Summer days

Well almost right?? We have had such warm weather this past week we have been swimming or out in the sprinkler almost every single day!

Yesterday we spent the day at the beach. We had such a nice time! Those fearless kids of mine caught a giant spider crab in their bucket and asked to keep it as a pet, lol. At least I knew what that one was! The next thing they caught was some horrible creature that made me want to stay out of the water for a while. It was like a foot and a half long, and shaped like a snake, but it had tenticles all over it, and antennas like a bug. In the words of Beth "It's waggly, it's squaggly, and it has one hundred feet!" I tried to look it up online but I can't find anything like it...I'm sure it's some mutant no one has ever seen before, lol. I wish I had gotten a picture, but I wanted to let that thing go IMMEDIATLEY.


When we got home Carrie was apparently wiped out.


And the big kids spent some time outside with their art supplies and playing with their neighborhood friends.

My little boy

Matthew has spent his whole life trailing after his older sister, and now that Carrie is getting older plays with her as well. He is an expert at the Pretty Pretty Princess game, loves playing ponies with Beth, and is always up for a game of dress up.

This spring though I have really noticed him diving into "boy" activities. All of a sudden instead of playing ponies nicely with Beth he is loading them up into his Tonka and crashing them into a tree. He loves cars, trucks, dinosaurs....anything he can run around with. And he can't get enough of being outside. I try to get him out several hours a day because otherwise he'll drive me right up the wall - he's a loud one!




Beth meanwhile is my girly-girl...she loves real animals, stuffed animals, stickers, arts and crafts, anything glittery, etc. She spent her afternoon with her animals in this patch of flowers. And if she had her way she would stick to an all pink all sequined wardrobe I think....we found this little number at a yard sale this weekend, lol.




It's just so funny to me because they've really been raised very similarly. They've always shared a room, had access to the same toys, and gone the same places. And yet now that they are getting older I can really see their differences starting to come out.

Although Matt still hasn't retired his all time favorite Tinkerbell dress.

32 weeks!

This is a new record for me! Beth was born at 31 weeks, Matt at 29 weeks, and Carrie at 27. Following that pattern this little girl could have been VERY early, but instead we are just plugging right along. What can I say? I'm huge! We're looking forward to little to no NICU stay though. I'll trade a few weeks of backaches in exchange for that.


This past week was nice...the warm weather finally returned! We even spent a day outside in the kiddie pool which was fun. Next weekend the pool, lake, and splash park all open up! Big Matt's been swamped at work, so we haven't been seeing him as much as we're used to, but at least he is home at night (most of the time anyway!)

Mystic Seaport

After living only 15 minutes away for over four years, we FINALLY made it to the Mystic Seaport. It's very pricey to get in, which is a big part of what has kept us away this long. We found out that our library has membership cards we could check out and use for one day of free admission though - how cool is that?! And with my parents coming it seemed like the perfect chance to go.

We had a great time! I definitely want to go back - but only when I can get that library pass again! Regular admission is $24 a person - yikes! In any case it was just beautiful, and an interesting educational trip as well. I was surprised that little Matt sat and listened to an entire demonstration on old fashioned printing presses. He just loved that, and it was pretty crazy how much work went into printing in those days. Yay for computers, right?

Beth's favorite thing was going for a ride behind Duke the horse. You can see her here in the pink....and part of Duke too, lol.


Carrie really enjoyed the children's museum they had...it was set up with a ship kitchen, beds, and fishing area - as well as a toddler area with puzzles and books. I had to shoo them out of here after about an hour...they would have stayed all day I think.



We also got to tour several large historical sailing ships, visit old homes, shops, and other buildings, and even play on a nautical themed playground.

I graduated!

I graduated with a degree in Early Childhood Education yesterday. And only eight years after I began too, lol. Not too bad for a mom of four right? It was just a beautiful day...the weather was perfect, I was sitting with my friends, and my husband and parents were just two rows back. I was on the fence about bringing the kids, but in the end I left them all home with my neighbor. Afterwards we picked them back up and enjoyed a nice lunch out. I even graduated with honors, which I didn't realize till I got there and saw it in the program. It feels good to be done! It's been hard trying to take classes in between the military moves and new babies, but I always did enjoy school and I am glad I stuck it out till the end.

Picture Post

I finally found a computer that worked well enough and a camera that worked well enough for me to get some pictures uploaded! Our current spring schedule includes four mornings at home, one morning at library story time, and three afternoons going to gymnastics, swimming, and dance. The kids are up early, and Beth usually is done with school by 9 or 9:30, leaving us with many hours to spend outside, going to the park, or just hanging around the house.

This past week we had fun....

beading


working on math...a Tyson kid favorite!



having crazy hair, lol



blowing bubbles



and enjoying many many ice cream breaks. That's the fringe benefit of having a mommy who is seven months pregnant I guess!

Wow, it's May!

I've been meaning to do a big post for a while, but our computer broke. Matt said it's the motherboard so I guess that is bad news. It's the desktop that broke, so thankfully we do still have a laptop we can use. I haven't figured out how to upload my pictures on this computer yet though, and I don't want the kids using it since Carrie is so rough, so we're really missing the other one. Little Matt woke up yesterday and told me he had had a dream that the computer was working again and he came down and played a computer game all by himself, lol. Poor guy!

Other than our technology issues we are having a great spring. It has been so warm that the kids have been in tank tops and sandals for at least a month....that is so unlike Connecticut! We play outside a lot now which keeps everybody happy. We are also busy with swim, dance, gymnastics, trips to the children's museum, and storytime at the library.

As for me, I graduate from college one week from today! I actually finished in December, but on the 15th I will be doing the whole cap and gown thing. My parents are coming up from North Carolina for that, so we are looking forward to seeing them as well. Then in June I get to continue the celebration when all my student loans come out of deferment, lol.

I'm 30 weeks pregnant now, and Baby Katy is continuing to do well. I'm ridiculously big, but still pretty comfortable overall. My blood pressure has been iffy, so they are keeping and eye on that, and her fluid was also a bit low at my ultrasound yesterday. I want to worry about that - but won't the worrying be bad for my BP? In any case, yay for 30 weeks! My FFN test was negative yesterday so I guess that buys me at least another two weeks. I think she is going to be one big girl!