Best Friends Forever

     When Kaila began Pre-K, 5 years ago, she met Katelyn. The two of them became fast friends, and have inseperable since. We didn't know Katelyn's parents very well, but, over time, they became good friends of ours, too. Many a happy hour has been spent with Brandy and Shane, Katelyn's parents. And Kate has been with us for just about everything. Last year, the school decided the girls were TOO close, and decided to put them in seperate classrooms for third grade. They were heartbroken. But, not even the school could seperate our girls. They were still together almost constantly, any time they could manage, both in school and out.

     Imagine my horror, when, one day at the playground with our combined 8 kids, and 3 spares (IMAGINE the looks people sent us, as we trotted 11 children down Main street!!!) Brandy announced they were moving to Michigan. WHAT??? Shane, it seems, was accepted into law school there, to get his Doctorate in Law. Oh. Well. What do you say? "NOOOOO YOU CAN'T TAKE KATELYN AWAY FROM US!!!!!" Just didn't seem they needed response at the time. They will be leaving in two weeks. :( So, I dug through all my photos, and had a bunch of them printed. Then I made a shadow box collage of them, one for each girl. Here are a few of the pictures from through the years. Someone asked who was going to be sadder at this seperation; the girls or the parents. I have to admit, I teared up, when going through these pictures!

Aren't they just so darn sweet? We are going to miss that whole family so much! We are hoping Shane is a fast learner, and they come back as soon as possible!!!!

6 MONTHS!!!!

George is 6 months old already! And, with the general rush everything was, through pregnancy, birth, and the first 5 months of life - he's an amazingly calm baby! For being 3 weeks early, he was a huge baby at birth, and has continued to be a big guy. He is actually the same size as the one year old of a friend of ours. She says he is too big, I say her kid is too small :) The other day, the girls and I decided to play doctor's office, and we weighed and measured him, and found where he is on the growth charts. Here we go!

Weight; 19.2 lb. 71%
Length;  27.25 in. 62%
Head;    17.5 in   69%

Not too bad! :) This happy guy loves to go everywhere, be it by stroller or car seat. He loves bottles, tolorates baby food - barely. He loves his exercise bouncer, and teething toys. He really loves his big brother and sisters. He loves to be  sang to, and looking at his reflexion in the porch windows, when we sit outside (thus our rendition of "How much is that baby in the window"). He loves to be rocked and he loves to bounce! We bounce a lot. He has slept through the night since he was about 6 or 7 weeks old. He is usually up for 2 hours, down for 2 hours throughout the day. All in all, I have to say, he is the easiest baby I have had overall.

A trip to Wal Mart

     Before you could understand why a trip to Wal Mart could be so exciting, (and the thoughts that we are indeed, Larry the Cable Guy's muse) you need to see the first few pictures...

    

     Below, you will see the product of Lexi and the little girl from down the street's current thoughts on boys. Joe looked at it, filled up his pump-up water gun, and sprayed it off. Thus illustrating the reason for the general thoughts on the male species.

I happen to think boys are wonderful though! What would I do, without their ingenuity and repair abilities? Below, Joe evidently could no longer deal with the broken end of a board on the front porch that happened recently. So, he dug through Jasin's fix-it stuff untill he found the duct tape, and fixed it for me. No one anywhere understood why I thought it was adorable, yet funny. Hello!!!!! What the heck did I expect him to fix it with??? Duh.

So, today, it was decided maybe the kids needed some time away from country life, and each other's sole company... I needed diapers for the baby, and Jasin and Joe needed haircuts. Off to Olean we headed, to Wal Mart. (Where, yes, you can even get haircuts, wedding cakes, lawnmowers, bridal bouquets, laptops, milk, bread, roasted chicken, portaits taken, buy fishing licenses, get your oil changed, and do your banking, all in one handy dandy stop...) On the way to Wal Mart, I heard a commercial on the radio for a hot air ballon festival going on. When Jasin asked where in particular, I said I had missed the exact town, but, it was "that way" somewhere, and pointed vaguly to the left, headed east-ish. It would be fun!!!

So, armed with haircuts, tootsi pops and liqorice, we were off. A friend of mine happened to have better directions than "That way" and we found it. To be told the balloons didn't take off for another 3 hours, at least. Oh no. It was miserably hot, we didn't have the stroller, sun block, or a hat for the baby. However, around the corner, an entire street had been blocked off, with assorted vendors, and we wandered around, and even found a hat for George. This was nice, but it was still too hot. So, we decided to leave.

On the way home, we saw this really neat step down water fall. So, we stopped to check it out.

The kids thought it was wonderful, but Lexi really thought it was great! The kids and I managed to climb right up onto it. SO much fun!!

Joe didn't really like it. He felt safer on the shore. Kaila wasn't really into it, either, but, because Lexi was there, she felt she should be too.

After playing in the water, it was jsut about time for the balloons to launch. So, back we went, considerably cooler. After finding parking, and hiking quite a distance, we waited for about an hour, before it was cancelled, due to increasing winds, and incoming storms. We watched the lighting, as we hustled the kids back where we had parked. It was sort of disapointing, but, we had a fun day anyway.

Shortly after we left, the skies opened, and the storm was on top of us. It ended, however, with a rainbow, which Jasin obligingly pulled over for, so I could take more pictures. :)

And, my adorable little man! Seriously, this baby is so sweet and good natured! He travels so well, and is cheerful almost always. He just rolls with whatever we do, and is usually happy about it. He was perfectly content being carried all over the place today. He spent a lot of time peeking over wither Jasin's or My shoulder, smiling and cooing at people behind us. They were all completely charmed by it!

All in all, it was a good day. And, when all was said and done, the origional mission was accomplished;  Diapers and haircuts, all in one convienient stop ;)

Odds N Ends

Hmmm. The Blog people re-did the Blog set up. Makes my planned 10 minute post a 45 minute adventure. Ah well.

Summer so far has been just a mish-mash of day to day stuff. On the weekends we try and throw in something fun, to get the kids and me off of First Avenue! It's been quite the different experience, going from a mega-busy schedule of job, school, clinical and always being around people to - nothing. My house is spotless. So, occassionally, I need to get out!

Last weekend, I took the kids to the Science Museum in Buffalo. We always have a good time. Right now they have a robotic dinosaur display, so took a look while we were there.






This is what I am SUPPOSED to be doing! Glad George is at least trying to keep up with the studying :) I am awaiting authorization from New York State, to take my State Board test, and get my license. It's the scariest thing ever, wishing to get it over with; positive I'm going to fail... I was strait honor roll all the way through, but, I am not so sure about this test!




Below, Joe with Onsa, the girl he plans to marry. She was invited to come over on his birthday. He insisted I make her a goody bag, and everything had to be PERFECT for her. His birthday dawns, and he wakes up to a new bike, and -  vomit. The poor kid was sick. Then it rained most of the day, and, worst of all, Onsa's Mom forgot about it, so, there was no Onsa. I felt TERRIBLE for my poor kid. However, a few days later, Joe asked if he could take Onsa her goody bag anyway, and rode his bike around the corner to her house. Her family was having a party, and they invitited him to stay and play. They felt awful about forgetting his birthday. So, alls well that ends well!





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If you take a good look below, you will see Lexi had been playing with George's hair. A nice little DA for my kid...





And, I am determined to capture a picture of George smiling. He is the happiest, sweetest, most good natured baby ever. Point a camera at the child, and he just scowls. Nice. So, below, is an almost smile :)






Recently, we took the kids to a local park to play in this wonderful water sprinkler there. They were all lying on beach towels, and I managed to get this picture. It's rare, actually, that I manage to get them all in the same shot. Harder still, since my camera isn't working. All these were taken with my phone.








Last week, we had insanely hot and humid weather. It was miserable. Give me winter any day! Or, at least fall. But, we made the best of it. The kids drank lots of pink lemonade and lots of water, and I took them swimming daily. They had a lot of fun with it.

















See? It was awful.



And, babies need to stay cool, too! Below, George gets his first popcicle. He thought it was the best thing in the whole entire world.



That pretty much sums up our days till now. There have been lots of BBQ's and cook outs and bonfires. We had my Graduation party, and a 4th of July party, but, unfortunately, I didn't take any pictures at either party. 
Part of me can't wait to go to work and be a nurse, but, I am so happy I also get this rare opportunity to spend so much time with the kids. Sadly, I probably won't have this chance again.