Catching up

Summer is a busy time! It's hard to keep up, especially when you have big deadlines and kids that don't want to go to sleep because it's not yet dark out, which makes for very short nights and no time for blogging! So, very briefly, here are some of the things we've been up to.

Last weekend we played split squad, because that is what you do when there is too much to do and not enough time. The boys went to a double-header baseball game (they only caught the first four innings of the first game on account of one of the boys needing a nap).



Jack had lots to say about it when he got home. Mostly "ball... and the.. hit... and chase and chase and chase and chase!" Meanwhile, the girls went to a baby shower, at which Sadie had her first taste of watermelon.



She liked it. I think she was almost as big a fan as her brother was of baseball. She sucked and sucked and when I tried to pull it out of her mouth she reached out with an iron grasp and pulled it right back in to suck some more. Sadie turned 5 months old that day, so I felt like I should spoil her a little.

And the previous week, we went down to San Jose to visit the hoards of California family that had congregated to welcome the Minnesota family that is not my parents or sister (the other Minnesota family). Sadie very much enjoyed all the attention she got.



(I think her Uncle Peter kind of likes her. And for her part, she is the first baby this age I have seen that isn't scared of him. She just LAUGHS. She finds him hysterical. Which makes two of them, I guess, so it works out pretty well.)

Jack had lots of fun swimming in Lolo's pool during the San Jose heat wave, running around in Nana's backyard once it had cooled off a bit, letting Uncle Paul "plant corn" on his back (which I can remember him doing to me when I was Jack's age!), and telling Nana stories.



Here is the whole group. Lauren's friend Ashley took about 40 photos for me in rapid succession, in hopes that she might get one of us all looking at the camera. But I think we just got 40 different combinations of people looking and not looking and being giant goofballs, which is what we do best. Making a viable photo from this collection would take a photoshop miracle on the order that only Alison could perform, so I'm just taking the one that best captures the mood of silliness. I kind of like that better anyway.



Oh, I love that family of ours. Why don't all you Minnesota folk move out here already?

Finally (actually there's lots more but I'm out of time and out of steam so it will have to wait, which really means it will have to sit around on my computer collecting cyberdust), I have been meaning to post a video of Jack for quite some time. He has always enjoyed singing, but lately he's become a little performer. Here are some of his finest tunes.

(Click for video)