33...not so bad, not so bad at all

Ella was the official cake decorator of Sandi's brainstorm to make me an extraordinary birthday cake (yes, I think I do remember saying something about not wanting a boring old box cake.)

So very serious...






























The result? Red Velvet perfection.














And then off to Schoodic for a birthday party and a two night stay!

We had friends and family, food and fun, cake and pina coladas and sun, sun, sun!

I think they were pretending to be fish and Brady was the fisherman.

Biscotti and fresh fruit.

The day started out with an early morning kayak ride, breakfast on the beach, and then playing all day. We ended with a candlelight dinner on the porch and some exquisite star gazing.

We saw the Milky Way dance silver all over the star, pretended we knew where constellations were and awed at the fact that Mars, in the absence of moonlight, actually cast a soft glow of light across the lake.

Maya and Aunti Di.

The girls, chillin' out.

Brevan, off to catch that "really big fish" in the "deep blue sea" that he talked

incessently about ALL afternoon.

A beach littered with people I love!

Angela and Annalise. New favorite photo.

Maya, being all crazy. My favorite quote of the day was Ange saying, "I'm not sure, but I think Maya might have just eaten a toad." (In case you're worried, she hadn't.)

A sea plane landed before 7 a.m. I think he flew in just to have breakfast with his buddy and then was gone again. How fun!

Reedo (aka superman) jumping off the dock. Just can't resist these dock jumping pictures, especially when a two-year-old is the one jumping.

Emerson snuggling in

yummy food...and beer

my girls

Oh...Ella

Here are some more:

"Hey tell the trees to stop dropping their leaves. Tell them it's not fall yet."



"Where was I before I was born?" and then a few days later, "Before I was here, I was with God." Brief contemplation. "But I didn't like it there. I like it better here. I was in the world where spirits are. I was a little tiny spirit or maybe a big, gigantic spirit! Right, Mom?"

And regarding the sun and solar power: "The sun makes lots of things, but not as many things as God. God makes a LOT more things than the sun does."



"I think Fred is trying to tell me to stop taking his Cocoa Pebbles." (As evidenced by him putting out his hand in a "stop" sign on the box of the cereal box-a gift from her grandmother while grocery shopping.) Wheels in brain spin. "I'm just going to turn him around so he can't see me eating them." And she turns the cardboard Fred toward Maya across the table. She cares not if Maya gets busted for eating Fred's Cocoa Pebbles.

"My hair smells like honeydew from that conditioner. I've been meaning to put honeydew in my hair."

After telling her that we couldn't share a spoon because of my cold sore: "Yeah, I've been meaning to ask you about that thing on your lip. Looks like it needs some fresh air."

"The more you tell me not to do it, the more I feel like I have to."

rewind

Rewind to last summer. Not that long ago right?



These pictures would beg to differ...

We were at my friend Jennifer's son Lucas's birthday party and there was a girl, Chrissy White, who was visiting with Jennifer's niece from somewhere out west. The two teenagers were really into photography and had cameras likely as expensive as my insulin pump. Chrissy, a budding Amanda Burse if I ever saw one, took this beautiful pictures.

Ella saw this one and said, "What was I wearing??!"

birthday present

My sister and I headed to the beach with four kids between us to celebrate my impending 33rd birthday. We drove to Popham Beach, which for anyone who has never been, is one of the most beautiful sand beaches in Maine.





Baby Braeden, who is 9 months younger than Maya and outweighs her by a good 5 pounds.

Maya, heading off to talk to people we don't know.

And sitting down to have a chat with them.

Ella and Michaela, dubbed Storm Carver and White Lightning Temple, were the official seagull chasers on the beach. I think if Ella had a Native American name it would be Chases Seagulls. But we went with comic book names instead.

Atop Fox Island which you can walk out to via sand bar when the tide goes out.

Kathryn and her cuties.

The view of Popham from Fox Island. At high tide, all that sand is underwater. Hard to believe the little 'ol moon is that powerful...

And this one...just because it is so quintessentially "the beach."

Thanks for a fun day family. Can't think of a better gift from a sister to a sister...

Oh... Maya

There is a reason that you should keep the 12-hour lipstick away from the 22-month-old...

Ella-isms, the next installment

It's been a while...


"Momma, when I get bigger, I want to die my hair purple." (Why?) "It's my favorite color."



As she goes from the dinner table to the play kitchen to serve us plastic food:

"Wait, I need to wash my face. I don't want my customers to think that I have been eating."

"If me and Maya were ants, we could ride on the fan like a Ferris wheel."

Serving plastic food in the play kitchen, "Today we have credit cards, doughnuts and cookies." (Umm... I'll take the Visa.)

Not liking her dinner this evening, "What else are you serving tonight, Momma?"

And regarding the recently identified "headache": "My headache is so bad, it's like it is bleeding inside my brain." And, used in it's other form regarding the month long sewer pipe replacement that has our entire street dug up: "I hope they're done soon. What a headache!"

At bedtime:

Me: "Ella, I'm sorry I had no patience today. I am so very tired. It is hard to be patient when you're tired.'

Ella: "Oh, Momma. You need to get more sleep."

Probably it is my fault, but Ella is somewhat fixated on China. We talk at length about the round nature of the Earth, the sun rising on one side and setting on the other, the whole night vs. day idea, and I have ended up using China as the focal point. As in, "The people in China are going to bed now as we are waking up." And now Ella has started to notice racial distinctions and again, China has become representative for the entire Asian race. No amount of introduction to Japan, Vietnam or the like has diverted her interest in China. Plus it is so freaking big on the globe it sticks out like a chocolate in a bowl of broccoli for her.



So anyway, we were discussing the seasons and again with the pesky rotation of the earth, how we have winter part of the year when our part of the earth is tilted away from the sun. She nods gravely and says, "Yeah, because of China..."

I fear she is going to use China as some sort of scapegoat for everything.


And, my personal favorite: "Oh look! Maya fell down and she didn't even get a head injury!"

I guess that is what you get when you have a mom who is a trauma nurse...

discovery

We went to the Discovery Museum the other day (thanks Maria for those free tickets!) As I began to edit pictures to post here, I made a startling discovery. See if you can get it...

You figure it out???

Okay, maybe not that startling...

We are having more fun than they are!

2 kids...squared

In exchange for taking our girls in June so we could have an overnight away, and just for the pure sport of it, we had Brady and Anna overnight for a sleepover Saturday.

Not surprisingly, their kids won the gold stars for behavior while our kids preyed upon our weakened parenting states and tested at every turn (okay, mostly Maya.) Looking through these pictures, I was not at all surprised that our kids were so tired we put them to bed just before 5 p.m. on Sunday and we ourselves were asleep before nine. We played...HARD.

And made a mess at every turn.

Thankfully Maya and Anna have reached the point where they no longer grab, pinch, squeeze, bite (Maya), push and antagonize each other. There was a whole lotta lovin (and, as it turns out, nakedness) going on.

Feeding time at the zoo.

BFFs

Sandi with a bucket of children dumped on her...

I swear these two really are like an old married couple. Look at them bathing their babies.

Maya is giving herself a pep talk in the mirror.

They spied the neighbors bounce house and over we trekked.

And then, we somehow managed to pick up another child to come back to our house to play on the playset. We looked like we were running a camp. Two adults and FIVE children. The announcement of ice cream cones= a dead on sprint from the four-six year olds.

And a big, fat mess for Anna.

And, thankfully, sleep came to the tent set up in our foyer... a mere three hours later than usual for Ella.

As our dear Brady and Anna departed the next day with tired eyes and happy smiles, we were left adoring them completely, assured in our certainty of the size of our modest family, and amazed at how easy having two kids suddenly seemed.