Backyard Discovery

You never know what you will find when you step out the back door with two curious preschoolers. On this particular day, we found ourselves eye to eye with a praying mantis! Every day is an adventure.

Camp Out!

We didn't have any smore's last night but we did read Jack and Annie
books by flashlight. Clara, Christopher and Papa slept out on an air
mattress on the back patio. We watched clouds come and go and woke up
to a rabbit munching on some grub about 20 feet away.

The photo below was taken on Sunday morning. Sabrina inspects the
book collection while Christopher protests the sun from underneath his
blanket. Clara, who was up at 5:30 am at least, is getting herself
dressed.

Baptism

Welcome Molly Elizabeth to the family of God!

New Tricks

It's been nearly 7 weeks since Miss Molly joined our ranks and she is surely getting bigger (we hate to say growing up) every day. She's learned some new tricks in the past 2-3 weeks that we had yet to share... so here is Molly Beth - smiling.

Special breakfast for a special day

Christopher woke up early this morning since today is the day for his
birthday party. He told me since today was a special day he should
have a special breakfast.

I brought him with me to 8 am mass but not without a quick stop at
McDonalds first.

This photo was snapped in the church parking lot.

(If you look closely his shoes are on the wrong feet.)

Editors note: Annette went to 4:30 pm mass last night.

Nap Time Math

Here's an example of nap time math

1 napping mama
1 five year old boy
1 three year old accomplice
+ 1 can of shaving cream
------------------------------
one heck of a mess

Ambitious

This is a picture of an ambitious woman. And her mother.

Cuts

Christopher getting his quarterly haircut from Mama.

Molly

Here's just a sneak peek at Molly's first portrait session. Hopefully those birth announcements will finish themselves soon!

New Do

Here's what happens to a little girl with red hair when an aunt comes over to play... too cute!

Butterflies for Father's Day

We took the chance to do something unusual for Father's Day by visiting the Krohn Conservatory for the tail end of the annual butterfly exhibit. The kids got up close and personal with all kinds of beautifully colored, winged friends. We were surprised there were so many left at the end of the exhibit, but they did not disappoint. We especially liked the big bright blue ones that liked to chase each other... no pics of those though, they were too fast!

Clara and the ants

After making s'mores at Grandma's on Friday night, Clara decided she'd
had enough to eat. She set hers down on the patio which prompted a
question from her dad. She said she was feeding the ants with her
food. She then picked it up and asked, "Do you want it Papa?"

Addendum to Natural Consequences

And when you throw up on your blankie, you will not have it for the night. 

Natural Consequences

Lessons learned from natural consequences in our home...

When you take a shower for too long, the hot water runs out. 

When you don't use the ladder to get out of the bunk bed, you will eventually hurt yourself. 

When you shout at the top of your lungs because you're way over tired, eventually you'll make yourself throw up. 

Babo visits Molly

Babo came over last week to visit the new baby Howard. In the photo below, the two of them were first getting acquainted. Molly was awake for the visit which is a change from her normal procedure of eat, sleep and "you know what."

On June 2nd, Molly was seven days old. Using an approximation, Babo was 33,351.

Molly Elizabeth

Molly came into the world on Wednesday, May 26th. She was a healthy size and so far is doing everything babies are supposed to do. The other three children are adjusting to her in their own way... Christopher and Clara have been very sweet to her and Sabrina is fascinated by her. Here are a few photos that have also been posted on FaceBook.

Mower troubles

With the election last week and baby #4 coming next week, yard work has gone way down on the priority list. To expedite mowing the yard, we arranged to buy a riding mower from Pops... the same one we sold to him last year. Excited about his new lawn equipment, Adam eagerly went out to mow the front yard... or as Annette puts it, harvest the crop. You see, the grass had gotten so tall, it probably could've been bailed after being whacked down. After one good cut over the front yard, Adam went back a second time with the mower at a lower height setting to chop it up and try to make it look better. One swipe later and the mower sparked, flamed up and began to smoke. It's like all of its will to mow just gave out. After soliciting a neighbor's help who is more qualified in these kinds of things, we finally determined if this mower was going to last several more seasons, it would need to be serviced appropriately. So now it's up at the tractor repair store and we're anxiously awaiting how much damage it's going to be to get it up and running again. In the meanwhile, it's back to the reliable Honda push mower.

PS The neighbor cut our lawn.

Contagious

We've been trying to get Adam's Mom and Grandmother together for a portrait session for quite some time now. We finally used Mother's Day as a great excuse to record these two together. As usual, Babo's jovial laughter is simply contagious!

New Family Member

Before you all get too excited... we are still waiting on baby #4.

We did get to meet another new member of the family this weekend when Tim brought his 5 month-old puppy, Stella, into town. Stella is a Great Pyrenees/American Bulldog mix. At her young age she's already 40 pounds and as big as Christopher. She was a sweet as could be and did very well with the kids who ran around calling her name... even Sabrina.

Dandelion Crop

We try our best... we really do. But with all we have going on right now, lawn maintenance is some times neglected. On the bright side, we have cultivated a beautiful crop of dandelions this spring. Here you see my very proud dandelion farmers. Please note, these images were taken just before the crop was mowed down and fertilized so as to prevent nasty looks from our neighbors.