Toddlers and haircuts

Sometimes theses things don't go so well together.

I took Simon and Seth in for a hair cut today. Seth should have had one while we were in Denver but my Aunt doesn't believe in forcing haircuts upon kids. I can totally understand why because who wants to traumatize a kid for years to come and what hair dresser wants a screaming kid in their chair? So, after a good early nap and a big yummy lunch I packed up my herd of kids and headed of to the mall.
All was well until Seth realized that he was the one getting a hair cut. He shook his head no emphatically. I tried to get him to sit in the fun little tractor chair and he responded with a scream and a head shake. Uh, oh. Are we going to have to skip. Again! He'd already had 2 prior hair cuts and done just fine with them. What's up? Oh, yeah... he's a toddler! Toddlers don't wanna do anything they didn't decide on.

Well, the older lady just asked me if I wanted to hold him. I agreed and she went to trimming. I do hate to force kids to do things but come on, you need a freakin' haircut. He calmed down when she was almost done. Thankfully it's a kid hair place so we didn't scare away all the patrons.
This picture was taken mere minutes after he was done. Already back to happy. Toddlers are strange little creatures. Sheesh, that was a lot of hard work for a quick little cut but now he looks like a little boy and not a rag muffin. Alas, I am coated in fine blond hair! Good idea to wear a black top today.

He pulled this on me last week at the doctors for his 18 month check up. (BTW he is quite healthy but only weighs in at 20.5 lbs. I think Oliver out weighs him at 4 months old! Hey, maybe now I'll have someone to give me hand me downs! Sweet.) Anyway, when we were at the doctors he was fine until the nurse came in and told me to take his clothes off. That was it for him. He told me "no" and began to cry. What, to many shots? I struggled just to get his shirt off over his head because he was holding on to it very tightly. The weight and measurement part was quite a loud mess but darn it, I wasn't coming back. Once the nurse left he was okay again. He didn't get as mad when the doctor came in and she did her quick assesment with him sitting on my lap. I think Seth really might remember that the shots are given by the nurse. I'd hate to be the nurse if all kids saw me and started to cry.

Lady Liberty

What an amazing sight to see! The terminal where you catch the ferry out to Ellis Island and Liberty Island was incredible on its own. It used to have 20 different rail lines that commuters and immigrants used. The ferry's would then shuttle you over to Manhattan. Pretty cool.

We managed to run smoothly between all the ferry departures and our sight seeing. Wow, security is tight. It was like going to the airport except they let me keep my water. :)

Our first stop was Ellis Island. It is such an important part of our American history, don't you think? I am sure many of us have relatives that braved leaving everything they knew to come to America, with only what they could carry, in hopes of a better life. The American dream. Unfortunately Hannah and Simon are a bit young to realize the significance of this place so we kept our tour rather short. I think we might go back again now that we know what it is like and do a bit more exploring and learning. I might even look up some family names.
After a bite to eat we boarded another ferry that took us to Liberty Island. The statue is so cool. And BIG! I bet most New Yorkers take it for granted because they can always see it so easily. We didn't get tickets to go into the statue since you can only go up to the top of the base. No going all the way up. Of course, the kids wanted to go in the statue... guess we'll be going back for sure now! Anyone coming for a visit? Want to go see the Statue of Liberty?

Picture after picture was taken. I wasn't very happy with most of the pictures because of how cloudy it was outside but we had a good day. It was much quicker than we anticipated. The lines weren't long to get on the next ferry but I can see how it could take hours to get around. We also didn't have to wait to get into the statue either. Now at least we know what we are dealing with.

The Manhattan skyline is rather impressive. I can't wait to go explore the Big Apple.

In case you were sick of pictures, here are a few more!


Lastly for a funny ha, ha. The name of the ferry we were on was Miss New Jersey. So technically, Dan rode Miss New Jersey twice in one day. Tasteless? Absolutely!

Shopping for school supplies

We went to one of my favorite places to shop for back to school supplies yesterday. Target. I do love Target. What's not to love? We got everything Hannah had on her LONG list plus stuff that I just had to have. Like some new towels. We have the most random collection of towels that we've gotten over the years. And I mean years. I am beginning to wonder if I was waiting for them to be thread bare or if we just don't care. Maybe both.

The original plan for today was to go to the Statue of Liberty! Then we found out the temp is going to be 94 and the have issued heat advisories for NY. Ah, let's go tomorrow instead, ok? Tomorrow is supposed to be mid 80's. A much nicer temperature for being outside, I think. What happened to our rainy cool temperatures that I was talking about in my last post? They have gone and summer has returned...

I am excited to go see the Statue of Liberty though. There are a lot of things that Dan and I would like to do while we are out on the east coast. Seeing the Statue is obviously one of them. A few things on our list are seeing the Empire States Building, Central Park, DC and all the monuments, the Smithsonian, catch a Yankees game (just to say we saw one) and a Rangers game, a Broadway Play, New England in the fall, etc. Are there things you think we should do or see while we are here?

I'll leave you with some fun pictures I took this week.

He fell asleep on the couch in a mountain of pillows. It was pretty darn adorable.

Hanging from the perfect climbing tree in our yard.

Swimming, no matter how cold it is, is important for your last class of the summer! 65 is to cold for me!

A little sand box fun.

The slide that's made out of rolling bars. You actually go pretty fast down it. Seth likes to go on his tummy on all slides.

What a good lookin' kid! All my babies are adorable thank you very much!

There is always time to stop and smell the flowers.

Rain, rain, go away

Come again some other day.

It has been cool and rainy for a few days now. I love the drop in temperature, the greening up of the lawn, but we couldn't go to swim classes today. Neither kid balked about it this morning either. I figured at least one of them would think there'd still be a chance but one look out the window at the incessant rain and the thermometer reading at 60 it was a no-brainer.

So, we'll just laze around today. I need to do a bit of light cleaning since my mom is dropping by again tomorrow but mostly I think I'll play with fabric. I definitely think I should do some yummy cooking for dinner since it won't hurt to heat up the house. That has to be the biggest down side to summer without AC. Cooking. All cooking has to be done on the grill in the summer. After a while, grilled food just doesn't sound very good anymore. Oh well. It's almost fall and I can start doing things I like again, like baking! I love baking breads and cookies. My tush will never be small as long as I enjoy baking.

Fabric, pretty fabric. I have been wanting to cut into these funky retro fabrics for a while. The fabrics asked me to buy them and I accepted very readily. When I saw them I thought they'd be perfect for this pattern. I am not actually making the quilt for a specific person I am just making it for fun. Maybe it will end up hanging around my house. I rarely ever keep a quilt though.

I did manage to finish up the other baby quilt. I have a soft spot for the outer border fabric. I used it to make pillows for my kids a while back. It's so darn cute with the little wizards on it. I need to start taking all my pictures during the day when the light is better. C'est la vie.

Quilting is so much fun. You go from this...

to this.
A quilt with legs. Hannah took the picture for me.

A usual day

Things are rambling along here as usual. We did lots of little things yesterday. The big kids had their swim classes in the morning and while they take turns swimming Seth gets to play on the playground. There is a huge sand box area and a neat slide made out of rolling bars. I'll have to get a picture of it. That also means I have to remember to take the camera with me.

After swimming, our little picnic lunch, and a bit more playground fun we headed home so Seth could get a nap. He fell asleep in the car and thankfully transfered to his bed and kept on sleeping for an hour. God I love nap time. I do love Seth very much but little guys can wear you down! I finished watching a movie and did some piecing on the other baby quilt while he rested.

Once he was up from nap he wanted to go play outside with the big kids. Hannah and Simon spend most of the day outside riding their bikes, climbing trees, and playing with their friends. Who wouldn't want to join them?

Seth rode on his own bike for a bit and then moved on to leaf gathering.
He grunted as he carried the big red bucket around and squatted down to pick up more leaves. It was quite cute! I really think he's going to enjoy fall when we can pile up the leaves.

I made a peach cobbler yesterday too! My first ever. Hannah and Simon didn't like it but they don't like much of anything. I thought it was good and John, who happens to really like peach cobbler, said it was good. I asked him if there was anything that would make it better and he said, "Seconds."

We finished up the evening with a game of scrabble. Boys against the girls. Girls started with the word DONE, sometimes you can only do so much with the tiles you get. Then the boys played ZYGOTE. Are you kidding me? I thought we were totally going to lose. Ha, we ended up winning! Hannah managed to spell QUEEN on a triple word play at the end of the game. Girls rock!
Dan deep in thought. Doesn't Hannah look older in this picture? Did you know in 2 years she'll be in middle school?!?! AHHH!

I think today I might take the kids to the outlet mall and buy some back to school clothes. I can't believe its almost time for that! It's still hot most days but I need to buy warm clothes. Maybe there will still be some summer stuff hanging around that I can pick up for next summer too.

Peach picking

I found another thing I like about Jersey. Being able to pick fresh fruits spring through fall! It's so cool. We met some of the ladies from the Moms Club at 10 this morning at the Battlefield Orchards. Got ourselves a big bucket and went to picking. They had nectarines too! I love nectarines and so do the kids. I am going to have to start making some yummy desserts with all the fruit we got. Let's see, peach crisps, peach cobbler, peach sherbet, etc.

The only snag we ran into was they took cash or check only... um, what do you mean there's no credit card machine in the middle of a field? I had $14 and one of the other mom's supplied me with the $12 I needed. Yup, 26 dollars worth of peaches and nectarines. There were so many and they all looked so yummy, I had to pick just a few more... and then the bucket was heavy and full! Hannah would say, "I thought you said we were all done, mom." Can you tell your kid to shut their big yappin' trap? No, no you can't, but you can think it!

I finished up the bright fun quilt on Saturday and I will move on to the next fun one. The colors look a little odd since I took the picture at night. The sashing fabric is more purple than it looks here.

On Sunday our wonderful friend John came over to put in my new faucet for us. Since I don't have a handy husband (love you sweetheart!) I have to borrow other peoples. Tiff is out of town for 3 weeks, men like to eat, I like to cook.... hum... I sense a favor.... :)

Anyway, the sink was old, ugly, yucky and gross so he kindly, without cussing at me, so when he replaced the faucet he did the sink too! Yeah! Dan and I swapped out the old brass knobs with nice nickel ones while John worked on the sink. The blue counter tops will have to stay until we hit big with the stock lottery. (If you've seen how low Vonage stock is trading at right now you'd be rolling on the floor, laughing.)

We had also planned on Sunday as a family to go see the latest Harry Potter but John wasn't done yet so I stayed home to help (or be there to get in the way mostly) and Dan took the midgets to the movie. Dan and I are going to try to go to a movie all by ourselves on Friday. I know, a date! I don't remember the last time we went out alone. The sad part is, we'll probably talk about our kids.

Goodbye Drew. Bright fun colors.

Last night we had people over to say goodbye to one of our dear friends. Drew is escaping Jersey and returning to Seattle. Can you blame him? Seattle has to be one of the coolest places on earth. I love that town. We have hopes of going back there someday ourselves. Cozy rain, ferry boats, the market place, breathtaking mountain and water views... ahhh.

Anyway, Drew is taking off on Monday and his wife Winnie will stay here until she gets a job out there or the house sells. I am glad we get to keep her for a bit but I am sure she'd rather be back home with her hubby. So Drew wouldn't forget about all of us we got him a little going away present. A big "I love NJ" shirt ought to do it!

Goodbye Drew, we'll miss you. Hannah and Simon will miss climbing on you too! I hope you like your new job.


I actually had sometime to myself yesterday! Maria and Claire were over playing with Hannah and Simon, Seth was napping, and I was.... quilting! I know, I know, shocking.

I took some pictures as I went through some of the stages.
Ready to cut! I think the Shape Cut is one of the best quilter tools. It makes strip cutting soooo much easier.

Now, it's time for the blocks to be pieced together.

Such a good little helper. He doesn't sit still for long but he likes to help.

All the blocks are ready to go! Baby quilts are nice to do because they have such instant gratification. It can take such a long time to piece a big quilt so the little ones seem easy.

Raspberries

We picked our own raspberry today. It was pretty fun actually. I wasn't sure what to expect since I had all the kids with me. They each got their own little bucket to fill ($3 each) and I got a big bucket that would be weighed when we came back. I discovered two things as we walked through the rows of raspberry bushes, one- bees are big fans of raspberries but they didn't mind us, and two- Seth loves raspberries. I think he was trying to eat his weight in them. He'd cram his little hand in the bucket as quickly as he could manage and shove the handful of berries right in his mouth. It wasn't something I could hide when we walked out of there because the little stinker had it all over his face, hands, and shirt. We didn't pick a lot but it was fun. We are going to go pick peaches on Monday. See, there are some really cool things to do in Jersey.

There were a few casualties on our little adventure. Simon scraped a scab on his knee and had blood running down his leg and on the way out Hannah broke her shoe. Never a dull moment.

After our full day of swim classes, playing on the play ground, eating a picnic lunch, playing at the spray grounds, raspberry picking, and grocery shopping Seth crashed out! He's been asleep now for about 2 1/2 hours. I've had time to put the groceries away, finish making covers for the pillows on the couch with leftover fabric from our curtains (see, that way the whole room kinda goes together! I sure am smart sometimes... sometimes), and posting to my blog.

Even better, it isn't blazing hot today like it was yesterday. Tomorrow will be even nicer, it's supposed to be in the upper 70's! Hurray! Fall is coming, fall is coming! I know it will be a while before it really cools off but one can wish for better weather.

We aren't boring after all

Lots of things have happened over the last few days! We took a trip to the beach on Friday with Misty and Tiff and of course, our assortment of small children. The waves were a bit bigger than I expected but they weren't overwhelming. I didn't even get a chance to get my sunscreen on before Seth was hauling butt to the water. I did manage to put some on but as a word of advice, apply sunscreen in advance because you end up smearing gritty sand all over your skin. Not all that comfortable. After playing for a few hours we had some lunch at a little cafe close to the beach. All in all I thought it was a great day.

I didn't have my camera with me that day but Misty and Tiff both took pictures and should they happen to share any good ones (hint, hint) I'll pass them along to you.

Saturday we worked our butts off on the yard sale at Tiff's house. Man was it hot and humid! We lived through it and managed to collectively make about 270 bucks. Not bad for a hard days work. Of course we had to split it and then I had to pay for the stainless steel microwave and awesome chandelier I snagged. I also managed to come home with a foot locker for the kids dress up clothes, a new Christmas tree stand thingy, and a cat scratching post. Wasn't the point of the yard sale to get rid of stuff? Hum.

My mommy made an impromptu visit this weekend because she had a job interview in Trenton Monday morning. So, we bailed on our friends BBQ for Sunday (sorry 'bout that) and we went to the beach again with mom. If you remember the last time we attempted going to the beach in June we ended up having a cold and rainy experience so another trip had to be made! We only went for a few hours but it was totally worth it. I absolutely love the beach. I look upon the beach front houses with such envy. I could easy waste away my summer days with the beach right out my front door and sand always between my toes. Ahhhh....

Mom had only planned on getting her feet wet while she took some pictures but the ocean had a different plan and her skirt is still drying. The kids are getting more and more brave in the water. They all got knocked down more than once but got right back up to do it again. They did a little bit of body surfing with the waves. After a while we mad them all take a break and have a snack. What should you do while out of the water? Bury each other of course!

Yawn, we are boring...

There isn't a whole lot going on around here. I did manage to get Cynthia's quilt top all put back together. I don't know if I'll ever do a piano key border again! I honesty think after looking at the piecing that the problem wasn't my seam allowance but how far apart the yarn tacking was. Does that make sense to anyone (Sam?) or am I just clicking and whistling at most of ya? Anyway, I am going to put the spacing closer together and see if that will work. If the darn thing falls apart in the wash again I won't try and fix it again. Cynthia will just get a new quilt in the mail!

We have managed to make it to the library and we went to a new spray park but all in all we're just trying to relax and enjoy our summer. I have to get all my stuff ready for a yard sale this weekend. For me it isn't about making money it's about getting rid of some of my stuff. There's just so much clutter that we don't need. I was amazed at how many silly little toys the kids had in their rooms that they don't play with and haven't played with in a long time.

Since I should be packing things up to take over to Tiff's house instead of blogging (which is much more fun!) I'll just post some recent pictures.

Seth and Chloe checking out the animals at the fair.

"Giddy up Mommy!"

He enjoyed the 2 foot pool immensely!

Ah, she sure knows how to sulk when she doesn't get her way.

Seth was waving at Jim while he works on our porch roof. One of his favorite things to do over the last few days has been to sit and watch out the window.
I love what pictures look like in black and white. Which do you like better in general color or black and white?

Ok, back to work on the yard sale.