Cedar Point Pond Fieldtrip

This morning I took Benjamin on his last fieldtrip of the year to Cedar Point Pond, where we spent the morning fishing and learning about ecology and pondlife.  I'll be honest...I was dreading this fieldtrip.  In all of my girliness, I had a hard time imagining myself fishing...and enjoying it.  But, I will admit that we had a really fun time.  Granted, I employed a few of our male friends who were their with their children to help me with the worms (ie do it for me) and to assist us in reeling and casting but all in all it was a really fun time.  And I'll be the first to say that I was told that I thrown a mean cast, if I do say so myself :).  Now catching something is another story entirely.  We didn't catch anything but we had a good time trying and Ben has already told me that he wants to come back again....with Daddy...but I can come and play with Abby if i want :).

Ben and Samantha learning the art of fishing before we hit the pond...

The whole class...

 Ben with the pond specialist who helped us out (ie took pity on me and helped my poor son!)

Here we are enjoying the outdoors together...

Alyssa caught a fish...actually two!

Learning all about pondlife from Mr. Glen, the expert.  He was great with kids and gave such a fun tour for them!

Sleepover!

Last weekend our friend Regan slept over for a night while her mom and dad went to a formal event in New York City.  We had been planning this for several weeks and the kids were so excited to have Regan with us for the weekend!  Regan is in second grade so we got her off the bus on Friday, had some pizza for dinner and wenr to the family movie night at our church together.  The next day we played at a park and played outside at our house.  What a fun time!

Regan slept on an Aerobed that we set up in Abby's room for her so that the girls could have a sleepover together.  it worked out great even though Abby went to sleep a few hours before Regan and the boys did.  The next morning all I heard were giggles coming from the room :)

Here is everyone in their jammies the next morning.

And here we are at one of the local parks.  Regan likes to "babysit" for Abby and helped her on the climbers and slides.  What a great time we had with our little friend!  The boys declared that our house is "sooo boring" and that "there is nothing to do here" once Regan went home :).  I think we will have to have another sleepover soon!

IVNS Spring Program

Benjamin had his final Spring Musical at Indian Valley Nursery School last week, as he will be graduating in another two weeks and heading to kindergarten at a new school in the fall.  What a difference from last year!  While he barely sang at all last year, he certainly participated in all of the songs and choreography this year.  We were so proud of our guy!  You can see him in the back row, the third from the right below.  He made sure to tell us several times that he is the third tallest in the class, after Eli and Michael :)

Ben after his performance with two of his girl friends, Samantha and Alyssa.  They all did great in the concert and were so proud of themselves!  Ben looks afraid of them, don't you think?  He has a few more years to get used to women, I suppose...or he can take some lessons from his little brother Nate who has no fear of the opposite sex :)

Well done, Mrs. Fretz's class!  You put on a fabulous show and we cannot wait to get our DVD copy of the performance in a few weeks :).

Auntie Chang's Baby Shower

Baby Boy Caulfield is due at the end of July and we are really excited to meet our first nephew!  We are looking forward to his arrival and threw a baby shower for Chang last weekend to help her prepare for her little man.  Here are somephotos from the day, Abby and little cousin Emily were the cutest little hostesses!

We hung up a clothesline with some adorable little boy things on it....

The beautiful cake made by our cousin April and the little baby shoe favors filled with blue and silver Hershey kisses that I made.

18 month old Abby with 23 month old Emily in their matching garden party dresses :)

Peek-a-boo!

Chang opening up some of her many gifts!  We also had everyone bring a favorite children's book to start their library of baby books.  This was one of my favorite things at my own baby shower 5 years ago.

The girls just chilling together, talking about what a hard life it is to be at a party over naptime :)

Chang cutting her cake!

Cool Dudes!

The Easter Bunny brought new sunglasses to the Martin kids this year!  Today was such a beautiful sunny day that we decked ourselves out and wore our new shades out for the entire day.  Look at these three cool dudes heading out for an afternoon at the park!

Love That Face!

Nate is becoming such a big boy and at three years old, it's become quite difficult to get him to sit still for a photo.  But every now and again, I'm able to catch one like this, one that shows his sweet, innocent face and the pure joy that almost always consumes him.  He's a heart throb and my favorite three year old little guy...and boy, does this guy love his Mommy :)

My First Yankees Tee

Abby looks great in pink...and in YANKEES!!

Easter 2011

Easter this year was spent in New Jersey at Pop and Nana's house.  It turned out to be a beautiful weekend with gorgeous spring weather on Easter Sunday and we had such a nice time visiting with family, partaking in the Easter festivities and, most importantly, celebrating Jesus' resurrection!

Below we are doing the annual ritual of dyeing Easter eggs except that this year we are dyeing them Star Wars style.  I picked up a Star Wars kit at Target that was a huge hit with our little fanatics.  Oh, how wrapping pastel eggs in Yoda shrink wrappers could enliven two little boys" holiday so much more! :)

Abby, all smiles with her favorite Poppy and Nana!

I love my sister!

After all of the excitement of the day, the Easter Bunny came while the little ones were all sound asleep...

Here we are, all dressed in our Easter finest, enjoying some time with Pop, Nana, Uncle Mike and Aunt Chang before heading home in time for our evening church service where we had even more fun with some of our friends, celebrating the rebirth of Christ!

Our prettiest little Easter girl with her huge hair bow.  Love her :)

The usual sibling picturre as of late:  Abby looks beautiful, Nate looks bored and Ben looks constipated :).  Nate's practiciting his James Dean look for when J. Crew calls him to model some of their kid clothing in all of his rugged, 3 year old masculinity :)

Our family of 5, doing the blue and purple thing :).  I just love me a good color-coordinated family picture :)

Poor little Natey had a rough few days of no naps....here, he (and Daddy) are taking a rest after brunch while watching sports. 

Finally, it was so much fun to see Uncle Mike and Auntie Chang for the day!  Our newest cousin is only 3 months shy of making his appearance and we cannot wait for next Easter, when he will be here with all of us :)