Standing and climbing!- May 22 to 28, 2015

Bea's got it pretty good.  Unlimited snacks, cool clothes, and parents who carry her everywhere.

But even with these circumstances, Bea still feels compelled to further her prospects by practicing out this standing up everyone is talking about.

Henry went to a sleepover and stayed up until 3am.  He insisted he wasn't tired when he got home, but we did find him passed out later.

I'm not sure what we were trying to catch, but here's 3 seconds of cute from Georgie.

June is certainly going for a look with this combo that includes a cute sweater Aunt Jenni made.

Um, thanks for the help, Beatrice?

Look!  No hands!  And you only get a picture of the standing up from a rear view because if Beatrice saw me she'd immediately drop to a crawl and try to get me to pick her up.

So big!

Because we are never boring or routine, June's comprehensive x-rays revealed that the huge gap in her front teeth is actually because she has an extra tooth wedged in there.  So guess who is getting a frenectomy AND a tooth extraction?

Extra teeth AND extra style.

We love the library, but I think Georgie goes just to hug the big Clifford.

What's worse: trying to climb up the stairs in a dress or your mom tucking your dress into your diaper?  Not ony is Bea learning to stand, she's working on her climbing skills.  It's still kind of scary, but June helped motivated her up the stairs.  Once Bea made it to the top, she bolted right into the bathroo where she hoped to empty shampoo bottles and rifle through drawers. 

Georgie had a water day at preschool today.  I labeled her towel with her initials and realized she's not the first one to use this towel.  Confession: mom bought this towel for college in 1999.  

At pickup, mama snatched a few babies for a quick cuddle.  Watch out kids!

Henry used the apple peeler to slice up some apples and June decided not to let the peels go to waste.  So she created this apple peel, tomato, raisin, peanut, and honey salad.  It really wasn't bad.  Sweet, savory, and salty.

Mom made Korean beef and lettuce wraps.  Guess which the kids ate.

-Bea stands!- May 15 to 21, 2015

The Clemson Art Festival always has an awesome kids' area.  Georgie painted a shirt with balls in a kiddie pool.

There was also a cardboard village you could color.

It was pretty hot, so Bea crashed with no clothes on.

She woke in a good mood to how off her best tricks, including "How big is Bea?," "Bye bye," and high fives.

"Hey mom, were you trying to sort laundry?  Maybe we could hula hoop instead."

Check out this bold girl!

Standing!  (With assistance)

This kid cannot catch a break. In the past week she's fallen in a campfire, lost a tooth, run headfirst into a metal pole, been hit with a spectacularly gruesome stomach bug, and now is covered in poison ivy. We honestly can't take her anywhere.

At least she's cute.

Speaking of cute, that looks like a birthday coffee cake!

And a giant cookie birthday cake with the Fitzpatrick girls.

I took a fast 24 hour trip to Nashville to help my friend Elizabeth pack up her apartment.  On the way back I skipped the highways and kept to the mountains.  It's a pretty nice drive.

How lucky are we to live just an hour away from this view?

While I was gone, someone tried to put the moves of Brandon.  This mysterious letter reads

"Dear Brandon,

I love you. You are hansome.

I could hold you and hug you and

kiss you all at the same time.

Huggs and kisses. xoxoxoxo

xoxoxoxoxoxoxox

Love, your secret admirere"

Looks like I better think twice about leaving again.

Jellystone and emergency rooms- May 8 to 10, 2015.

We planned another great weekend with our friends, the Paytons, at our favorite place on Earth- Jellystone Park.  

Of course, our little accident[prone 4 year old had to make it exciting when she fell in the campfire early Saturday morning.  Mama was trying to sunblock her a good 5 feet away from the campfire ring when Georgie jumped and stumbled backward.  The good news was that the campfire was very small (we were just heating water for coffee).  So there weren't many coals and Georgie's bathing suit actually repelled any fire (the suit wasn't even singed a little).  The bad news was that Georgie burned her legs and arms on the metal ring around the fire.  I think you could hear her screaming through the whole campground.  

 It was a long 30 minute drive to the emergency room.  Poor Georgie was feeling pretty low until the nice doctor came in, cleaned her up and applied the balm of the gods- silvadene burn cream.  The little stuffed Boo-Boo from the camp store helped her spirits too.  

Back at the campground, Georgie was instantly famous (and very recognizable in her heavy bandages).  She proved she was feeling good by dancing like a crazy person at the Saturday night dance.  

The next morning, Yogi came by to say goodbye Sunday morning.  

If you look close you can see a tiny little sliver of Georgie's bottom- a perpetual presence in our life.  I promise her clothes fit, she just prefers to wear her pants that low. 

 We went for a hike, but Bea didn't last long.

After her nap, a smoothie sure sure tasted good.

The only thing better than a smoothie was hanging out with Gracie.

 Another great weekend in the books!  

 Georgie, June, Henry, Grace, Bea, and Audrey.

Birthdays, playgrounds, and naps- May 5 to 8, 2015.

Georgie loves to swing.  Soeties she'll put on her shoes just to go out and swing for a while.  And our kids are not very outdoorsy, so this is kind of a big deal.  Plus, it's really sweet to watch from the window.

On my birthday, we cut out from our usual responsibilities and went out for a beer before Georgie's noon pick up.  Coolest birthday ever.  (I promise Bea didn't actually get any of my beer.  but she sure did try.)

After Gerogie's pick up, we went to a park.  

Bea spent most of her time trying to climb over this edging.  Without much success.

We did successfully wear Georgie out.

With Bea soon to follow.

June brought home school work from Earth Day.  She loves the Earth because "it's the most pretty planet of all."

Poor Georgie is still worn out.

Georgie's last set of school pictures as a Red Bird.  She looks so sweet.

And she loves that dress.

I love this shot of Georgie's school friends.  Fynn, Isabel, Georgie, Isla, and Sylvia.

 

Meanwhile, I was on the side hugging on as many little kids as possible.  I've got Sylvia's little sister, Amelia, Drew, Bea, and Drew's big sister, Katelynn.

Papa loves filming Bea as she wakes up.  Check out this sweetness.