Are you ready?!

This my friends, is what we call a photo dump. So many things have happened, and I am just way too behind to really remember it all. I figure if I put up these pictures it will at least remind me of the highlights and we can move on from there. Mostly there are pictures of my cute kids, unrelated to anything extremely excited except that my kids are cute. So there you go. Cute kids. You are very welcome!

 

Jimmy took a leadership class, that kept him out until the wee hours of the night on Mondays for 10 weeks. Needless to say we were glad when the class was over. We were invited to the graduation. Jimmy and all the participants gave speeches and we ate food. It was sponsored by Roche Bros, what would an event be without food. Peder came along because this graduation was when he was visiting. Here is a picture of Jimmy and his class. It was special.

More cute kids, all dressed up for mother's day.

This little outfit was made my Karen. It was Jimmy's when he was young. We thought it would be a nice mother's day gift to Karen, and by golly he sure looks adorable. And let me tell you, Karen is pretty darn talented.

This was Sam's smiley face. He has grown out of this a little bit. It is funny none the less.

More cuteness, what can I say?!

For Jimmy's cousin Nicole's wedding we met up with a lot of the visiting family to eat at Kimballs. And yes we got ice cream, but that was only after we got some pretty stellar seafood. It was delicious. Sam was mostly interested in the watermelon. He LOVES watermelon, to the point that he won't eat anything else if he is offered it at the beginning of a meal.

Here is a picture of the crew.

I don't have pictures from the wedding because our camera was dead by this point. But I know Nathan got some great pictures of Lucy and Clara dancing. It was quite memorable I must say. And Nicole's ruby red slippers were fantastic! Hooray for cute married people!

Lucy got some awesome castle blocks from Grandma and Grandpa Coop. Here is one of her castles, before Sam tried to knock it down.

As the summer warmed I decided I would get ourselves a little kiddie pool. When Lucy was little we used a large bucket. I upgraded, for $15, to a kiddie pool. It fits more kiddies. Sam really doesn't go in, he is a little finicky about cold water. But he loves to stand on the outside and play. Lucy couldn't care if there was ice floating in the water. She is such a little fish.

Tangerini's where we get our CSA has an ice cream stand. We got some with our friends. They are our best buddies.

More pool shots!

The previous tenants to our duplex planted some awesome flowers. I wish I knew all the names. Heather knows them. Either way, they have all come in beautifully. It makes up for our lack of garden. We have woodchucks. My pea plants did not survive. I have a pumpkin plant hanging on for dear life, and my tomato plants are in pots out front. We also have some carrots that might do alright, but the soil they are in is very sandy. This was a learning year for us. Let's enjoy some flowers shall we...

A few weeks back I decided to take the kids on a hike. My friend Meg told me about the Ashland state park. We hopped in the car and made our way over there and found a quite lovely set-up. Normally I think it costs money, but we got there just before the season started. There is a rather large lake, with a swimming area and some nice trails. We went on a hike. Lucy's favorite thing was to stop suddenly and yell "stop, listen, what do you hear?" Then she would put her hand OVER her ear and try to hear the birds. It was cute. We talked about tree roots (she stumbled over several of those) and beaver trees. She is one smart cookie, that little girl of mine.

We also put our feet in the water. It felt good.

My kids are starting to read together. It is cute.

Just a week or two ago, my old roommate and mission companion came to visit. She has two adorable boys just about the same ages as Sam and Lucy. We went to the park, had taco salad and played. It was a nice evening.

This was the best picture we could get.

Lucy paints.

 Sam eats.

One of Lucy's favorite parks in the "park next to the school." It has some really fun slides and swings. And Sam loves the sandbox. They have a bunch of trucks that just live in the sandbox.

The daddy-daughter camping trip was supposed to happen near Cape Cod but because Jimmy gets home kind of late and because it was pouring, Jimmy and Lucy set up in the back yard. Lucy was super excited!

They ate sugary treats, played in the tent, and went to bed kind of early (for Jimmy that is). In the end Jimmy brought Lucy inside. Her inability to sleep with other people kept her and Jimmy awake.

Aunt Jojo came to town. We were so excited. She is known as the baby whisperer you know. So I figured she could lull my sometimes grumpy children into a stupor. She was awesome. She is heading to work at a summer camp and then to Colorado to school so we are going to miss seeing her for a while. We are so glad she came to visit. We read books.,ate at Twist and played at the park. She also watched my kids while I went to an interview at Babson college. And by the way, I got the job! I will be working once a week in the fall, helping out with their labs.

I love this picture.

Last weekend we decided to go for a hike. On one of my longs runs I noticed a trail head in some reservation land in Medfield. We found a nice 1+ mile hike and went for it. Lucy did the whole thing.

 At the top we got some pretty nice pictures and could even see Gillette stadium

Lucy only wants me to do braids in her hair. I think is looks so cute, but it makes her look old. Sniff...

Last Monday we took the kids to the Temple for a picnic dinner. Lucy is terrible about looking at the camera, unless, we found out, the camera is on automatic timer. Either way, we got some really interesting pictures.

 Let me in...

Look at how caught up I am. These pictures are from last week.

Lucy started swimming lessons. She loves the water and has no fear of jumping in and dunking. She is however not extremely coordinated. The lessons are helping her tremendously. She is learning to move her arms, kick her legs and blow bubbles. It is very entertaining to watch.

The abundance of our CSA. I really do love it, even if it means we eat a lot of lettuce. We are starting to get some more vegetables, like zucchini and peas. Yum!

Blowing bubbles.

Lucy fights naps almost every day now. This is the result of her not napping, she conked out while I was making dinner.

Here in the lovely state of MA they have what is called Fun Free Fridays. It allows people to go to over 66 museums/parks for free on Fridays. It happens only in the summer and only on Fridays. Every week there is a list of places you can go. Last Friday was the first free Friday. We went to the Franklin Park Zoo with some friends from church. It was CRAZY busy! I think everyone was there! The traffic was gross and the zoo itself was like Disney World. But we saw some awesome animals and Lucy loved being with friends.

My favorite moment occurred at the lion. See below. He is lounging, if you can't tell from the picture. While we were watching Lucy chimed in "Its like Aslan!" I seriously could help but beam a little. Though I can't take any credit. She reads the Chronicles of Narnia with Jimmy. Either was, it was cute.

And on Saturday was this little boy birthday. He is 1! Ahhhhh! He walks, he "talks," and he is whole lot happier than he was a little baby. We love him so very much.

For his birthday weekend we went up to Nelson. Peder was coming back with us, because I took him to the airport this morning.

My parents weren't around on Saturday, but we still partied hard. Jimmy made these grass and dirt cakes, in honor of the things Sam likes to eat. There was also banana pudding in the middle. It was impressive.

We took the cakes up to Grandma and Grandpa Schillemat's house and sang happy birthday. Sam was very unsure.

Eventually it got the hang of it.

 Lucy on the other hand, had no issues eating cake.

 We also visited my great grandma. She turned 103 today! She is amazing. She may not have the memory she once had, but she is quite the conversationalist. We love being able to see her.

Peder photo bombed this picture of Grandma Schillemat with Sam.

After Great Grandma's we took the kids out to eat. Jimmy wanted to try the Keene buffet. He has a thing with buffets. I indulged him. And plus, there were things for the kids to eat. Sam was pretty fixated on the broccoli.

And our last big Nelson adventure was swimming at Center pond. It is hard to leave Nelson in the summer, without doing some sort of swimming. Plus, I figured Lucy needed to practice and show Jimmy what she had learned. The water was brisk, but really quite nice once you got in. Sam had a blast.

We finished the weekend by going to Church, attending an ice cream social, and then driving back to go ol' Millis. Peder left this morning by airplane. He is headed to BYU country.

Life has been eventful. That is for sure.