A Family Portrait: Updated

Two BOYS are headed our way!

First Day of Preschool

Anna's first day of preschool went so well. She was beyond excited and ran right into the classroom, found her cubby, and sat right down. I was such a proud mama.

Anna and her friends. She's been doing a playgroup on and off with these kids for the last two years. Kaitlyn, Anna, Lucas, and Robert.

One last pose. Very natural.

Governor's Park

Anna and Isaac have the best dad. Can you tell they adore him?

Best picture ever.

Governor's Park is one of our favorite places to go. I've posted about it before. It's not much more than a neighborhood park downtown, but the kids love the playground and all the dogs running around the hilly grass. I love all the mature trees and plenty of shade. Good times had by all.

Berry Patch Farm

We had such a fun time at Berry Patch Farm, a local "buy what you pick" farm. The weather was perfect and we've been enjoying our harvest ever since.

There were a few animals hanging around, but this beauty was definitely the star of the show.

Anna was very meticulous about which berries to pick. She took the rules about only picking the ripest berries very seriously.

Isaac, on the other hand, stuffed his face with whatever morsel he could get his hands on. He was a picking/eating machine.

I loved the farm store. You could store your berries while you milled around and until you were ready to purchase. They were roasting fresh picked chilies and I couldn't help but pick some up for dinner.

Waiting for the wagon ride out to the strawberry fields.

More of our spoils.

Isaac did his best to keep up with the big boys.

The boy has personality spilling out of him.

I'm already looking forward to returning. It was such a lovely time.

A New Camera. Hurrah!

I realize that there is a major gap in the blog. Pretty much all of summer. I'll get to that. But honestly, my picture taking the past couple of months has been more than pathetic. Which really is a shame since we have had one of the busiest, most fun summers.

Thankfully, I lost my piece of poop (excuse my french) camera which left me a beautiful excuse to buy a new one. And I have happily been taking billions of pictures again. Here are a few of the first from my new toy.

Morning beauties.

Geeking out with goggles.

Their authentic smiles. A rarity.

Morning ritual: cartoons and playing outside.

Goofing around and Anna with her constant companions.

Love these kids.

A Family Portrait

This isn't much of an announcement since we've basically been shouting our news from the rooftop since we found out, but yes, TWO babies are making their way into our family January 2011.

The kids are always playing with rocks outside (the ratio of rocks to grass in front of our house is about 3:1) and this was Anna's latest rock creation. She ran in shouting for me to come see our family. So sweet. When I went to call her in about ten minutes later she was pretending she was a giant eating each member of our family and then chucking the bones back into the rock pile. So...disturbing?

Before the carnage began.

Real life carnage.

Little Kitty's Birthday

Anna ran down the stairs a few days ago and announced that it was Little Kitty's birthday.


"And can we have a party with hats and cake and presents?!?!?!" she pleaded.


Being the super-fabulous mom that I am I said, "Sure! In a little bit, okay?" Then I proceeded to put her off most of the day. (Don't judge me.) But finally, after much pleading and a few, "you promised!" we made the party happen.


Then I made what could be described as the worst party hat ever made. (Email me if you want a step-by-step picture tutorial.) Upon seeing my work, Anna requested one for Little Kitty.


Then we went all out and wrapped up a fabric softener box and broke out some celebratory carrot sticks. And for cake, a leftover dinner roll with some candles stuck in.

Then Isaac woke up from his nap. And, who can blame him, was really put out that there was no party hat for him. So he stole Anna's and she chased him and took it back. And then Isaac stole it again and Anna started to cry. And then I took it because I'm mean and said no one could have it. Then they both cried.

It was sad. But secretly I was kind of happy because if my kids are fighting over the crappiest party hat ever made, then I guess I don't need to set my standards too high to make them happy. I'll just keep the construction paper and staples stocked.