Category: Family

August passed us by

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   For the last five weeks when I thought about posting for about five seconds, my next thought was, “Nope, I’ll go take a nap instead”.

If the wash is caught up, and the kitchen is cleaned, the baby asleep and the kids are happily playing, well, then I just want to sit and do nothing!  So I do.  And that ends my obligatory explantion on my lack of posting.

The biggest event was Madelyn birth on July 27.  She’s a sweet-heart, all cuddly, and loves to be held.  Madelyn (16)

My mom was here the week after she was born, throwing my laudry through the washer, washing my windows, keeping the kids out of my hair, making my meals, weeding the flower beds, and the list goes on and on.

I always love that first week, I just laze around and take it easy, hold the baby and sleep.

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I was prepared to have a huge adjustment and probably a mental breakdown too when mom left.  As always, it helps me to be pessimistic, because everything has gone much smoother than I expected.  Whew, PTL.

The kids love the baby, even Brandt, which is a surprise.  He loves her very much.  Unless he secretly hates her and that’s why he tries to smother her on a daily basis.

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Two weeks after the baby was born, Gene was gone, so Mom & Sherry came out to hang with me for the weekend.  Here is the whole motley crew, minus Madelyn.  We ventured as far as McDonalds in the whole two days they were here.

The rest of the time was spent drinking coffee, feeding babies and chatting. Mom kept trying to get work done, but

no, we weren’t to interested.  To get just this one picture took some doing. Just saying.

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 I took many many pictures of Madelyn and Ava together and yes, this is as good as it got.  Which is pretty bad I know. The middle pictue is Brandt and Wynn disrupting the photo shoot.

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GOOD TIMES!

We’ve had lots of family times this past month.  (Gene is ready for some friend time I think)

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Elena is now a photographer.  We take turns taking pictures of each other:

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We even got a day in at Cherry Crest with the cousins.  For Elena this is as good as it gets.  20 Cousins, (give or

take a few) a glorified petting zoo, lots of hay bales and farm centered activities, what could be better?

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Don’t tell her, but we’re gonna go again sometime this year.

Also this month my kids have developed an obsession for newspaper hats.  I have lost count on how many newspaper hats I’ve made for them.  Wouldn’t it be cute and funny to take a picture of them with their hats?

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 It was neither.

Live On Friends!

Cape May, Esh Style

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If you’re looking for a charming, sea-side vacation with slightly dated hotels, Cape May is the place for you!  There was not a chain restaurant or chain motel in sight, which is good or bad, however you prefer your vacations.  I like the no-chain thing, Gene is more chain-oriented.

 

The cape is only a two hour drive from our place, and we really knew nothing about it.  Actually, I knew there was a beach, and I knew there was a free zoo.  So Esh-style is to decide about two days ahead, that hey, no work for Monday, the soil is too soggy to farm,  we could handle a weekend getaway, since 2008 held no vacations for us.

 

The problems with vacations is that I want so badly to relax, I want so badly for my kids to have a blast, I want so badly for my husband to get some downtime, that I get stressed trying to make it all happen.  And then it defeats the purpose.

Slouchy duo Spot a rock redish glasses Mighty thrower

 

So I wake up at 6:30 the first morning. (Actually Brandt, the scheduled alarm clock, woke me up.)  And I’m thinking.  We have to go to the beach!  We have to go to the zoo!  We have to go the pool!  We need to eat breakfast!  We need to sleep in!

 

Luckily we did all those things.  On day #1 we did the beach and the pool.  On day #2 we did the pool and the zoo.  And like vacations are, it was 60% bliss and 40% torture.

 

I found out that my dear daughter has the same problem that I do.   At the entrance to the zoo there was a merry-go-round that she wanted to go on.  We promised her that when we leave, she can take a ride.  While we were at the bears she asked about the merry-go-round.  While we were at the camels she asked about the merry-go-round.  The entire time at the zoo all she talked about was the merry-go-round ride she was going to have.  Finally I sat her down and talked to her. 

“Elena, we are at the zoo!  You wanted to go to the zoo yesterday and we’re finally here.  You got to see a zebra, and a lion! Just look at the animals and have fun looking at them.  Don’t worry about the merry-go-round.”

As you can guess when we finally exited the zoo the merry-go-round was not in operation.  They had covered up all the plastic horses with canvas tarps.  And as you can guess, many, many, tears ensued.

 

So later we went to Kmart and she took a ride on the little electronic helicopter.

Enjoy the moment!

Andrea