Family Campout (for real this time)

This was not the easy backyard campout. We packed for 2 days, camped out for 2 nights, and cleaned up for a week. It was exhausting, but worth it. We all had a great time at Lake Wateree.

Amelia loses her first tooth!

Amelia lost her first tooth while camping at Lake Wateree. The toothfairy found her tooth in the tent that night. She lost her second tooth a week later (at home this time).

Caleb's Baseball

Caleb had a lot of fun playing baseball, but I am relieved that the season is over. Baseball 3 days a week is exhausting, and the last game was played when the temperature was 100 with a heat index of 106. But we were still there ready to see him get his trophy and say, "Yeah, Caleb!"

Amelia's Dance Recital

Amelia did a fabulous job dancing at her recital with all the other fairy princesses. I still need to get a firewire cable so that I can put the video on the computer, but Amelia was very anxious to share these pictures with you.

Roll Out Those Lazy Days of Summer...

School is out and summer is in full swing. Here is Amelia at her swimming lessons (see the video clips below).


Ahh, the slip and slide. Sooo much fun. I couldn't resist sliding a few times myself. Luckily, there was no one around to take pictures of me. This first picture shows the double slide of Livvy and Amelia.


This is Livvy in mid-jump. She is a fearless two year old.


Caleb slides very fast and makes a big splash.


What is a day in the sun without popscicles?


Swimming lessons are an important part of Summer as well. You can't see much of Amelia in her video clip, but I had to include it. She is kicking with the kick board. I took a still picture of her as well to help you get the full effect. Caleb is learning to dive and Livvy can't keep the grin off her face.






Each day when the automatic sprinklers come on you can hear the scramble as the children (usually Livvy is the leader) rush to put on their swim suits and run through the sprinklers.

And finally, Sal is taking Livvy for a ride in his jeep. But of course Livvy wants to be the one driving, you can see part of the struggle in the video. My favorite part is watching Sal drive by moving the steering wheel from side to side. Why is it that all children think that the steering wheel has to be moving in order to be driving?

Family Campout!

Everyone has been excited about going camping, so I took the easy way out. We went camping in our own backyard. We were however very official; all cooking was done outdoors (we made tin foil dinners and s'mores), all eating was done outdoors (picnic style), and all sleeping was done outdoors (or if not sleeping then laying quietly waiting for the morning to finally come). Our neighbor Sal saw us roasting marshmallows and came over "help".

The Sparkleberry Fair

Here are some pictures of us at the Sparkleberry Fair. Once again the children all had their hair painted (although you can't see Livvy's under her pink dinosaur hat). I didn't take very many pictures that day, but we all had a great time. This first one shows Amelia and Livvy with one of the civil war reenactors that are common at events in the South.



Here Caleb is feeding the Bison.


You can't see the sheep, but the children are actually chasing some sheep in this picture.