Tell me why...

Why is it that Maya decided to get up at 3:57 a.m. for the day today?



Why is it that Ella had to model her clothing obsession for Maya who now goes into her dresser and pulls out shirts, pants and sweatshirts and brings them out to the living room and cries because she can't pull them on over her already existing clothes? She literally pulls at the loops of her jeans until her hands shake and her face gets red as she tries to haul them up over her fleece pants...



Why it is that we paid $400 to have our wheel barrings replaced only to have the car still making the noise that prompted the trip to the mechanic?



Why it is that when you begin your day BEFORE 4 a.m. (even if only by 3 minutes- there is something about waking up in the 3 a.m. hour) it is also the day your older child completely SOAKS the bed with pee? And then your 20 month-old dumps a vase of flowers all over you cookbook organization project?



Better yet, why is it that I think I can complete said cookbook organization project when my kids are awake?

Why does coffee stop working after three cups? And how are jitters going to help me at all?

ah... sunday

Sundays that Sandi works are the hardest. Everyone has plans with their families and there is nothing going on.

What to do, what to do?

Why, make parade drums of course!

I was sitting at parade rest. Taking pictures.

the celts

After visiting baby Mackenna, we headed to Belfast for the Celtic festival for a bit of culture, but mostly to watch our friend Matt play with his rockin' band the Napper Tandies. As in THE Napper Tandies. I say this only with some jest. Last fall, we went to Paddy Murphy's downtown with Matt and Ange and their friend Randy from the band and when we entered it was as though the sea of people parted to make way for the celebrity to enter. And then in the crowd we hear, "It's the Napper Tandies!!" (imagine shrieking volume only rivaled by "It's the Beatles!") and then "Oh my goodness! They are my favorite band!!"

I was like, wow, our friend Matt is a total rock star, like in the Irish band sort of way...

Matt jamming on his banjo. Yeah, I know. But it's true. You CAN jam on a banjo.

Anna watching her dad with idolization. Or maybe she is thinking about the box of Chedder Bunnies her mom just pulled out.




Maya, making general entertainment everywhere she goes...





decides that she would like to climb Mt. Stroller-manjaro...

and go down the other side.

A little chasing...

And some showing of the love for the band. Who needs a lighter when you have a belly?

I didn't get a great picture of the girls together, but did anyone notice that the girls are matching? Ella, of course, picked out this shirt for Maya because it matches her new summer "uniform" - her "colorful" dress as she calls it. She wears it EVERY day. Turns out is a perfect strategy to have your kids wearing matching, over the top colors. You can pick 'em out amongst all the other scrambling, popcorn and snow-cone eating children.

welcome to the world

We got "the" call last Friday morning at 2:45 a.m. Head to Ellsworth. The baby is coming.

Or not.

Better yet, go out to breakfast at Denny's since you aren't progressing. Come back at 8 a.m.

Yeeeeah... still no progress. You could go home. Okay, okay, you don't want to. Jeash! Well, you can stay here if you really want to...

Go check into a hotel room at the Holiday Inn? Perfect! You can go wait for the contractions to pick up...

Don't sit too much, though, since every time you sit down they stop. We know you've been up since midnight. Like we said, you could drive the hour home...

The waiting parents...

The girls and I went to Ellsworth for the day late morning, thinking for sure that we would see the baby. Ella was beside herself with excitement...

But lunch came and went. We had a swim in the pool, a walk around some stores, some bouncing off the walls in the hotel room, and before we knew it it was 5 p.m. No baby but some very tired girls.

So we head home, minus one baby sighting...plus one very disappointed Ella.

And then, finally, at 10:41 p.m. MacKenna Brielle Carver Kenney was born, weighing in at 8 lb. 6 oz.

We officially dubbed Ella the "baby hog." All she wanted to do was have that baby on her lap. I think she was marvelling at a baby that stays still.

Proud mom...

Camp W. p.s.

What is the one thing you always hope for at camp?

The perfect, toasty brown marshmallow? The melty, chocolaty smores? That nice, even tan? A feeling of peace and restoration that will carry you for weeks, having rearranged the inner workings of your entire being?

How about poison ivy?

That was what Maya saw fit to acquire at camp. Three doses of prednisone later she is finally coming out of the puffy, I-want-to-chew-my-fingers-off stage and seems to be on the mend... And thankfully divine intervention saw fit that she contained this ultra-contagious rash to her own little body.

Camp Winniauguamauk

Camp Winniauguamauk is a really splendid place set on a quiet lake and is owned and run by the Community of Christ Church which most of the members of Sandi's family belong to. It is a wonderful place where kids go and thrive in a community of love and friendship, good food, unabashed fun, lots of sugar and singing all tossed together with some open-minded religious teaching. But a big deal this year... Trish is now the youth minister for the New England area and she was the director of a couple of week long camps this year, including the one that we went to last week. This camp was for kids grade 3-5 who are so cute and yummy you could put a dollop of whipped cream on them and eat them with a spoon.

Needless to say, even with the rain and then the (blessed) sun, our girls had a fabulous time...

Ella and Tia, walking hand in hand...

Maya, doing some recreational climbing...

The cutest part of all- Ella made a friend. They seriously sat over lunch and discussed dresses...

Maya chumming with her peeps

Tia, jumping off the float. I think this was called the "Inner You" jump or something like that

But here is the big kahuna...the water slide...

I had to convince Ella to go down it with me, but once I did there was no stopping her...

Except when she needed a little push...

Allow me to note huge progress... I have actually, without force or coercion, posting pictures of myself in a bathing suit...

We'll be back next year for more fun. We hadn't been to camp in 8 years, when Sandi and I were counselors at high school camp. I forgot how much I love to live in a loving, insulated little community. I could totally live in a commune.

happy (rainy) fourth

I think that I did the most patriotic thing I have ever done in my life this morning.

Ella and I made a red,white and blue watermelon "cake", lite a candle and sang happy birthday to the USA.

A day late.

This is the photo of what it was supposed to look like. Not too shabby considering a four-year-old and I did this together. But the big lie (the one they don't tell you about in the recipe?) is there is no way you can use real whipped cream because it melted almost before I got a photo. It is probably shaving cream in the picture.

The real fourth was spent at the parade (I have decided since I have never been in a parade before, I should make this my goal for 2010), and two BBQs. The first one complete with a giant inflatable kids pool that had a massive water slide. It was so much fun that Sandi decided to go for a swim in her jeans. She says that Maya had slid under water and that she "lost her footing" when she went in after her, but I know that the brief appearance of the sun made her a little crazy.

I do have to wonder, though, why it was necessary for her to drop kick Maya over to the other side of the (luckily inflated) side wall when her flip-flop hit the pool floor like a banana peel and her long legs had no where to go except in contact with Maya's little submerged body...

Anyway, that was Sandi's only day off out of 5 and it was like I realized this morning that I had two more days of creative mommying ahead so we decided on the cake this morning.

It is really only fruit and whipped cream, but c'mon, isn't any day started with whipped cream a better one?

Okay, the candle was more at Ella's prompting then out of a real patriotic spirit...

And as a birthday present? I think I can see the sun this morning...

vacation report

All I can say is, it is a good thing we have another vacation in four weeks.

Why, you ask?

Because it rained every frickin' day but one.

Luckily that was the one full day we went camping. (Out of all the pictures to follow I think you will see one with actual sun.)

I think I have figured out the feared-by-some Apocalypse. If one wanted to end the world, there would be no need for mass destruction. Simply remove the sunshine, and people would just shrivel up and cease to be. This is what we are dangerously on the brink of here in the Northeast.

So what do you do during a vacation full of precipitation and endless clouds?

Well...

First you through a baby shower for your very pregnant sister/sister-in-love...

Tattoos for the kiddos. Brevan was very serious about his.

The cake I made that almost was a wreckage of sugar and butter but was salvaged by the flowers that hid all the flaws.

You eat whipped cream for supper...

You invite your friend from Canada over for dinner...

and then have her bathe your children... (great to see you Kizzy :))

You swim in the heated pool because it is only 60 degrees...

You watch your baby birds contemplate departure...

And, when it looks like there might be a break, you pop up the pop-up.

And hit the beach...

what could be a more perfect suit for her?

We now call her Maya kissy-face Carver

first sparkler

see, we so aren't making it up! look at that face!

gettting ready for bed

we used to backpack, then car camp with a tent- now we go where there are real bathrooms and you brush your teeth with running water. And now I bow to the pop-up.

"Let me outta here!"

And...our vacation ended with a most wonderful trip to a swanky resort hotel in Bar Harbor thanks to the gracious and loving childcare provided by Matt and Angela. We cannot thank you enough for the precious time and the wonder of moving at our own pace, lounging in a hot tub, sleeping in, drinking champagne and eating cheesecake on an ocean front patio...