Flowers

So, because I am too tired today to post about our fun day to Six Flags, I am going to post a few pictures of flowers that are starting to bloom around our property. Whomever the old owners hired to put in all the landscaping, the fun this is - everything blooms at different times. It is nice because I always have some flowers - even through October.

Anyway, here are some of the flowers in our yard. Pardon me that I don't put the names - I will have to get back to you on those - too lazy right now to go and look that information up.

I know a few!! The first one are my daisies. These pictures of for our Aunt Betty. Last year she bought me two daisy plants for my birthday. Each plant got three flowers on them last year. It was small, as a new plant would be - with a small bottom, and the three little flowers. I loved that plant. Well, it repaid me in kind this year. Look at the size of this thing!!!



It is crazy big (just the one - the other plant is doing just as well!). I love it. I just can't get over how big it got in just one year.


This is a purple flower that is on three different bushes in our front yard. It will bloom from about a couple of weeks ago until late fall. It is very showy. Only problem it - there are about a million bees on it.


I know this next one - petunia. I don't usually do annual flowers - I have a black thumb when it comes to them for some reason. But this one is doing pretty well. It has a rough start - the deer ate all the first blooms. But now it is happier.


This is another daisy. I got it as a present from one of my students for nurses day. It is a perennial, so I planted it in the ground. First two blooms - deer ate. Finley pulled the third bloom out. But now it has three new ones. Hopefully it will survive the rest of the summer.



This is another annual. I can't remember it's name. It also had a rough start, but I gave it a little more breathing room, and now it is crazy big. The bees love it too.


And the butterflies


This is probably my favorite flower this season (besides the amazing daisies). It is an annual, and I have to look up its name. It has been in bloom since I brought it home in May. It is very showy. The hummingbirds love this one, so that has been fun to watch. I see a couple a day coming in to hang out with this pretty flower.


Isn't it cool? Little bell like flowers.



So that is it. Tomorrow I will post about our trip to 6 Flags. We had a blast and I am tired, so I will see you tomorrow!

Tuesday at last

Yeah, yeah. But she's a girl....

On Finley's birthday Sunday, the sun was shining, it was hot, so we broke out the kiddie pool. The water coming from the well is always freezing, but in the heat, it didn't take long to warm up.


The pool isn't very big, but big enough for 4 little kids. (the 5th one wasn't interested). They played in the water for several hours and had a great time.

Here is a picture of "M" taking a flying leap into the pool.


Arlington also joined in the jumping fun.


The pool has a mini slide, and all the kids took running dives down this thing. It was just enough water to cool them off and keep them entertained.


After fun in the pool (and the kids took a good nap) we went out to dinner at a Mexican restaurant. We were celebrating Mat's parents anniversary. We had a nice dinner. We got quite a few looks since we looked like the parents of 5 kids under the age of 6! It was pretty funny.




There was a young couple (no kids) sitting next to us at the restaurant that kept looking at the brood of kids we had. I am sure that was enough birth control for them for a LONG time.

Here are Mat and I with our kids and niece and nephew after our dinner.

We had a great weekend all together and it was fun. It makes me look even more forward to spending a week at the lake with Mat's family and all the kids.

Yesterday (Monday) after dinner we roasted marshmallows in our fire pit and made smores.


It was a little windy, and smoke was blowing in all directions. But that didn't stop us!


Then we went to check on the garden, and found that a few pea pods were ready to be picked.


Mat and Arlington put this garden together and they are both very proud of it. The deer at the first crop of plants that were in there, but now we have plants of peas, tomatoes, watermelon, pumpkin, and beans that are growing very well!


Today was a rainy day. We spent most of the day inside. It was an unusual start to our morning. I got up around 7:30 fully expecting the kids to be up shortly after. I didn't hear any noise, so I went outside to do a little yard work while it was still peaceful. The first kiddo up was Cainan, but when I saw the time it was 8:45!! Arlington got up at 9am, and Finley (drumroll) got up at 10am!! It was crazy! I kept checking on her and she was sleeping and sleeping.

Needless to say, that meant there weren't going to be any naps today. That proved to make for a very long afternoon and the kids were tired come bed time tonight.

This afternoon we had a nice visit from my brother and sister-in-law AJ and Tricia. They are taking a mini vacation to Boston until Friday, and stopped to spend a few hours with us on their way there. They stayed for about 2 1/2 hours and it was fun to see them. We look forward to seeing them again in August when we got to Pennsylvania for a visit.

Before they left, I had them pose with the kids. Believe it or not - this picture only took one take! My kids are never that good. We got luck on our side.


Okay - now you won't be hearing from me until Saturday. Or maybe Sunday. We may go somewhere fun on Saturday if the weather is nice, and I may not be back to blog. My summer schedule is messing you up, isn't it? I am just trying to keep it interesting.

Here are a few more pictures for you to enjoy! See you all later!

4th of July Pictures and a few Finley Bday pictures

The family sat around the night of the 4th of July while Mat set off a few fireworks. Above is everyone waiting for the show to begin. The fireworks were just small ones, but the kids loved them. They clapped and had a great time. They were the right size for this young crew - nothing loud or scary.


Finley got her first sparkler this year. She wasn't sure what to make of it. But she did hold a few of them and even walked around a bit!

"M" did some sparklers as well. Here is Uncle Mat helping her get it started. She wasn't sure of it at first, but she did hold it the whole time.


This is Cainan's first sparkler. He really wasn't sure, but I was impressed that he didn't cry or run screaming from it. That is big progress. He didn't move much, though!


Earlier in the day, we went to our local ice cream place. Finley wanted ice cream for her birthday. Since she can't eat cake, this is always a good option. Everyone enjoyed refreshing ice cream cones.

Here is "M" and Arlington having some ice cream. Arlington chose bubble gum ice cream. She loves it, but Mat and I tasted it, and it tastes like Pepto Bismol. It is really awful. She is watching "M" here test the cone. We are unsure if "M" has ever had a cone before - she didn't seem to realize at first it was food. She and I talked about eating it, and she looked at me like I was crazy. I had to eat some to show her it was food. Then she dug in!


Cainan sported some USA wear courtesy of his grandparents.


We had a cookout for 4th of July. Since we got an 8 seater patio table, we all fit around it! It was perfect. We cooked hamburgers and hotdogs and had a great time.


Here is Arlington sporting her USA wear. Oh, and of course, a princess crown. No outfit is complete without a crown.


"M" is sporting her 4th of July wear while she is swinging in the yard. She loved the swings, and by the end of the weekend, was even going pretty high.


She let her cousin Arlington push her a lot. Those two really love each other. It is very sweet to see. I was close to my cousins growing up, and I hope the same for my kids. One night this weekend, when I went in to check on the girls, "M" and Arlington were snuggled up in the same bed. It was so cute. I wish I could have taken their picture, but I didn't want to wake them up.


Here is Grandma with 4 of the 5 that were there this weekend. She was trying to read them a story.


Sunday we let Finley open her birthday presents. She had a good time doing that. She got a baby doll from Arlington, and it has been her favorite gift by far.


Arlington was a big help this weekend. Here she is putting "G"'s shoes on. She is always a big helper. I am lucky to have her.



After Finley opened her presents, she got pancakes for breakfast with syrup and whipped cream. She was in heaven. I have never seen her eat so well. She kept wanting me to add more and more whipped cream.


I know this post is kind of random, but I just wanted to share some more pictures. Tomorrow I will wrap up the weekend - I promise! I have the rest of the pictures from Sunday to share. Then I will be done. Below are a few more pictures. Enjoy!

Beach Day pictures and Happy Birthday to Finley!

Here are the pictures from our beach day on Saturday. It was a beautiful day - 80 plus degrees with a slight cool wind and every once in awhile we could get some clouds to give us a break from the sun .


Sally has a better picture of "M" and Finley, but I thought this was pretty cute. We asked them to pose for a picture.


Cainan and "G" were dressed almost identical in their swim clothes. Here is "G" finally sitting in the sand. He wouldn't put his feet in it, but at least he sat in it for awhile.


Finley built a little sandcastle. Can you see it?


It was most of a sand mound. But she was very proud of it. She dug up a crab claw that she found in the sand, and used it on the top of her sand mound so we would know where it was:


She is pretty gross.


Cainan had a good time playing in the sand. He doesn't like the water, so he never really left the blanket area. But he was entertaining himself the whole time.

Our niece seemed to have a lot of fun too. She played in the sand, went a little bit in the water, and ate a lot of snacks. They all ate a lot of snacks!




Like I said yesterday, our nephew was not a fan of the beach. He mostly clung to Mat's mom and didn't want much to do with any of it. But he did eat some snacks! He wanted Mat's mom at one point, but didn't want to leave the blanket to get to her. He took one step off the blanket into the sand, cried, and immediately stepped back on the blanket. We knew then we would always know where "G" was while we were at the beach!


This last picture is of Cainan making nice with the dog. He really didn't like Lucky much the last time they met, but yesterday he held his leash and walked him around the house. So I took a picture as evidence.


So it was a really fun day yesterday. Today is Finley's 3rd birthday! At 1:58pm in 2006, our little munchkin was born. She was the best baby - always quiet, and just ate and slept. I should have known that she would turn into trouble sooner or later!

Today we had another fun day - the kids played outside all morning. We blew up our swimming pool and bounce house, and they spent hours going back and forth between those two. Then they played in the sand box and on the playset. We had lunch outside on our new patio furniture and then the little ones took a nap. Finley also opened her birthday presents today. Tonight we are going out to dinner to celebrate Mat's parent's wedding anniversary (which was yesterday) and Finley's birthday. Tomorrow I will post pictures of last night and today's activities so look out for those!!

Here are a few more beach pictures. Enjoy!!