Visitors from VA

Our good friends the Saunders, who moved to Virginia last year, visited us this past weekend and what a wonderful time we had! Chad and Aimee have two children - Elaina (5) and Jonathan (2) so they are the perfect ages for our boys. And of course Elaina is the perfect mother's helper for little Abby as well! Chad and Andrew have been friends since they were little boys and Aimee and I have known each other for about a decade.

Here are the kids in their jammies, getting ready for bedtime stories the first night. Little did Nate and Jon known that Ben and Elaina would come back downstairs with us for a special movie night after all of the babies were in bed. It's so hard to be 2 years old with older siblings :).


Ben and Elaina all ready for movie night with their own boxes of popcorn and some chocolate milk. We watched Cloudy With a Chance of Meatballs, which Ben and I had seen in the theater but nobody else had seen. He seemed to enjoy it even more than he had 8 months ago when we went on our "date." Literally, these two laughed from beginning to end. They were hysterical and had the best time having movie night before heading up to Ben's room for a sleepover since Ben has the two twin beds in his room. Such fun!


The terrible two-year-old twosome at breakfast the next morning.

We had perfect weather for the Saunders' visit so we spent a lot of time outside with the kids. Here are some candids in the yard. These four play so well together. Apart from their minor obsession with having us push them on the swings (every mother's nemesis :)), we barely even knew they were there, they were so content and happy playing.

Chad showing Jon how to use the ever-popular CAT excavator.

Me, Aimee and Abby. How nice to have me and Aimee in a picture for once!!

Sweet baby Abby...

Ah, the swings...how the children love to be pushed on them...for hours :)

Bathtime for the three little men after a looong day outside in the heat, sand and dirt. We tried to talk ourselves into the idea that they didn't need a bath since it was so late by the time we headed in for the evening...but we just couldn't do it, these guys were so grimey!! So they had a blast procrastinating bedtime even longer and we were glad we had a crew of clean kids to put to bed that night. Elaina got to take a shower on her own, being the only girl. So we got out a pretty princess towel and washcloth and she was happy :).

What a group of handsome little men!

We had such a nice, relaxing visit with the Saunders and were sad to see them go, but we are looking forward to several other plans to see them over the second half of this year so that appeases us for now :).

Oh, Brothers!

Oh, the joys of having two older brothers who will even pick out your clothing for you when you're only 7 months old :)

Strawberry Picking

This morning's activity with our MOPS group was strawberry picking at a local farm. Well, I had been praying that the thunderstorms they were predicting would pass and pass they did! It is hot, sunny and humid today, which was especially noticeable on the hot strawberry fields with a Baby Bjorn strapped to my chest and a 14 pound weight inside :). So, it was a little humid but the kids had a good time picking strawberries and enjoying them for lunch and in our homemade strawberry jam we made when we got home.

Miss Abby in her strawberry outfit to fit the occasion. How could I resist dressing her in this today?

Strawberry heiny :)

Memorial Day Weekend

What a wonderful Memorial Day weekend we had! Andrew was home for three days, we had perfect weather and we had great company - the Arcaras came to visit us from Buffalo. Uncle John, Aunt Tina and Joy arrived on Friday evening and left yesterday. It was just a relaxing, much-needed visit to catch up with them and enjoy each other's company for 3 days. The kids had a blast having guests all weekend!

Saturday morning was the pre-planned obligatory outing for Uncle John and Andrew: cheese steaks in Philadelphia! Now anyone who knows anything about Philadelphia knows that the two most famous "dueling" cheese steak places in south Philly - Pat's and Geno's - have their definite followings. Either you like one or the other and you must know the proper verbiage to order so as not to seem like a tourist. Well, our two guys practiced their technique and then headed downtown to buy a steak at each and split each one. The winner by a margin: Pat's King of Steaks :).

The lines for each place were long, winding and not afraid to run into a little traffic. Yes, you were literally standing in an intersection while waiting on line. Whatever it takes, right?

This outing is equivalent to visiting the Anchor Bar for wings in Buffalo so Uncle John now feels that he can cross this one off of his bucket list :). Good times, guys!

Later that day, we had Andrew and Joy's cousin, Jeff, and his fiancee Becky over for a barbarque. Jeff and Becky recently got engaged and it was our first time meeting her. What a good time we had, she is so nice and we are so happy to welcome her to the family!

Abby gets dressed for the occasion in her festive outfit that the Arcaras brought for her :)

The newly-engaged couple!

Jeff...

Me and Nate. The boys were "red, white and cool" in their festive tee shirts from Nana :).

'Ole blue eyes....

Banjamin brings his Legos everywhere...something to do once he got bored with playing in the sandbox. Apparently Miss Abby knows that she is on camera :)

Abigail in the swing...

The next day was a busy, albeit fun, one. We started out with church, then shopping for the ladies while the guys prepared for their big rocket launch later that afternoon, the much-awaited rocket launch and finally ice cream at the farm. Phew, it was a hot and busy day and luckily everyone slept late the next morning!

Andrew and Uncle John rocketeering together :)

And the launching starts. Our friends the Kriebels also came for the experience. The ladies sat with the babies on a blanket while the big kids and men shot off some major rockets. No joke, you'll see....

Finally, ice cream at Merrymead Farm. YUM! Joy, Aunt Tina and I took the kids while the men played with their toys (aka rockets) for a while longer. this place was packed and I ordered cones for both kids. Uh, not the smartest move, mess-wise. But they loved it, even though Nate seemed to think you should bite a hole in the cone and eat from the bottom up. Thank God for Joy who went back inside to get some bowls for the cones to be placed in or else we would have had a really big mess!

The Arcaras pulled this Cars puzzle out of their magic hat :) and it was just for Nate. Well, this was his first "big boy puzzle" so he was overjoyed when he was able to do it with only minor assistance. We have done it about 10 times today already - ha ha!

Abby in another festive tank top while big brother Benjamin slips her a taste of his ice cream pie. No, we are not very strict with the hundreds of food rules out there for babies...and the kids have no allergies so it doesn't seem to be a problem!

Happy Memorial Day!!