We have 5 burritos

The final caterpillar finally stopped crawling around the top of the lid, where his four friends had nicely turned into chrysalises, and he was probably wondering "What the heck is going on here? I am all alone now." He got into position over night on Thursday night and by Friday morning I was ready to transport them into the Garden to watch for the next week. I have to say how freakily strong the their silk is! I was so worried about knocking one off, but man, I had to actually use scissors to cut the silk away from the container to remove them (and yes, I understand that the average run of the mill chrysalis is designed to hang out in nature through thunder storms, etc). Anyway, they're all transported now and hanging from the side of the mesh. Will keep you posted.

We have the water slide up again today.

Couple of quick kid things

1.) Since we are home for a while now, with no trips planned etc, we ordered Addie's larvae for the Butterfly Garden she got for her birthday. The caterpillars arrive in this plastic cup with a lid with all of the nutrients they need for live out life as caterpillars, then they crawl to the top of the lid, hang upside down and form chrysalises and hang there for 7-10 days before emerging as butterflies. Once they are all hanging, I lift the lid off and pin the paper they're stuck to onto the side of the butterfly garden and we'll be able to see them hatch, etc. Anyways, I think this is very cool. I remember having one of these in my kindergarten class and how exciting it was to watch them develop each day, etc. Addie thinks it's pretty cool too, but she's more about the end result of having 5 butterflies to play with. After a few days of watching the caterpillars mill about, she was kind of "over it" I think. She asked me when they were going to "wrap up like burritos." I thought that was pretty funny. This morning's big news is we have one burrito! The other 4 caterpillars are all making their way up to the lid, but none have gotten into position yet. We'll keep you posted.

2.) Ben likes to run. Not unlike most 3.5 year olds I'm betting, people always say things like "I wish I could bottle up that energy." He's always moving. With the aforementioned constant movement also comes its fair share of spills, slips, run-ins, and any other injury you can think possible daily for a 3.5 year old who is convinced he's 5. One day last week we were taking a "walk" around this large pond near our house. The entire path is concrete sidewalk. While Brian, Addie and I were walking most of the time, Ben was not. As we got near the end of our "walk," Ben stumbled face first onto the sidewalk. I thought for sure he had hit his chin, but apparently his knees and hands hit first and he managed to keep his chin up. So as he's laying there splatted on the sidewalk, I run up to him and pick him up, try to dust him off and look for blood. I said, "what did you hit?" His response, in total Ben deadpan, was "the ground." Yes, you did, buddy.

Father's Day 2010

Father's Day 2010 is under our belts now. It was also the opening day of Nourie World Summer Fun 2010. It was nice to see our friend the water slide make its way out of the shed. It was funny as Brian and I were dragging the completely deflated mound of vinyl from the shed to the lawn, I commented on how small it seemed. That's what happens when it's sat for 9 months in the shed; all of the air and leftover water finally escape.
Not to worry though, because once that bad boy was unwrapped and the pump turned on, we were all reminded of just how massive that thing is!
Enjoy some pictures of our day:

Brian was all about making the biggest splash ala Gallagher.

I think this is just such a cool picture. It's amazing to me how cameras can capture a millisecond like this. This just as Brian entered the water, you can see the water bubble around him getting ready to splurt out.

Ben was "fitted" for goggles, which now he proudly wears.

My three favorite people enjoying a happy Father's Day together.
I hope all of the fathers I know and care about had a wonderful day too.

Where we've been

It's been three solid weeks since I last updated my blog. You're probably wondering why the police haven't started a massive search effort to locate us. Fear not, we're alive and well. We've been very busy these past weeks which has made it difficult or impossible to update the blog. So, without further ado, here's a retrospect of the last almost month...
First we took Addie and Ben for a surprise trip to Hershey Park for the day. If you recall the only other time they've been there was during the winter and we were all bundled in coats and hats and gloves. A little different this time around...

We went to a luncheon at Hershey for clients who host big gatherings there, which my work does. They had face painting for the kids, which only became problematic after then going to play in the water park....

This is after a serious scrubbing with paper towels and hand soap. All of the color washed away quickly, but the black was this thick mess of shadow.

Doesn't he look lovely?
The day after Hershey Park I left for a conference in Toronto for two days, so I have no pictures or stories to share then. Back to work for three days and then....
Our pilgrimage to Disney!


There were 11 of us in total.

Just some of the highlights--more will come later.

That entirely submerged swimming child is Benjamin!!!

That entirely submerged swimming child is Addie!!! Somehow in Disney's pools, the fact that they both know how to swim underwater completely unassisted just clicked! That's what 18 weeks of swim lessons at the Y have done for them. Prior to Disney Addie was having meltdowns in swim lessons about taking off her floatation belt. She was convinced she'd sink. Well not anymore!! Even last night I took them to the Y for family swim and she swam all but 3 feet of the entire width of the pool by herself!!! I am SO proud of both of them.
When we got back from Disney, we were greeted by our new granite counter tops which were installed while we were away (thanks to Aunt Wendy who was there for installation!). We got a new sink, faucet and soap dispenser too. The plumbing wasn't hooked up, so Brian and I spent Saturday installing it all. This picture is of Ben who "helped" us install the new disposal, etc. He looks very helpful right?

I'll post more detailed things about each of those highlights at another time. Hope everyone's been well!

Trip to the beach

This weekend I had the chance to be a speaker at a conference at the beach. The family got to come along to spend time on the beach too.

Our hotel was on the boardwalk, with an ocean view. We weren't there five minutes before the bathing suits were on and we were ready to hit the beach.

The balcony in our room.

We went down to the beach to "play in the sand, not in the water." Uh huh, we'll see about that.

Notice Brian still has his shirt on at this point. It eventually came off, once he was properly soaked. The ocean was maybe 65 degrees, but that didn't deter my fishies. Addie would've stayed in there all day long, if we let her.

My new background.

Ben enjoys playing in the sand, but not having sand on him once he's done playing. You see the problem with that requirement?

This picture made me laugh. She is digging a hole in the sand, but looks like she has no upper body.

My three favorite people.

Heading out of the surf.

Ben showing off his guns this morning (in his new shirt from Uncle Jeremy and Aunt Amanda). Notice how macho he looks while sporting Addie's pink and blue Elmo backpack. Yup, he's hard core.

Addie's amazing 5th birthday party

Somehow 5 years have passed and my sweet first born will be turning 5 tomorrow. I'm not sure how it happened.
We had her birthday party today. In all, 15 children and 25 adults joined in the festivities. The weather was perfect. The moonbounce was in full force. The jeep was in full use and just a wonderful time was had.
My personal best homemade cake. I am so proud of how it turned out. It was four layers tall, with buttercream and a raspberry filling inside. I free carved it into a round shape and iced in buttercream. The nose is white chocolate I tinted pink. The bow is just buttercream icing. The whiskers are toothpicks and the eyes are just black dots. Addie was tickled pink with how it turned out.

Ben took advantage of the moon bounce and sunny weather.

Addie played in the house while Emma ordered.

The kids decorated their own cupcakes. It really wasn't nearly as big of a mess as it could have been.

After Aunt Kim decorated this cupcake, Aunt Gail and Addie were in cahoots to "have Uncle Teb smell it. " When he knelt down, Addie squished his face in it.

Some of the crowd watching on as the pinata was swung at.

The cake all ready to be lit.

Ben and Emma hugging before she left.

My new favorite picture of Addie.

Aunt Gail and Ben got to hang out too.

Ben was deep in thought here. I asked him to tell everyone what I say after I take a picture of him. The correct answer is, "Good one," but apparently he had a hard time thinking of it.

Afterwards Pam came over and got some cuddling time.


"It's a Ben sandwich" between Tom and Aunt Kim.
Thanks to everyone who made my almost five year old a very happy girl. While having dinner tonight, a song was on the radio and she said, "This is the right song for today." The song is called "Lovely Day." I agree.

A Day in Old New Castle

A day in Old New Castle is the longest continually running historic house tour in the country. My physician partner lives in one of the historic houses and asks friends to be tour guides. It's a bonus to be in costume... well you know Muddy loves a challenge.

Addie wore her Halloween costume, which was "a girl from the Cibil War." She started out back in the garden as a tour guide with Muddy, which quickly turned into her owning the garden. It got to the point when tourists were coming in saying, "I heard I need to had Adelaide give me the tour." She was in her element.

Here she is pointing out one of the plants. She told each person "I want you to notice three things..." and "Can you find the crown sculpture?" and "These are bleeding hearts." She was loving it.

Looking cute and sweet.

Hanging in their backyard.

Muddy, her her typical amazing style, surprised me with this beautiful outfit. It's incredible.

Mine even had a bustle and hoop skirt.