1st trip to the dentist

Also back in April, Jackson had his 1st trip to the Dentist. Alivia went too and that was great. He was able to watch her and see how easy it was. I was worried he'd be so nervous he wouldn't even get in the chair but with a little "head's up" talk the night before, watching his big sister, and a GREAT hygienist it went so smoothly!

Here she is showing him "Mr Thirsty" sucks up the water in the cup.

She also showed him how the special toothbrush "tickles" his arm, and later his teeth. He even let her do a full cleaning! It was miraculous!

It probably helped that we went on one of the "Kids' Day" days. They had a balloon guy out front making whatever you could think of. Jackson asked for a frog that ended up sitting on his arm, and Alivia asked for a unicorn (or something magical of that sort).

I'd say his 1st trip to the dentist was a COMPLETE success and he shouldn't be too anxious when he has to go again. WHEW!

the coolest park in phily

About a month ago (or more?) we drove over for to Phily to visit our cousins. We went to THE COOLEST PARK they have. It was the Smith Memorial Playground & Playhouse.

They have this long, curvy ramp you run up to get to the top, then you slide down this SUPER cool slide on a potato sack. It's extra cool because the slide is enclosed. Good thinking.

Cousin E is jumping on the trampoline in the middle of the "spiderweb" while Alivia is laying on the trampoline, enjoying being bounced. Remember those days?

These 4 barely slowed down for a quick shot. They're sitting on one side of a giant boat or whatever it is...?

These are spinning cups. Alivia enjoyed running and spinning it around with E enjoying the dizzying ride. No thanks, Mama would most definitely be sick or have my equilibrium off for days. I'm not much of an amusement park rider.

The boys- on one side of a giant sitting teeter totter.

Not-so-baby A, enjoying the fresh air! I think it was about 57* this day. Really, pretty crazy, but it was fun.

Back at our cousins house, the boys model their SPIDERMAN jammies, and Alivia holding her baby cousin, who's just about as big as her. Our Levi is rivaling him and will probably be up to his stature soon. More to love and kiss on, right?

april happenings

After I get caught up with the next bunch of posts, I'll try to stay more "on top of things" so I don't have ALL recipes for a while, then ALL pictures.  Here's hoping.

These are a few funny scenes we found at our house WAY back in April.

Jackson- he thought he was pretty funny walking around with his head in his shirt like this. Honestly, he was busting up and thinking he was pretty clever. Silly guy.

We came into the kitchen one night after putting the kids to bed to find this hunk of cheese out. Looks like a little mouse was in it! Sure enough, it was our JACKSON mouse! This boy LOVES his cheese! He'd eat it all day if we'd let him, but we've learned the sad lesson of letting him have too much cheese (leads to trouble in the lavatory). So, we've scaled him back to 1 or 2 slices (or chunks) per day.

On this particular day, he'd already had his quota of cheese. BUT, that wasn't enough so he helped himself. HAHAHA When we asked him about it later he said, "Yeah. Me just wanted some cheese." Of course he did!

About a week before Easter, Alivia's preschool class had an Easter egg hunt. Each child brought in 6 eggs filled with candy for the hunt, then they each were allowed to find 6, then be done.

 Below are some of the shots I captured. She had a fun and Jackson and I enjoyed watching her. Nice sunny day.

These kids in line have all found their 6 and are cheering on the rest as they point them to more eggs.

I think I said it before, I just can't get enough pictures of Levi sleeping. It's so sweet and I could just hold him all night, but I don't because I'm TRYING NOT to spoil him too much... :/

her favorite things

I asked Alivia to get out her favorite toys so I could take a picture. I want to remember what Alivia's favorite things are for her right now.

Here's what she laid out for me.
-Eunice, her Unicorn pillow pet (named her herself), Snow White, and Ellie

-a little unicorn tablet from the treasure box from preschool, her Dora hat, Snow White talking mirror, and pink purse.

A

-Also her microphone, Snow White again, hula lei, and Snow White book.

I guess this could be her time capsule or something. I'm sure her items will be different when I ask her again in a year or so. Let's wait and see! :)

memorial day fun

Our Memorial Day festivities included a family get-together, complete with yummy food and swimming.

The girls finished off the day with a ride on Pap's tractor.

Levi lounged in his car seat while we splashed around the pool, as usual. *Note: He's wearing his cute blue striped outfit that I LOVE! It has a little monogram or plaque or something on it (under his chubby left arm) that reads "Captain Adorable". I LOVE IT! So true!

The boys swam for a while, but are always done well ahead of the girls. Here they are all changed and having a snack, poolside.

 Alivia LOVES her swimsuit. It's a tankini 2 piece and she says "it's just like Mommy's" (in that mine too is a tankini). I remember wearing 1 piece suits and find them SUCH A PAIN when you have to go to the bathroom. I hate having to take it all off to go, then put it all back on all cold and wet. The tankini is a BRILLIANT, WAY OVERDUE invention. Thank you fashion world!

The girls pause for a snapshot.

Looks like it's the boys' turn for a tractor ride. So pretty as the sun was going down...

 I caught this cute shot of Grandma Nana and Levi laughing. I love it!

mr. jax

So I'm finding I started to post some entries from May or June but they were never published, for some reason. So, we're playing catch-up.

A couple funny things about Mr Jax that I wan to remember:

1. I think he has a thing with feet.  He always wants to be sitting on the floor near my feet, have his feet on me or near me, or (as pictured below) physically sitting on my feet. What? I don't know either...

2. He loves Spider-Man, not that this is a NEWSFLASH to anyone who really knows him, but I had to capture a candid moment of him captivated by Spider-Man on TV whilst in his Spider-Man socks. He thinks they're pretty stinkin' cool.

3. This kid is 100% boy! He's always bumping her or there and getting a bruise or scraped up. The incident below was the result of him climbing up, slipping and coming down on the dresser (or something...). YIKES! That's a doozy! And just about the time it got healed up about 10 days later, he fell again and got another bit bruise above and around his LEFT eyebrow.

As you can see, he was hardly phased by the incident. He still happy and smiley. :)