Sportsmen (and women!)

The kids favorite place to hang out when we are at loose ends is the tennis courts. We use it for biking, kite-flying, skateboarding, and sometimes even tennis!

oColin wanted to try out his new skateboard, but he was pretty cautious about it so moved back to his bike after only a few minutes. Liam took that as some kind of challenge and hopped on himself and was up and running on it shortly thereafter.

When you run out of sports to play, you can just climb the fence!

Add rock-climbing to our tennis court adventures.

The humidity made Miss Curly-cue even curlier.

Finally, some tennis on the tennis courts!

But the bikes are really the old stand-by.

It is MUCH nicer to play tennis (when you can only find five balls) when you have a miniature ball-boy on a bike chasing them around and returning them to you!

A new friend

Eamon found my old Feelix the Bear, circa 1985, maybe? He begged to take it home from Grammy and Grampy's and then proceeded to love on it nonstop for a couple days. He renamed him "Silly" and dragged him around everywhere. He took him out to lunch with us (complete with his own chair and pizza scraps) and generally kept him as a constant companion. I don't think we've had an "imaginary" friend around here since Colin had Bananahead a handful of years back. It's nice to have an extra friend in the house!

A good bear will always let you use him as a pillow for a nap in the sun.

Or help you do your yoga moves.

Memorial Day

The boys had a whole set of events for Memorial Day this year. The first round was at school where they happily participated in their class exercises. I noticed there was a distinct correlation between how enthusiastic the singers were and what grade they were in. The Kindergarten and First Graders really got into it. Colin and Liam practiced at home, begged me to play versions for them on YouTube to sing along with and belted their songs out in force. By the time you got up to Erin's class in the 6th grade, they all sort of mumbled and barely moved their closed-lips.

Liam with his class and their "hand"-made flag shirts.

A glimpse of Colin.

Little Miss Red, White and Blue had to get in on the action as well.

And last, but not least, Eamon got dressed for the occasion.

A reluctant model. I've been trying out settings on my new camera. He kept saying: "Mom, you said just ONE more picture, but you KEEP TAKING THEM!!"

Frisbee golf

Liam had a couple unexpected days off from school this week so we wanted to take advantage. The weather has been downright frightful with rain for days on end, but we didn't let that stop us and ended up playing frisbee golf on an 18 hole course. We only had time for 13 holes and it proved to be a lot more strenuous than we expected. Mostly because I underestimated the length of the course and overestimated how far Little Miss could walk on her 12 inch legs. Not far, if you must know, I ended up lugging her around over hill and dale after the second hole.

Dreary day didn't impede our progress at all. In fact, it made all the mud and wet all the more exciting to the kiddos.

Sadie couldn't QUITE keep up. But I gained about 2 lbs of muscle in my left bicep carrying her up and down hills!

Liam was quite a good shot, actually. In fact, he clipped me square in the back with one long distance throw! He ended up beating me by far and Eamon as well (although he spent most of his time picking dandelions and got distracted a lot!)

Happy Birthday to Liam!

To top off the month of celebration, Not-so-little Liam turned six!! He celebrated by inviting a friend over for wild pirate adventures... treasure hunts, water balloon fights, sword and gun fights galore, treasure map cupcakes and another pirate ship cake. Here's a small sampling of how fast he has grown!

Happy Mother's Day to me too!

Continuing a week of splendors for me was Mother's Day. I had a perfect day all around. Brunch and fun at Old Sturbridge Village and the children were on their VERY BEST behavior (warned to within an inch of their lives not to fuss on Mother's Day--wish that worked every day!)

Happy Birthday to me!

All of my guys went all out this year and I could not be happier! Cake and presents and a new camera! Suddenly the boys who can never stay still to have their photo snapped became complete hams and wanted me to get them from every angle! Here are the first photos off the new camera--crazy as ever.

Lazy baby

It is very, very tiring to let your mom push you in the stroller three miles through the woods over boulders and fallen trees. So tiring, in fact, that after stealing a flower out of your brother's hand, you promptly fall asleep, only to wake up as we re-entered civilization and our own driveway.

Evil Sheep

I brought the Littles to play with a friend at Old Sturbridge Village and they spent the entire time on the playground with the ox and sheep.

Upon closer inspection, this sheep looks rather evil... although I'd look the same if little kids climbed all over me all day!