Tri, again.

We had such a good time at the triathalon that Max did last summer that we decided to do it again. And he had so much fun, that at the end he was certain that he'd gotten 3rd place this year. Well, buddy, not quite.....but who's really counting anyway. Actually, he did the whole race in 22 minutes, which I am pretty certain is faster than I could do it myself. I mean, I'm pretty certain that's about how long it would take me to get chest deep in a brackish pond at 7am, never mind swimming the whole 100 yards.

He had a few friends doing it with him this year.

Here's he is coming off the swim.

At the transition area getting ready for the bike.

Starting the 2.5 mile bike ride.

Finishing the bike section.

Finishing the .4mile run.

The successful and happy racers (except the little guy in red).

After the race they did another fun run for anyone interested. Olivia was ready and excited for this one. Adam ran with her again this year.

Wahoo!

Vacation, Part I: Chris and Erin's Wedding

I'm trying to force myself to catch up on all the super-duper fabulous stuff that we did for the entire month of July while we were on vacation (wahoo!). What it really means is that the next few posts (if I can actually get them pushed out, because I do want to actually remember what we did) will most likely be out of chronological order and probably just a lot of photos and travel log stuff.

Anywayzzz, we went on vacation initially centered around Adam's brother's wedding in Santa Barbara. So I might as well start there.

Uncle Chris got married! He married Erin, a talented, funny, fabulously-nice-to-my-kids, gorgeous, and all around cool woman. I have no doubt that she'll bring the whole family up a notch or two. Their wedding was (how do I say?), just about the most amazing event I've ever seen. In my world of not even considering paying more than $5 for sunglasses or $25 for jeans, and not thinking that it is even possible to walk into a clothing store without immediately seeking out the clearance rack, this was like visiting another planet. Wow, I was way out of my league--but for at least one day, I sure enjoyed being there.

The top photo is not mine, but from their photographer's website, along with other photos that prove the whole day to be a magazine-worthy affair. Really.

Adam was in the wedding party, which meant that, unlike our own wedding, he actually had to wear a tuxedo. And I thought that he was looking so sharp that I almost regretted not putting him in a tux for ours originally...or at least it's making me seriously think that it's time to at least get him a new suit. (Just a friendly warning, my dear.)

Olivia and Isabel were flower girls for the event. Which meant that I spent the whole event trying to get Isabel to keep her dress down, and Olivia spent the whole event pretty much thinking of herself as a Second-only-to-the-Bride Belle of the Ball. She danced around the event like a fairytale princess and was doted on by not only Erin but by all of her bridesmaids. Saying she was in heaven is an understatement. In between the courses at dinner, when Chris and Erin would walk around and socialize, Olivia would also get up to walk around, either following them, posing for a camera, finding a bridesmaid to act shy in front of while they told her how cute she is, or just twirl around in the aisles.

I know that it is probably in bad taste to post a picture of Max in mid-bite, but I had to put this one in just to remember how this trip Max insisted on graduating from the "kids menu". Erin had thoughtfully arranged for a separate dinner menu for them. But when Max saw all of the adults getting a large, buttery, herbed shrimp for an appetizer (and he just looooves shrimp), he wanted a menu swap. Max also pulled another new one on us: falling asleep mid-event. This is a boy who won't fall asleep in a car unless we've been driving a good 5 or so hours already, who never falls asleep on the sofa in front of a movie, and who will read until very late hours without falling asleep when I forget to come back in his room and insist that he turn off the light. But I guess that he was thoroughly worn out because after dinner he just laid down behind one of the sofas in the ballroom, while the dancing and partying was in full-swing, and fell asleep. I wouldn't believe it if I hadn't seen it.

His falling asleep all worked in my favor, however, as it just added evidence to the growing mystique of how can I possibly do it all with four kids! Since ours were the only kids at the event, and since, after all, this is L.A. and they haven't seen couples with more than 2.1 children since catching part of the Sound of Music last time it was on TV. So My goodness, four children! was the favorite topic of conversation. Well, it's easy; see, they put themselves to sleep.

And this little guy totally helped. He had his part down pat: arrive at the event, show off a little by smiling and cooing at the people, eat some dinner, then fall asleep in stroller for the rest of the evening, and let Mom and Dad take all the credit from those marveling at what a good baby he is. He was a dream.

No, I'm being too snarky here. Actually, we felt like we got to know many of Chris and Erin's friends because of our kids. Lots of them had kids at home and so they wanted to talk about their own 4mo. old or their 2 1/2 yr old, and it was a really fun way to meet people. People were actually really, really nice about the kids. And, thankfully, I had just enough bribes in place that the kids came through with their best behavior.

Mostly I came away feeling like I had learned a lot more about Chris and Erin both as a couple and as individuals. Many people shared stories about them and their personalities and I had a lot of fun learning what I did. I am really happy for them and their future together.

And this photo is for my mom, just because I know that she'll want to see what I looked like too.

(And because, yes, I'm still stressing that I spaced on getting a family picture with all of us together. Aarrgh.)

June wrap-up

I'm waaayy late on getting all the stuff out about what happened in June, which is too bad because it was a fun, busy month. But I know that it will bug me if I never get anything written at all. So, just for my own satisfaction, here's June in a nutshell: the fireflies are out at night, the pool is open, the cat spends more time out of the house than in, the garden is planted, etc...

And, another season of soccer is over. Phew!

We had both Olivia and Max signed up on teams, which added up to be a whole heck of a lot of practices. Yikes. But this year Adam signed up to be Max's team's coach, so I got off easy and he drove to all of those practices instead.

Olivia may have been her team's most enthusiastic player, even if not the most skillful. She really, really loved it...and what more can you ask.

Next, we spent most days doing what we do best in the summer: hanging out at the pool. It wasn't so easy with the many days of rain that we had this month, but we really did our best. It gives me an excuse to not have cleaned any of my house, fixed any decent food, or kept the yard weeded if we had to spend most of the day at the pool.

And Max finished another season of swim team again. Luckily he's still in it just for the fun, but it helped that he did get a couple of first places in his individual events, including his 25yd butterfly.

While Max's weekends were taken up with swim team, Adam decided to take the girls up to NYC to see Sha-sha for a weekend.

They went to an art festival on Governor's Island where one of the art exhibits was a huge pile of rose petals to play in. Apparently they were there for a very, very long time. Adam had been meaning to write his own post on this trip, so I'm sorry if I just stole your thunder, but I'm just thought something was better than nothing, and because I know that somtimes ye olde blogging can really get away from you.

Then my sister Jessica came to spend a week with us.

She's an ideal summer visitor--she's great company for conversation and shopping, she will have a splash fight in the water with your son, will french braid your daughter's hair when you don't know how, and will laugh at all your husband's jokes no matter how corny.

We looove having Aunt Jessie around, especially because it just seems like she's part of the family after the summer she spent with us a couple of years ago. But I admit, she spoiled me most of all by being an extra (and willing) pair of hands for putting sunscreen on kids, making sandwiches for lunch, changing a stinky baby. Maybe she didn't get much of a restful vacation, but we all loved having her around. Thank you, thank you.

At the end of that week Jessie's husband Ryan (aka, "Uncle Ry-nan" by Isabel) came in to spend the weekend with us. This was about the first real chance we've had to get to know him since they got married. We tried to show him a good time, Delaware-style, (at least during the small breaks we had between thunderstorms) with some Italian subs from Cassapulla's and some Pennsylvania Dutch birch beer, a trip to Longwood Gardens (in the pouring rain), and a stop at Woodside Farms creamery. We found out that he's a pretty awesome uncle and bro-in-law, especially after his putting up with a really long game night.

And my friend Hope, who now lives in the Czech Republic so I never get to see her, sent Saul this amazing sweater that she knitted herself. I'm pretty in love with it, but also because it was Hope who originally taught me how to knit several years ago and gave me some fabulous yarn that I used to make Olivia the first (and probably) only sweater I've ever made. I've not done any serious knitting for a while, but this sweater is inspiring me to pull it back out and try again. Many, many thanks Hope! Speaking of this cute baby, he is only getting bigger and bigger...which I now have serious reservations about. Even though I've spent so much of the past few months working on getting him to grow, I'm pretty sure that I want him to stay my tiny baby forever. I couldn't have custom ordered a sweeter, happier, more social and smiley baby. (And it doesn't hurt a lick that he's already sleeping a good 10 hours at night--wahoo!)

These photos are thanks to my friend Emilie and her magical photo skills. I keep asking her to be my family's private photographer, but she keeps not doing it.

Finally, Adam's Grandma Fitzpatrick passed away. She was in her 90s and was ill, so it wasn't entirely unexpected. But still, Adam said that the funeral was more emotional than he had anticipated. He was very glad to go to Florida with his mom and sister, to spend time with them, and to learn all those things that you learn and appreciate about a person after they've died that somehow you don't learn in the same way while they're alive. It definitely won't be the same without Grandma Fitzpatrick alive anymore.

Well, I think that's it for now.

Same Girl, New Smile

When Olivia was 2 years old she had an accident involving a collision of her two front teeth and our raised, stone fireplace hearth. It was nasty. Suprisingly enough, once her teeth grew back down out of her gums, they came out of the whole ordeal looking decently normal. Until recently.

Wierd stuff started happening with them, and so the dentist recommended that they both be pulled and the gums cleaned up in order to get everything ready for the permanent teeth that would be coming down sometime in the next year or so. Deal. And let's be sure to get this done before we're off to Adam's brother's wedding and all the pictures that will be taken. Can't have a girl with crazy teeth in those, now can I!

In order to get her ready for this event I told her all about when I was in Kindergarten and I had a bike accident that left me two-front-teeth-less (and I stayed that way until almost the end of 3rd grade) and how that night my parents bought me a milkshake for dinner and that I got to eat it in my Grandma Smith's bed watching TV and feeling rather pampered. So I promised her a shake for dinner, even though I couldn't promise a night out at Grandma's. And then I told her about the song she could sing at Christmas wishing for two new front teeth....to which she basically replied, "Why would only want two front teeth for Christmas?"

Now, the big day has come, and she was a champ. The earlier picture is her coming home from the extraction (as they call it) feeling a bit tenuous about smiling, but by the afternoon she was ready to hit the pool.

Looking good, eh!

Second Grade

Even though Max has been out of school for several weeks now, it's taken me this long to get around to writing about his year of 2nd grade. It's funny for me to have him be finished with 2nd grade now as I remember quite a lot of my own second grade year. It's one more thing that tells me that he's really growing up (and that maybe I'd better be taking this parenting thing a wee bit more seriously if he's going to start remembering everything!).

Actually, he had a great year. We were both really happy with his teacher, his best friend Elliott was in his class, and he was accepted to be in the school's TAG (accelerrated learning) program. And speaking of, since this is my blog, I feel a bit of bragging coming on. I mean, every child has their strengths, afterall. Max may draw like a 4-year old, but, boy he can read! And this year he really proved what a bookworm he is.

The school uses a reading program where each student, after reading a book, can take a computerized reading comprehension test. Each test has a different number of questions and number of points awarded for each question answered correctly that is based on the book's grade level--the higher level the book, the more points possible to earn, etc.. So, by the end of the year, we learned that Max had read so many books, and at such high reading levels, and had gotten so many of these comprehension questions correctly answered, that not only was he highest scoring second-grader, but that he had the 5th-highest score in the whole school. And since the school is grades K-8, I'd say that's pretty awesome. Way to go, Max!

And here's a little poem that he wrote for class about what life will be like when he turns 100 (....original spelling preserved):

When I am 100
by Max

When I am 100 I will be old.
I will have wrickles.
I will not go out side.
I will read all day.
I will go to the store slowly.
I go almost never.

That's how I will be.

Finally, I had to include this picture of Saul visiting Max's class on the last day of school because I just loved how many of the kids in class came and swarmed the stroller to get a look at the baby. It's fun to have even a bunch of 8yr old boys love seeing a new baby.

3 Months

Look who's 3 months old!

And what a boy he is too.

He smiles, he coos, he drools, he produces toots that smell like they came from my 27yr old brother,

he attracts the adoring gaze of many,

and....drumroll, please....he eats.

Much, much better, thank you.

I think that by the end of this week he'll be into the 9lb range.

So here's a picture just to show off the last of his chicken-legs.

neighbors

Let me explain the above photo. It is 8am and this is Max on his way to the bus stop with our neighbor Sammy, whose Mom stops by our house every morning and picks him up. What it doesn't show is that I am probably still in my pj's with one or both girls still sleeping in bed (and now the baby) and that I'm not forced to drag any of them out of bed/house in order to take Max to the bus myself. And for me, this is huge--especially when the temperature is in the teens. Then, in the afternoon, if I don't show up at the bus stop myself (because, again, I have a sleeping baby or maybe because my toenail polish is still drying), she'll bring him home for me. Have I mentioned before how much I love my neighbors? If not, then it's long overdue.

This weekend marks the 4-year anniversary of our moving into this house. I'll admit, there have been plenty of hard and stressful things about our house specifically, and trust me, I've complained plenty. Nevertheless, with each year I'm increasingly convinced that we were divinely led to be here, with one of the biggest blessings being our neighbors.

How do I put this....I love my ward community. A lot. And having a strong ward/church community is really, really important to me, especially as a parent. But I have also found that it is easy to become socially insulated within a ward, so Adam and I long ago decided that we would always work to also build and nuture a community that was outside of our church interactions. Our neighbors made that easy because we moved not just to Delaware, but to the 1950s.

Really.

It's the kind of neighborhood that when you drive through it, anyone out working on their yard or walking their dog on the street will wave to you (that really freaked me out in the beginning--I don't know you, why are you waving at me!). Most of the moms are still stay-at-home-moms; most of the families are still two-parent-families; the moms will hang at the bus stop to chat in the afternoon; the kids run through the surrounding yards to get to eachother's houses (as there are no fences separating everyone's property); there's candlelight caroling at the covered bridge at Christmas time (yes, there's also a covered bridge in the neighborhood!); Halloween is an all-out block party; when babies are born, people show up with dinners and gifts and offers of babysitting; and do I have to say any more about the Pool Club! Ultimately, we find ourselves living in a little slice of surburban paradise.

Tonight we hosted a small neighborhood open house to say goodbye to our immediate nextdoor neighbors, Jeanne and Andy, a super sweet elderly couple who are this month moving to a retirement community. They are original to the neighborhood, and in fact, our street, Abbey Road, is named after Andy's first (late) wife, Abigail--the street existed before the Beatles Album, afterall. They are part of what made me feel like we lived in a kind of time-warp, and it's not just because their immaculately kept house is still furnished the way it was when they built it in 1956. It's because they pass out apples on Halloween; they are generous with sharing eggs or vanilla or nutmeg when I come up short; Jeanne makes me homemade scrubbing pads from the mesh bag that onions are packaged in; they bring us leftover desserts after having hosted their church group; they invite Adam for dinner if I am out of town with the kids; Jeanne occasionally comes over for a chat and bringing some handiwork, she with her knitting, I with my unfolded laundry; Andy brings us flowers from his greenhouse (have you ever smelled a night blooming cereus flower--intoxicating!); and they collect little items from around their house, like toothpicks and corks, that they think the kids would want to use for art projects. They are so kind and gentle to our kids. I'll miss them dearly.

Jeanne now tells me that she's praying for us--praying that the new neighbors will work out and be good replacements.

Oh, so am I.