A Little Off-Roading

After Samuel got home from work, we ordered pizza. The kids wanted to ride bikes and such while we waited for the pizza to arrive. But first they had to clean up the playroom. I think Caleb's biggest cry of Thursday came when Samuel told him to go back downstairs when Caleb really wanted to stay and help the girls clean up. I'm sure there's more to the story, but that's all I could get out of Caleb in between his sobs.

Soon the playroom was clean and we all headed out front. Caleb chose to ride Sara's princess scooter. It does not in any way phase him to ride something so girly. In fact, it doesn't even cross his mind that is should phase him in any way.


Sara and Agnes rode in the Jeep, taking turns driving:


Nana helped Nora get started on her bike:



The battery on the car was already low when the girls started riding, and quickly ran completely out of steam. Eliot hurried over to help out and push the Jeep for them.


Once it was the boys' turn to go for a ride, Agnes kindly repaid the favor by giving them a push. Soon Sara joined in pushing the Jeep around so Caleb and Eliot could experience the fun, even with a dead battery.



After the pizza came, I put my camera down and didn't take any more pictures that night. Which is such a shame since I missed out on Olive getting to eat pizza (and she really went to town on it) for the first time. We also had a fun, impromptu spelling bee that started out just between Nora and Nick and soon had all the older kids involved. In an effort to make sure Nora won, I suggested the word soliloquy for Nick, which he didn't know how to spell. Laura and I confessed to him later that we didn't know how to spell it either and anything he said we would have just gone with. Eventually Danny and his family got to the house and we got to see them briefly, and meet Claire for the first time. Such a cutie, but no pictures that night, as the camera was inside the house. More to come though, don't you worry.

Backyard Fun

After Laura's family got to California, the cousins all enjoyed playing with one another, especially out in the backyard. Though I hear they did quite a number on the playroom upstairs. (I didn't actually see the mess.)

Agnes (5) and Sara (4)

Mia (2)

Eliot (3)

And because we all need a little more Olive in our lives:





My apologies to Nora for the lack of her cute face in this blog post -- the only pictures I got of her (besides as a background person) were swinging and completely blurry or with her hair covering her entire face so you can't actually see her. No worries, I took well over 700 photos while we were in California (for five days), so I'm sure she'll turn up somewhere.

Piano Players

We went down to California last week to visit with my family. My younger brother, who lives in Tennessee these days, was going out for a visit, so the rest of us coincidentally came out that exact same weekend. Total coincidence, right? Sadly, I saw my brother very little. But we still had tons of fun with the rest of the family.

Caleb and I drove into town on Thursday. It took us exactly five hours from the time I pulled out of the driveway of our old house, after dropping Harley off in the backyard (since the house hadn't closed yet and it was still technically my backyard), until we pulled up at Samuel's house. Caleb was a total trooper in the car and we only made one super fast stop along the way.

When we got there, only Nana had arrived (plus Samuel's family, since they live in Cali and that's where we all met up). Caleb was a little shy to see his cousins again, but with Nana's encouragement, soon warmed up to them.

Nora told me she could play the piano a little bit, and I asked her to play for me. She ended up not playing, I forget why, maybe she didn't have the right book or something, but soon Nana was recruited to take over. Nora, Sara and Caleb joined her on the bench:



Nora had gotten this Woody doll as a prize (for swim lessons maybe?) and let Caleb play with it, as a way of enticing him out of his initial shyness. Caleb enjoyed dancing Woody along the piano, which had all of them laughing.

Not Really Carnival Food

For my grandma's birthday party, my sister came up with the idea that we would have a carnival party. I think the carnival theme might have only gone as far as the stuff my sister actually did, but still...

Here's a look at the food from the party:

The Sweet Shoppe (with candy for the kids after they played the Midway games) and the pies

M&M cookies and caramel popcorn

More cookies, pretzel sticks, rice krispie pops, brownie bites and cupcakes

The oh-so-beautiful cake that was technically edible, but trust me, you didn't want to eat this (the cake layers themselves are made out of rice krispies and other cereal mixed with marshmallows, then frosted, then covered in fondant -- maybe twice -- then decorated with paper cutouts).

There was also strawberry shortcake that I didn't get a picture of, but it was the only thing I ate. We ended up with a ton of leftover goodies even though the party was very well attended.

Silly Kids

The main reason we came to Utah was for my grandma's 80th birthday party. My sister planned this photobooth area with fun little props where guests could get their picture taken. I don't know that many of my grandma's friends appreciated the props, but these kiddos sure did!

(Caleb's cousins: Sara, Nora, and Agnes)

(Caleb's cousin Olive)

Meet Olive

Caleb and I are currently vacationing in Utah at my mom's. The best part is that my sister is here vacationing right now too, which means that I finally got to meet my newest niece, Olive. Here's a photo of her that I took the other day (yesterday was it? the days all blend together):


I'm so excited that we both get to stay for a while so that my camera can love on this cute baby a whole lot more!

Knights and Sort of Pirates

My mom was in serious need of some big kid toys. We went to several different stores looking for something the kids would absolutely love. It seems so often that kids don't maintain interest in toys after the first few days, so we wanted to really be sure that we were buying something they would really love and play with. I think by the last store, we were all so done shopping that we didn't care anymore what we bought. But we did end up with some great dress up stuff for the boys.

Sir Caleb:



A quick costume change


Pirate-esque Caleb:



Sir Eliot: