The Family

Big Girl

Dolly will be 6 months tomorrow!  She can sit up and scoot her bottom in the air like she wants to crawl.  I think she wants to keep up with her brother and sisters.  She also hardly ever stops smiling and is good with other people.  She likes to look around at them and give them a big open mouth grin.  The other children dote on her and Mary Tighe calls her 'Dolla".  We all love Dolly.

Taking Harry and Scout for a walk

Hamsters aren't supposed to live too long.  Who know how long Harry will last.  He has already defeated the odds by escaping for days on end and living on top of the dishwasher.  Anyway, I think he should see the outside, non climate controlled world once in awhile.  So I took him on a walk with Scout.  I wish they made harnesses for hamsters because he kept trying to get down. 

Mary and Jack's Birthday

We had a great time at Jack and Mary's birthday party yesterday!  We had a yummy sandwich, played, had a smash your face with cake after the cake was dropped, went to Mary's pool and people watched and swam, went back to Mary's beautiful house and had ice cream and pizza and played.  What could be better!  Now her ac is broken and it is the hottest day of the summer so far.  She is amazing.

I also feel like it is the first real day of summer for us in Poolesville.  The children are already bored of TV, which I guess is good since they are doing pretend play and not bothering me anymore about being bored.

Here are some pictures from yesterday:

Temper Tantrums Beachside in Pictures

Recovery!

Girls, Girls, Girls

We already have a bazillion girls in our family.  And Hazel was at the beach. Then my friend Kate Osborne Adams came to visit with her two girls, Nealie and Mariann.  Then Solange came to visit with her daughter, Ellen and Ellen's friend Elizabeth.  Archer was outnumbered by so many females.  It was wonderful to catch up with out friends though!  As Kate said, we have done a lot since freshman year at Sewanee.

Girls in princesses dresses

Girls with blond hair

Guryls messing with your block army men

Kato holding the smallest girl

 Posing with girls 

Ellen and smallest girl 

Elizabeth and Ellen and Dolly 

                                              Digging holes and dancing in holes with girls 

Gran and the children

Among a million other thingsGran has done at least 4 loads of laundry, gone to grocery 4 times, babysat, made 12 sandwiches today alone and made fantastic dinners. She's the best and has made this week a real vacation for me. 

Grandad and Dolly

Good ole grandad saved Dolly from rolling over the bed into the abyss today when she woke up from her nap all alone. He's a hero for sure! 

It's hot today in the house so Dolly and I are swinging in the hammock under the house. I feel like the dog in Go Dog, Go! who says it is not hot here under the house. Its got a good breeze under here. Air conditioning is important for sure. If I had to choose between air conditioning and internet I might choose internet though. 

She says it's hot ma!, it's hot! 

Suns out, Guns out

It's hot outside. 

Butterfly Shells

Mary Tighe and Archer have been loving the beach. They love to play in the waves, chase the surf and ride the boogie board. Alice has been unsure though. For the first two days she only likes the beach from her father's arms.

There was one time when she got naked of course and played, but otherwise she did not really want to make contact with the sand. Finally yesterday she played in the wonderfully warm tide pool with the others (Dolly played too!). Another activity that has kept both girls busy is finding butterfly shells on the beach. I think I used to call them periwinkles. Alice and Mary Tighe like the colors of them and will pick up handfuls of them and sand when we walk (I use that term loosely because they are mostly stopping) on the beach. 

See! Her feet are in the sand! She can walk! 

Bikram Yoga Charleston

It's our second full day here on the Isle of Palms and it has been wonderful- great food, fun with the children, fun with David and John and Karen. It usually takes me a long time to relax, but I'm finding it easier this time. I think it's partly because I am getting out and going to bikram yoga. (It's also because I have such an amazingly awesome husband). I bought a visitors pass and hope I can go everyday I'm here since it makes me feel good, it's close by and I've got great sitters.  When I'm there and afterward I feel so grateful for the time to myself and the chance to get exercise I'm set for whatever the day brings and mentally I'm stronger. 

Nudist colony population 1

We are at the beach in South Carolina with Karen and John. No matter where we go or what we do one thing will be certain: Alice will get naked. She always likes to be in on the joke and no what's funny. Alice always makes me laugh. It's really like a super power. 

Stroller strides

So Monday's and Thursday's I've been trying to get exercise with some other moms who want to get buff with ex-bodybuilder Ashley. She's very muscular and motivating so it works out (pun intended). Here is a picture of the Facebook post Ashley put up from Monday. My tummy looks big, but then again it is big(ger than I want it to be). That's why I'm doing the darn stroller strides. I don't want to put on a dress for Kathryn's wedding party in less than a month. The Nutella is probably not helping either. We look like a scary posse heading down the road 5 strollers wide though! 

Strawberry picking at 7 am

Katie and I decided to take the bigs and the littles strawberry picking before school as an end of the year special outing. I got little sleep last night due to nursing Dolly and Alice coughing, but I'm very happy we decided to go. I made lunch for Archer, breakfasts in car, 3 cups of coffee and away we went! Maynes Tree Farm is outside of Buckeystown is a perfect size farm and no one was there at  7am except the farmer and his 4 white geese. Alice kept saying not granny goose, geese! She was making a good joke.