell which is which) feeding the babies.....


The babies are getting ready to fledge, here they are today looking quite alert......

The kids have really been enjoying watching the birds grow. I hope we can watch them fledge. I'll post some pictures if we are lucky enough to observe, it should be any day now.

Sick Baby

Allie was sick yesterday. I don't know what makes me take pictures of my sick kids, but they look so sad and cute (and they hold still). It's a demented character flaw I guess. I also liked that her hair was curly from the humidity. Here's the sad looking baby......

Allie has a balloon string around her arm. She "gave" a happy birthday balloon to her Grandma for her birthday and then promptly took it back. Even when she is sick, she won't part with the balloon. It was a sad day but by evening, Allie was running around. It's nice to see her feeling better.

On a brighter note....... Gary is alive!!!! I cannot believe he made it through the assault. That is one tough snail. I know I didn't want him in the tank to begin with, but he has earned his right to live there.

Bob ate Gary

Bob has tried several times before, and Gary has the scars on his shell to prove it, but I think this time Bob prevailed. It's a little blurry, but Bob has Gary in his clutches and is picking at the soft parts. Rest in peace Gary.

The Unforgettable One

I've been receiving a lot of flack for only highlighting certain kids. I do admit that the oldest kids and Allie get the bulk of the ink here but that's just because they're the loudest or more involved in activities that are easy to document. Tommy is a bit more subtle in his workings. Last night, as I made dinner Tommy kept me company by chatting my ear off. Here he is talking to me.....

After about twenty minutes of conversation, I realized that something was not quite right. Here is what I discovered.....

That's correct. Tom had been dangling while talking with me for twenty minutes. I know it's not earth shattering but it's what makes Tommy so special.

Diaper's Last Stand

We are entering exciting territory. After being a diaper family for 11+ years with no breaks (sometimes with two kids in diapers), there is finally a light at the end of the long, long tunnel. Allie is doing great with toilet training. Both numbered excrements are making their way to the potty without much issue. The last week and a half Allie has been mostly in the buff but we are slowly trying to coax her into clothes again as she becomes more comfortable with the training process. For bedtime or naps we are using up her existing diapers and then will switch to pull-ups. I am happy to announce though, that we are no longer buying diapers (well at least until Bob or I need them!). Yeah, for Allie! To celebrate we bought Allie some "pretty pretty" unders at Target this weekend. Here she is with most of her brothers showing off her "Dora the Explorer" unders.....

I could get used to this....

There is always an adjustment period when the kids are home for the summer that lasts about a week or two. During those first couple of weeks the kids seem a bit restless and unsure of what to do with themselves. The house also seems a bit more messy. We have countered that confusion and mess with a chore chart. They have to complete the whole chart in order to get paid but the pay is in proportion with who did the most work. Today is day one and so far so good. The kids scrubbed, swept, vacuumed, dusted and have been in good spirits. No complaining or fighting. Our only issue is when Matt tried to clean something that Pete had already cleaned because he wanted to earn the credit. Check out the photos, I would consider hiring them out if it wasn't for those darned child labor laws....




Note the toilet and underwear in the dining room photo, those are a permanent fixture and cannot be moved. I'll post a toilet training update soon. Below is page one of my new best friend....

Assorted Summer Silliness

At different times this summer the kids have asked me to take their picture for various reasons. I have a few random photos and figured I'd post them quickly before heading off to swim lessons. Here Matt is doing bubble experiments. He was really proud that he figured out how to make bubbles upon bubbles.


Here's Sammy doing I don't know what, but the kids all think it's hilarious to walk around like this with their shirt over their head. I don't remember doing that, but I do remember when I used to take off a turtleneck shirt, I would let the turtleneck collar stay on my head, and pretend the shirt and sleeves were my long, flowing hair.... I guess it's similar.

Grow Grass, Grow!

Grass is never too far off my mind. Ever since we've moved into this house, I've been hyper-focused on trying to make grass grow. It's hard to have a mud pit for a backyard when you have lots of kids who want to run around. Also, as I have started the grass growing project, I have heard more horror stories of grass that took two years to grow, and water bills topping $1,000! It was really scary. We were also hurt by the fact that our soil was quite rocky and was previously completely wooded. With that in mind, we've been trying to grow grass in the most economical and yet effective way. Here's our mudpit once it was graded and "rock hounded".....


Here's our yard after the hydroseed was sprayed on.....


Here are the first sprigs of grass. I must say, we were really lucky that it rained enough the first two weeks to save us on time consuming and expensive watering. Everyone else in town was grumpy about the weather, but not me!.....


Here is what our lawn looks like today. It's still a bit patchy but it's getting there! We also already added our fire pit and roasted marshmallows on the 4th.....

The Highs and Lows of Toilet Training

While we haven't officially started toilet training, Allie loves the idea of it. Nothing productive has happened yet, but Allie has embraced the naked baby role completely. To add to the excitement all the big kids remember the mantra "Poop on the toilet and get a donut" (long story- started with Matt and just makes me look like a really bad mom) so if Allie even hints that she might want to use the toilet, the little guys start jumping around and scream with anticipation. There have been some funny photos over the last few days and since I have not posted anything toilet related in a while I figured a few photos wouldn't hurt. *Bare Bum Alert- it's all over the place here* Here she is with her supportive brothers with donut aspirations...

Here she is dragging her toilet around with her. It's so funny to watch, I think every one of my kids did that...

I'm not sure why, but it seems the less clothes my kids have on, the more important it is to have a hat on.

And what toilet training photo montage would be complete without the inevitable crash from all the toilet excitement?

Next is the not so fun part of actual toilet training which always includes stepping in a puddle and wondering "Did I just (hopefully) step in water?".

Summer Fun

It's nice to finally be in the full swing of summer. With school finishing so late this year, I feel like we have some catching up to do. We started swim lessons this week and everyone is taking a class except for Allie who gets to play in the kiddie pool. The weather has been beautiful the last couple of days (uh oh, time to water the lawn!) and perfect for swimming. I know for a normal person it is not a big feat to remember the camera, but I was really proud of myself for remembering to document this fun summer memory *patting myself on the back*. Here is the big pool, it's hard to see any of the kids but gives you an idea of what it looks like.

Here's Allie in the kiddie pool. It's big but only 1 foot deep throughout, it's really perfect for little guys.



Even the big kids like to relax in the kiddie pool before lessons...

Well, Tom's not so sure he wants to go in, but everyone else was having fun!