Where Have We Been?

We were able to get into the pool for the 1st time while Banana was here, and we've been able to swim almost every day since. We are having so much fun. The boys are making whirlpools, swimming to the bottom for diving sticks, sinking rafts, and just horsing around. If KiKi is in the pool, he stays on the raft. He is not thrilled about actually being in the water, but he does love "mommy's raft" (The one they are not allowed to flip!). There is rain and cooler weather in the forecast for the rest of the week, so I may actually post more often again!

Boating with Grandpa

What can I possibly add to this picture? It says it all!

Neil-Te waits with eager anticipation for grandpa to anchor the boat so that we can go ashore to collect rocks.

Some of the crew head to shore while grandpa helps carry the little ones to shore. Even I had to hold his arm because the rocks were so slippery, and that water was REALLY cold!

A's favorite part of every boat ride - the snacks! Their favorite grandpa snack? Pistachios!

After a nice ride, some rock collecting, and a fully belly, what could be better than a nap in a rocking boat with the warm sun on your face?
Guess I'll spoil this last picture by sharing that within moments of this picture, three of the kids started to turn green - Banana, CoCo, and Neil-Te!

Father's Day!

Though Father's Day falls on a Sunday, so it is difficult for hubby to get lots of special treatment, his day couldn't have been complete without a game of "push daddy off the couch." Daddy lies on the couch, while the boys try to push him off. A started this little game when he was a little over two years old. At that point, he could only get daddy off the couch if daddy pretended to fall off. As you can see, daddy is now outnumbered and can rarely remain on the couch. In fact, I actually have to tell the boys to be careful not to break him!


My dad brought over this door sometime at the end of February and asked if the boys would paint it for him. "Sure, " I said. We made a valiant effort to complete it by his birthday in March; but life here gets pretty busy, and the door sunk on my priority list. So here it is June, and Father's day...better get it finished. So the kids all worked on it. I am actually happy to have procrastinated because Banana added some nice touches with her apples, heart and butterfly. CoCo did the sun and some pears. A did the wolf and a snake. Neil-te did a snake and a butterfly and the grass. KiKi did some flowers and the ladybug. Everyone helped out with the tree - even mommy! Fun project for everyone, and it sure made grandpa happy on Father's day!

My dad trimmed this climbing tree for CoCo, and he got to climb it for the first time on Father's Day. Other than the sap, it is really great.

Just added this picture of grandma, grandpa, and Banana because I knew that her mom and dad would like it.
Yes, we did see Danny's dad too, but due to some miscommunication, I did not have a camera with me. We love you too, Opa!

Girl"s Day Out

After hitting a garage sale this morning with the boys, Banana and I decided to head out for a girl's day. We had a great lunch, and Banana wanted to bring home the chopsticks as a souvenir. Then we shopped and shopped and shopped. Banana got a great, new sundress that she plans to wear to church tomorrow, and we also got her some fake fingernails from Claire's to assist her in breaking her habit of constantly biting her nails. When she actually put the nails on, they looked terrible - huge, witchy monstrosities. She wanted them off immediately, so this picture is of the end of our girl's day - the removal of the fake nails. She is soaking them in nail polish remover to loosen the glue. So for those of you who are concerned, she is back to her stubs and back to her perpetual chewing - but she's doing it all with a smile!

Tail Adventures

We headed off to the park this morning for some rock collecting, rock throwing, and general wandering around.

The kids decided that they needed to make some driftwood. I didn't bother telling them that it was already driftwood!

As the kids were wandering up the stream, Banana noticed this fawn. When she first spotted it, it was entangled in tree roots and looked as if it had an injury above and below its eye. The water it was standing in was very cold, and we were all concerned about it. So Banana, A and Co-Co got in the water and walked behind it until it was able to find purchase to climb the slope. So as Banana says, "I scared it to save its life!"


After saving the deer, we went off to the playground. Neil-Te tried to follow Banana over to the stream and slipped in the mud.

Then KiKi slipped in the mud.

Then Banana slipped!

So those are a few of our tails. Hope you enjoyed them!

Catching up!

Time has been getting away from me with all of the busyness of finishing school, helping SS prepare for finals, working on home projects... Here are a few of the highlights.

The pool is up! My mom and dad came over the day after our water was put in so that we could make use of our free water to fill our pool. (The water authority is giving us a little time without a meter - NICE!) While the wind was blowing, we all clung to the sides to keep the pool from blowing away. All you could see of poor Neil-Te was his little hands, and his arms got so tired. Everyone is excited to use the new pool when the weather warms up next week- except hubby and grandma who just plan to supervise! ;-)

Hubby took the three older boys on their annual Cadet camping trip last weekend. Neil-Te was excited to go for the first time, and had a great time. I love the expression that hubby caught in this picture, though I do need to crop off the right side of the picture.

Ever the buds - the cousins caught critters and told underwear jokes all weekend!

A made a military hat to wear, and brought the old air gun he found. He was excited to have told the most scary ghost stories at the campfire.


My niece, "The Yellow Banana", arrived for a visit today. She will be with us for 6 days, and I will try to be more faithful with my blog while she is here so that her mom and dad can keep up with what she is doing. Though I am always happy to have more females in my house, I'm not sure we need another dog! Her dog tag tells me to return her to Disney. Hmmmm..... :-)

We celebrated fourteen wonderful, and busy, years of marriage this week. This picture is one that my dad snapped of us after we returned from our honeymoon. We had a family tradition of pushing people into my grandparent's pond. I certainly wasn't letting hubby push me in without a valiant attempt to pull him in with me! I just typed about 10 things that I deleted because they were entirely too sappy for a public blog, so I'll just leave you with a picture chuckle.

Out with the Arsenic!

I got a call yesterday morning from the man whom we chose to run the plumbing from our new water main to our house. He said, "Read about you in the paper yesterday. I was feeling sorry for you with all those kids and that arsenic water. Could I come over today to at least run your pipes?" Uhhh........ YEAH! So they arrived at my house an hour later, and started working.

First they dug this deep, but rather small hole in my yard, laying aside the turf so that they could put it back on when they were done.

Then they measured the distance to their entry point.

They sealed off the basement to capture the dust.

Then they started drilling underground to that little hole that they had dug. It was extremely loud, and my house was a disaster for the day. The water authority approved our water main at 3:30 and gave us permission to hook up, so the guys worked until 12:30 in the morning. Today we have water, no indoor signs that the men were here, and no extra landscaping to do! They boys were so excited to be able to drink out of the tap that they rushed to the bathroom and stuck their faces under the faucet! Oh, happy day!

First Recital

CoCo started taking piano lessons at the beginning of the school year. He really enjoys it, and can't walk past the piano without playing it. In fact, that is his rather nontraditional style of practicing. He walks past the piano, plays his current song once, an old song once, and then walks away. He does this several times a day. I figure it all adds up, and I don't pester him about practicing. Well, he was very excited about participating in the recital and practiced his song for over a month. He was very prepared.

This is CoCo before his recital - all handsome and concealing his nervousness pretty well. Moments later, the floodgates opened; and we knew that there would be no recital for CoCo this year. We watched the other kids perform then headed home with grandma and grandpa for a private family recital.

Here he is playing "Indian Dance." We even got a couple of wonderful bows when he finished!

Concerts and Awards

Last night was SS' spring concert. She has been a part of concert choir this year and gets to stand right in the front row. She remembered all of her words- much to her relief. She gets herself quite worried for weeks leading up to the concert.

Tonight was awards night. She has been on high honor roll all year, and received an award in Mathematics - her LEAST favorite subject. However, considering that she knew our numbers when she came to America like we know Roman numerals, she has come a long way. She worked hard to learn to do math computations with our numbers and fully deserves that award.

Her girlfriends joined us as moral support. SS didn't even want to go to the awards ceremony at all until a couple of days ago because she felt uncomfortable in front of so many people.

This was KiKi's interest in the awards ceremony. He was asleep before they even finished the introductory music!

Deck Progress

I've had lots of people asking about deck progress. These pictures are from two weeks ago, but last night hubby put in the last floor screw. He can't do anything with the poolside deck until the pool is up. Hopefully, we will have water in a couple of weeks so that we can take care of that. The boys are already making use of the deck. They are playing "stories" out there and reading books, and Anni basks in the sun every morning. Nice to see that the deck will be put to good use!