Work It, Girl!

One of the things we talked to our pediatrician about at Neve's 2-month check-up was her relative lack of neck strength.  Compared to our other two kids, she was barely lifting her head off of the ground during tummy time.  The doctor assured us that this was not uncommon for third kids, since they are forever being lugged around in a stroller or car seat all day.  So, we've worked really hard with her over the past month to strengthen those darn neck muscles.  Now just look at our girl go!  Yay, Neve!

Jammin'

Presenting.........The Afternoon Playdate Quintet!!

Starring:
Miss Lyla, jamming away on melody with the keyboards
Miss Anamarie, strumming a mean guitar
Miss Katie, providing quite a beat with the drums (Please don't mind her Janet Jackson-esque wardrobe malfunction!)
Miss Amber, groupie extraordinaire

With special guest, the one and only super-star kazooist and dancer, the Big Red Man himself, Mr. Michael!!!

Pool-Picnic-People

So two weeks in a row, we've packed up a low-key dinner and headed out to our pool for a little swimming, playground time, and a relaxing meal. The neighborhood pool makes it really easy with picnic tables a-plenty and grills available for use. Despite the kids not always aligning their demands (i.e., between the baby pool, big kid pool, and playground), I think it was another good decision to sign up and beat the heat this summer...

A girl could really get used to soaking up the evening rays poolside!

Bye for now, AUMC!

As promised, we finally threw together a photo album of pictures from Katie's year at preschool.  Please take a look to the right to enjoy some of the highlights from Katie's final year at AUMC.  Never fear though...that place hasn't seen the end of us!  Katie is actually attending a great summer camp there right now, and Michael will be starting in the fall.  Then again, maybe they SHOULD be afraid...very afraid.  Enjoy!

Enthralled

Even though our kids watch admittedly too much TV, they do not have the attention span to make it through a standard 2-hour movie plot.  Every time we have a movie night, they last about 30 minutes before they start pulling out books to read or toys to play with.  So, tonight, we gave them the choice of WHATEVER they wanted to watch:  any Disney princess movie, DVDs of some of their favorite TV shows, anything off of our streaming Netflix subscription.  While Traci was secretly hoping that Katie would choose "Annie" off of the queue, the kids went in an entirely different direction.  They collaborated together to pick two of the lowest-rent productions Mike and I have ever seen.  They chose one show about helicopters and one about monster trucks, apparently produced by the same company.  (Looking them up on IMDB.com, I guess the Hard Hat Harry show ran in the mid-90s...explains a lot.)  Seriously, we think we made better productions in elementary school....  Anyway, the kids were enthralled and never left their perches on the couch.  So much for good taste.  Netflix should be ashamed of themselves for offering these to subscribers!

On a different note, please take a look to the right at our photo album from Neve's baptism weekend.  We hope to put the one up from Katie's preschool soon!

Why I Oughtta...

Now that Neve is getting to the "grabby" phase, taking a picture of her comes at a greater risk.  Good thing she still swings wide! 

Welcome to the Bigs, Neve!

As many of you know, we celebrated Neve's baptism into the Church over the weekend!!  And, what a fun weekend it was!  We started the festivities by inviting our out-of-town friends and family to our member pool for a low-key pizza picnic party.  The weather was a bit cool, but that didn't stop the kids and dads from jumping into the water for some fun!  (The moms and grandparents were the smart ones who opted to stay dry and warm.)  The next day, we enjoyed a lovely ceremony at our church.  The deacon was so kind to set us all immediately at ease by saying that he wouldn't mind the noise and craziness of children.  Phew...that was a good thing, as Michael was caught stealing another family's baptism candle, placing the collection basket over his head, and trying to taste the baptism water.  Sigh...just another day in the life of Michael...  After the ceremony, we invited some folks over for food and drinks.  A good time was had by all, in spite of our tiny space.  Basically, the adults hung out downstairs while the kids ransacked their bedroom upstairs.  All in all, a truly great weekend!!  We promise to show you more pictures, but we are still figuring out Picasa's switch to Google+ and what that means in terms of linking to our blog.  We'll get that all straightened away ASAP!