Birthday Party!

On Friday we had a little party for the twins' birthday! We had the pleasure of lots of wonderful guests for the party - Rick, Lindsay & Cate, as well as Mr. & Mrs. Pappas and Laurie & Zach too!! A big thanks to you all for enduring the heat, humidity and passing thunder shower to hang out with us!!!

The Nemo cake I ordered from the little local grocery store turned out pretty well....and tasted pretty good too!!

Here is Jack getting ready to blow out the candle on behalf of the twins. :-)

Again, sorry for the yucky picture....I fought with my camera all evening and obviously lost. Anyway, here is a cute--or rather would be cute if it was focused--shot of Jack and Cate sharing a snack.

New Friends

Jack made a new friend the other day when Mike, Tara and Liam stopped by for a visit on their way home from a trip. Jack and Liam had a great time driving Jack's power wheels jeep, eating dinner on the porch while admiring the birds at the feeders, and rounding out the evening with some Curious George and ice cream. :-)

Jack & Liam enjoying dinner on the porch. They really did carry on a whole conversation about the animals they saw while they were eating...too cute!

This is just a shot of all three kids enjoying the view of the river from the porch. We spend LOTS of time out here (Grandpa & Grandma even put some carpet down to make it more crawler-friendly)!!

One of the twins latest tricks is to bang on the glass in Grandma's china cabinet as hard as they can and see who notices.....not one of Grandma's favorite games. Don't let those innocent faces fool you...these two are ornery!! :-) (sorry for the blurry picture...having trouble with my camera)

More Please

I had started to say "More Please?" to the babies when they'd finished what finger food they had on their trays before offering them more to eat. Nathan quickly caught on and now says "more please?" (or his version of it) almost immediately after getting in the feeding seat! The child eats anything I put in front of him and always wants more...I truly think he'd be happy to just sit and eat all day. :-)

Birthday Cupcakes

The twins turned one on Aug. 12th and their party isn't until the end of this week. But, I thought they deserved a little something yummy on their actual birthday so I bought them teeny weeny cupcakes. Both approached the cupcakes with major apprehension but after some coaxing Nathan decided that they were actually okay. Matthew, on the other hand, just became increasingly anxious over the fact that his fingers were all sticky from the icing. Ultimately, Matthew ate none of his cupcake and started crying hysterically while Nathan ate what he could manage to pick up off his tray. This is an excellent example of their very different personalities!!

Not so sure about the cupcakes.

Nathan: "Hmm...this isn't so bad."

Matthew: "What is this...some form of torture?!?!? Get this stuff off my hands NOW!!"

Fun in the River

The river that runs in front of my parents' house has provided countless hours of entertainment for Jack as he LOVES to climb rocks, swim in the river, and throw rocks into the water for Harry to chase. This afternoon we decided since it was getting WAY too hot inside the house (no AC in Maine!) to take the babies down to the river. They too loved the water and had no hesitation crawling around and exploring....the problem we quickly discovered was that they thought the rocks would make an excellent snack! Yes, that's right, we had to watch both babies like a hawk because at any given moment one or the other of them was trying to stuff river rocks (of all shapes and sizes) into their mouths.

Roasting Marshmallows

Jack's new favorite thing to do is roast marshmallows after dinner. We made S'mores too which are one of my favorites so I'm not complaining!!

Harry is supervising Jack's marshmallow roasting.

In the end, Jack preferred to just eat marshmallows right out of the bag!

We made it to Maine & Surprise!

We made the two-day drive to Maine to stay with my parents where we will be for all of August. They had a nice surprise waiting for Jack - a power wheels!! I'm feeling a little slighted because I never had one of these when I was a kid..... :-)

Here he is on his first ride - he loves the shovel on the front and loading bed in the back.

Jack is actually a really good driver and loves to race down the hills.

Jack & Grandpa getting ready to ride into the woods on one of the trails.

Off they go!!

The Boys - July

Matthew very proud of himself for standing up!

Nathan is also getting very good at standing...and pretty excited about it.

Jack & Matthew

Beach Day!

Today Jack and I went to the beach (again) while the twins stayed home with the babysitter. We love our babies but babies + beach = no fun for anyone. Jack has SO much fun playing in the sand, digging for shells and other beachy items, and (more recently) has developed a love of the water. He fiddles around for hours completely self-entertained. Which means that I was actually able to sit in my beach chair and enjoy the afternoon! Ahhhhh......

Jack is prepared for some beach fun!

Playing in the water.

Catching some waves!

Jack loves the beach (and his new fishy swim ring)!!

More Visitors, July 4th & Standing Up

We've been busy here over the last couple of weeks....More visitors - Aunt Mary Ann & Uncle Dan stopped by on their way to OBX and Grandpa Ron & Grandma Dixie stayed with us over the July 4th holiday. It's always so fun to have guests - we love it!!!

Matthew turning on the charm for Great Aunt Mary Ann & Uncle Dan. He seems to really enjoy having his picture taken!

Twins in their new-to-us (i.e., used) high chairs. I had feeding seats for them but not only did they take up two of my dining room chairs but they weren't at a comfortable height for me. Considering I sit and feed them two bottles and LOTS of baby food three times a day, I decided to invest a little more in our overall comfort! Plus, they gag on anything thicker than a puree so I'm thinking I'll be spoon feeding them for quite some time to come.....

Matthew thoroughly enjoys standing up now and can do it with ease, however, he is unable to get down from a standing position without taking a total face plant. So, he'll just stand there whining (which quickly escalates to all out tears) for me to come help him get down. Much to his disappointment, I'm sure, I only come to his rescue every now and then so he's going to have to figure it out on his own one of these days!

Another of Jack's former toys which has quickly become a favorite.

Jack talking to Jay on the phone. He's getting better at keeping up a conversation with him. It struck me that Jack looks so old in this picture!

Nathan trying to climb up on Jack while he's watching TV. Jack generally has plenty of "helpers" at the ready and he's so good about being patient with their unending curiosity.

Grandpa Ron & Grandma Dixie brought sparklers to celebrate the 4th of July - how fun!!! (notice how all of my nice new green grass now has more of a scorched earth look to it....all our rain came to a screeching halt and I don't have time to water, oh well.)

Grandpa & Grandma Lambert also brought Jay's old boy scout tent which makes a fun place to play in the back yard.

Jack about to go to a baseball game with Grandpa Ron...he was SO excited and had a fantastic time!! (he's showing off a new McDonald's happy meal toy--a white dinosaur with a mouth that opens & closes--and since dinosaurs are his latest obsession this is by far the best kids' meal toy he's ever gotten!)