summer dawns

The last few weeks have been even busier than our usual. Dave has had Saturday commitments 4 of the last 5 weekends, along with being out of town for several short trips and retreats. Combined with all that comes with the end of a school year, I've been left with little time to document all that's going on in our little world. Along with recent pictures, I wanted to record a bit of what each of our kids are up to.

Will: Walking has become his preferred mode of transportation, and he's suddenly seeming all toddler, and no baby (a bit sad!). He's becoming more assertive with his desires, blessing us with an increasing number of tantrums each day. He loves to nod when he agrees with you, or you've named what he wants, and he spends a good amount of his day walking around saying "Maaaaama!.....Maaaaaaaaaaaaama" regardless of what he's trying to communicate -so funny. He loves to laugh and dance, and is (usually) a source of delight and fun for his older brothers.

Caden: He continues to be our cuddle bug, and very generous with his hugs and kisses. We've been working hard on self-control, especially in regards to hitting - but slowly I think we're seeing some progress. He has an amazing amount of energy, and LOVES to play with his brothers. He also has a cute accent - think Southern/3 year old Jersey boy...I know, weird. His r's still come out at w's , and last week he was talking about not wanting to hurt baby's "booooow boooow".

Andrew: He is starting to enter the world of reading. I have to confess that I have not worked on this with him much (aside from reading to him), but his pre-K teachers have done so much to pave the way (sights words, letter sounds, etc). He loves to draw pictures, write notes (words spelled phonetically - so funny), and spends a lot of his rest time doing legos, and banishing our home any "bad guy" who dares to enter.

Now onto a few pictures.

Dave took the boys downtown on Memorial Day for some action packed fun. The visited Air and Space, Hirshhorn Modern Art museum, had a picnic lunch on the mall, took in two fountains and the sculpture garden, rode the merry-go-round, and sat on the steps of the National Archives to watch the Memorial Day Parade (and were apparently on international tv). Fun daddy.

Fresh flowers on the dining room table are one of my favorite things about summer. Usually from our yard, but these were leftover from a wedding Dave's amazingly talented aunt did here in DC (she's a florist, lives in Charlottesville).

A random picnic lunch in the front yard.

Friday afternoon we celebrated the completion of Andrew's last week of school by visiting the Choi's pool.

After several days of 90 some degree heat, the 75 degree weather felt a bit cool to these little dudes.

The bonus to it being a bit cooler was that our boys were content to sit by the pool for several minutes to warm up. I didn't expect to actually sit by the pool all summer!

Saturday we headed to Butler's Orchard for Strawberry pickin.

Dave was away on the college retreat, so dear sweet Melanie offered to play with us for the day. She's fabulous - even let me get away for several hours that afternoon to run errands.

I had hopes of Will sitting contentedly in the fields munching on strawberries (he still won't eat fruit or vegetables, aside from baby food, so I wondered if this would help him). Not so much. He preferred graham crackers, and didn't like the feel of the straw/grass against his legs.

After picking, we enjoyed an ALL STRAWBERRY picnic lunch. We had strawberry yogurt squishers, strawberry milk, strawberry cereal bars, strawberry yogurt drinks, and strawberry yogurt for Will. Super fun. And afterwards they ran in the grass, found some trees when they had to pee (I have an awesome pic - I so wish it was appropriate to post here).

Tomorrow we pick Andrew up from his last day of school, and are heading straight to Virginia Beach for 3 nights/4 days of fun with our seminary buds. This is our first attempt at a hotel room with all 5 of us. Pray we get SOME sleep :).

And let Summer begin!!!