Amelia the American Girl

Grandma Debi gave Amelia an American Girl doll named Chrissa for her birthday. Amelia loves her! Chrissa has a special bed with blankets that Amelia fixes for her each night, and sometimes Chrissa sits in a doll chair with us at the dinner table. Here are some photos of Amelia with her doll.

Amelia making an evil smile after we rolled Chrissa's hair

Chrissa and Amelia, both with hair done perfectly!

Chrissa wearing the new ball gown that we bought in the special American Girl store in NYC. Unfortunately we didn't have the foresight to get new shoes. I guess the purple sequins don't look too bad with the eighteenth century style gown.

A small bite of the Big Apple!

We took a quick day trip up to New York City this week to visit some friends of ours and check out the city. It was amazing! We walked everywhere and rode the subway, too! Here is a small list of the sites we saw: Central Park, 5th Ave, FAO Schwartz, Rockefeller Center, Magnolia Bakery (the cupcakes were delish!), Times Square, Monks from Seinfeld (it's actually called Tom's), and American Girl Place. It was really fun, and we can't wait to get back and see more. I forgot my camera so I had to borrow my friend's. I'll be posting some photos soon. Here is a picture of the kids wearing these great NYC t-shirts that they got for their birthdays. Thank you so much Lori, Lucy, and Sarah!

Jack is One?!

It's hard to believe, but Jack turned one yesterday! He is such a fun little baby, and so happy. Following are some photos from the day.

As an update, Jack just started doing some physical therapy in the pool at a local YMCA with a special physical therapist. We are only going to do four pool sessions, but we're hoping it will give him the little burst he needs to be ready to crawl. We've done two sessions so far, and he was a champ! Jack really likes the water, and I know he's working hard because he sleeps really well once he's done.

Playing with his birthday balloon.

We went to the zoo in the morning, here he is sporting his safari hat.

The kids love the giraffes!

Getting ready to watch Amelia and Colin blow out his candle!

At first, he totally rejected any cake. Mike and I were cracking up. I wonder why he is so suspicious!? He loved it once he gave it a chance. I eventually just cut some cubes of cake, put them on the table, and let him go to town.

"Am I really allowed to eat this?"

New Accessories

Amelia got some darling new hair accessories from our friend Kim and her new Etsy shop Azure Sky Creations. Aren't they wonderful!?

Jackie Chin (or Chan)

I took some photos the other day of Jack wearing a darling little Chinese outfit that Debi and Mike gave him when he was born. He looked very Chinese!

After a couple of photos he snapped into serious Kung-fu mode! Don't mess with him!

Garden Harvest pt. 2

OK- this one's real! We picked a pile of green beans today and two cherry tomatoes. This picture is my half. We also discovered a massive blackberry bramble just behind our dog run! I hope we can beat the animals to some of them once they're ripe. Dad, I know your mouth is watering!

Garden Harvest pt. 1

Here it is, folks. Our first and very bountiful harvest! It is half a green bean. Tiffany picked the bean and split it with me, and I carefully saved my half to record our first piece of produce. There should be lots more beans ready soon, and there is at least one cherry tomato that is just days away from coming off. We'll be feasting soon!

Elfreth's Alley and Betsy Ross House

Jack and Mike have been sick all week, so we we've feeling awfully cooped up! We decided to head over to Elfreth's Alley and the Betsy Ross House yesterday morning, despite the fact that Amelia was coming down with it. It was a fun little outing, and nice and short for the sickies!

Here the kids are talking to Betsy and she is teaching them how to cut a perfect 5 pointed star with just one snip.

Walking into the house.

This is Elfreth's Alley, the oldest residential neighborhood in the US. It is a cool cobblestone street with some lovely row houses. People still live there!

Happy Fourth!

Jack Laughing

The Fruits of Our Labor

NJ Blueberries

Our agricultural horizons are continuing to expand this week! Today we ventured out to New Jersey to pick blueberries. The berries tasted amazing and the prices were fantastic. The weather has been beautiful and we loved getting out in the sunshine. We will definitely be making this a tradition!

Here are our poor little underage workers toiling in the field! Even Colin had no trouble picking out the ripe blueberries.

Jack was a pretty good sport, too. He grabbed one of Mike's blueberries and swallowed it whole!

Here's a photo of blueberries on the bush.

The kids admiring the fruit. It is a little deceiving, because although it doesn't look like much in the photo, it's actually a large basket filled with 10lbs of berries. Only $11!

Colin likes his blueberries with a side of mud.

Garden Photos for Lauren

I promised Lauren that I'd put some photos up of the garden, so these are some I took this afternoon. I take no credit for this garden. If it were up to me it would have been long dead by now!

Corn and the super aggressive pole beans

These tomatoes look the farthest along. They are "Black Zebra!" I can't wait to see them ripe!

These are the beds with all the rest of the veggies. The tomato plants are touching the top of the fence in places! The low, bushy plants on the ends are more beans on steroids.

One of the raspberry beds.

This is what the kids were doing while Mike and I watered. I believe Uncle Ryan assembled this tricycle about a year ago. We'll blame him!

Children's Museum

We visited the Children's Museum in Phoenix with my sisters and nieces and nephews and had so much fun. It was just a huge, three story building, just for kids to play in! There were kitchens, ice cream shops, foam noodle forests, giant tents with tubes, an art studio, and a lot more. My kids had a blast, and better yet, they were exhausted when we were done.

Molly checking out the paper mache dragon in front

Colin LOVES dragons!

Amelia arranging flowers outside the pretend grocery store

Claire-bear hanging out on a cool orange couch

Colin crusin' on a sweet trike over to the trike wash

What's more fun than painting with a brush? Painting with two! Just after this photo, Colin stepped on the container of paint and got it on his feet, shoes, shorts, shirt, and arm.

Jack has found his calling- cooking!

Triple Birthday Party

We decided to have a birthday party for all three kids while we were in AZ so we could celebrate with our family. It was really fun! Highlights included: delicious BBQ; huge piles of gifts opened by Amelia, Colin, and their special helpers Molly and Max; goody bags with squirt guns and other obnoxious items; and scrumptious cake! Thanks to all who came and were so generous to my children!

Amelia admiring another large bow.

To my surprise, Colin doens't like birthday hats.

Jack does.

How could he be almost one already!?

Getting ready to blow out the candles. (Molly was already jumping the gun. She and Max were happy to take over Jack's candle.)

Jack wasn't sure if he liked his cake at first, but then he proved that he is my son by wolfing down as much as I'd give him.