You'll know me-frizzy hair, and tan front.

Beach Day, Take Two! : )  We had more fun-but this time it was HoT.  The sand was at least a thousand degrees-and our feet were burning.  Whew!  The kids found a big wet pit to play in, rode boogie boards, and we got beach pictures and water ice (think..snow cones but finer ice!).  Here are a few pictures:

Well..Ethan calls it Poop, but Sissy makes piles of wet sand.  This is her Cupcake Creation.  (cherry on top)

He calls this game Statue.  He buries his feet, holds the shovel, and freezes.  Then he digs you a hole, and you have to join him (in freezing!) (or not in the thousand-degree-sand!)

Isn't she sweet?  She's "taking him out"

and then..back in!  Sweethearts.

He seems so grown up!  Boogie boarding like a big boy : )  Will is behind him-they've been out most of the day, and they are so good together!

Ok.  Here is the pit.  They built a HUGE wall, and then it would cess pool inside-and it was so warm!  The boys were under the tutelage of some Dad-figures: "No, use DRY sand!"  "Build up the wall!"  And they kinda listened. : ) 

Smoothing the wall.

This is Will, their second (or is it third?) cousin!

More shoveling-and the Tutelage Dads are in yellow and orange.  (We don't know them, BTW)

Ethan prefers wet sand..you don't have to walk so far.

So..I had the camera, and I kept snapping.  You are lucky I am only choosing a few!  Ha!

Mary Claire pre-pictures, with her pump!  (Hallie is gathering pictures of kids with Diabetes, so I needed one-and it's been a super-long time since I got one-since she was...8?)

Waiting on Miss Heather to meet us..

The end of the photo shoot-Heather getting a few more individuals of Mary Claire since her hair was blowing in the wind down by the water!

The boys.  Now I can see why she wanted us to wear CoLoR!!

See the difference?  Heather's smart.  And boy was she patient!  The kids were tired and kinda crazy.

Afterward, we got shaved ice (like snow cones), and water ice-Very Fine ice.  Yum!  They even had a sugar-free for Mary Claire.  They only had cherry and lemonade to choose from, so she was a little disappointed.

I could tell you my kids were perfect today, but not really.  (I don't like to tell stories.  : /  Wait..I love to tell stories, but not lies.  haha!)  The kids were so tired by the time we went for pictures.  Ethan was crazed, I think, or delirious!  He kept chasing sea gulls and didn't listen so well.  Clay ran down into the water and soaked the bottom of his shorts.  Mary Claire ran low.  We had to give her some sugar tabs to finish pictures, then after the sugar, she was only up to 77.

But I have to give it to Heather-she was so sweet, and never got frustrated with them.  She did group pictures, walking, from behind (my fave!), water on our feet, individuals, the pier, the sand dunes..I think we got it all. : )  I can't wait to see them (two weeks...), I'm sure she did a great job.  The only problem was the pesky wind..and I look awful in the wind.  I need good hair to help me out..and I got this new frizz-free stuff today, and it does NOT work.  I dried, flat-ironed, and velcro-rolled.  I had GooD hair (which doesn't happen that often!) when we left, and perfectly waved hair when we got back.  I just have to accept my wild-beach hair.  It will not conform to my will.  Much like my children.

And another thing...someone needs to invent a beach chair that you can watch your kids from AND get a tan on your back side.  I'm tan front/whitish back.  Hmm..can you work on that?  I'm sure a million happy tanners would pay for your secret! : )

ps-if you were wondering, I wore a dark purple ruffle-y shirt and Ches wore a lavendar/blue button down.  We were not matchy-matchy, but it worked.  I can see why she likes the boys to wear different colors-we had to always keep the boys separated since they were in the same color.  It would've been nice to put Ethan in the middle, but he matched Clay and it was off-center/poorly color-weighted.  If that makes sense. ; )

Ocean City, NJ

Today?  Beach Day!  There were storms threatening, but it turned out to be a great day!

Walking down to the beach-he can't w-a-i-t!  We bought beach toys, then got MORE at Ches' aunt Betty's house!

Clay and his cousin Will found all sorts of crabs (LiVe!), so they stored them in some buckets.  Fun!

They were the easiest to find right as the waves washed out-in the juicy, moist sand.

Ethan?  Loved that green long-handled shovel!

Ok..we were at about crab number 38 by this point, and working on the second bucket.

This is Caroline-Mary Claire's Jersey twin!  They even had swimsuits alike. ; )

By this point-he was exhausted!  He just laid out in the sand.

One more..in the water!

She really liked it when the waves rolled in-she'd stand backwards, then "ride" it in, but this one washed over her head.

All covered up!

Sweeties.  Only all together for a second!

Okay..maybe two. ; )

On the boardwalk..picking out a hermit crab.

Clay's making a deal with the owner.  He only has $16 to spend, so she set him up.  He got the cage, a hermit crab, an extra shell (for when he grows), food, and a sponge.  Not bad. : )

Here's his new tiger-striped hermit crab, "Hercules" (and his spare shell, 88).

Can you imagine living in such a small box??  Me neither!

I learned something about spray-on sunblock today.  It covers exactly where you spray.  There's no broad-range coverage as I must have thought.  I sprayed down both arms, a quick spray on my chest, back, and on the fronts of my legs.  I now have white stripes down my arms (!!), and a big white splotch on my chest.  Super attractive.  Geez, I'm always learning something.

The day was perfect-not too hot.  I bet it didn't top 85, but it was sunny, breezy, and we had great fun with friends, that happen to be related to us!  Ha!  I love catching up-it's been a whole year!  Mary Claire adores Caroline, and they are like Irish cousins-a year apart, and both freckled and sweet.  Mary Claire went over to their beach house and then to the beach to meet us, then we got Caroline and kept her with us till it was time to go back home.  They are so sweet together.  It's a shame we live so far apart!

Clay had fun with the boys-Joseff & Eric-they are a couple years older, and that's probably what he loves!  Joseff took him down to the boardwalk to pay for his hermit crab-we'd spent all our cash on beach tags and pizza for lunch.  I'm so thankful they have sweet cousins to play with-it does make a good vacation! : )


Rita ordered Philly cheesesteaks for dinner, and we had mint chocolate chip ice cream for snack-the kids loved it!  We had a pretty quiet evening (besides the excitement over watching the hermit crab eat and crawl and clickety-clack in the bathtub with his claws).  Ahhh...I think we'll all sleep well tonight!

Hope you had a great day too!  Hugs, ya'll!

Scan This!

Well..we found out the hard way that there was no breakfast in our hotel!  We used some of our points with Marriott for a room last night, and we stayed out of our Residence Inn Comfort Zone (but it was a month-old Courtyard by Marriott-and nice!). . .and had yogurt and grapes from our cooler for breakfast!  Ooops.  They are used to big breakfasts on the road (unlike what momma gives them at home!), so they were disappointed.

We found a nearby church and made it for Mass at eleven.  And it was a small church-when I told the usher five, he said four? And I said five!  He gave me the Whew! Look like, there’s no room for five, lady!  He said we may have to split up (!), but found us a nice pew right up front.  Love that they always save the front for guests. : )  haha!  The biggest surprise?  We were back in our van in 39 minutes!!  What?  Is Pennsylvania church always that fast?  I guess you’d get lots more people in church that way! Ha! : )

Next was the road trip to King of Prussia mall outside Philadelphia.  I couldn’t wait to get in the My Best Fit to get my booty scanned!  They measure you all around (with your clothes on) electronically, and within ten minutes you get a printout of what jeans (and their styles!) will fit you best in what size.  Cool.  I’ve only read about it, and it’s the only place in the United States!  You could say I’m only making this trip for this precious little bit of heinie/hip info, and I wouldn’t deny it (but I wouldn’t admit it either!).

It was great-I got three pages of printouts (two jeans and one for dress pants) with the best fits and to what degree they’ll fit me well (there is a red to green spectrum, and the closer the arrow is to the green, the better they match your body shape).  It wasn’t the best time for me to go test out the data since Ethan was hyper, Clay didn’t want to shop, and Mary Claire only wanted to go to Justice!  I’ll try out the specific sizes next time I shop!  I actually have one of the jean styles and one of the dress pant styles, so I think it’s going to work! : )

Here is the magic scanner.

Ethan thought I'd disappear in there, so he wanted to try it!

...waiting for my printouts...

cha-ching!  Three full color sheets of pants that will FiT!

Here are my jeans printouts.  Don't look too close.  See the arrows along the green/red spectrum?  That's how well they will fit me.

We have spent the majority of the day on the road...along the turnpike in Pennsylvania.  We can tell you all about the bathrooms, amenities, restaurants, etc. in each!  This seemed like a true driving day.

We had dinner after King of Prussia mall, and discovered (aha! moment) that Cinnabon makes Ethan super hyper and naughty.  He’s finally calmed down, but he was nuts for over an hour!  What ever is in there that puts the spell on us...obviously puts a Naughty Hex on him! : P

We’ll be at the beach 8:30 tonight, our earliest hotel arrival yet!  We can’t decide whether to tempt it with a visit to Ches’ aunt Rita, or just get the kids to bed at a decent hour.  We are excited too!

We could write our own Laura Numeroff book:

If you let the kids go see Aunt Rita, they’ll want to just s-e-e the sand.

If they see the sand, they’ll want to play in it!

If they play in the sand, they’ll get dirty and want to get out and stomp on the boardwalk.

If they walk on the boardwalk, they’ll want to go down to the rides.

If they see the rides, they’ll want to ride them!

If they get to ride the rides, they’ll want snacks! (chocolate bacon, cotton candy, pretzels!)

If they have snacks, they’ll be sugared up and wild and want to ride more!

If they ride more, they’ll stay out late.

Once they’re out late, they’ll want to go back and see Aunt Rita to tell her goodnight!

Ahhh..love those kids! : ) 

Cool, huh?  (or not..but we think so!)

Last little bit (since it’s a boring driving day!)... We got our very own E-Z Pass!  We’ve been saying we’d get one...one day, and One Day finally came!  We are the proud owners of a big ‘ole sticky thing on our windshield.  Haha!  Let’s hope and pray it works (so we don’t get ANOTHER ticket from the state of New Jersey for twenty six dollars for that two dollar toll we threw dollars at since there was no toll attendant.  That was NOT fun, and they don’t seem to like all my letters.  They sure don’t write back. : (

Museums and Meetups, oh My!

BeWaRe!

L-o-n-g  P-o-s-t ahead! :o)  Grab an icy drink and get comfy.  (Whew..it is H.O.T. here!!)

We got a late start (are you surprised?).  We got in so late last night, it was a push to get everyone a bath this morning, hair washed, and breakfast.  First up?  One of the best children’s museums-Indianapolis!

 

Can you see the street name? Gorgosaurus...cool.

That was quite a Night at the Museum-they are running away!

It's Bumblebee!! Clay was thrilled to see him..timing the picture with him facing the front however...proved difficult.

Guess what she's made of?   ...Give up?  Jelly beans!

We saw the dinosaurs in the big sight/sound theater (it was really loud-Ethan was a little scared!), lots of skeletons, and a dinosaur dig!  The dig was really good-it was nice, tight, (glued?) pebbles that they had to really pick at to expose bone.  And even after a group came through, it still wasn’t all exposed.  High Marks for the Dig!  Then the train exhibit (boys got a little wild here over all the big trains!), the Treasures Under the Earth, and the Travel to…Egypt!  They had to take turns sitting in the Indy car-too fun! : )

with a big crocodile-looking dino (yep, official name!)

See?  Scary sounds!

Real Polar Bear (well..stuffed!)

Next we went to see the Barbie exhibit-it’s here until August.  It had a nice entry-with a big Barbie desk, phones, lamps, and flowers-and we had to get a picture!  Then we dressed Barbie bodies (kinda like Harumikas!) with fabrics, dressed life-size girl bodies (again, no heads), and next was Barbie play-and real dolls and clothes!  There were Barbies from the past (from the 60’s, even big hair 80’s Barbies!) and present.  There were huge life-size mannequins with elaborate designer dresses.  Designer Barbies, collections of clothes, a massive clear glass (or plexiglass?) chandelier with high-heeled Barbie shoes!  They’d also set up a pink runway complete with dress-up clothes, hairstyling and make up stations, and even flashy cameras for “photographers” (brothers) and a stereo and turntable for dj’s!  More thumbs up : )
 

Almost looks like she has a job!

Did you live in this time like I did?  We totally did this to ourselves.  How gross is that?  (ps-if you still puff your bangs, you m-i-g-h-t want to quit)

Harumika-like dolls

She styled her own Barbie!

...and again.

I never saw this doll for sale.  So...does she deliver the baby that will lay in that crib??

She is styled after this painting-with such detail!  (unlike pregnant Midge ; )

Have you ever seen a flat-footed Barbie?  Me neither!  This one was!  I liked it-she could red pink carpet barefoot...that's Stylin'!

Huge Glass "Fireworks" (four stories tall!)

We had lunch in the big food court-we just ordered an entire pizza-but then the kids weren’t that hungry.  We ended up wasting a third of it! : (  I hate to waste.

Then we split up and Ches took Ethan to the Dora and Diego exhibit!  He liked it, but didn’t stay too long.  I took the big kids to see an amazing exhibit with Ruby Bridges, Anne Frank, and Ryan White.  I loved it the most. :’ )  There was a tree of promises.  (The Best.)  We wrote our promises on notes, and stuck them to the tree.  Then there were computers you could put promises on to be “posted” on the really-real-looking tree.  I didn’t fully “get” it.  I wrote mine (that I promised to love MC no matter what her meter said), and there were loud trumpets, and when I looked up, it was on a computer screen with my name!  I cried too much in that exhibit. : (   The theme all over the area was leaves.  There were quotes on the walls, and I just couldn’t talk much.

First Tree of Promises

Hers?  Be Loving and Kind.

His?  I Promise to Follow the Ten Commandments.

Mine?  I promise to love my daughter no matter what the meter says.

And these are on the screens on the big life-size realistic tree!  ("I will be nice to my brothers.)

Making more promises on the computers...can you see the screens up on the trees?

I promise to be nice.

I will share. (Ethan)

We went into the Ruby Bridges classroom with all her quotes on first grade writing paper-so moving. I can’t believe people I’m related to could be so mean. : (  She was scared to eat her lunch because a lunch lady would yell outside the building every day that she’d poison Ruby’s food.  So Ruby stacked her sandwiches in the cabinets, and poured her milk into the paste jar every day.  Bless her heart.  Ruby (as an adult) had lots of recorded questions and answers on interactive tv screens for kids.  Very moving how the world has changed since then, and she’s so kind.  You can tell there’s no hate in her heart, and she’s really changed lives.

Dr. Coles thought Ruby wasn't eating because she was scared.  (This is the cabinet of supplies...and sandwiches and milk.)

Anne Frank’s city was detailed with quotes and her house and trees out front.  Bless her heart-there is such racism in our world history. : (

Ryan White, the little boy with AIDS, also had lots of medical displays and info on the program named after him for families of HIV Positive and AIDS patients needing access to excellent care.  He was discriminated against just like Ruby Bridges and Anne Frank.  I am praying no one else has to be excluded again.  Including my daughter.  Or my sons for that matter.

We also visited the miniature rooms-like dollhouse rooms, but all spread out in the wall in little recesses, Science Works and Health Works, the water clock, the glass :fireworks:, and of course…the Museum Store and some pictures outside.

She's serving me a healthy balanced meal in the Kitchen. : )

Clay's making me a sandwich.

Looking at the fish underwater!

Cool jumpy dinosaurs for the impatient kids waiting while Mom or Dad are buying tickets or shopping!

Out front on the (mini) Kukulcan Pyramid from Chichen Itza, Mexico

...and the Taj Mahal!

They traveled to the Great Wall of China...

made a short stop at the Great Sphinx of Giza!

jumped over to the Colosseum in Rome...

landed on the Parthenon...

and read Anne Frank's diary.  There is soon to be a Tree of Promises in Amsterdam.

I had to find these bronzes.  I had my picture taken with them in 1998, so I had to visit.  Wish we'd had digital pictures back then!

Then…most exciting?  We drove east two hours to meet Hallie, Jason, and Sweetpea!! : )  We met up at Young’s Dairy-a real working dairy (‘cause we like learning things!) (and they had amazing ice cream!  We got chocolate peanut butter cup, bubble gum, and key lime pie!)  We fed goats and saw: baby goats (Too Cute!), calves, kittens, roosters, and cows.  A real farm!