A new piano player and fun on the bed

Lincoln is starting to show more interest in music:




I couldn't resist posting this precious interaction between Parker and Anndra:








A pic of all three to finish up:

First time at the BEACH

Woo-hoo! We finally made it! It only took us TWO YEARS, but we finally went to visit the gorgeous Florida coast. We chose Crescent Beach, which is a mere 74 miles from our front door. So hopefully this was the first of many such trips. :)

This is our van filled with excited beach-goers. You'll recognize these friends from our Easter Egg Hunt pictures.



Not only was this our first beach trip since we moved to Florida, but it was also Lincoln and Anndra's first time at the beach EVER. Of course Lincoln is super excited any time we put his swim-suit on him, but this cute little girl has NO idea what an adventure lies ahead of her!




I have to thank my friend Michelle for helping in countless ways to make this a successful outing. For example, chatting with her on the way made the drive go by in a snap. She had been there numerous times with her husband, so she knew all the important info like where to park, what the bathrooms and other facilities are like, and just how to be a smart mommy... like putting sunscreen on the kids in the shade of the pic-nic area before taking the path to the beach. Oh yes, children are much less likely to squirm and pull away from you when they can't SEE the waves yet.

We marched out into the crazy hot sun and were soon stepping across the most lovely powder-soft white sand. The BEST. You can see it here on the fingers and toes of our sweet 2-year-olds.




Our two oldest headed immediately into the water and we weren't sure if they were ever going to come back!





This brings me back to the countless ways that Michelle is awesome. You may notice that these 2 water pictures look a little different. That's because they were taken by me. I think ALL the rest of the photos in this post were taken by her - thanks to her superior skills and free hands she was basically the designated photographer for the day.

In addition, having another grown-up around allowed us to keep all the kids safe without too much effort. Michelle took water duty: supervising the swimmers. And I took sand duty: supervising the kids who stayed on the beach and all the STUFF (it always amazes me how many things someone with small children has to bring on a trip like this).


Lincoln enjoyed the water too, just not quite as far out as the big boys.



However, in this shot you can kind of see him heading out to deeper water with Z while Parker digs in the sand - quite a switch.



After a little while he figured out that his life-vest could work kind of like a boogie board... he would walk out until the water was above his waist and then lay tummy-down on the water and ride the little waves all the way in until he got "beached" on the sand like a little whale. Everyone who saw him thought it was great. One lady just kept laughing and shaking her head, saying: "He has NO fear!"


Anndra was not all that impressed by the ocean and not too thrilled to be at the beach in general, but that is probably because she's about to get her second tooth and isn't feeling quite herself this week. She stayed under the umbrella nearly the entire time.



Mostly she slept:





Eventually the boys came back from their wave-jumping and switched to the bury-parts-of-ourselves-in-the-sand game.




Lincoln just continued to wander back and forth between me and the water, taking it all in and loving every minute. I think this is the look he gave me when I told him we might have to leave soon:

A few things we've been up to...

Get ready, folks - this is a long one.

I got the idea for this post the other night when a friend came over to give me a cooking lesson. We chatted as she cooked and she asked me what I've been up to. While I was trying to figure out what to say, I realized that all the things that came to mind were actually things my kids were doing. I didn't share any of these with my friend, but it got me thinking I should share them here.


PARKER

Parker has been out of school for one week now. He played the narrator in the end-of-the-year first grade play (which meant he did like 95% of the speaking). He wasn't nervous at all when he was delivering his lines. In fact, he said the only time he felt any stage fright was at the end when he had to do a very short dance part with a dozen other kids.

He continues to practice piano every day and lately has been 'composing' his own songs.

He loves to swim:




and build with his Legos:




But most of all, he is a BIG HELP with his little sister. I don't know what I would do without him.




LINCOLN

One of the main things that shapes Lincoln's world right now is his desire to do EVERYTHING that Parker does. Which is great in some ways, but can be frustrating for him in other ways (like every morning when Parker left for school and we had to explain to him AGAIN that he couldn't go with him). So we found that doing little things - like packing a lunch for Lincoln when we pack Parker's - helped him feel like a big boy even though he can't go to school yet.




Speaking of being-just-like-Parker, I thought we should be fair (remember Parker's date?) and post a picture of Lincoln's 'girlfriend' - she's visiting relatives in Utah right now and he MISSES her! In the picture below he is sharing with her one of his other big passions: Play-dough (he can name all the colors and he likes to mix small bits of them to create new colors).




Lately Lincoln has been in a sorting-and-organizing phase. He does this with all kinds of things - blocks, marbles, crayons, food, toy cars, etc. - but these are the only pictures I have:






Lincoln likes to do everything TOGETHER. He won't put his shoes on unless everyone else does too... won't eat his food unless the whole family is eating with him... insists on playing in the sink while I do the dishes... you get the idea. So, of course, on Todd's birthday, it was no surprise who just HAD to be his candle-blowing-helper:




Another example of this - if Mommy's taking pictures, Lincoln has to take pictures, too! He's actually learned how to turn the camera on, point it in the right direction, and push the button. Sometimes the results aren't that bad... here's one he took of his baby sister without ANY help:




He also wants everyone to get haircuts together. If I'm cutting Todd's hair, he'll want me to cut his hair and Parker's hair too. Because of this, his hair just keeps getting shorter and shorter! Here's the latest look (along with crumbs from the cookie we gave him to reward his good behavior - sitting still during the cut):



Lincoln has been learning some tough lessons - like why we don't grab the cookie tray with our bare hand right after it comes out of the oven. (Don't worry, the burn was pretty small - we just made the bandage big so that he wouldn't be able to pull it off).



The tie in this burn picture reminds me of another recent quirk. Lincoln has become really, really particular about what he wears each day. Last week I made the mistake of putting a shirt on him that he hadn't picked out. He kept saying, "NO, Mommy, NO... like it BAD!" - which is his way of saying he doesn't like it.


Here's one of Lincoln's newest tricks:




He gets super excited about going to a pool or a park. I have to be careful not to tell him about it too early because he will constantly ask for it until we leave: "Swim?" or "Park?" every few seconds until we're walking out the door.




ANNDRA

Big brother's not the only one who loves the park:




A lot of Anndra's current activities are not that different from what she's been doing for months now, such as...

drooling:



blowing spit bubbles:



and looking cute:




But she also loves...

being Mommy's little buddy:



getting new dresses from Grandma Debbie:



and looking DYNAMITE in her adorable swim-suit:



What a babe!


SIBLINGS

The one activity (other than swimming) that my kids really have in common is reading. They all LOVE it. Parker is reading The Chronicles of Narnia (no picture, sorry).

I'm constantly having to tell Lincoln, "No more books" or "This is the LAST story" because once we start he never wants to stop. When I'm not reading to him, he pretends to read Parker's books:



Anndra likes to point to small things in her books... or chew them. But, like her brothers, she really enjoys it when I read to her. She flaps her arms and kicks her legs like crazy when I start to pull out a book from her shelf.




Now that Anndra is getting old enough to sit up and interact more with Lincoln, he sees her as more of an equal and they are starting to have a lot of fun together:








To finish, one more cute swimming suit picture - just because:



And so our summer begins...

First Tooth - First "Date" - First Swim

Anndra got her FIRST tooth on Friday. It is her bottom front left tooth. You may have to magnify this picture to see it - but, believe me, it's there!




Yesterday, Parker had his FIRST "date." Well, really it was a play-date... but just look at these two - aren't they adorable?!!




Finally, we had our FIRST swim of the season a week or so ago and it was really fun to get the kids back in the pool again.

Chess, anyone?

The elementary school recently had an event called "Chess Challenge" where they spend the entire school day playing chess. Parker got very excited about this and spent weeks practicing - his goal was to play at least one game of chess each day in preparation for the challenge.



Todd and I took turns playing against Parker while the other kept Lincoln occupied - usually by playing with the Connect4 set, which he calls "Lincoln's chess."



This was right about the time that we discovered Anndra's great love for Cheerios... which she will happily munch while we play. She also LOVES sitting by her daddy.



Parker did quite well in the challenge - even beating the 5th grader that he was eventually matched up against. However, he's very modest about it - claiming that she probably let him win. He earned a Chess Challenge t-shirt and a large chess set of his own.



In this last picture, I love how Parker and Lincoln have almost the exact same expression on their faces!

Anndra's first tutu

My sister took these pics of our darling girl last month.


Little fingers reach to explore the grass:



I love the outline of that little round cheek against the white blanket:



All sweetness - she's got 'sugar & spice' in abundance:



She looks like Lincoln when she lifts her eyebrows up like this:



She spent most of the photo-shoot trying to taste every piece of the tutu:



This is my favorite shot of her blue-blue eyes:



Check out that little pinky toe! Too precious:



I am so happy that my amazing sister spoils me with her talents. I still can't believe how well these turned out because it was the night before we left and it was Anndra's bed-time so she was pretty tired and cranky... AND I didn't have a thing for her to wear because I was waiting to do laundry when we got home.

But my sister knew just what to do. She brought the cute out-fit with her and only spent about 5 minutes taking pictures so that Anndra could go right to bed... AND she was still recovering from giving birth to her own little girl. I was ready to say "Let's just not worry about it this time," but somehow she pulled it all together. What a woman!