Teddy Bear Picnic

Cozy had an end-of-year celebration for preschool too.

It was a "Teddy Bear Picnic", so we forgot to bring a teddy bear. 

Luckily someone had a loner.

Cozette was awarded "Most Talkative". 

Not surprising. :)

Coze, with her little friends from school. 

...and with her big sister!

...and with her favorite Mom in the world.

After the ceremony and the food, they had a ton of activities outside for the kids.

Eventually, I had to drag her away, kicking and screaming. Literally.

End-Of-Year Graduation Banquet

The homeschool co-op Sofia attended this year had a lovely end-of-year/graduation banquet.

I made all of those handsome kids of mine stop for a moment, so that I could get a picture of their faces! 

...and Sofia wore the pretty, pretty dress I bought for myself...that I need to lose a few pounds to wear.

(It was on clearance, and they didn't have the next size up. :( So, I bought it in a fit of optimism...and because I can never find formal dresses that I like.)

Binge diet - here I come.

Poor Matt

We finally got Matt snipped, shot, and microchipped.

My sons found this to be horrible and inhumane, but we're taking him on a long trip. It had to be done.

Matt thought it was horrible and inhumane too.

...and I've never seen a cat drool before. He was still very drugged when we picked him up. Poor guy.

Can you believe how big he's gotten? It seems like just the other day he was a kitten sitting on Sofia's shoulder. (She tears up just thinking about it! ...um...turning into me?)

The vet was quite a drive away (cause it was a very good deal), so the kids 

were passed out along with Matt. 

Don't worry. They've all recovered and are all happily jumping off of the furniture again.

South Mountain Creamery Reprise

Last year we tried to finish the Maryland "creamery trail". 

I think we only managed to hit 3 or four of them.

 Dang. 

But, of the ones we tried, South Mountain Creamery was our favorite. It was the closest, being right outside of Frederick, and they have $1 kiddie cones! I'm cheap. I can't be buying each of my kids a $4 cone that they may or may not like. (Cozette tried 2 flavors, which she chose based on color...pink and pinker, wasn't sold on either of them. She needs to listen to flavor descriptions instead. Peach melba and coconut joy were both super yummy.)

Summer 2012 - with the littlest 4 kids

So, we were very happy to be invited to visit the creamery again. Thanks Amanda!

Summer 2013 - with 3 littles and Sofia

Can you guess what they're sitting down-wind from? Cows.

We got to see them get milked...but they're stinky.

We didn't need sunglasses this time...but galoshes might have been nice. It poured the whole time.

Even the chickens took shelter.

After eating our treats, we headed over to the calf barn, which we had completely missed last time.

It turned out to be the main attraction.

This little one was born on the day of our visit. Yes. Less than a day old!

Looking at goats and calves was fun. After about five minutes, Sofia was texting her friends and asking when we could leave.

...then the bottle truck came.

At 4pm they set a bottle in front of every calf and you could feed as many of them as you like.

Suddenly Sofi wasn't in a hurry to leave anymore.

Feedin' baby cows!

Cozy needed a little help with the bottles. (The calves are not casual nursers.)

Lovin the baby cows!

Little Red

This is why I cannot get my office clean. Instead of just throwing away projects that I started two years ago...or even putting them away, I have to finish them to get them off of my desk.

It's a sickness.

That aside, I don't regret taking maybe an hour to finish the cape I cut out for Cozette 2 Halloweens ago.

She loves it. Talks about it all of the time. Wants to wear it all of the time. 

I should have made it sooner. 

...and now Sofia is asking for one. (Sadly, I do own a cape pattern in her size. Cross my fingers and hope she doesn't demand a medieval gown to go with it....I have a pattern for one of those too.)

Summerizing

This is me getting ready for summer. 

...by making shirts wearable for another 3-5 months.

James loves ketchup.

On EVERYTHING...which is good, because he hates all potato products...including fries. Weird, I know. The ketchup makes them bearable.

So, now he can be Mr. Ketchup for the summer.

...and Annika, whose closet I had just gone through was in desperate need of shirts. 

She didn't think so, but, with my laundry habits, a half-dozen shirts just doesn't cut it. (And kids don't think to do their own laundry until the very last minute.)

So, as much as she poo-pooed the idea, I short-sleeved a bunch of her shirts too.

The owls got a regular, medium-length sleeve.

I thought this stripey one needed something a little shorter to be Summery.

Yep.

Since this pink number already had some decorative, unfinished ruffles, I didn't even bother hemming.

SO easy.

...and one more traditional short-sleeve.

Back in the day, the girls would have turned those leftover sleeve scraps into Pokemon dresses lickety-split. I'm not sure what Annika has planned for them, but she just couldn't stand to see them thrown away.

I'll have to try and think of something small and useful that she could make.

...and now I'm really wanting to dig into a few more of the sewing projects I've been neglecting all year!

Gold Belt (Karate)

James has been doing Karate this year. 

For those of you who may not know him, James in not a very focused individual. He's sweet and lazy. And, as much as it hurts my wallet, I'm happy that James has found something that he's excited enough about to bother participating in. (He sat, staring into space through art lessons.) 

During his first few classes, he was bouncing up and down the whole time. Literally. He could not hold still, he was so excited.

His first belt test:

Yep, that's James - breaking a board with his foot! (Every little boy's dream.)

HI-YA!

Their Butterflies

So our butterflies weren't that spectacular... 

the ones fluttering through Brookside's butterfly house made up for it.

That Atlas Moth! See him behind the kids? I had to get a picture with people in it for scale.

Last year we made the mistake of visiting an uber-warm greenhouse in August. Not smart.

 (Which, I also just realized that blog post is moldering, unpublished and long forgotten, in my "drafts".) 

This year we went in May, and it was a much more pleasant experience. Especially since Cozy wasn't a sweaty, hot cranky-pants the whole time.

...or maybe it's being 4 instead of 3 years old? Or a few bug classes at the Nature Center. 

Regardless, Coze was interested.

This purpley-gray guy is my favorite....'cause he can accessorize. 

So, last year Cozette was extremely frustrated that butterflies kept landing on everyone else and, no matter how still she sat, none came her way.

This year a butterfly did land on her boot. She screamed and shook it off, saying, "it's going to try and stick it's nose in me and drink me!"

...and Sofia got to come with us! I'm sure going to miss her next year when she's off at High School with her big brother! Thank goodness none of them got Hogwarts letters - I don't even like them being gone during the day! Something changes when children spend the bulk of their time away from their families. There's a connection that's lost...or that you have to work extremely hard to maintain.

I guess we'd better get in a lot of family bonding time this summer!