Overheard...

Katy and Livvy are having a sleepover tonight with their friend Sydney. They are currently watching 'The Wizard of Oz' in the next room. Judy Garland began singing 'Somewhere Over the Rainbow' and I heard them each sort of singing along. Olivia commented that Katy didn't sound quite right, to which Katy replied in the sweetest little voice:

"I actually sound exactly like her when I'm singing in my head."

In Memory of a Friend

On Wednesday, July 16, 2008 our sweet little Oreo passed away. He's been a part of Kevin's and my life since May of 2003, and in those 15 years he has made an imprint on our hearts. He was a mild-tempered, affectionate, obedient, quiet and milk-loving little kitty. Kevin's nightly bowl of cereal will never be the same. He will be sorely and surely missed.

Tea Time and Tee Times

While visiting my parents (Gram and Grandad) in Maryland last week, we had a special day planned for everyone on Friday. Ryan and Grandad had a tee time at the golf course that morning and had a great time together. Dad was really impressed by how much Ryan's golfing has improved over the past year as he continues to mature. They had lunch together at the clubhouse and were still chipping in the front yard when we girls got back from our tea time at 4 in the afternoon!

Last year Mom took me to her local tea room called Tea by Two for a girls afternoon. While we were there we noticed that tea was available for little girls once they turned 5 years old, so this year we brought Olivia and Katelyn with us. We had a lovely time together, and the girls used their best manners the whole time we were there (nearly 2 hours!). They may not have enjoyed drinking the tea as much as Mom and I, but they sure enjoyed putting the sugar cubes in for all of us! And the food was quite yummy, especially the scones with clotted cream and lemon curd. Mom and I were both so proud of our little ladies!

BFFs

When we first moved to North Carolina, Ryan became fast friends with one of our neighbor's sons, Brandon, who was a year older. They have so much in common and the friendship has blossomed over the past 2 years. I think they are both equally comfortable at either of our houses.

Brandon has a sister, Sydney, who is currently 7 1/2. She just finished first grade. She's a really sweet kid, but we never foresaw the way that our girls would bond with her! Their friendship has developed more slowly, but as Livy and Katy have gotten older, the gap between their ages has grown smaller. They idolize and adore her, and she is just great with them.

The path between our houses (through our side yard and just across the cul de sac) has become thoroughly worn by those five pairs of feet. And time in the mornings is monitored closely as they all wait for 9 a.m. when they're finally allowed to go out and see who's ready to play.

Independence can be a good thing...

There are times that Katy's fierce independence drives me absolutely crazy. It can result in HUGE messes. It can lead to our butting heads. It can turn into tantrums of monstrous proportions. It can give me a true headache.

But then there are days like today when I can see some benefits to that independence. She had mentioned that she was ready for lunch, but I was in the middle of doing laundry and getting ready for our trip to Maryland. I told her I'd be right down to make it. But when I got downstairs to the kitchen, about 20 minutes later, this is what I found:















Katy had prepared her own peanut butter sandwich (and had even put away the peanut butter and bread), gotten some snap pea crisps, apple juice and milk. A nice, fairly well-balanced lunch. All by herself.

Independence might not be so bad after all.

She IS Mine!

Olivia does not look one bit like me, and I am forever hearing how "she's Kevin's daughter." I really don't mind, but sometimes I find myself looking for evidence of myself in her.

A few days ago as I was putting clothes in her closet, I noticed something that made me smile. Something that showed me that she has at least a little bit of me somewhere in her.

Now, for those of you who knew me as a child, I freely admit to having been a major slob. But as I have matured, I have become quite neat and very organized. My closets (and my family's closets) are organized very precisely into various categories: sweaters, sweatshirts, long sleeved shirts, short sleeved shirts, (and in Kevin's case, work long sleeved shirts, casual long sleeved shirts, etc.). Oh, and each of the categories is hanging in rainbow order. White comes first, black is at the back of each category. Oh, and all hangers MUST face the same direction and all clothes are hung so that the fronts are in the same direction. It's pretty bad. I admit it.

Anyway, back to Olivia. As I was in her closet, I noticed that she had separated all of her empty hangers and moved them to the other side of the rod. On her own. It was totally her idea. I don't even do that! I asked her about it, and she said "It just looks neater that way, Mommy." Sigh.

Photo Shoot

Stephanie and I share a love of photography and our favorite subjects tend to be our children. Once again, we got coordinating outfits for the kids to take some fun photos at the beach. Our original plan was to get Christmas card pictures, but things didn't work out with getting Pat and Kevin in on the action.

We headed to Hatteras lighthouse with the kids all decked out on Wednesday evening. The sun was bright, but low, so the lighting was just amazing. We started out trying to pose the kids ourselves, and we got some pretty good shots, but then the kids started arranging and posing themselves and we got some amazing ones (the 'family feud' pose was created by Samantha).

When a professional photographer showed up about 15 minutes after we arrived with a bridal party, we knew we had picked a great time and site. You be the judge of how we did:

Behind the Scenes...

So I think you'd agree that the kids cleaned up pretty well for the photos at the lighthouse, but here's a glimpse of what was going on behind the scenes...























Nice. Real nice. And classy... What's up with the nose, anyway?!

Just keep swimming...

One of the down sides to staying where we were on the island is that the ocean was much more rough than the past few years. We were really quite a bit further out into the ocean! The only times that were really safe to take the kids out to the beach were a few hours after the high tide had started to turn. As a result, we didn't spend as much time on the beach as other years. Fortunately, the house we were in had a swimming pool, and I think the kids actually preferred it to the ocean!

I can remember when I was growing up, once I'd conquered my fear of water, spending hours at our neighbor's house making up jumps into their pool. Ryan and Samantha had so much fun doing the same thing this year! Katy continued to work on swimming without her vest and is really doing well with it. Olivia is still doing great with her vest, and even put her face in the water a few times--so she's already doing better than I did at age 5!

Life's a Beach

We're back! Our trip to Hatteras Island was wonderful. After all, how can things be anything but when you're at the beach? The kids had so much fun seeing their friends Samantha and Cameron, and the week flew by too quickly. Our house wasn't oceanfront this time--we were about 4 houses back from the beach and were equidistant from the sound on the other side of the island--it was a really narrow part of the island! We were almost at the southern tip of the island, about 60 miles down from the bridge that connected us to the mainland.

The house we stayed in was beautifully decorated. The pictures on the website really don't do it justice because you don't see the tiles on the floor or the artwork that covered the walls. The homeowners come to the house about once a month throughout the year, so it was filled with all types of little touches that made it more homey (tons of pretty dishes to choose from, cozy throw blankets in the living room, a state-of-the-art surround sound system on the main TV, a separate ice maker for filling coolers, a hot tub and a heated pool, a cabinet filled with books and puzzles and games, etc.).

Here are some pics from one of our days on the beach.

Goin' to the beach...

Be back next week!

Someone's Been Playing with My Camera...

...and I know who it was! Do you?

Who knew

that cleaning up the garage could be such hard work? So that's why Kevin put the little TV out there...

No one's richer...

Some may own castles on the banks of the Rhine,
and hire orchestras each morning at nine.
But richer than I they will never be…
I had a dad who spent time with me.

Play Ball?

The girls begged to play tee-ball this year at the Y. Our friends, the Sedgleys, signed their daughters up too and they're all on the same team. It has been quite fascinating to observe the different way that Olivia, Katy, Rory & Delaney approach tee-ball as compared to Ryan...

At the beginning of a game, they are quite engaged. Olivia did a nice job of hitting and running the bases...















Katy was quite good at getting into the "ready" position as each batter came up to bat...















Katy did well sitting with her teammates and cheering them on as they took their turns at the tee...















But it has been quite hot around here lately. We've been in the upper 90s and even in the 100s for days, and by the middle of the game boredom has set in. Or perhaps it's exhaustion. They're pitiful! Look at them--they can't even stand up in the field!















And instead of sitting patiently and waiting for her turn to bat, Olivia starts being silly with the batting helmet (yes, that IS Olivia under there!)...















Kevin finally had to go have a little talk with them to encourage them to stay engaged with the game that they so wanted to play.

In the end, I'm not sure if it was Kevin's talk, or the bribery that worked best...

Les Artistes

"Mommy, can we please paint today?" The looks on their faces when they were done was worth the little bit of clean up.