Sunday, August 23, 2009

You know the summer is coming to an end when it's Fair Time.

The boys had fun at our annual outing to the Hardwick Fair. Liam got us all in the mood by wearing Daddy's Hillbilly hat in the car on the way there. The first stop was the fire engines, of course. Eamon has a very amusing siren noise he uses for everything from police cars to tow trucks, anything with lights on top! From year to year, all the kids seem to remember or care about is the hay-bale obstacle course that is set up there (and mostly the rope swing part). I could probably recreate it in the backyard in 20 minutes but I just don't think the draw would be the same! Eamon stood at the entrance the entire time watching his big brothers run through over and over again but felt no urge to go through the first tunnel. He was mostly enthralled with the cows and particularly the tractor parade which he watched in its entirety. They also got ice cream cone face-paints which quickly washed off between the sweaty 90 degree temperatures and crazy downpours (which have yet to dissipate any of this heat wave). Liam had a ball, so to speak, dribbling through the soccer course which I hope bodes well for the big boys starting soccer in a couple weeks. Fall is coming faster than I would like but if it brings cooler temperatures, I will take it!
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Saturday, August 22, 2009

Swifts Beach

I'm usually the first person to berate pregnant women for being whiny prima donnas who feel the need to put their feet up and complain about their swollen ankles. However, I do have to admit that this heat wave has made me rather miserable, especially considering our complete lack of air conditioning and my ongoing sweat-drenched project to declutter the house before I go back to work in a week. When I finally just couldn't take another second, we escaped to our friend's house on the beach and I was free to float in the ocean "like a hippo with only my eyes above water" as someone so eloquently described me! The boys also had a ton of fun. As you can see, Liam is a master architect and will use ANY medium at his disposal, including the best clay possible when the tide is out. Colin and his friend Josh collected an entire bucketful of hermit crabs and Josh taught him a thing or two about clamming as well. Eamon enjoyed the fact that the water is super shallow at this beach as he doesn't love being submerged past his knees for some reason, but he loved collecting seagull feathers and seashells and helping his brothers dig shoulder-deep"mucky moats". The pinnacle of Colin's day was when he found a closed clam shell and pried it open to find a tiny little fish wriggling inside. Now, if only the heat would break so I can go back to running around like a maniac after my little maniacs.


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Sunday, August 16, 2009

Adventures with animals.

Wild animals

Animals in captivity

We spent a very LONG and fun day at the zoo on Friday with some friends. It was about 90 degrees so by the last couple hours or so, I'd grown too tired and limp to remember to snap pictures, but we got a bunch at the beginning! The kids especially loved the elephants, giraffes and seals. Poor Colin had made a checklist before we left of the animals he really wanted to see and was sad that the zebras seemed to be hiding from the heat and he missed them! I thought the red panda was the cutest. Eamon thought standing under the water fountain was the most amusing and how could I blame him, I would have loved to cool down there myself! We had a very fun and rowdy dinner at Wright's Chicken Farm on the way home and called it a day after 11 hours of concentrated good times!

Monday, August 10, 2009

Sunday, August 2, 2009

Fur, tongues and cages, oh my!


Eamon and Spotter became fast friends while we were away. They are the closest in age and personality!

Mosaic Marathon

I took so many photos of three short days, I figured the best way to get them all up here is to mosaicize them. Feel free to click on the big pictures to see them in more detail.


Clockwise from top left: 1) 10 hands are better than one. 2) All the cousins, minus two (and a half). 3) David amusing the little boys 4) MaryKate lounging 5) Liam on his first outing with Auntie Mare before he got brave enough to kayak on his own 6) The big kids caught this fish which caused much elation. For perspective's sake, that green thing is the stem of a leaf. Hardly a whopper! 7) The girls took Eamon out in the paddleboat. 8) Auntie Mare plays momma duck to all the little floating ducklings! 9) Liam somehow "forgot" to jump on the count of three!



Clockwise from the top: 1) About as close the swimming as Eamon really enjoys. 2) Playing with his brothers' Tonka Pods 3) As brave as Eamon got on the kayaks 4) Looking wistful 5) The Amazing Goggle Boy 6) Colin and Emme worked in tandem for over two hours on their "moat/levee/waterway" masterpiece 7) Eamon playing by what he called "Grampy's pool" 8) Liam and Colin got to be pros at kayaking by themselves 9) Eamon stuck to land cruising 10) Colin will be swimming the Channel soon 11) Liam only LOOKS like he's drowning in the forefront, he actually got a lot better at swimming horizontally last week
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