park time

perfect balance.
i remember when maria and i were the same size. i think i was around 12, which just happens to be the same age as emily.

 

the battle for king of the mountain... or in this case, queen.

 

papa hearing stories from micah.

 

later in the evening, we at pizza and drank mixed drinks from our bartender steve, while we sat out on the screened in porch, in the rain. it was practically heaven.
maria, emily and i caught the late showing of Mama Mia, and it was wonderful as well. Not sure how we will top yesterday, but today we will surely try.

Yet another attempt

I should just let it go, I know.

 

 

More Birthday Fun

 

 

 

Birthday Surprises

The big birthday surprise was this:

 

My Dad, and step Mom Maria came for a few days to help celebrate Micah's birthday! I made up an elaborate story about how Micah's surprise wasn't going to be here on time, so I called and tracked it down, and we could pick it up at the airport when it arrived, or we would have to wait two more days for it to be delivered.

 

The only person in on it was Emily. I needed some help to pull it off, and she never tells a secret.
Everyone was very surprised, and happy. Micah said it was his best birthday ever.

 

After some time at the pond, we had dinner at the Chart House, a first for my Dad and Maria. The evening was beautiful, and the company even better.

 

more frogs

 

Happy Birthday Micah!

 

Today Micah is five.
Five.
I have been thinking about what I could say about my Micah on his birthday, and honestly, I can't come up with anything.
Words fall short in describing this boy. I am so proud and honored to call him my son. I guess if I were to try to describe who he is, and what he brings to people's lives, in one word, it would be this;
Light.

HOLD THE PHONE!

four of my children have been sitting on the floor playing with a bucket of plastic animals for 30 minutes with no arguments. they are sorting and stacking, resorting, and separating. this is good. very good.

No, it's not a day care....

Those are our kids! Well, some of our kids. We don't actually have a photo with all of them.

 

Went on a hike today with two friends, and between the three of us, we have 14 kids.

 

All things considered, things went very smooth. No blood. One near miss with a shoe, but that's about it.

 

Try not to look at the moms in this picture, rather focus on the two adorable kids holding hands. I mean, seriously, is that the cutest thing you have ever seen?

 

The kids, and Moms all had a great time, and I do believe the little ones are worn out... although they keep asking about the pool... we'll see.

What I did at midnight...

Before:

 

After:

 

Baby turtles have proven to be very difficult for me to take pictures of. I think because they are so small, I have a difficult time focusing on them. They sort of fly below the radar. And it is funny that I have tried so hard on so many occasions to get a good picture of them, even when I know it most likely won't turn out. A bit like life. We spend way too much energy with our attention on the small stuff that gets blurry when we try to focus on it, and ignore the bigger picture. It sounds almost backwards. Like, I am one person, I can do one SMALL thing, but i think some times, the small things we think we can do, are TOO small. Like little baby turtles. I take way better pictures of big stuff.

 

Frogs and Friends

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

And this is the one I caught, in our grass. I think he is the cutest one for sure.

 

Edit from yesterday

As we were all laying in our bed this morning, I was recounting the story to Steve about Micah asking me to call him 'Your Majesty', and Micah said, "That is not what I said." So I asked him what exactly he did say, and his response was, "I asked if you would call me, Your Royal Highness".
So, you can see how I could make that mistake.
Not, Your Majesty.
Your Royal Highness.

More from the park

So, this little tidbit has nothing to do with the park, but i thought it was funny...
Today Micah asked me if i would call him 'Your Majesty'. Uh, no.

 

The girls enjoyed the park as well.

 

and some construction equipment for Brody.

 

Little boys at the park

 

 

 

 

M & M's

Micah: Mom, I am so mad at Hannah, you know what?
Me: What?
Micah: I am not going to show her my amazing skills until she is 18.

So, tonight at the Chart House...

This one is for you, Jody.
I took all five kids to the water park for three hours this afternoon. Everyone was wonderful, so I decided to reward them by taking them to our favorite dinner hang out, The Chart House. We were order number 49. The kids were still being perfect. I picked up the food, and saw this:

 

Africa in a chicken strip.
I thought about selling it on E-bay, but Brody was too hungry. He did let me take a picture of it first though. Micah spent the next five minutes in tears because I wouldn't take a picture of his chicken strip.