On Beaver Dams and Short Shorts

We went to an amazing nature preserve the other day.  It was full of beavers who are pretty much
left alone to do their beaver thing so the whole place is covered in their dams and lodges.  Giant ones.  Also there are frogs everywhere.  The boys were in heaven.

This post isn't about nature though.  It's about how cute Margaret looks in those little puffy bloomer shorts.  I'd say their purchase was two dollars well spent.  Very well spent.

Seriously though, how adorable is she?

Chalk Dust and Personalities

One child is writing various signs all over the play fort a la The Little Rascals and their "he-man woman haters club," one is patiently drawing as many straight lines as will fit in precisely one patio rectangle, one is intently coloring every rock he can find blue and one has dumped the remaining sidewalk chalk out and is generally a hot mess.

There's nothing like some sidewalk chalk to bring siblings together and highlight their differences all at the same time :)

Spring Evenings with Daddy

  

The weather has been so great this past week and with the warm temps and extra sunshine we've been spending most our evenings in the backyard--well I've been forcing the kids to spend most of their waking hours in the backyard really.  It's good for them :)  They just especially like it when Dad is home and will do fun things like pitch them the ball and push them on the swing and not pretend like he can't hear them begging for said activities while he reads a book.

David started coach-pitch baseball this year which seems like a ridiculous time commitment with two games and one practices a week plus an optional Sunday batting practice but we'll make it through--it's a lot of activity for this homebody to wrap my mind around.  He seems to like it, but all he really wants to do is batting practice.  To him, practicing any other baseball skill is just a waste of valuable time that could have been spent hitting the ball over the fence into the neighbor's yard.

He might be a little crestfallen when he realizes that an actual home run will take a considerable bit more umph.  

A Day at the Beach

It seems like the last weekend of summer here since school starts back this week.  We've been doing schoolwork since July, but it just feels different once everyone else is busy with their back-to-school routines too.  

Clearly the thing to do on such a Saturday was to head out to the beach.  

I know this one should probably have some sort of full body baby sun suit on to protect his precious baby skin but he's just too cute in his swim diaper to cover up all that cuteness.

The boys spent the morning making a giant castle wall complete with private pool which was conveniently taken back by the ocean right as it was time for us to go while I made sure no one was sucked out to sea in the yellow flag surf.   So that was super fun :)

And then there was this little interchange:

Random child:  (pointing at my stomach) What is in that lump?  I can see it moving. (insert horrified child's face here)

Me:  Umm....that's my baby.  

Random child:  oh.

Thanks random child, thanks for that.

Fossil Hunting

We've been vacationing in North Carolina and have spent our time mostly playing in dirt piles and hunting for fossils.  I can't believe we lived here for years and never knew what a prime fossil hunting location we had--not that I would have been particularly interested in fossil hunting as a teenager :)

Our first foray into the world of fossil excavation was at Green Mill Run in Greenville, NC.  Chris made us some fossil sifters out of scraps we found at his uncle's and we went out to find the elusive fossil stream.  Elusive to us that is.  Apparently every one else knew to just park at the park next to the stream and walk down to the creek via the bridge.  We decided to try to get there by wandering through a very dense and very muddy forest only to find the creek bank entirely too steep and water too deep for the kids which meant we had to follow it all the way back to the bridge that was obviously the place to begin if we weren't such fossiling newbies.

The professional fossil hunters were all at the bridge.  Luckily they were very nice and gave the boys lots of tips and all the tiny sharks teeth they were discarding.

The boys had a lot of fun while I mostly made sure John Michael didn't drown in the creek.  I did get a chance at the end of our trip to try my hand with the fossil sifter and found our biggest shark tooth of the day.  Admittedly it's not a particularly large sharks tooth but still--I'm pretty sure my find makes me the current master fossil hunter extraordinaire of the family.

The most exciting part of the day by far though was running into most of the Small Things gang on our way out--being professionals, they knew to park at the park and not tramp through the mucky woods. I saw the kids piling out of their van and I nudged Chris and told him that I thought I recognized them from the internet.  Chris said I should introduce myself but I didn't want to be creepy and tell them I knew all about them from their mom's blog.  David took care of the situation by running down as soon as he saw the girls, introducing himself and politely dragging them over to the playground to play.  They were just as sweet and friendly as they seem online and we even got a shout out on their blog so now we're pretty much famous.

The next day we headed off to the Aurora Fossil Festival and did even more fossil hunting in the piles of fossil rich dirt they bring in for the occasion.  I think I prefer fossil hunting in the creek though.  It's a lot easier to sift through everything with water there to rinse away the dirt.  Shockingly, the boys were happy to dig either way.

We dug for a while and then walked around eating ice-cream and checking out the vendors.  There were a lot of interesting fossil exhibits and vendors selling ridiculously expensive specimens.  The boys were a little disappointed to find out that I did not think five hundred dollars was a reasonable price to pay for a giant megladon shark tooth, but they managed to get over it in time for the parade :)

I think I see many more days of fossil hunting in our future.  Lucky for us Florida is full of excellent fossil hunting locations....... 

Geocaching and the New Evangelization

Geocaching.  Chris is not going to stop anytime soon, but it has been the impetus for a lot more nature walks so it isn't all bad.  And we started leaving Catholic CDs in the caches so we're totally evangelizing too right?  Or is that just obnoxious?  I don't care, I'm planning on bulk ordering saint medals so we can start leaving those in smaller containers too :)

We take our geocaching very seriously.  Weapons are a must to chase off any curious Muggles.....

Don't let this paved trail fool you.  Once you cross the bridge you are totally on your own in this park--it was mostly mud and roots and Chris totally had to take over stroller duty.  I do think the presence of the stroller off-roading in the woods made the cool mountain biker we passed with his camera helmet feel a little less hip and intense.

Chris had a lot of fun.

John Michael......meh.......

But you know it was a morning well spent when this is the end result.   Oh geocaching, how I love/hate you.

Planting, Fishing, Panicking

We've had a fun week putting to good use all of the gifts the Easter Bunny ever so kindly bestowed upon us and taking a break to visit the zoo which we hadn't managed to do at all during Lent.   The boys planted their flower seeds and are eagerly awaiting their sprouting--they mostly got wildflower mixes as well as some new sunflowers.  To me there is something very exciting and satisfying in sprinkling seeds at random and not knowing what exactly you're going to get.  If we owned our own land I'm pretty sure it would be just covered in random wildflowers and probably a little crazy looking.

Digging up the garden had the added benefit of providing ample worms for the boys to use while trying out their new cane poles at the local alligator pond.  That's a zoo alligator in the picture but we have spotted one just as large at this particular pond in the past.  Don't worry, I'm sure Chris did a quick alligator scan before he let the kids down by the water......Henry gave up pretty quickly but David caught several of what Chris very scientifically identified as "some kind of panfish."  David also kept his bike helmet on for the duration of their fishing expedition, maybe he thought it would save time not going to all the trouble of taking it off only to have to put it on again.......

What was not fun this week was heading into my fifteen week OB appointment and telling my midwife that I was a little worried that I hadn't felt any movement from the baby yet, only to to have her not be able to find a heartbeat with the doppler.  While she ran out to grab the ultrasound machine I calmly broke down into hysterics just knowing my worst fears were correct and that I was indeed pregnant with another daughter and that for some reason my body attacks any little girls it happens to detect within it (which may seem irrational to you, but makes perfect sense if you use your pregnant brain to think about it).  In the end the ultrasound machine arrived and the baby's heart is beating and I have been trying (unsuccessfully) to calm myself down ever since.  My midwife did think she could tell the baby's gender but she wasn't 100% sure so she didn't want to tell me her suspicions.  I'm not sure if that means it's more likely that it's a girl because when you see that it's a boy it's usually pretty clear that it's a boy or if she thinks it's a boy but didn't want to say it since she is unabashedly in the hoping for a girl camp.  I guess only time will tell.  And by time I mean another four weeks or so since Chris thinks paying for an early ultrasound just to find out something we would find out later anyway isn't a prudent use of our money.  The one bright side of the whole ordeal was that I found out that I have an anterior placenta which explains why I haven't been feeling any movement yet so at least I can relax about that, or knowing me.....probably not.

In the meantime......

.....your prayers for my baby and also my sanity are always appreciated.