Adison is FIVE!

Five is Big. BIG. She literally woke up and came running into my room and shouted, I'm FIVE today!!

She really is growing up just so fast. At 5 she is still talkative, imaginative, loves art and color and stickers and drawing, loves chocolate cupcakes (but just the frosting), loves her doggy, her brother, and just happy all the time.

The family pitched in and bought her an American Girl doll, Kanani.  She was so excited when she got it. I just dont' know what we'd do if this crazy, funny girl wasn't in our lives.

Cole-ism

[Sitting at the pool during break, eating snack]

Cole: Mama? Not me.

Me: Not you, what?

Cole: [points to speakers playing music at the pool]

Music..."I! Wanna rock & roll all niiiiight! And party every day!"

Me: You don't want to rock & roll all night and party every day?

Cole: Nope.

Last Morning

It's the last morning here for the weekend and a perfect breezy, cool morning to sit out on the porch and drink coffee and build domino towers. By this time, we've all found our relaxation groove...just in time to leave.

Mountain Food

Kevin and I always plan one nice evening meal after the kids go to bed. I always love this part of our trips. Last night it was Raclette. I also made some Penuche Fudge in honor of Father's Day. I didn't get the consistency just right, but the good news it still tastes amazing..

Break Time

We should probably name this rock "Snack Rock" since it's where we always stop and stretch and have a snack. Kevin brought along his fishing pole and fished s bit as we rolled down the river, and also here at the rock. He caught one tiny Red Eye. A little disappointing. Otherwise it was a beautiful day for our little river adventure. Just enough cloud and sun for our trip.

Canoeing

It's warmed up enough to go canoeing again on the New River, so we took the kids out again. They are both ready to have a more active part in canoeing (they really really like a turn to paddle), and we let them take a few turns.

The only thing more fun than canoeing is making silly faces while you wait for Daddy to rent the canoe.

A Moment in the Day

Cole reading me a Psalm on the porch in the mountains.

Weekend in the Mountains

Another weekend in the mountains to celebrate that it's almost time for summer. But who are we kidding, we don't need a reason to celebrate anything to go up there. We had beautiful weather up there. We had a couple of cheapy kites we'd bought one time and the kids are constantly asking to fly them. The weather was particularly blustery and Kevin had bought a new kite to try out. It made it up a few times.

As always, s'mores are a must.

We like to try to get a hike in at least once and it never ceases to amaze me how many different places we find that are kid friendly. This visit we went to New River State Park Welcome Center because they had a hike that started there, and while we were inside the welcome center, we found a pamphlet for a scavenger hunt to do while you hike. It was really fun looking for animal prints, bees, spider webs, and a host of other things during this hike. They gave you hints for specific points of interest along the hike and it was a really fun time for us and the kids. Here they are pointing at what they found with their handy walking sticks. And then a family portrait by the river while we take a rest.

A rare portrait of Kevin and I.

We played some frisbee. Adison caught it for the first time and was SO excited. Love that we got this on film.

These pictures of Cole, he looks like he's 6 going on 16. Hard to believe this boy is growing up so so fast. We can still get him to smile though, and he's picked up Mama's 'talk-to-the-hand-I-don't-want-anymore-pictures-of-me' move. Proud moment.

End of Year Party

I've been a little lack keeping up with Adison's preschool and parties this year...so here we are at her end of the year party. Since it's almost summer they are putting together an Ocean-In-A-Bottle. :) Adison had great teachers this year - as she has every year at St. Marks. It's been such a great experience for her and she loves to go to preschool. This year her teachers were Miss Susan and Miss Laurie, two really great and fun ladies who really challenged the kids and taught them a lot of cool stuff. She also found a good friend in her classmate Haley. You should see these two together, it is cute overload. Two tiny little girl voices, talking to each other all excited about who knows what. Haley's standing next to Adison in the blue dress in the class picture. It's really fun to see her develop a connection to a friend and from a Mama's persepctive, she picked a good one. Haley is one sweet and fun little girl. Hard to believe next year will be her last year of preschool before kindergarten!

Adison-ism

"Mama? What if there was a volcano with hot lava, AND a guitar was in it? What would happen?"

"Mama? Do some bumble bee's make you tired?"

These are just a few of the un-answerable questions Adison asks me on any given day.

A Moment in the Day

Cole reading to all of us.

A Moment In The Day

You take what help you can get when you're modeling the aprons you just made and need someone to take pics of it for the website. :)

Chicago

We went to Chicago for my cousin Joanna's wedding (which was beautiful and I will one day post more pictures of) and decided to take a few extra days to do some things downtown before wedding weekend.

We did museums, museums, and more museums. It was cold. BUT it was so so fun. There was ice skating outside...I really do  need to sit down and find those pictures.  A highlight was going to the Sears Tower  -- and it has a different name now, but I can't remember what it is. At the top there are glass boxes that jut outside of the physical building and let you look down. It was horrifying and exhilarating and the kids LOVED it. 

Happy New Year! 2011

Kevin and I typically ring in the New Year with Fondue and movies until midnight. We never really talked about it much with the kids, but this year Cole was very aware that it was New Year's Eve and he decided that we should have a New Year's Eve party. So we did! We rang in the "new year" at 8pm on the 31st. It was really fun to go out and buy party hats and sparklers and those little poppy things. We rang it in with some sparkling cider, which the kids didn't car for because it was "too spicy". They aren't a fan of carbonation... I dont' know who's having more fun waving the sparkler's and popping the poppers: Kevin or the kids. I got some good action shots. (Per usual, no pictures of me. Kids: I want you to know that you do have a mother and I was present for all these moments in your life, even though it's rarely captured on camera).

Twas the day after Christmas...

We actually had a white Christmas this year. It actually snowed Christmas day! It was so cool. We all ended up at Mom & Dad's house to sled down their back yard and hang out. Play Wii Just Dance. Make funny faces with your cousins. It was exactly the kind of thing that you want to be doing the day after Christmas. Getting chilly, laughing and having fun, coming in and warming up.