Old Friends! :)

The boys were invited to the birthday party for one of our friends from the old neighborhood yesterday. It's hard to believe that our second-borns are all turning SIX. The funny thing is that I was picking out a card earlier for the birthday boy and I grabbed a "You're Turning THREE!" card initially before I realized that no... it's the third-borns who are all turning three this year. Simon and HIS little #2 buddies are all turning six. OMG. Where has the time gone?

It's always so great to get the old gang together. The kids pick up right where they left off at the Christmas party. It's a fun bunch!

These three are a trip!

Cousins Picnic...

The weather turned GORGEOUS with the time change. We spent almost the entire day outside yesterday and it was sooooooo nice. :) Aunt Sarah and cousin Audim stopped by and had a picnic on the deck with Simon and Jonathan and I!

Jonathan stuffed himself with almost an entire bowl of strawberries!!! (hence the red juice running down his face)

Super Simon's Super Party....

Simon is going to his friend's superhero birthday party today. He's SO excited. All the kids are wearing superhero costumes too, which ALREADY makes this party a winner in Simon's eyes. He's been agonizing all week over which costume he'll wear. Right now, he's going back and forth between Mr. Incredible and Buzz Lightyear. Also, this meant I had to bring all of our costumes down from the attic, so I just sucked it up and made room in their closet to hang them all up again.

Simon is in dress-up HEAVEN.

Anyway, so the party is just for the younger siblings. (his friend has a brother Ben's age and almost all of our neighborhood friends have a similar sibling age setup) I think this is awesome... and a great thing for Simon to have his own friends and things that are JUST for him that Ben can't do. I hope there is more of this in the near future for him.

Ben, on the other hand, thinks it's completely unfair and has declared that he wants to quit basketball (which falls during the party which he can't go to anyway) because of it. LOL! It's kind of amusing to see the tables turned where Simon is allowed to do something Ben CAN'T do.

So he and Tom are going out for lunch together and then to basketball, which means it's just going to be Jonathan and me for two whole hours this afternoon, which is always kind of fun. I think we're going to run to the grocery store and then just lay on the floor together and play. (exciting, I know!) ;)

Also, YAY for the beginnings of drop-off birthday parties! THanks, neighbor Jill!!! :o)

SillyBandz...

Have these made it to your neck of the woods yet? I have to admit, I was vaguely aware of them because of some of the older kids at the bus stop and some moms of older kids talking about them at the preschool. I figured they'd pass us over since they hadn't found their way to our house yet AND I have boys... (they are basically the equivalent of jelly bracelets, except they are rubber bands that turn into various shapes when you take them off)

Not so.

My neighbor Lori showed up with a pack for each of the kids a couple afternoons ago when we were all outside and they went NUTS over them, both girls AND boys. Apparently, as it turns out, Ben knew all about them and had been secretly wanting for them for months now. He's all over these darn things. We lost one yesterday and you would have thought it was a major tragedy.

Even Simon walks around with his set of colorful rubber bands on his wrist yammering on and on about his sillybandz.

It's kinda funny. ;) Made me think back to all the funny fads we had... like the plastic charm necklaces with the giant plastic charms dangling from them. At one point, I even had a toilet hanging from mine. I remember BEGGING my parents for one and my dad finally taking me to Woolworth's to pick one out.

Or slap bracelets, which, incidentally, I saw at Five Below the other day. I figured those suckers were outlawed, given that they basically are a razor blade encased in fabric.

LOL!

Farewell Bash!

Last night, we had a little block party in honor of the Collins family, who are moving this week. (cry) Everyone had a blast! My kids were even up until the unheard of (for them) hour of 10p.m!!!

We are all going to miss them TONS but know they will come back to visit plenty since they are not moving very far. :)

There was a vat of lemonade which Simon thought was just coolest because he could dispense it himself. Here he is with his 20th cup of lemonade. After that, he wet his pants three times over the course of an hour, at which point, we gave up and put him in a Pullup because the lemonade just kept on flowing...


My favorite picture, out of about 25 takes, of all the kiddoes, minus three -- one didn't want her picture taken, one family couldn't make it, and one was in bed at this point. Notice Simon has yet another cup of lemonade.


The three little brothers: Rube, Quinn and Simon. They are some of the toughest little dudes you will ever meet thanks to having big brothers. Seriously, no one crosses these kids... and BOY can they fight amongst themselves!


But they also love hanging out together...


Sophia and John a.k.a. The Bickersons


The husbands, minus one, who will need to be photoshopped in later. ;)


The big thing this year is to climb the big tree in the common area. Elise, John and Sophia have all conquered it. (this is Elise and John). Ben wants SO badly to climb it too, but he needs a couple more inches on him yet...


Quinn and Simon bobbing for Doritoes. I don't even want to estimate how many chips my children ate between them last night...


The late-night glowstick dance party... BOY did they have a blast. Video coming of this later. ;)

Day Two of Our Captivity...

Here are the pics from our brief time out in the white stuff yesterday morning... it was still snowing and my camera was getting wet, so I didn't take many!

Ben and Trey


Simon "helping"


Ben after he fell backwards into a snowdrift


Quinn


Simon


Snow, snow everywhere!

They Grow up So Fast! ;)

The babies line up to be fed now... too cute! They are getting big and starting to grow feathers. :)

August Pool Fun...

Some of my favorite pics from the pool this afternoon. I love how happy they all are (most of the time) when we are there. Can't beat summer fun! :D

A Hummer in the Summer (And a few other things)

Tom was trying to teach Simon to catch the ball. I got about 100 pictures that look something like this. ;)


Although if I took the picture early enough, before the ball actually started sailing at his head... they looked more like this.


And here's evidence that this one actually IS a lefty... ironically, Tom's nickname for Ben is "Lefty" (and he is clearly a righty) and is already pretty much stuck. Simon's nickname is Shortround. (like from Indiana Jones... and because for awhile there, he was both short and round)


Neighbors John and Clayton (a.k.a. "Ruber", don't ask) riding in the Hummer that our other neighbor got from a friend who is moving out of state! How cool is this thing? Also, a photography question for those of you who have my camera... HOW do I select more than one focus point? See how the little boy on the left is out of focus? That happens to me ALL the time and it bugs me to no end. Sometimes it gets it right by accident... but more often than not, I end up with one kid in focus and the other not.


Focus worked a little better here... but I don't know why!


And then Lucy and Trey went out for dinner and a movie in the Hummer...

On a date, you should always laugh at ALL the boy's jokes. ;)

He's so dreamy...


The Hummer was also used as a ship... Here, Ben and Trey are defending it. Ben is using a baseball tee as his rifle. Ah, boys and guns. You can't prevent it. But you CAN call them "shooters" and "blasters" instead. ;)


Guarding... the older kid is the one I've written about before... they are all actually playing really well together this summer. I feel so sad for this little boy. And we just found out yesterday that he is moving to an apartment, so he won't be around here much longer. :(


ETA: I think I found my answer to the focus point question. It's not the easy fix I was looking for... sounds like you CAN only select one, but both subjects will be in focus IF you have other settings, like DOF right... argh. My preference for that super low f# is what's messing me up...

Photo Dump

Simon vs. Nutella (my SIL has officially ruined Nutella for me with her book "Eat This, Not That", so this may be our last jar... cry!!!! :P If you are also a Nutella fan, do NOT, I repeat, do NOT look in that book!)


And here are a few pics from when I was experimenting with the zoom lens outside last night...




Ben was using the Force or something in this picture...












Those pics were all taken from pretty good distances, so I'm pleased with the zoom! I still need to practice focusing at long distances, but all in all, I'd say I really like this lens!

And lastly, check this out... during our walk, this little girl in fairy wings appeared across the street with a little boy carrying a sword. They were playing Peter Pan. Seriously, it was THE cutest thing I think I have ever seen.They were SO lost in what they were doing. I wish I could have gotten up close and gotten some pictures of them against the trees, but yeah, that probably would have made me the weird girl with the camera taking pics of other peoples' children. Instead, I stood far FAR FAR away and took pics paparazzi style. You know, because that makes me less creepy. ;)