Memorial Day weekend.  Total chaos.  The boys had the most fun ever.  There were kids to play with everywhere.  These photos are merely a snapshot of one or two moments.  Mostly life was so crazy making sure that all toddlers had lifejackets on and were accounted for at all times that the camera rarely made an appearance.  Sol was overwhelmed with playmates.  His first friends were Mathew and his older brother, Jake. Sol just decided to make things easy and call Jake, cousin Liam–  probably because he was blonde and about the same age as cousin Liam.  Also, like cousin Liam, Jake was extremely nice to Sol.  He helped him with his life jacket and let him play with the x-box thing.  Later Sol started refering to the brothers as, “my grandsons, Jake and Mathew”.  What?

The next day Sol’s friend Clemente and his baby brother showed up.  Sol decided to introduce him as “my friend Gabriel and his little brother Vincent.”  Nice!  Although they look tremendously similar, Gabriel still lives in Alaska.

Here are some photos of Sol’s maiden voyage circumnavigating the dock and the boats.  Mathew was right there with him showing him the ropes and demonstrating his expert jumping abilities.

Sid decided to practice driving the boat and blowing the horn during all the swimming and jumping practice.  Later he yelled his way into a jet ski ride with Mike.

Later Sol was back in the water but this time with Uncle Dave, also refered to as “Uncle Doug” on several occasions.  At least he got the “uncle” part right!  Uncle Dave and Aunt Lisa were a huge help with wrangling and entertaining the boys all weekend.  Cousin Ellie (the cocker spaniel), however,  was the most asked about relative on the long ride home.  Here is Sol convincing Uncle Dave to pull him around in the tube.

that”s his name.  not my fault.  linda calls him d2 but when sol says it it sounds more like t2.  he looks like an old plug when he’s just hanging around the barn but just look at him go.  quite a beaut!

Sol found this little guy in the kitchen.  He is only about the size of your thumbnail.  The boys loved hanging out with him and watching him hop.  Grandma had to suck it up and catch the little bugger.  I’m sure she loved the feel of him hopping around while she tried to carry him outside.  

We read the story about Geezer and the frog jumping contest in Bumper Tubbs tonight in honor of our little friend.

Today was the last day of school for The Church at Chelsea Square where the boys have been attending. This evening the two – five year olds put on a performance and then those moving on to kindergarten  had a graduation ceremony.  I took my camera just in case because I knew Solomon was going to sing.   I had know idea just how well he would sing!  I was in tears alternating with laughter.  I was so proud!  He did such an incredible job and left nothing on the table!  My mom was holding Sid and we were just giggling back and forth watching the kids sing.  In between tears and fits of shaking from laughter I tried to snap a few pics.  Holy Cow!  His performance made my day.  (Wish you could have seen it live and in person, Dad, but hopefully you’ll get the picture!)

I think its a jay. Spends a lot of time in the birdhouse. I plan to set up the tripod and the big ol’ lens one of these days to stalk it but so far the kiddos are not co-operating.

Solomon does soccer. First class ever. He advised me upon returning to the car, “I love soccer, no.” That’s Coach Rob with him in most of the photos. I think he likes Coach Rob as much as he likes soccer.

Oops! He’s using his hands.

The recent rain storm filled up the pool and Sid found the water way too tantalizing to ignore. He climbed in and we stomped around for a while. Before I knew what happened he was flat on his back — clean clothes and all– in the water. That was his excuse to strip it all off. Here he is splashing for the camera.

Yesterday was beautiful outside. We took advantage of the great weather (not too hot) and enlisted the help of Sol & Sid to pick up fallen sticks from the recent storms. Sol drove the gator and they followed us around while we collected sticks. Here’s a shot or two of Sol w/a full load. When the work was all done, Mark took the boys for a joyride on the big gator. The horses had to come investigate, of course. These are photos of them trying to look pretty as the sun was going down. Lovely sunset.

roger sports his mule face while scratching an ear.

love bites.

I was so looking forward to seeing these photos and then I saw them and they were blurry!  Arggggh!  If they are really small you can’t easily tell so here is a sample.  Sol and Sam playing in the hay.

Our first “official” adventure.  We headed out today to a town called Springfield and a place called Homestead Hollow.  There were pony rides, every kind of craft you can think of, and my favorite– fried pies.   I don’t think I’ve ever had one of these although my mom assures me that my grandmother used to make them.  Mine was coconut cream and I just stole an apple pie version that we brought home to my dad.  mmm, tasty!  Sid had a fried sweet potato pie (he’s wearing it in the photo) and Sol chose to have a corn cob on a stick.   Notice how he ate the top right off.

There was a beautiful crystal clear stream running through the property and plenty of settler’s style homes and outbuildings.  We took a wagon ride with some huge draft horses named Cheese and Crackers.