Lake fun, part 3

Don't miss this video of Pip getting his Irish groove on. Young Brennan on the Moor was brave and undaunted:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cTzjCIB_vtE


No one can deny that kids love to be swung about. Here's Vivie doing what she calls the "water bounce"


And Pip being swirled through the water.


More of the lego stare:


Vivie and Gus.

Lake fun, part 2

Vivie played and retreated in waves over the weekend. She had a bit of a fever the day after we came home so maybe she was feeling a little under the weather. Or maybe it was just the pull of the cozy house and it's DVD player. Who knows! We did manage to get her outside, enjoying the water here and there. He we caught a classic smile.


Pip lives basically all of his life in imagination land. He's always pretending, role playing, acting out the stories in his head. Together we built a lake garden in the sand. Complete with guard ducks, a moat to keep the dragons out, raspberry, strawberry, and blueberry plants, a duracel tower, and palm trees. I might have been more proud of our garden than he was!


Bunk-jumping. I am pretty sure who was the ring leader. And we can blame Phil for taking pictures rather than intervening. Soon everyone was involved ... but no one was hurt.


A huge threshold was reached this weekend. PIP DISCOVERED LEGOS. There's something universal about the Lego stare. All boys get it when then get their little hands on them. Here you see it on Pip, for the first time:

Lake fun

What a weekend of fun at Dan Hole Pond. This being my second year visiting there, I knew the drill a little more. Didn't even bother bringing makeup or a hair drier. Took lake baths. Became one with the sand. A bit of serenity was achieved.

Pip and Liam spent approximately 85% of their time shooting water guns at each other, helpless adults, and the rocks.


While it was hot and humid, occasionally the lake breeze could make you feel chilly when you left the water. Pip enjoyed warming in his green elephant towel. He was not keen on posing for pictures. So I got this funny one of just the elephant and Daddy.


My cutie.


More squirting.

Storyland

It was the second annual trip to Dan Hold Pond with the Devlin's and Hoffenberg's. We went up Friday afternoon and stopped at Storyland first. It was humid and cloudy; shortly after we paid to go in it started to drizzle. The drops quickly intensified to a full downpour. Luckily all the kids had happened onto the ball crawl, a covered pavilion full of plastic balls. We waited out the brunt of the storm nice and dry in there, Pip and Vivie having a blast. Of course, the sign said no running or jumping. Ring-leader Pip organized about four kids to line up at the top of the entrance ramp. "One, Two, Three .... BLAST OFF!" Then they would all run and leap into the balls. Miraculously, all the kids balanced their rough dispositions with good spirits, so there was never any fighting or crying.



Soon the rain slowed and we ventured out from the cover of the ball pit. Pip tried a few rides this year, but chickened out of the water raft ride .. bummer. Meanwhile, Vivie found the water spurters and frolicked happily.


I got screwed out of all the rides. The ones I waited in line for the kids backed down on me for ... but Phil did get to ride the super fast whale and the shoe ride.


Here are Vivie and Ella as we left. She always looks up to big girls and loves to hold their hands. Seems like this has some sort of slow motion effect on her walking though. Whenever she's holding a big-girl's hand, she goes from being a slow walker to a super-snail-slow walker. It's a wonder we made it out before they locked the gates.

But ...

Vivian's favorite word is "but". She starts every sentence with it and it's downright hysterical. She likes to talk on and on and figures saying "but" buys her the time to figure out what she wants to say next.

"But Pipie took my toy" "But this is for you" "But we are going to school; but we have to wear lotion; but I want the keys".

One of these days I'm going to get it on tape, cause listening to her go on and on really cracks me up.

Watch out!

Don't try this at home. Here Vivian embraces the shoulder hold for the first time ever. Usually she hates it. Perhaps it was because she got to dangle a water balloon above Phil's head.

4th of July

What a busy 3 days!!! We went home to PA for a fabulous weekend with the family. It was hot, hot, hot. Felt like 90 degrees before breakfast was even over. Needless to say, there was water around every time we went outside. The little green pool, the hose, a slip n slide, and even the neighbors inground was tapped.

This photo is alarmingly similar to one of Phil when he was about Pip's age. I think Phil was jumping into a similar sized pool from a bench on top of a table ... this didn't seem even fun to me, but Pip got a kick out of it.



Other ways to cool off ... watermelon. Yum!!

All of the sun was just too much for Pip (who got this new swimmy that was too funny to even bother blogging about). Came in from the pool and passed out at the table.

We eventually got them to bed and then woke then up about 2 hours later for fireworks. Pip could not wrest himself from his stupor and insisted on being put back to bed. Vivie was equally unimpressed but did managed to cuddle with Phil until the finale when she also collapsed back in bed.

Grandpa has caught on to the fact that Pip, Viv, and I love ice cream. He now gets some whenever we visit. This time he introduced a new favorite ... Moose Tracks!

We were thrilled to also ge tto visit with Becky, Aidan, and Karl. What a big, happy boy Aidan is. And number two is on the way!!

We visit Sharon and Wert, who are due in August with their first. It was a much different game night this time around. With two pregnant women it was hard to sustain the late night antics of yore. Who knew game night could end before 2 am??

We also visited George, Jen, Al, Rhiannon, and Ever. Al kicked my butt at Monopoly (but made me laugh doing it) until Phil came from behind and cleaned up. Evers curls are out of control! And Rhiannon talks her little talk and makes me chuckle every time. Always great to see them.