Summer

And just like that, Summer was upon us. We had about a week off of school before the big kids packed their bags and headed to Girls camp and Scout Camp. We had a super fun time watching our neighbor's cute dog, Yogi, at our house for a few days.

We settled for some Donuts from Dunkin Donuts on donut day. Thomas doesn't know what he's missing not getting to eat donuts yet.

 Basketball season was upon us. It was a perfect way to get some exercise inside out of the heat. That's Luke in the left corner.

Thomas thinks it's funny when Doug rubs his scruffy face on his.
 Here's evidence that Mer loved Girls camp

 Mer and Max and Doug came back from their camps on the second saturday of summer. We began a mad frenzy of doing laundry and packing clothes for our big cross country trip the next day. But before we could leave we had to celebrate Father's Day with the father of the house. We made him a smoothy and an egg man with strawberry eyes and a mango beard. Doug was growing a beard that month.

Doug really is a great dad. I couldn't ask for a better one for my kids.

After we celebrated we loaded the car and drove to Georgia.

The School Year Ends

Here are a few more photos to share from the end of the school year.  I just remember there was  a lot going on. We signed everyone up to play basket ball for the summer and the basketball practices started the last couple weeks of school. Everyone had to be at in different places in the evenings.  I remember dropping Jack off at school to receive an award and then dropping mer off somewhere else to come back and pick Jack up from his ceremony. 

We also had a fun art night at the kids school.  Jack and Luke each had performances and we got to go through and find all their art projects on display. Jack's singing Rocky Top Tennessee here. They made their own guitars, it was awesome.

Jacks class did a unit on the Monkey Kingdom in Sri Lanka and they made these awesome moon stones.

Luke made a sweet sea turtle.

That month Doug declared that we were doing something fun every weekend so we made a trip down to Bathtub reef  in Stuart Fl again.  We are loving this destination for a quick snorkeling trip. This time they found this huge Conch shell.

 The water is much clearer and bluer than the beaches near us.

We found some cool red crabs in the mangroves. We are loving the florida wildlife.

Max had an award ceremony for his Track season. He officially holds the record for the 7th grade boy 1 mile at 5:37.  His 7th grade team came in first in the county and he go a special shirt with his name on it. Who knew Max was so so fast.

 These two are just so cute, even if they are sideways.

5 months old

The day before Meredith's birthday, Thomas turned 5 months old. 

This kid couldn't get any cuter. He his growing, always growing.  I think he will be right handed.  he uses his right hand to bat at things way more than his left one.  He can reach for things slowly and deliberately. He loves to be held and cuddled.

 He's growing a little covering of fuzzy hair all over his head.

He smiles and laughs a lot but somehow it is just so hard to capture it on camera. But his big gummy grin is just so cute.

 he has also discovered that he is flexible enough to put his toes in his mouth which is a convenient distraction during diaper changes

Birthday Mer

I am super sad and super sorry that I haven't posted in almost 3 months. Yikes. Blogging has fallen last on the list so frequently that I've fallen out of the habit of doing it.  So much catch up to do. So many things I want to record so I don't forget so I'll start here where I left off.

The end of the school year brought a birthday celebration for Mer. She turned FIFTEEN. She had to take a final that morning and then spent the afternoon with her friend Bethany. They shopped and had lunch in downtown Melbourne. 

After a fun afternoon she opened up presents in the evening

She wanted Baked Apples with Ice Cream and caramel for dessert.

Blow out the Candles Mer!!

After dinner we "ruined" Mer's birthday by making her play in her first Basketball game. She had her friend Cassidy come along for moral support. 

She tried her best not to have any fun playing the game. 

We love this fun, fashion loving, super helpful girl. Oh and then a few days after her birthday she got her driver's permit, watchout!

These eyes are full of Wonder

My Birthday, Uncle Tob Comes, & 4 month Thomas

It has been way too long since I've updated the blog.  My apologies to all the grandmas I'm disappointing. Let's start out with some Thomas love.

Yep, He's four months old now and weighs 15 pounds. He climbed the charts to 45th percentile all the way around.

His personality is getting a little more fun everyday. Though it's still tricky to get a smile out of him when the camera is out.

He is always at the ready to grab at things and the kids are marveling at how fast he changes.

He's just really so so cute.  His cheeks are the best and fun to squish. He also has 1/4 fuzzy hair all around his head.

And he's working on perfecting his double chin.

Now that he is a little more sturdy, Luke likes to sit him up to play with him.

We celebrated my 40th birthday a couple of sundays ago. Doug bought me rugs and running shoes and fabric, and we are going take a trip to Tampa next week as a little extended celebration. I also went out to dinner with a bunch of friends which was really fun. 

Who knew I'd have 5 kids at 40.

Doug made me dinner and we ordered a Key Lime Pie, Our favorite bakery makes the BEST key lime pie I've ever tasted. If you come to visit we must let you taste one.

Also my birthday week I took these kids to the High School to see Shrek the Musical. Jack and Luke giggled through the whole thing. It was a fun night out. And nice to get away from the babe for a little while. 

But seriously I can't stay away from this kid too long, his cheeks are the best.

Last weekend Uncle Tob came out for a quick visit.  We had fun visiting with him and were excited that he came to see our new babe and our new house. 

We took him out to explore a new beach called Bathtub Reef Beach. Doug and the scouts had actually camped near there the night before and we met up with them the next day.

It was beautiful.  There is a reef that is supposed to be great for snorkeling but it was so windy, it wasn't clear enough to see much. There were some pretty cool rock formations that the kids had fun exploring. We will definitely be going back. 

We also took him to Ballard park and threw in a fishing line but sadly no fish were caught.

 Thanks for coming uncle Tob!!

I think  I forgot to mention that Max got his braces of sometime last month. He only had them on for 10 months. Just enough time to get is canine tooth unstuck. 

This is what mornings sometimes look like here.

Do you spy a hole in Luke's mouth?

Technology is entertaining at all ages.

And we never get tired of ice cream. Thank you Ben and Jerry's for our free cones.

Okay I'll end with a few more of this precious face. 

OVER and OUT!