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Tuesday, July 31, 2012

Melissa + Joy | AT HOME | Vacation Time

UMMMM...I didn't even take that many photos on vacation, but I took way to many to display in this post.  SOOOOO....I've spent the last hour trying to figure out how to tell a story in 15 pictures or less. We had a lovely vacation.  Check it.
Check out Joy's vacation here.


Friday.   Spent holding hands with Maggie so she wouldn't cry in the car.

Saturday.  Spent enjoying a cabin in the woods of North Carolina.  Maggie did NOT want to hold hands with Schroe.


Sunday.  Spent breakfasting with GG before spending another x hours in the car.


Monday.  Spent collecting shells and loosing toys to the fearsome waves of the Atlantic.  


Tuesday.  Spent riding bikes to the beach to collect more shells and have our hair blown.  It was a blustery day.




Wednesday.  Spent wading and climbing trees when collecting shells became illegal.


Thursday.  Spent getting burned by the sun and exfoliated by the sand.



 Friday.  Spent taking in one last sunset.


 Saturday.  Spent with great friends who live in a one bedroom apartment.  We forgot to bring our pack n' play so we made a pallet and a faux wall.

Sunday.  Spent watching Brave and hiding from the heat.

Monday.  Spent driving home and looking awesome.










Tuesday, July 24, 2012

I love her style.

She wanted her hair in a bun like the one I wore the day before. She liked that her red earrings stood out. I love her profile. This is one of my favorite pictures of her.

I'm going to give you a look at the painstaking process of cleaning shells.

FYI. This was all her idea. I love her.

Oh, and remember how I was overwhelmed with the idea of playtime? Well, although I did capture some authentic moments in my post, I felt like I really wanted to have my camera on hand more often to capture the quirky ways they decide to play.

Like today when I found them in the backyard in their old Halloween Toy Story costumes. They decided they would write a play and make props. D'arcy took a wine cork, painted it red, put a little stick in it and painted the end red. Instant dynamite.

Or when I found all four of them lying in bed together last night listening to D'arcy read.

Julian asked Schroeder today if he wanted to play secret agents or policeman. Schroeder replied by saying "Lego City". I don't really know what that means but they do.

They sure are a lot of work, but they inspire me. I love who they are as a group.










I really like this one of Gavin and his dumptruck.




Monday, July 23, 2012

Friday, July 13, 2012

Kids say the darndest things...

Everyday during upstairs playtime, the kids turn on their (well, my mom's) Beatles CD.  It's a collection of all the Beatles biggest hits.  Stephen and I like The Beatles, but our kids LOVE them.

Today, Julian turned to me while we were picking up and doing some minor redecorating of their room and said, "Mom, why did the Beatles break up?"

I said, "It all started with a girl named Yoko Ono."  They all gave me a skeptical look.

I feel like my kids have been running wild lately which makes me think we aren't great parents.  But when our five year old asked that question, I start to believe we are doing something right ;).


Tuesday, July 10, 2012

Melissa + Joy | AT HOME | Playtime

What does playtime look like at our house. I felt overwhelmed at the idea of documenting this.  It's summertime so I feel like when they aren't sleeping or eating, they are playing.  I tried to focus on what they do when I make them go upstairs and play for two hours without interrupting me.

Julian plays with LEGOs.
D'arcy gets crafty.  I betrayed her by showing you the back of her cross-stitch in all of it's messiness. Mom & Connie, who does that remind you of?  I keep reminding myself that this is her first attempt and I need to give lots of praise and just a little prompting to be more detail oriented.
Schroeder plays with cars, trains, planes, superheroes....the list goes on.  He is such a good player, and his play always comes with sound effects.
Maggie sleeps.  She still doesn't "play" a whole bunch.  She holds her baby and her purse.  She puts on shoes.  She copies her older brothers and sister.  She gets mad if anyone touches her stuff.

They all make a mess.  I make them pick up their room once a day, but I'm no good at teaching them to pick up as they go.  Blah.  I try to put some of their toys up and away so there are less toys to make a mess with.  If there are too many toys to play with, they get overwhelmed.  And if there are too many toys to pick up, they get overwhelmed.  So I try to stick some toys up in the closet to be discovered in a week or two to their great joy instead of keeping them in bins to DUMP everyday during upstairs play time.

That's my tip for parents.  If your kids are getting bored with their toys or are struggling to pick up, puts some toys away.  Don't get rid of them.  Just put them up in their closet.  When they notice them in their closet in two weeks, you get them down and put different ones up.  Do it.  I need to do more of it.

Enough on my war against toys.

More pictures.  From Joy (Jax is playing, too), and from me.