James and Lilli's Blog

On the move (part 2)

2012-02-08T21:45:00.001-08:00

Well, it's our last night in Australia! We honored the occasion by watching one of our DVDs and going to bed early. I know, I know, not very exciting. But we've been pretty busy, and we have a long couple of days ahead of us!

The last Tuesday we were in Sydney, Dad finally got a chance to surf some waves. He caught the sunrise on an early ferry trip to Manly Beach

And then joined the line-up in the water.

Despite a small board, he said he had a lot of fun!

On Wednesday, Lil departed. Before she left, we got to do our calendar

And then Lilli read her a story while we waited for the taxi.

We were very sad to see her go, so to get our minds off of that, we embarked on an exciting (nail biting?) road trip with Mom at the wheel on the left side of the road! Getting out of Sydney was, well, interesting, but we made it. We stopped for lunch in Wollongong, but heavy rains and an odd upset stomach that struck me in the middle of the cafe conspired to keep us from exploring there any more. I recovered relatively quickly, though, so we did get to stop in Kiama to see the blowhole!

It was awesome.

Mom went there with some friends when she was here in college, and we have a picture of it hanging in our house in FL. And now we all have experienced it first-hand!

We hit the road for a couple more hours after Kiama before arriving at our first cabin by the beach in Bateman's Bay.

The weather was chilly and rainy, but James and I were happy to play in the sand.

The next day, we drove a few hours more down the coast to a beautiful spot at Cape Conran.

It rained the entire way, but if we'd known how nice it was going to be, then we would have hurried down even faster! The beach was beautiful,

Especially at sunset.

And we loved our little cabin.

On Friday, it was time to make our way to the Melbourne area. We actually stayed in the city of Geelong, on the western side of Port Phillip Bay. Our friend Craig, who visited Mom and Dad's marine lab last February, lives in Geelong with his family, and they were wonderful hosts! We especially loved playing with his daughter, Kiara.

They introduced us to their wonderful friends who shared their baby chickens,

Their home-brewed beer (and funny hats),

Their home-made pizza (that rivals Dad's),

And the paint to decorate their wood-fired oven.

We spent the weekend with them, having a blast!

Mom had to work for most of the week, so we hung out with Dad, with trips to the park up the street,

And lots of time playing with Kiara.

James and I cried and cried on our last night (Thursday) in Geelong, telling Mom over and over that we didn't want to leave Australia. I'd say we've found a life-long friend!

Friday was an all-day road trip to rival one of our trips to NC. We finally made it to the marine lab just after dark, ate some dinner, and went to bed. Today was much better - we played for several hours at the cove next to the lab. (Pictures to come later.) And then we had some errands to run in town, culminating with our final bus ride in Sydney.

It's been fun to be back in Sydney for a day, but now it's time to come home! Next post with be from Florida...

Love,
Lilli

PS - Here James and I are showing off the cicadas that we found near our place in Sydney...

On the move

2012-02-07T02:43:00.000-08:00

We left Sydney last Wednesday and have since been on the go, largely without much access to the Internet. We're having fun though! We hope to update you with stories and pictures before our departure on Sunday. (Can 6 weeks really have passed already??)

Love
Lilli

Happy Australia Day!

2012-01-30T17:25:00.000-08:00

Last week was a special one here - we got to celebrate Australia Day! It's a holiday to mark the arrival of Capt. Arthur Phillip and the First Fleet to Sydney Harbor in 1788. Because it occurs in the middle of summer, it feels a lot like our 4th of July - lots of barbecues, trips to the beach, flags, and fireworks. We celebrated by going to the beach!

We started at Bronte Beach, where there were lots of public grills going and a fun playground for us.

We then grabbed a bite to eat at a local cafe

Before heading on the cliffwalk to Bondi Beach. It was beautiful!

After what seemed like days of rain, the clouds parted and we actually got a little bit hot.

Bondi was fun - the water was chilly, but that didn't stop us from going in!

When the shivers took over, we came back on shore and built a sand castle.

Lil helped us join in the festivities by getting everyone our very own Australian flag hat!

Pretty spiffy.

All was wonderful until we boarded the bus to go to the train station - and then our bus broke down! We marched and marched, but the train station was farther away than my legs could go, so we waited for another bus and finally made it to the train station and then home. When we arrived, we found our friend Susan waiting for us! She was in town for a meeting and we had a wonderful time catching up with her over some delicious food that Dad cooked up.

We caught our breath on Friday while Mom and Dad worked,

And then it was back to the beach on Saturday! This time we took the ferry to Manly Beach.

A very pretty ride, and a beautiful beach!

A little windy, so we spent a lot of time burying ourselves (with Dad's help) in the sand.

After I finally wore myself out jumping over waves, we decided to get a late lunch

And then head home again. Lil read us our final chapters in Charlie and the Chocolate Factory - man, I sure do love Roald Dahl!!

On Sunday, we loaded up on the train to go to Wollongong, where Mom went to "uni" (aka, university) for a semester a long time ago. She met a wonderful family when she was here last, the Owens, and they invited us for a barbecue at their house.

I was thrilled to see (a) a basketball goal and (b) a boy my age to play with!

The grown-ups relaxed and chatted while Cooper, Lilli, and I played and played. (And ate and ate!) It was a wonderful afternoon, and Lilli and I both cried when Mom told us it was time to catch our train back home.

This week we're gearing up for a big change - Lil goes home on Wednesday, and we begin our travels to Melbourne! Lilli and I are going to have to teach Mom and Dad how to do all the fun activities we do each day, like calendar

Trips to the park,

Visits with our friends,

And lots of walking.

(We know they'll try, but they just don't do quite as good a job as Lil!)

Thank you for sharing our adventure with us, Lil! We will miss you!!

Love,
James

Trains, ferries, and buses!

2012-01-22T16:40:00.001-08:00

We just finished a 3-day whirlwind! Perhaps the most consecutive days for me without even attempting a nap. We were having too much fun!

It started on Friday, with a trip (on the bus!) to the Powerhouse Museum with Lil. We learned all about the Wiggles!

The museum is very close to Mom and Dad's university, so Mom met us for lunch and we went shopping at the famous Paddy's Market. James and I weren't too interested in the shopping, but we hung in there pretty well! We stopped by uni to see Dad, and then made the return bus trip home with Lil. And never even a thought of a nap!

On Saturday, we started off with a delicious breakfast at our favorite local cafe, and then on to the ferry to the zoo.

The skies were looking pretty gray, but the forecast called for little rain, so we continued on our way. Turns out the weather forecasters here aren't very good!

Thankfully, the zoo had some awesome ponchos on sale to keep us moderately dry.

Even the poor koala was huddled up against the rain!

We soldiered on, and eventually the rains let up a bit.

We saw lots of cool animals! A seal show

Kangaroos

Wallabies

Echidnas

Giraffes

Chimpanzees (Mom and Dad were disappointed there weren't any bonobos after finishing a couple of books about those cousins of chimps)

And a giant platypus!

Just kidding - the real platypus was hiding, so we made do with the statue.

Another napless (and fun!) day.

Sunday it was time for our biggest excursion yet - a train ride to the Blue Mountains!

They were so beautiful. We stopped at Wentworth Falls and first had to fuel up with a yummy lunch, then checked in with Coach (on the iPad) to fill him in on our exploits,

Then headed down the trail to truly explore.

We found waterfalls,

Beautiful views,

And lots of flowers and leaves for me to examine (but not pick).

We made our way back UP the trail (with Lilli on Dad's shoulders) and then back past all the beautiful flowers and gardens

to the train. Our next stop was Katoomba - home of the Three Sisters.

Aren't they cool? We did another short hike, got the grown-ups a beverage, and then boarded the train for the 2 hour trip back home. We were all a little worn out,

so Mom amused us with games and pictures on the iPad.

We made it home just in time for dinner, bath, and bed. I barely made it through our nighttime stories! (We're reading Charlie and the Chocolate Factory - it's so fun to listen to, at least when I'm not exhausted!)

Other things to note from this week - we found a great local pizza place! Well, it's actually the pub down the street, but they do have a pizza special on Tuesday nights, and we can't wait until Australia pizza night again tomorrow. We also spent the week practicing our numbers with these cool Wicky Sticks that Lil got us.

They stick to everything, and are even good for opening jars of spaghetti sauce that are stuck!

We'll be busy this week on our last full week with Lil here. Thursday is Australia Day (kind of like the 4th of July), so we're planning a big celebration!

Love,
Lilli

Hairy Maclary

2012-01-17T15:58:00.000-08:00

Ok, if you don't know who Hairy Maclary is (and you're a kid), then go get one of Lynley Dodd's books about him! We went to see his show on Sunday at the Sydney Opera House, and it was so much fun!

Uncle Parks and Aunt Lexi gave us a Hairy Maclary book for Christmas, so we already knew we were in for a treat. Lil helped us get amped up by reading us a few stories before we left.

Then we got to do an art project to bide the time before the show.

No pictures of the show itself, but Lilli and I both absolutely loved it.

But wait - I should back up a bit. When Lilli last checked in, we were going to the aquarium. We took our first bus ride to get there!

My main goal was to see sharks, and we did!

(Mom and Dad are just hopeful those are the only ones they see on this trip.)

There were also some really cool Lego sculptures throughout the aquarium.

Lil kept us entertained during the week with trips to the pool across the street,

And with rides on a scooter that we found on our back deck.

We also investigated the fish pools near our condo

And went to the library to listen to story time (the book was about a cat - so we made cat ears, too!).

By Friday, Mom was jealous of all the fun we were having, so she accompanied us on our adventure to the Australia Museum downtown.

They had a dinosaur exhibit!

Mom had to leave once we got there to go do work, but we had a blast exploring the exhibits with Lil.

We of course needed a snack after all that excitement.

The weekend was filled with lots of eating, first at a pub a few blocks from our house on Friday night,

Then at my favorite burger joint on Saturday for lunch,

Then on to Mom and Dad's collaborator's house on Saturday for a barbecue (i.e., a cookout).

We were thrilled to play with his daughter Millie and see some fireworks!

We're off to a fun start this week too, but I'll wait and let Lilli fill you in on that later.

Love,
James

A week of festivities

2012-01-07T18:33:00.000-08:00

Note: This post was written on Sunday, but just posted today...

G'day! Another update from our adventure in Sydney. We spent the week checking out more playgrounds near our house (there are lots!)

Playing inside (and drawing),

Investigating our surroundings (that's our condos behind us)

Walking A LOT,

And enjoying the scenic views.

Oh, and eating ice cream!

It seems to be an Australian pasttime, and James and I are only too happy to participate in that one.

Yesterday we took our first ferry trip

And headed to the Botanical Gardens. They were great! Lots of places to run, climb trees,

And they also had flying foxes! Yes, you heard that correctly - like giant bats, but foxes!

Wow.

We walked every path in the Botanical Gardens at least once

Had a picnic lunch

Got our requisite ice cream

and then headed to Hyde Park for the start of the Sydney Festival. Our first open air concert!

We loved it. James and I even headed up to the stage to dance and hang out with all the other kids.

We ferried back home and CRASHED. Hard.

We're still a little groggy today, but we rallied for a yummy brunch in town, and then we're headed to the Sydney Aquarium this afternoon.

Love,
Lilli

Happy New Year from Oz!

2012-01-03T02:13:00.000-08:00

We made it to Sydney!!!

What a trip. We left home by 8am Saturday morning, bound for Moultrie. Coach and Dad figured out how to fit all of our stuff in the Suburban, and then we piled in too.

(Notice that Mom has gone for a very short hairdo, which Lilli and I think is a bit strange, but it's growing on us.)

Coach delivered us to the Atlanta airport with perfect timing.

Then we boarded a flight for LA, and improbably (or probably, if you know us well), we slept very little, making us just a bit worse for the wear for our 2 hour layover.

But that was just the beginning! What followed was 14 (!!) hours on a plane, filled with some sleep, lots of in-flight movies, and thankfully no photo documentation so that at some point, we can all just forget that it ever happened.

We arrived in Sydney at 8am Monday morning local time, having skipped New Year's Day entirely (or more accurately, somewhere over the Pacific Ocean). Monday was a blur of finding our house, getting our bearings, and trying to stay awake until a reasonable hour.

Today was much nicer - we were all reasonably rested and enjoyed exploring our surroundings. We're in a great condo, complete with a pool just across from our unit! We also found a park just down the street today,

and there's at least one more nearby that we'll check out this week. Mom and Dad go to work tomorrow, but thankfully we get to hang out with Lil and continue our explorations of the neighborhood! It's very beautiful, with lots of interesting flora

And awesome views of the water from our house and the neighborhood.

We are planning to explore Sydney more broadly this weekend, and we'll update you as to our adventures then!

We hope your start to 2012 has been as exciting an adventure as ours!

Love,
James

Merry Christmas!

2011-12-27T17:32:00.000-08:00

After getting back from NC last week, we've been going non-stop! First we had to cut down and decorate our Christmas tree,

And then the presents began to accumulate underneath.

I got a really bad cold early in the week, so almost all of our pictures show me in some stage of wiping my nose. Ugh. It's the cold that just won't go away!

Anyway, on Saturday we continued our Christmas Eve tradition (going on 3 years now) of meeting Coach and Lil in Apalachicola for lunch. It was so fun, and yummy!

After a late nap, it was time to get ready for Santa by watching Sesame Street Christmas and reading The Grinch!

After we were in bed, Mom and Dad celebrated with some treats from Uncle Parks and Aunt Lexi.

Santa snapped these pictures just before leaving.

Bright and early, we woke up to see what Santa delivered!

Not long after (but not soon enough for us!), Lil and Coach arrived, towing the trailer and our brand new full-size basketball goal behind them. Unbelievably, we didn't get a picture, but that's probably because we've all been so busy playing!

Then it was finally time to go through our stockings,

and open presents.

James and I played with all our loot while the grown-ups cleaned up, and then we relocated to the Big House to do it all over again!

Actually, the number of presents was manageable this year (probably because we opened half of them in NC last week), and we loved all of our gifts. We now have tons of Playmobil to entertain us,

and entertain us it did! In fact, when you combine the Playmobil toys with our new house (and a few forays outside to play basketball), and we are very nearly in heaven.

It was pretty cloudy the whole time we were at the Big House, but we ventured down the drive and took a run/walk on the new bike trail yesterday afternoon, and then read some books,

Before coming home last night.

Now it's time to figure out how much of our new stuff will fit in our suitcases when we depart on Saturday...

Next post will be from Down Under!

Love,
Lilli

Holiday travels (update)

2011-12-20T18:45:00.000-08:00

What a fun week we've had! We left last Tuesday for the long trip to NC and were so happy to see Grandma when we got there. Lilli and I discussed several times during the drive how we wished all our family lived in our neighborhood! As soon as we got there, we got to open a few presents.

Fun!

Mom and Dad took off the next morning for a work meeting, leaving us to be spoiled rotten. We haven't even given them the full report on what all we did yet - I keep teasing them by saying 'what happens with Grandma stays with Grandma'. Hmm...

On Friday, Grandma drove us to Chapel Hill to meet Mom and Dad at their hotel. Here we are running around in the lawn off the patio, probably ruining the grass that was just seeded there.

Jon and GG joined us there for a little while, and then we headed to a house full of kids for dinner.

(Actually, the house belonged to Jon's brother, who is a friend of Mom and Dad's from college, but all that Lilli and I registered was that there were tons of older kids, and they had Star Wars storm trooper helmets and light sabers to play with!)

We stayed up too late that night, making us a bit groggy and grumpy the next morning. Thank goodness Mama Jennie came to meet us for breakfast and brighten our day.

After breakfast, we loaded up to head to Uncle Parks and Aunt Lexi's house, where we were able to meet Audrey and see Sophia!

Ace and Aunt Julia joined us too - we always love seeing them! It was Aunt Lexi's birthday, so we celebrated with candles and singing.

After watching the UNC basketball game on TV, we headed to bed to catch up on some much-needed rest. On Sunday, it was Santa time! We made a special trip to Pinehurst to join some friends of Uncle Parks and Aunt Lexi's for brunch, and Santa made an appearance!

Lilli and I are pretty relaxed around The Man now, but Sophia was more skeptical.

She finally agreed to stand by him, though not too close!

We all decided it was more fun to gang up on Uncle Parks with the teddy bears that Santa gave us.

We returned home and took brief naps before starting the festivities again - present time!

Man, we've gotten such great look, and Santa hasn't even come yet! The only bummer was that I didn't get sufficient time playing flag football with Uncle Parks on Monday before we had to load up to drive home. I was so sad that I remained silent for nearly the first 2 hours of the trip! (I finally realized that Mom and Dad were maybe enjoying the quiet, so I broke my silence to let them know just how sad and angry I was.)

We made it home without incident, and we've been busy trying to settle back in to a routine and get ready for Christmas. We finally got our tree today! We'll decorate tomorrow night (with a full 3 days to spare!).

We'll be sure to check in before leaving for Sydney on the 31st - after that, we may be off of our usual routine for a while. But we'll at least post some pictures to show you what life is like Down Under!

Love,
James

Holiday travels

2011-12-18T16:13:00.000-08:00

We're still in NC, and we're too busy opening presents, playing with cousins, and generally having a wonderful time to fill you in on all the details. That will have to wait until we get home. Until then, thanks to Grandma for taking such great care of us this week!

Love,
Lilli and James

Santa!

2011-12-11T17:24:00.000-08:00

James and I met Santa at school on Monday! But first we had to get our lists ready.

Mom came to document our first live Santa experience. We had a great time! No fear at all. He was a little confused by my request for a baby that is "dead", so I had to explain that I just don't want her to talk or sing.

He promised James that he'd get the basketball goal on his list - I hope he's right!

This weekend, we continued the Christmas preparations by helping Lil and Coach decorate their tree at the Big House. First we had to get it inside and cut the netting off

(In fireman suits, of course.)

Then James and Lil worked on the lights

while I tried some hot chocolate. Yum!

Then we got busy adding the ornaments.

It looks pretty darn good, even if I do say so myself!

We especially liked hanging the new ornaments that JuJu gave us for Christmas (but we brought them home today so that ultimately the can go on our tree). Thanks, JuJu!

It was a pretty cold and windy weekend -

Perfect for getting comfortable inside (an art that Amos has perfected),

Decorating the tree, playing with toys,

And making cookies! Mom was thrilled, because not only did Lil teach us really well (minus that eating raw dough episode),

but she also let us bring some home to have on hand for Santa on Christmas Eve! (One less thing on Mom's list!)

As a testament to how much fun we had this weekend, we both napped for 2+ hours when we got home! (It was James's first nap in months.) When we woke, Mom hurried us outside to decorate our outside tree with the macaroni and cranberry/popcorn strands we made this week before it got dark. We did it so quickly that we didn't even get a picture!

This week we head on a NC excursion so that Mom and Dad can do a little work and we can visit with lots of family. Only 2 weeks to go until Christmas!

Love,
Lilli

It's beginning to look a lot like Christmas!

2011-12-04T11:35:00.000-08:00

Well, not at our house exactly (something about Mom wanting to clean before bringing out all the decorations??), but definitely around the neighborhood, and especially at school! Santa is even coming by our school tomorrow, so stay tuned for pictures of that. (It will be our first in-person Santa experience, so Mom is going to be present to see how it goes.)

We did at least go and pick out our tree today, though we didn't bring it home.

True to past Hughes family tree-selecting expeditions, everyone seemed to have a different idea of the perfect tree.

(That's Lilli with her choice.)

But, in keeping with those same traditions, the final say went to.... Mom!

It's not the biggest tree ever, but it beats the ones we've had in past years. Lilli and I can't wait to go back and get it soon.

Otherwise, it's been a pretty relaxing (and picture free) weekend at our house. We watched UNC (basketball) and then UGA (football) lose yesterday - Mom and Dad tried to turn it into a lesson for me about not switching teams just because they don't win. (I'm not sure about that - I still say I'm an LSU fan now!)

Lilli and I have been playing basketball, doing tons of puzzles, and also drawing lots of Christmas-themed pictures.

(Well, Lilli has mostly been practicing her name - she's getting pretty good!)

And, of course, we talk a LOT about whether Santa is watching us, and whether we're being good enough. Surprisingly little of this discussion is devoted to what we actually want him to bring us, but that is bound to change soon. (If past history is any guide, I'll wait until Christmas Eve to proclaim my greatest wish!)

We'll try to take more pictures this week...

Love,
James

Lots to be thankful for

2011-11-27T17:19:00.000-08:00

Happy Thanksgiving!! We have had a lot to be happy about over the holiday. It all started with a wonderful visit with family on Thanksgiving day.

Despite the fact that they only live an hour or so away, we hardly ever see Skeeter, Margaret, Charlton, Aunt Martha, Bud, Glenda, Brother, Sarah, Jason, and Thomas, and it's really too bad because they're so much fun! (And on this visit we got to meet Skeeter's parents, who we immediately adopted as part of the clan!) Mom and Aunt Martha were even sporting matching boots.

James helped prepare some of the yummy food by adding the marshmellows to the sweet potato casserole,

But really the day was all about playing outside. There was a swing set and treehouse that James and I proudly climbed into countless times.

We also played with Thomas, fed the horses,

And then we got into some serious fun. 4-wheeler rides,

(Ok, so I'm just sitting on a parked 4-wheeler, but I did end up going for a ride!)

Followed by tractor driving (note: not tractor riding),

And finally riding on a pony!

James has already informed Mom that we want to come back here every Thanksgiving. (No offense to those of you that we've spent Thanksgiving with previously, but you really can't beat the tractor / 4-wheeler / pony triumvirate!)

Mom and Dad stood no chance of duplicating the fun of Thanksgiving day, so they simply tried to keep us busy. We played lots of basketball in the driveway and took an excursion to a different playground each day. Yesterday, the one the found (that was much smaller than they remembered) was pretty puny.

But James, ever the diplomat, announced (verbatim) "In fact, I like small parks, since there's usually fewer kids here to share with." Nice try putting a positive spin on that one!

Today we returned to a park that we know and like, where I perfected the art of sliding down the pole (finally!).

I'm very proud.

I hope your Thanksgiving was as wonderful as ours!

Love,
Lilli

Birthday hangover

2011-11-20T16:26:00.000-08:00

After all the excitement of lots of birthdays the last few weeks (and even some this week!), we finally came down from our cloud. Lilli and I had our annual check-ups with the doctor on Monday, and after learning that we were pictures of health, Lilli came down with a raging fever (literally within a few hours of leaving the doctor) that lasted until Friday! Yikes.

Lilli's illness didn't stop us from celebrating Dad's birthday on Wednesday (though it did make us cancel our planned dinner out in favor of a quieter evening at home) with presents and yummy chocolate cake!

Lilli started feeling a little better late on Friday and seemed healthy by Saturday, so she and Mom and I travelled to the Big House to visit with Coach.

It was a breezy day (can you tell from my hair?), but we had fun checking out Mom's new experiment, eating lunch at the Raw Bar, admiring Coach's new barn, and taking a super fun ride on the Gator.

So that Dad wouldn't be too lonely, we came on home last night, and then spent most of today working in the yard and playing at home. We're all hopeful to have a healthy week this week!

Love,
James

PS - Welcome to baby Audrey! We can't wait to meet you!

I'm 3!!!

2011-11-12T17:11:00.000-08:00

We've embarked on a week of birthdays (mine, new baby Hughes, Coach's, Dad's, and Grandma's, all in the same week!)! We kicked it off with the best one - mine. I'm now 3 years old!

Mom got home on Wednesday night, just in time for my birthday on Thursday. She already planned to get off work early to come pick me up from school for my birthday, but then on Thursday morning we got a call saying that some kids at school had little bugs in their hair. So Mom spent the whole day with James and me!

I started out the day opening up my present from James.

A new pink blanket that is big enough to cover me up! I love it. (Though, of course, nothing can take the place of my night-night.)

James got a sympathy present of some new clothes, but he wasn't too impressed.

We got along really well all day, even working together on a puzzle - one of James's favorite new tasks.

We also rode our bikes - in full princess get-up for me! (Or whatever you call the outfit that I have on.)

Dad came home early from work and we had a special birthday dinner with Lil and Coach in Tallahassee.

More presents! I got an awesome playhouse,

And James and I have been entertained ever since.

I got one of the best birthday presents on Friday - Grandma came to visit!! James and I were so excited to see her. I was even more excited when she gave me my princess treasure chest, full of lots of different dresses!

I am very fancy now.

James was really good at helping me open my presents, though the wrapping on the one from Sophia nearly stumped him.

How excited we were when we finally got it open and found the cash register inside!

We had to space the presents out a bit, so we opened up the last of them this morning. I got an awesome new tea set from Mama Jennie,

Hopscotch from Grandma, and a Fancy Nancy game from Noah!

Wow, birthdays are better than Christmas around here!

Today it was time for my party. We had a great time playing outside with Grandma and Dad

And eating snacks.

Then it was on to parfaits and fancy cupcakes (thanks, Lil!).

The no-see-um's chased us inside, where we played with our party hats, feather boas, balloons, and sparkly bow ties.

What a fun party! Thanks to Grandma and Coach for coming.

Now we are waiting for good news from Uncle Parks and Aunt Lexi that our new cousin has been born. She's not come yet, but hopefully we'll be able to update you soon!

Love,
Lilli

Halloween re-cap

2011-11-06T06:21:00.000-08:00

Not much to tell from this week, other than Halloween, of course! We ate an early dinner on Monday and got all decked out to go trick-or-treating in the neighborhood.

Dad was a great wagon chauffeur!

Once we got close to the action, James decided to hop out.

We were both really excited, but lost our nerve when it came time to actually approach a house, so Dad helped us out.

Even though we didn't stop at many houses, we got loads of candy!

We also got to check out lots of other kids' costumes (including at least 1 other spiderman).

After we hit most of the houses in the neighborhood and Mom and Dad determined we had more than our share of candy, we headed home. I had to make a brief pit stop because I couldn't make it all the way home to the bathroom!

(What? It's a big neighborhood! And thankfully a good stretch of it is uninhabited.)

Once the sun went down, it got pretty chilly, so Mom and Dad each gave up their warm outer layers so that James and I wouldn't freeze.

We got home and carefully assessed our loot, though Mom would only allow 1 piece of candy.

We chose lollipops! (One of the few items we could identify with any first-hand knowledge.)

The rest of the week was pretty regular, aside from the luxury of getting 1 more piece of candy each day. At this rate, our candy will last until Easter!

Mom had to go out of town again yesterday, so we're hanging with Dad and getting ready for my birthday this week. 3!!!

Love,
Lilli

PS - Welcome home, Uncle Parks! We're so glad you're back.

Roughing it

2011-10-30T10:27:00.000-07:00

We went camping!

So much fun. We headed out Saturday morning once Mom got us organized, and we first put up the tent. Next, it was time for a hike!

Lilli was, as usual, a bit distracted at first by the need to collect something - this time it was sticks -

but Mom finally convinced her that she had all she could carry and she caught up with me to stake out the trail.

After a half hour or so, we announced we were hungry and tired (since we skipped nap on the way there, our schedules were a little off all day), so we headed back to camp to start a fire.

Now this was a task that I could get into

And Lilli's stick-collecting was useful too!

By 4:30, we were asking for dinner, which meant we were enjoying our first Smores by about 5:15.

Or as Lilli says, we started "marshing" (aka, roasting) our marshmellows.

Not long after all that sugar, we put on our PJs and climbed into our sleeping bags. (So much for making it up late enough to use our telescope!)

Despite the temperature dipping into the 30s (!), we stayed warm and cozy all night long, and woke up pretty rested. (Well, everyone but Mom, who woke up every hour or so to slide Lilli back into her sleeping bag so she wouldn't freeze.)

We got another fire going this morning to warm up while we ate breakfast, and then we made a quick excursion to a cool section of the park where there's a pretty house

And a great view of the Apalachicola River.

All in all, a pretty great experience for our first time camping!

Love,
James

PS - We also had our Halloween party at school on Friday - Spiderman kept an eye on Princess Lilli the whole time!

The princess and the spider(man)

2011-10-23T17:06:00.000-07:00

Aka, Lilli and James!

We love Halloween. What could be better than an excuse to get NEW costumes and dress up? I call myself a princess, though I’m truly more of a fairy, complete with a beautiful wand.

James is Spiderman, through and through.

Mom unveiled our costumes yesterday, and it’s been a fight to get us to take them off ever since. Today we even got to wear them to a birthday party!

Awesome.

But, let me back up a bit. Dad was out of town much of this week, and Lil had fall break, so we got a special treat – going to the Big House on Thursday and Friday! We hung out with Lil on Thursday while Mom and Coach were at work, and when they came to join us, we headed to the Raw Bar.

It was yummy!

On Friday we got to hang out with Lil and Coach while Mom was in the field. We went to the beach, learned lots of new songs, rode on the Gator, and generally had a blast. The only thing that could convince us to get in the car to go home that evening was that Dad was at home waiting for us. It was so nice to see him again!

Yesterday, we woke up to one final (Mom and Dad hope) birthday present for James, and an early one for me – matching bikes!

These are really cool bikes – no pedals, and only 2 wheels! James took to it pretty quickly, suggesting that maybe we should have just gotten one of these bikes plus one with pedals for him…

I’ve been a little slower out of the gate, but I think I’ll figure it out pretty soon!

After lots of bike riding and testing out our new costumes, it was time to carve our jack-o-lantern!

It looks great.

This week it is Mom’s turn to be gone for a few days for work, but when she returns, we’re going camping!! Can’t wait to fill you in on that next week.

Love,
Lilli

A dinosaur party!

2011-10-16T11:31:00.000-07:00

Well, I am finally finished with all of my birthday celebrations! It was a short week once we got back from NC, and I sneaked in at least 2 more birthday parties in that short period of time – one Thursday at school (just a special snack of pumpkin – chocolate chip muffins complements of Mom), and the big on at our house on Saturday.

Lil and Coach came early so I could open a couple of special presents from them. First I started with Lilli’s – here I am very carefully inspecting the beautiful card she made for me.

Then it was on to a great new book from Lil

And a consolation present for Lilli. (Isn’t she fancy??)

Finally, it was time for the big present from Coach –

The shoulder pads I’ve been asking for, plus 2 new jerseys to wear over them! (To everyone’s surprise, I announced that these must be “practice” jerseys, because they have more holes in them than game-day jerseys. Noone knows where I got this information, but I am right!)

These are most definitely not your average 5 year-old shoulder pads, as evidenced by the work it took to get them on and fitted properly.

Man, I look tough.

I decided to take them off for the party since I didn’t want to make my friends TOO jealous. Then Lilli and I headed out to the back yard to check out all the dinosaur decorations and activities. There were dino excavation kits that Lilli and I started

And then my friends helped finish them off.

There were also dinosaurs everywhere – Lilli decided this one was her pet!

We also had dino eggs hidden in the sandbox. Perhaps the favorite thing of the party was the dinosaur zip line!

(Well, it doesn’t actually have anything to do with dinosaurs, but it was a big hit.)

Oh, and I can’t forget my dinosaur cake!!

It tasted even better than it looks.

My friends even brought me some cool new toys, and we finished off the party with Avery (one of my school friends) teaching Dad how to give everyone dinosaur tattoos.

Nice!

Today, we’ve been cleaning up from the party and checking out all the loot we accumulated over the last couple of weeks. Dad introduced us to a new activity from Grandma – driveway tennis!

Mom and Dad tried to convince me that tackling is not a part of tennis, but I’m convinced that shoulder pads add an interesting element to the game.

Dad is off to the field this week, so we’ll be hanging out with Mom and Ms. Tracie, who has returned to hang out with us with her baby daughter Aiyana! Lilli and I are excited to see Ms. Tracie regularly again, and we love having Aiyana around. (Truly – Mom couldn’t quite believe how happy we’ve been at this new situation.)

Thanks to everyone for the many birthday wishes and awesome gifts! I think I’m going to like being 5.

Love,
James

Cousins, and birthdays!

2011-10-10T12:14:00.000-07:00

What a fun trip we’ve had! It started on Thursday with a LONG drive to Wilmington to see Grandma and Grandpa. We did pretty well in the car, even entertaining Mom and Dad with a new song from school for the last ½ hour of the trip (the “hootchy-cootchy dance”). We sure were happy to get to their house!

Friday was a very busy and wonderful day. We started out with some rides on the Gator,

And then we went to visit Grandpa. To get some energy out afterwards, we went with Noah to the Children’s Museum!

It is simply the best place ever.

After lunch, we all tried to fight off our naps, but Noah and I finally succumbed. We almost slept too late – Mom and Grandma had to wake us up to go get our pictures taken on the beach!

We had a blast running around with Noah – he is so much fun to play with.

We were sad to say goodbye so that he could go back home.

On Saturday, we woke up early and headed to Chapel Hill. Go Tarheels!

We thoroughly enjoyed the first half, but then all the excitement kicked in and we realized we were pretty tired. Plus, it was time to go meet Mama Jennie for a yummy late lunch!

We had such a good visit with her. And she brought us these really awesome cars to play with!

I sure wish we got to see all of our family in NC more often.

James and I sacked out for the car ride to Sanford to Sophia’s house,

But we rallied once there to play outside and visit with everyone (Coach, Lil, Aunt Lexi, Sophia, Aunt Julia, and Mr. Tony and Mrs. Sheila, Sophia’s grandparents). On Sunday morning it was like Christmas between all the birthday presents for Sophia and James (and sympathy presents for me)!

So. Much. Fun. Being together.

James thought that was the extent of the celebrating, so he was surprised when we reminded him that there was a party that afternoon!

A good group of kids came, and even the grown-ups joined in the fun, playing soccer, football, and baseball (and sometimes all at the same time!).

And cake, of course!

We played until it was too dark to see anymore, and James and I nearly fell asleep in the middle of our stories.

(Except that we loved “The incredible book-eating boy” too much!)

Today we got up and said goodbye to Coach and Lil, and then headed to a nearby “pumpkin farm”. Turns out there was lots more there than just pumpkins!

We originally planned to go on a hay-ride, but given the excitement of the last several days, we sort of turned into pumpkins ourselves and had to take a rain check on the ride so that we could come home and nap.

We said goodbye to Aunt Julia too, and are planning on a relatively quiet evening before loading up in the car again tomorrow to go home.

James is pretty excited to be 5, and none of us can believe he’s getting so big. He’s learning to spell and write words; loves dinosaurs, outer space, and the deep sea; sometimes has so much energy that he can’t keep still; always wants to play football – or basketball, or soccer – but mostly football; takes very good care of me (most of the time); and will still sit still to listen to a good book (especially Skippyjon Jones, and the aforementioned Book Eating Boy has become an instant favorite). And he’s a great big brother!

Love,
Lilli

Last week of 4!

2011-10-02T16:55:00.000-07:00

What beautiful weather we’ve had this weekend! It actually feels like fall.

I was so excited to wake up Saturday morning to the first day of October – that means it’s almost my birthday! We changed over all the calendars in the house to the page that I’ve been waiting for. Now just one more week and I will be 5!

After updating our calendars, Mom, Lilli and I drove to the Big House to join Lil and Coach. (Dad had to work but came over later.) For lunch, we went over to the Buffer Preserve for a yummy low country boil lunch. Well, the grown-ups ate the low country boil, whereas Lilli and I had our usual PB sandwich! I did steal a few of Lil’s shrimp, though. After eating, we got to climb to the top of the new tower at the Preserve. We could see forever!

Very cool.

Lilli took a good long nap after lunch,

But not me! Instead, I went for a fun bay walk with Lil, Mom, Coach, and the dogs.

I picked up my first fiddler crabs! (I like the ‘girls’ – they don’t have the big claw!)

We also found some sponges with these cute little crabs in them.

All in all, a beautiful way to spend part of the afternoon!

Once inside, I spent some time checking out a really funny book of poems that Coach picked out.

Lilli finally woke up, and we played with some cool new Playmobil toys that Lil got to keep at the Big House. Oh, and watched football, of course!

This morning we had a delicious pancake breakfast and went for a really fun (but chilly!) ride with Coach and Mom in the Gator. We went so fast over one hill that I “lost my balance”! (Mom keeps trying to explain that the phrase is “lost my stomach”, but I didn’t lose it at all!)

Next it was time for the beach.

Too cold to swim, but a great low tide for playing in the sand!

Wore Lilli out.

We were sad to learn that after lunch it was time to head back home. Much too short of a visit! But we have a big trip coming up this week – we’re leaving Thursday to drive to Grandma and Grandpa’s, then it’s on to the UNC-Louisville game, and then to celebrate Sophia and my birthdays! I’m sure Lilli will bring you up to speed next week.

Love,
James

Socializing

2011-09-25T10:22:00.000-07:00

We had a busy and fun week! Lil and Coach came by last Sunday afternoon on their way to Moultrie, and of course they brought us some treats – gummy candies from Lil and cool new hats from Coach!

(It doesn’t take much to please us, and thankfully they know that!)

On Wednesday, we hosted Alli at our house for playdate. We played and played, both outside and in, and I was filthy by the time Alli went home and I took my bath!

On Thursday, Mom and Dad invited some visiting researchers over for dinner. They got here not long before James and I went to bed, but Mom and Dad had a good time visiting with them!

Friday was especially fun. Mom came home early to get us so that we could drive to Moultrie for the Packer game! We always love going to Moultrie, but you really can’t beat getting to stand on the sidelines with Coach and Lil for the game!

We made it all the way through the first half. James even got to toss a ball back to the ref when it came out of bounds in our direction! (I immediately high-fived him when he proudly ran back to our corner of the field.)

We took advantage of Museum Day on Saturday, visiting the Tallahassee Natural History Museum on our way home from Moultrie. We’ve been there lots of times, and we were pretty worn out from all the excitement the night before, so we mostly made a beeline for the playground

And then climbed back in the car for the ride home.

More entertaining tonight – all of the students and assistants in Mom and Dad’s labs are coming over! They finally wised up and ordered take-out rather than trying to cook for 20+ people.

Happy fall, everyone!

Love,
Lilli

7 years

2011-09-18T11:35:00.000-07:00

Can you believe that Mom and Dad have been married for 7 years? Given that I think everything on earth happened in the last 5 years, that seems like a really long time. Dad seems to think so too, because he sat down with Mom the other day and announced, “Did you really think we’d ever make it to our 7th anniversary?” That Dad – I think he was trying to be nice, but we need to work on his delivery!

So what have we been doing to celebrate? Well, we decided to mark the occasion by beautifying our yard. That’s right – it’s been 2 days of yard work around here! It all started yesterday with Dad mowing the lawn while Lilli and I played croquet.

Once he got to our area of the yard, we moved to the sandbox.

After a story from Mom about a baby dinosaur found in Maryland, I am convinced there are some dinosaur bones somewhere in our yard, and I’m going to be the one to find them!

While Lilli and I napped, Mom planted lots of new plants, so she was worn out by the time we were ready to help again. Instead, we played outside a little more and then watched some football with Dad. (You can’t do yard work all the time!)

Mom and Dad put us to bed and celebrated themselves with some yummy food.

I want some of that cake!

Today, it was back to the yard to plant our new pear trees. Lilli and I were very “helpful”.

Take note of our special yard work attire – you may not have realized the football gloves double nicely as yard gloves. As do purple mittens!

Can someone get me a real shovel so I can actually get some digging done?

We were pretty proud of our hard work.

(There goes Lilli with that funny face again.)

After planting the pear trees, it was back to the sandbox to look for those fossils. Where are they anyway?

Love,
James

A quiet week

2011-09-11T17:28:00.000-07:00

Not much to report this week! I woke up Wednesday morning telling Mom that the “little bugs” were in my throat again, which was surprising given that I’d been on antibiotics for strep throat for over a week. Dad and I spent the day together with a visit to the doctor to find out that viruses like to tag along with strep throat and cause the very same symptoms! I guess once I got rid of the bacteria, the viruses decided to have a party. Anyway, I’m finally feeling better now. After my appointment, Dad and I decided to have a lunch date, and check out this crazy cow that was hanging out in the parking lot!

Mom had no idea what I was talking about when I started telling her that story!

On Friday, James and I relaxed at home with a new babysitter. She was lots of fun, and it was great to have a day at home. (Even though we LOVE school!) James and I have been pretty tuckered out at the end of the week recently. (As you can see from my relaxed pose during Friday night movie night in the first pic!)

Saturday was our only busy day of the week. We started off first thing, making cookies for Ms. Tracie in our pajamas!

No day is bad that starts with chocolate chips by 8:00am.

Mom also made some corn stuff at Tracie’s request, and we delivered our creations (along with some healthy food) later in the morning. It was our first chance to meet Aiyana, who is now 2 weeks old!

She was very pretty, and she just slept and slept while we were there.

It sure was fun to meet her, check out her cute nursery, and catch up with Ms. Tracie.

Once we returned home, Mom and Dad started cooking some more to get ready for some new friends who were coming over to watch football with us. The grown-ups had fun talking and eating, and James and I had a great time playing with little Cameron! Here we are having a tea party.

She was a sport – we were on the go so much that it was really hard to get any good pictures! I sure hope we get to see them again soon.

We were a bit rambunctious this morning after spending most of yesterday inside, so Dad took us to the playground to run some of our sillies out. We played in the yard most of the afternoon, enjoying the slightly cooler weather! It was nice to have a day just to play and be together on a day that clearly meant something to Mom and Dad, though James and I get to wait at least another year before we learn about that.

Love,
Lilli

Paying homage to hard work (by relaxing)

2011-09-05T11:54:00.000-07:00

On this Labor Day, we’re happy to have Dad at home, since he’s been laboring in St. Augustine the past week wrapping up a big experiment. We missed him!

So how did we entertain ourselves with Dad away? Well, Lilli thought that would be the appropriate time to come down with strep throat, so she and Mom spent all day Tuesday at the doctor. They actually made 2 trips (!) to Tallahassee in the same day because they had to come to school and get me and then go back so that I could be tested for strep. I was all clear, but it made for a long day for everyone!

Lilli still wasn’t feeling well on Wednesday, so she and Mom got to spend another day together. They started out by going to the lab to get a little work done (for Mom) and then stopping in Sopchoppy for a snack (for Lilli). It started raining cats and dogs while they were inside, so they spent a while on the porch just watching the rain!

By Thursday, we were back to normal and spent the afternoon after school playing in the yard, going from swimming pool

To basketball

And back to the pool. Pretty fun!

Friday was a treat – Lil picked us up at school at lunchtime and took us to the Big House to hang out with she and Coach, Bella, and Amos! Despite our excitement (or maybe because of it), we slept the entire afternoon away when we got there. But we were raring to go Saturday morning! It was a pretty stormy weekend thanks to Tropical Storm Lee, so we played at a nearby playground, played on the deck,

And sneaked in trips to the bay when we could.

Oh, and when inside, of course we watched football!!

On Sunday we even braved the wind and big waves and went to check out the beach.

It was neat to check out all the things that were washed up from the storm – Lil even found a limpet shell! (They’re pretty rare around these parts.)

After a while, the wind got to be a little much for Lilli, who couldn’t keep her hair out of her face.

Thanks to Lil and Coach for entertaining us over the wet and dreary weekend!

We came on home after lunch yesterday so that we could be here when Dad returned. We read books and played with Legos with him – our favorite thing to do is to build a “beast castle” like the Beauty and the Beast book that James picked out from the library.

Today the rain let up for a bit so we decided to go hang out at one of our favorite local spots – Wakulla Springs. First we hit the playground, where I perfected my swinging technique (a skill that has eluded me for some time now).

Then we went looking for squirrels.

Not too many squirrels around, but we did find lots of baby lizards to entertain us.

It’s raining again, so Lilli and I have agreed to take another good nap. What else can you do when the weather is like this? Dad agrees and has sacked out himself. Not a bad way to spend a day devoted to honoring hard work!

Love,
James

PS – You may have noticed that Lilli has a new “silly” pose that she insists on doing for nearly every photo, unless you catch her off guard…

Routines

2011-08-28T11:57:00.000-07:00

Seems we’re finally settling down a bit into our new school routine. Although this past week was still a bit unusual – Dad was working most of the week in St. Augustine, trying to preemptively end an experiment before Hurricane Irene arrived. Turns out that St. Augustine was largely spared – we hope that all of you in Irene’s path fared as well as we did!

So what did Mom, James, and I do all week? Well, we tried both Monday and Tuesday to go to swimming, only to get stormed out by the single black cloud in the sky that happened to be right over the swimming pool. Man, were we disappointed! On Tuesday night, we soothed our woes by looking through a catalog together and picking out zillions of toys that we now are convinced that we need.

(Notice that we have our bathing suits on, just in case we get to swim!)

On Wednesday, we finally got to swim – for 1.5 hours! The idea was to make up for all of our missed classes, and we took full advantage.

We were looking quite professional by the end of the evening. I did test out Mom’s reflexes though by slipping into the deep end when neither teacher was nearby for me to swim to. I was able to get back to the side of the pool and grab hold and then Mom pulled me out. She seemed upset about something, but I just jumped in again and went about my business!

Dad came home on Thursday and was able to go with us for our last lesson. We were still pretty worn out from the night before and didn’t swim quite as well, but he still enjoyed watching.

We sure will miss Mr. Jack and Mrs. Gina!

Friday we got to have a Dad day to make up for lost time with him, and of course that meant haircuts! Don’t I look fancy?

We also had a blast playing at the playground. So much so that we napped for HOURS that afternoon, and then demanded to go back to do it again today.

Fun!

Dad’s got to go back to St. Augustine this week – I’m not sure what Mom will do to entertain us now that there’s no swimming. Maybe we can resume our weekly playdate with Alli.

Hope you have a good week!

Love,
Lilli

PS – Welcome to Aiyana, Ms. Tracie’s new baby! She was born on Friday and Mom and baby are both doing well. James and I can’t wait to go meet Aiyana.

PPS – Happy birthday, Brian!

Myrtle

2011-08-21T10:52:00.000-07:00

We saved a baby sea turtle yesterday!

The nest that Lilli, Sophia, and I adopted was unfortunately drowned in a big storm, but we went yesterday to check on a different nest that had hatched a few days before. First we saw the tracks of the ones that left the nest!

Then we watched as the turtle watch volunteer dug up the nest to make sure there weren’t any little ones still trapped in there. Lo and behold, there was 1 baby sea turtle that was caught in the roots and couldn’t get out, but he/she was still alive!

We continued digging through the rest of the next to make sure there weren’t any other stragglers, and then we counted the eggs that hatched. 95! (That’s apparently a very good nest.)

Lilli and I helped bury it all back up again,

And then we took our one rescued turtle (‘Myrtle’, of course) down to the water’s edge to release it on its way.

Making it through the surf zone was tough, but Myrtle didn’t give up!

We were all relieved when we saw her take one last breath and disappear from sight beyond the waves.

Good luck, Myrtle!

After watching Myrtle’s adventure, we went back to the big house and took an excursion out in the bay. Mom and Dad insisted that we needed some time at our house this weekend so that they could catch up on chores, so we had to head home in the late afternoon. But not before some fun water play on the deck!

Speaking of water play, Lilli and I have been having our own adventures in the water this week with more swimming lessons. Lilli decided (much to everyone’s surprise) that she is ready to do this swimming thing!

Now if we can just teach her to pick her head up to take a breath – she will keep her head down and keep swimming no matter what!

I also reached a milestone this week – I dove down and touched the bottom of the deep end! (Not in this video, unfortunately, but you can at least get a sense of my diving technique.)

We’ve got one more week of swimming this week, and we can’t wait!

Love,
James

Hanging with Dad

2011-08-14T17:29:00.001-07:00

We’ve been getting some quality time with Dad this week while Mom was on a work trip to Texas. She must have been feeling bad about going, because before she left, she spent both Monday and Tuesday afternoons with James and me. We’ve been a little ornery in the afternoons after not napping at school (we’re having too much fun!), so Mom had to get creative to find ways to entertain us. So she finally followed through on her plans for us to make our own goldfish crackers!

(Sorry for the blurry pictures – Mom is still figuring out the camera on her new iPad.)

We had a blast using our tiny fish cookie cutters, and we both got pretty good at doing the whole bit by ourselves. We were so excited to try them!

Mom and I thought they were yummy, but James was not a fan. (That just means more for me!)

On Tuesday, we helped Mom wash Coach’s truck. He was nice enough to let us borrow it while ours was in the shop, and we got it a little dirty going down the dirt road to school, so we thought it was only fair (and fun) to give it a little scrub!

I was so tired after school, washing the truck, and playing in our pool that I threw my worst tantrum ever. I’m talking BIG tantrum. Running from Mom in the yard sort of tantrum. But I recovered quickly – after about 10 minutes in my room, I calmly walked out and said to Mom, “Wow, I was really mad! I was throwing things, and yelling, and I made a mess. Can we go clean up my room?” And I was perfectly pleasant for the rest of the night. Guess sometimes it’s just good to get all of that out of you!

Mom took off on Wednesday, and we went for a playdate at Alli’s for the evening. That is always fun!

I’ve been doing lots of “reading” – here I am entertaining my baby dolls with The Little Engine that Could.

Saturday we decided to get out of the house by going to the Big House! It was fun to see Coach and Lil, and Dad was happy for a little adult company.

We went to the Raw Bar for the first time in a while – we love that place!

We also had a beautiful afternoon on the beach. So pretty, in fact, that noone could be bothered to take any pictures. But we played our little hearts out. We were still a little tired this afternoon, so we hung out around the house in the afternoon waiting for Mom.

Mom comes home tonight, and tomorrow we start swimming lessons again! Should be a fun and busy week.

Love,
Lilli

School!

2011-08-07T17:17:00.000-07:00

Lilli and I started school this week! We are in the same class, and according to our teachers, we do everything together.

We’ve been busy playing with “goop”, painting, learning all sorts of new songs, and just generally having a good time. Since Lilli is new to this whole school scene, Ms. Tracie picks her up at lunchtime, and then I get to stay through “nap” (are you kidding? I can’t sleep with all those toys and kids around!) and playtime.

Ms. Tracie is having her baby today (congratulations!), so Lilli will be sticking it out with me until the afternoon for a few weeks until Ms. Tracie comes back (with her new baby). Here we are trying out our mats at home before taking them to school -

Due to all the excitement from school and our continued jetlag from our trip to CA, it’s been all we can do to make it to bedtime each night this week without at least 3 major melt-downs. That trend continued this weekend – despite Mom and Dad’s attempt to keep it a very low-key weekend, Lilli and I have taken turns throwing major fits about nothing in particular.

Maybe it’s just the heat – the only thing that has kept us happy is playing in our little pool. Thanks to Dad’s decision that we could play naked, we discovered that you slide a lot faster with a bare bottom!

Today we decided to at least get out of the house and so we ventured to Wakulla Springs to cool off.

Lilli and I had forgotten how cold that water really is – it’s like CA all over again!

I did venture out to the floating dock with Dad and practice my diving skills, but in general, we seem to have lost a bit of our swimming prowess that we gained earlier this summer. Good thing we’re returning to swimming lessons next week!

I’ve also been practicing my art skills that I picked up from Owen and Grady on our trip. Here are a couple of my latest masterpieces, taken with Mom’s new iPad (thanks, Dad!). The first is “the beach”, designed specifically to cheer up Uncle Parks, who had a difficult weekend.

The next includes a house with smoke from the chimney (obviously!), flowers, caterpillar, and another animal (that looks a lot like the caterpillar).

If you had seen the state of my drawings just a few short weeks ago, you’d be very impressed with the improvement!

Mom is leaving on a work trip mid-week, so we’ll be hanging with Dad through the weekend. We’ll try and get him to take some pictures of our antics!

Love,
James

Going back to Cali

2011-07-31T12:08:00.000-07:00

What a trip we just had! My first visit to California, and everyone else’s first return trip since leaving in 2008. It was a whirlwind, but let me see if I can fill you in –

We left Tallahassee last Saturday. I’ll skip over all the drama of having a suitcase that was too big, spending 4 hours in the Atlanta airport, a very LONG flight to San Francisco, and a seemingly even longer wait for our rental car and just show you how happy James and I were when we woke up the next morning in our hotel and got to watch TV for a few minutes while Mom and Dad loaded the car.

Then it was off to the races! First stop – the beach!

Once we got over the fact that it was cold, and we couldn’t swim, we had a blast playing in the sand.

How could you not love it with this view?

Next, we drove over the ultimate “big bridge” and hiked up the Marin Headlands to take a better look.

After a hectic stop at In-N-Out (Mom and Dad had to satisfy that craving), we went on to Keith, Suzanne, and Nate’s house for a cookout! It was so much fun to reunite with old friends and meet new ones. Owen, Grace, Amy, and Brian were already there, and we all instantly started playing like we’d known each other forever.

Plus I couldn’t get enough of baby Nate (and neither could Mom). He is such a beautiful, sweet, and happy baby!

Jay, Kelly, Kelly’s mom, Kyle, and Katie also came by (though somehow Mom didn’t get any pictures of them!), and the “big kids” were great sports about entertaining we smaller guys and gals.

After a wonderful afternoon, we loaded in the car and followed Brian and Amy and crew to Inverness to our home for the week. We had some furry friends the first night, but we all felt better the next morning when they were gone and we got to see the view!

Mom and Dad needed to go to the marine lab on Monday to meet with some folks, so they took turns showing us all the cool animals there (urchins, seastars, fish, etc.). We then had a nice afternoon at the house, going on hikes with Amy

And playing lots of beautiful music.

Tuesday Dad had to work again, but the rest of us loaded up to go spend the day with Suzanne and Nate. We kept Brian from feeling too badly as the only dad around by taking him to a brewery that he’s been longing to visit since he began developing his own brewmaster skills.

(The other grown-ups didn’t mind so much either.)

After some quiet time with Suzanne and Nate, we then went to our second bar of the day – and James’s first home – the wine bar!

We met more friends there, and we especially loved playing with Grady, who showed us all sorts of drawing tricks and kept us entertained despite our sheer exhaustion.

Wednesday we decided we should cut back on the driving, so we spent the morning at a nearby beach on Pt. Reyes. (Dad and I didn’t make it – I decided I needed some alone time that morning, so we chilled out at the house together.) It was chilly at the beach, of course, but James had a great time playing in the sand with Owen and Grace,

Checking out caves in the rocks,

And racing beetles. (That Owen is an amazing bug catcher.)

James also got to see some whales spouting in the distance!

Back at home, we were treated to more friends that stopped by to visit. First, Jarrett and Lila Rose came by, and then Dave and Hez stopped by with even more kids for us to play with!

It was one heck of a playdate!

Thursday was another ‘around the house’ sort of day. Mom and Amy took off to Bodega for yoga (hooray!), and Dad had to work the early low tide, so we hung out with Brian, Owen, and Grace for the morning. (Brian was still happy from going to another brewery the afternoon before, so he actually volunteered to keep all of us by himself.) In the afternoon, we went to a beach that was finally warm enough to get into the water,

Though we didn’t stay in for long! Thankfully there were lots of cool rocks to sun on.

Ted stopped by for a visit at the beach and then came back to the house with us for a bit, so we kids amused ourselves while the grown-ups chatted.

After dinner, we surprised Mom with hand-drawn birthday cards and her favorite pumpkin cake!

Friday morning the dads took us to the beach again while the moms cleaned the house. Brian was sad to see other people fishing when he couldn’t join them, and Dad was likewise sad to see the surfers out in the water when he was on shore,

But we kids had a blast!

After lunch, it was time for our sad goodbye to Amy, Brian, Owen, and Grace. It was so wonderful to share our vacation with them! They always teach us wonderful new tricks, like how to catch ants, eat huckleberries (yum!), race beetles, draw on rocks,

And make Rice Krispy treats.

We miss y’all already!

To ease our sadness, we stopped en route to our hotel at Muir Woods National Monument. Check out the amazing trees they have there!

We enjoyed the beautiful day and scenery – a perfect last excursion to cap off our trip.

Well, to cap off the fun part of the trip anyway! Yesterday necessarily involved lots of time in airports

And on airplanes, and then back in airports.

(I was asleep - James was not.)

We finally made it home last night and are very happy to be here! Today Lil and Coach are rescuing us from our trip-induced unpreparedness by bringing all the fixings for a birthday party for Mom, and then helping us celebrate!

Tomorrow is James and my first day of school, so we will have to end the party early enough to get to bed on time…

Love,
Lilli

"Rude animals!"

2011-07-17T12:20:00.000-07:00

That was my favorite quote from The Jungle Book play that we saw this weekend – said by the Tiger when all the other animals ran away from him. In general, it was hard to pick a favorite part, though, because it was all so good! Thanks to Lil and Coach for finding out about the play and leading the charge to get us there. We loved it!

We also loved visiting Moultrie again. So much that I keep asking Mom if we can all just go live there forever. Mom is skeptical about that idea – I’m not sure why – but she did promise that we could visit again soon.

We drove to Moultrie on Saturday for an early lunch and then the play, but of course we got in lots of time doing other things too. Lilli and I love all of the toys that Lil has saved from the days of Uncle Parks, Mom, and Aunt Julia!

I worked on several puzzles and played Candyland with Dad, and Lilli played with a baby doll that may be older than Mom.

After the play, Lil and Coach got dressed for a fancy wedding –

Don’t they look good?

Mom, Dad, Lilli, and I held down the fort with the dogs, venturing out only long enough to get some Mexican food and margaritas (well, chicken nuggets and water for Lilli and me).

Today the sun came out, and we spent a good chunk of the morning playing outside.

Then Aunt Julia and Jason came over!

We’d been waiting to see Aunt Julia (and meet Jason) all weekend, so it was fun to hang out with them, if only briefly. They told stories of the wedding, which we countered with tales of Jungle Book. Then, unfortunately, it was time for us to come home. Lilli and I tried tears, pleading, and all sorts of things, but Mom and Dad held firm. Something about having to get ready for the work-week and our departure on Saturday for California! Stay tuned for those details.

Also, keep an eye out for an amazing family band coming your way soon. Once we have a little more practice, we’ll include some audio/video instead of just a still shot…

Love,
James

Quiet on the home front

2011-07-10T10:52:00.000-07:00

Well, we have absolutely nothing to report this week! I'll blame it on the short work-week, which appears to have left Mom and Dad a little frazzled. We are having a party tonight for everyone from their labs, so we should have some good pictures next week!

Love,
James

Happy birthday, America!

2011-07-04T13:00:00.000-07:00

What a weekend! We had a blast celebrating the 4th of July with Coach, Lil, Bella, and Amos at the Big House. But first, let me catch you up on our regular goings on.

We wrapped up our swimming lessons this week. We both improved a ton – James doesn’t do any more belly flops,

and I will finally jump off the side of the pool without holding someone’s hand!

We’re going to take a break from lessons and then go back for more a little later in the summer.

We’ve also been enjoying our summer days at home. Lots of time in the sand box (as “workers”)

And also LOTS of coloring time.

We are very serious about our coloring.

But now to our weekend! We drove over to the Cape on Saturday and were so happy to be there. It was threatening rain in the afternoon, but we braved the beach anyway to go check out the turtle nest that Lil and Coach adopted for James, Sophia, and me!

Very cool. We of course had to go back and check on it each day,

And today we even got to talk to a sea turtle “teacher” and learn all about our nest!

I think she was a little surprised at how much James knows about sea turtles already.

We can’t wait to go back late in August and try to see some of the baby turtles hatching.

Sunday was a big beach day! We set up the tent and made ourselves comfortable for the long haul. (Which for James and me is from mid morning until just after lunch.) We swam lots, snacked, and played in the sand.

It wore us out so much that we napped too long to go back in the afternoon! But that’s ok, because after a watermelon snack (naked, of course)

We were ready to start celebrating the 4th of July. First we made an American flag cake with Mom,

And then we got our on red, white, and blue to take some pictures. Lil had some really cool decorations, and even the dogs were interested in posing for pictures!

Then we had a good candlelight dinner

And marched around the house to some “patriotic” music that Lil had.

Fun! It wore me out completely.

We got in some more beach time today before packing up to come home. We’re going to pretend it’s still Sunday and have our usual pizza dinner as a final celebration of the 4th of July. I hope you all had a great celebration this weekend too!

Love,
Lilli

Swimming!

2011-06-26T10:37:00.000-07:00

Our week this week revolved around 1 thing – swimming lessons! Lilli and I started on Monday night, and we were so excited. We were the only kids who actually sat on the steps before class as asked (and were a little annoyed that the other kids did not!).

I quickly moved up to the ‘big kids’ section of the pool, where I was immediately expected to dive in and swim to the side, or even swim the length of the pool!

I was a pro.

Though my ‘dives’ are much more like belly flops at the moment!

Lilli also had a great time, and was eventually comfortable to jump in while only holding on to 1 finger.

After 3 nights of lessons, we were swimming experts! And also very exhausted. To the point that we were all pretty relieved when class was rained out on Thursday – I’m not sure Lilli or I (and especially Mom and Dad) could have made it through class that night! But we are rested now and ready to start again tomorrow evening.

Lilli has been fighting a fever this weekend, so we’ve kept pretty quiet. I did finally get a haircut!

And, of course, we went and picked more blueberries this morning. We never miss an opportunity to do that!

Love,
James

PS – Happy Birthday, Mama Jennie! We hope you like your cards!

We love dads!

2011-06-19T17:44:00.000-07:00

Father’s Day is a fitting end to this week, because it was the first week in a while when we got to see Dad every day. The summer is a busy time for he and Mom – setting up experiments all over the place – so it was nice to all be at home together.

Not too much to tell from the week – James and Dad spent Wednesday at the doctor diagnosing James’s swimmer’s ear. Guess all that pool and ocean time on vacation finally got to him! He was a trooper about it, though, and endured the daily ear drops with few complaints.

We did harvest our first watermelon from the garden! So exciting. It was small, but just right for James and me, and very yummy!

It’s been really hot here, and James and I have been spending more time than usual inside to beat the heat. Mom and Dad decided to lure us back outdoors by getting us each a baseball bat and a shared tee. We are real sluggers!

They also got us a (mini) pool with a slide so we can effectively cool off after running around for a while.

We took turns sliding down the slide non-stop for at least an hour yesterday when we first got in the pool. It made Mom dizzy we were running around so fast!

Today we let Dad sleep in while we (Mom, really) made blueberry pancakes. When he got up, we gave him his presents – a book and some new flip-flops – and then headed out to pick some blueberries. (As James said last week, this is now a weekly ritual!)

Mom may be taking the blueberry theme a little far – today we’ve made blueberry pancakes, blueberry jam, and blueberry cobbler!

And James has made her promise that blueberry muffins are on the agenda for this week.

Coach and Lil stopped by in the afternoon so that we could celebrate Father’s Day with some of that blueberry cobbler. (Pardon Mom’s bad picture-taking.)

We of course had to show them our new pool – they too were impressed and how many times we slid down the slide without stopping!

I hope all you other dads out there (Grandpa, Uncle Chris, Uncle Parks,…) had a wonderful day!

Love,
Lilli

(Working) vacation

2011-06-12T10:32:00.000-07:00

Sorry for the hiatus last week – we were all in St. Augustine, and in addition to being very busy working (Mom) or having fun (us), we had only sporadic internet access. But let me back up a bit.

In our last update, Lilli mentioned that Dad was spending a lot of time in St. Augustine getting an experiment going. He left us the Sunday of Memorial Day weekend, and was gone all week. We had fun with Mom, and got a lot of time playing with our toys at home,

But by Saturday, we were all pretty antsy. Thank goodness the blueberry farm opened up and we were among the first customers!

Yum.

As we headed home from eating, I mean picking, lots of blueberries, Dad called to invite us to come join him in St. Augustine. So we packed up the car and headed on a road trip. Lilli and I were excited to see Dad, and even more excited when we realized that our hotel had a swimming pool! So much fun.

We woke up Sunday morning to find that Dad had tagged Mom, and now she was gone helping to set up the experiment. So much for a family vacation! We had plenty of diversions, though, between swimming in the pool, playing with Dad,

Checking out the marine lab,

Playing at the “dragon” park,

and eating lots of yummy meals and treats.

On Monday we moved to a friend’s beach house, where Lilli and I got to share a bed!

We did pretty well together at night, though nap time was a different story.

We also checked out the local Alligator Farm – pretty cool!

Mom finally got a bit of a break mid-week, and we all went together on the boat to look at the experiment in St. Augustine.

Don’t we look good in our life jackets??

I learned all about stone crabs and toadfish and proceeded to tell everyone I met afterwards about helping with the experiment.

Mom had another early / long day on Thursday and arrived home in time to share some of my nap with me.

The good news is, the experiment was finally up and running in both locations, so we got to spend a family day at the beach on Friday!

We topped off the day with dinner at the fish camp down the road from our beach house with all of Mom and Dad’s awesome (and very tired) crew. They claimed the clam chowder was delicious, but Lilli and I decided just to take their word for it and instead ate a ½ a watermelon each for dinner! (Oh, and Lilli ate her first apple off the core!)

Yesterday we decided to come on home. You can tell from the looks of Dad and me at breakfast that it was time.

We all enjoyed sleeping in our own beds last night. Of course we ate all the blueberries we collected last week, so we went back for more today!

I think that will be a weekly ritual this summer.

Hope you’re all enjoying your summer!

Love,
James

Summer!

2011-05-30T19:03:00.001-07:00

James had his last day of preschool this week, so Mom and Dad joined him for a picnic with the other kids and parents on Wednesday. He is sad not to go to school anymore for a while, but I’m pretty excited to have him home with me all the time!

Dad had to go out of town for work this week, so we went with Mom to have a pizza dinner with her students to celebrate the end of their class too. We like hanging out with the big kids.

To kick off the summer, on Saturday we came to the Big House for the first time in a long time. It is so good to be here! We “rested” (our lingo for not napping) and then hit the bay, sporting the arm floaties / water wings that Ms. Tracie gave both of us. We love swimming now! (Never mind that there was hardly enough water to swim in.) After over an hour swimming, finding crown conchs, watching the fiddlers, and eating snacks, we came in for dinner. We were pretty wiped out and asked for an early bedtime, and the adults were happy to oblige.

Meanwhile, they stayed up drinking champagne to celebrate Lil’s retirement!

Today was a beach day, plain and simple. The adults couldn’t get ready fast enough to suit us, but by mid-morning we finally made it. Dad and Coach set up Lil’s birthday present – a beach tent!

After Mom slathered us with sunscreen, we donned the arm floats again and hit the water. It was a beautiful day, with clear, calm water to play in. (Lil’s camera is not water-proof, so our only pictures are from our brief play periods on the beach!)

We took several snack breaks, but mostly we were in the water until the adults (who didn’t have snacks) got hungry enough to take a lunch break.

Dad had to leave again for work, but he read us our stories before taking off, and then we napped. Well, I napped – James defied all rules of logic and only rested! He had to wait on me to go back to the beach, though, so he and Mom read some books and hung out until I groggily appeared to say that I was ready to put on my bathing suit again.

The wind had picked up by the time we made it back to the beach, but that didn’t stop us from getting in the water again! We swam and ran on the beach and swam some more until nearly dinner-time. This time, once we were full and clean, we both fell sound asleep.

Oh, but how could I forget - I also got my first flip-flops! I’ve been jealous of James’s for a while now, so Lil found some for me when she went to town on Saturday. Thank goodness, because I somehow managed to bang my nose pretty hard on the couch, and the only thing that could stop me from crying was trying on my cool new kicks.

For the rest of the weekend, I demanded compliments from everyone.

Today was mellower – we tested out Coach’s new Gator (very quiet and a smooth ride) before one final fun swimming excursion in the bay. James has turned into an expert back floater, and I tested out some pretty nice paddles and kicks (with my arm floaties, of course). We eventually got too cold to swim anymore and headed in for an early lunch before saying goodbye to Coach, Lil, Bella, and Amos.

Mom made sure that we didn’t sleep on the ride home (lots of loud music, some tickling, some rolled down windows) so that she could get some peace once we got home, and it worked! James took one of his marathon naps (finally!), and I slept long enough for Mom to get some work done. We spent the evening making cookies (yum!), making pizza,

And checking out (read: eating) the berries that our blueberry bushes produced while we were away. Not a bad Memorial Day!

Many thanks to Uncle Parks and all the other soldiers out there who go through so much so that the rest of us don’t have to.

Love,
Lilli

PS - Happy birthday, Susanna!

Flashback to spring

2011-05-22T18:51:00.000-07:00

We’ve had a pretty early summer around here, but this week the temperature actually cooled off quite a bit, helping us remember what spring feels like.

As a result, Lilli and I weren’t too interested in “swimming” in our faithful blue tubs, so we found other ways to entertain ourselves with them. (You’d think we didn’t have a garage full of actual toys.) We love to hide under them, and it’s pretty convincing – Mom didn’t know where we were one day!

We also roll on them, run into them, and wear them on our heads. Don’t accuse us of not being creative!

Mom and Dad have some big experiment coming up, so they travelled to GA this weekend to do some prep work there. We were excited because that meant we got to spend the weekend with Coach and Lil in Moultrie!

We played with some of Mom and Uncle Parks’s old toys, walked down the bike trail to check out Mom’s old house, ran around the track with Coach, played in the kiddie pool in the backyard, and generally had a great time. Lil also taught me all about word families, so now I can read any word that ends with “-at”! Pretty cool.

Today, we got to go to church with Coach and Lil to watch the last sermon by their good friend Hugh before he retires. We got to sit in the balcony! Very neat. Because it was a special day, there was a bagpiper that led everyone in and out of church. Lilli and I walked right by him after the service! It was a little bit loud, but gave us plenty to talk about afterwards.

Mom and Dad came to get us in the late afternoon, and after explaining several times why we needed to go back to our house (never very convincingly, I might add), we piled in the car and came home. We crashed hard after such a fun weekend!

To make up for another week that is light on pictures, Mom decided to share something cool that she got to see this week – a Florida black bear!

No, he’s not dead – just immobilized so that they wildlife biologists that work for the state could tag him, give him a lip tattoo, and take lots of measurements of size, weight, etc. They think he’s the one that’s been terrorizing some local goats, so they’re going to move him to a spot a little farther away from town. Mom was pretty excited to see one up so close, especially since he couldn’t run after her!

Love,
James

Milestone

2011-05-15T19:21:00.001-07:00

Big news this week - I am potty trained!

Now, if this comes as a surprise to you, because there has been no mention of any gradual transition to this grown-up state, then you're not alone. I surprised everyone! Mom and Dad were starting to despair a bit that I showed no interest (or understanding) in getting out of diapers. I announced on Sunday evening that I was going to use the potty, did so (to everyone's shock and glee), and have since refused to wear a diaper unless I'm going to sleep! Only 2 accidents thus far, and I've even ventured away from home and successfully navigated multiple public bathrooms. (Like James, I am not a fan of the automatic flush toilets.)

Anyway, no pictures from this week, because we've spent most of our time in the bathroom, and that just doesn't make for good photos. Now that this is getting to be old hat, the whole family won't come in the bathroom to celebrate each time, and we can get back to taking pictures of our other activities.

Love,
Lilli

Happy day to all you moms out there!

2011-05-08T17:24:00.000-07:00

Happy Mother’s Day! We’ve celebrated the moms in our life by letting Mom sleep in (while we went to eat biscuits with Dad!), videoing with Mama Jennie and Grandma, and hosting a birthday / mother’s day party for Lil.

James and I were instrumental in making the birthday cake, from choosing the type (chocolate) to mixing it all together.

And of course, we were very involved in the eating part of things!

We also insisted on balloons on the mailbox, and fun plates and napkins. We know the key features of a good birthday party!

Yesterday was a fun day too. Mom and I went to get a haircut while Dad and James took our recycling, then we all met up at the park to play. I’ve been begging for a helmet to wear while riding my tricycle, and James was insistent that we needed to get Lil one for her birthday so that she can be safe when riding her bike at the beach, so we sought out the best helmets that Crawfordville has to offer!

Of course, we had to try mine out as soon as we got home.

We also played in the sandbox for a while, and then cooled off in our favorite blue tubs.

Not much else to report from this week. Mom starts teaching a class tomorrow and will be very busy with that for the next 3 weeks. Meanwhile, Dad is working hard to set up a big new experiment. Looks like James and I are just going to have to fend for ourselves for a while!

Love,
Lilli

Home again, home again (part 2)

2011-05-01T17:15:00.000-07:00

Lilli and I are road warriors! On Thursday morning, we dodged tornado warnings to get to Moultrie to pick up Coach, and then drove through more bad weather before finally making it to Uncle Parks and Aunt Lexi’s house around 9:30pm. Of course, I’m skipping over lots of time in the car here, time made bearable by playing with care packages (treats, toys, books) from Lil that we picked up in Moultrie, and by listening to Frog and Toad, the Musical on Mom’s ipod.

To give us some relief from all the time in the car, Mom used her handy iPhone to search out a Chick-fil-a in SC so that we could expend some energy on the playground. Wouldn’t you know, we found the only one in the country (maybe a slight exaggeration) that doesn’t have a playground?? It was a drive-through only Chick-Fil-A! We were undaunted, though, and simply climbed on the picnic tables outside for a while.

Friday was our largely car-free day. We played at Uncle Parks and Aunt Lexi’s in the morning, and then went around lunchtime to Parks’s change of command ceremony. Despite being tired from the long day before, and from the fact that the ceremony occurred during our nap time, we were very well-behaved. Lilli had been instructed for weeks ahead of time that we would need to be quiet during the ceremony, and she was. (She also made sure that everyone she talked to knew that they would need to be quiet too!)

We enjoyed a nice reception after the ceremony (cake!) and then went back to Uncle Parks’s house to rest. I decided not to nap, so that I could spend lots of time playing with Sophia in the front yard. She’s quite a slugger!

Lilli got up after a while, and we had a great time playing together and hanging out with everyone.

We got a little more time to play Saturday morning before we loaded up with Mom and Coach again to head to SC to see Aunt Julia. It was a shorter drive, but we weren’t too happy to be back in the car! We were thrilled to get to Aunt Julia’s in the afternoon. Once again, Lilli napped while I “rested”, and then we got up to get dressed for a fancy dinner out in Charleston.

Our excellent behavior continued through dinner, helped along by yummy food and some well-timed cookies that Lil sent that Mom had held back until then. While Aunt Julia and Coach enjoyed some after-dinner coffee, Mom, Lilli, and I went to the waterfront to run around and check out the cool fountains.

Amazingly, Mom convinced us that it was a little chilly, and that we wouldn’t be very comfortable in our fancy clothes if we got sopping wet, but that we could come back another time to play in the fountains when we were properly equipped with bathing suits and towels.

We followed up our fun dinner with a trip to Coach’s hotel room, where we had permission to jump on the beds!

When it was time to quiet down, we climbed under the covers and watched the “prince and princess” get married on TV. Pretty fun!

Sunday was another long travel day. We had a yummy breakfast before saying goodbye to Aunt Julia and loading into the car. Everyone was tired and ready to be home, but we (mostly) retained our composure. Lil assisted us once we got to Moultrie by providing some ice cream and a good place to run around for a few minutes.

Then it was on home! I finally crashed – first nap of the whole trip – on the last 30 minutes of the car ride. I rallied to see Dad when we got home, regale him with our stories, and eat delicious pizza. Lilli and I were both really happy to be in our own beds - even though they’re not nearly as cool as Uncle Parks’s “bump” (bunk) beds - we slept so long this morning that I was almost late for school!

Happy birthday wishes this week to Lil and Aunt Julia!!

Love,
James

Happy Easter!

2011-04-24T12:39:00.000-07:00

James and I sure do love that Easter bunny!

Not only did he hide eggs for us in the front yard,

The eggs were full of yummy candy!

AND, he brought us some new summer shoes!

Now maybe shoes aren’t typical Easter bunny fare around your house, but it’s hard to beat a good pair of new shoes.

To get ready for Easter yesterday, we dyed some eggs.

Mom had grand plans of using all natural dyes this year, and we did try a few (turmeric for yellow, grape juice for purple, and raspberries for red), but in truth, the old artificial blue worked a lot better, or at least faster.

All in all, they turned out pretty well!

Can you tell that it’s been hot in our neck of the woods? James and I were just a bit sweaty from riding bikes / tricycles when we sat down to dye eggs. And speaking of, check out this cool video of me pedaling my trike like a champ!

Lil came to share an Easter picnic with us today, and it sure was nice to see her. We had great food, blew bubbles, worked on putting my hair in a ponytail (though not for long)

And read some books.

We tried to talk her into sticking around until we woke up from our naps, but she had to get back to Moultrie.

James and I have finally recovered from the awful bug we had last week (that we then passed on to Mom, who is also thankfully feeling better). Because of all the late nights coughing, the last week was a bit of a fog. But we’re back on track now!

Hope you had a wonderful Easter with family and friends!

Love,
Lilli

PS - Thanks to Grandma and JuJu for our fun Easter cards!

Spring practice

2011-04-17T13:25:00.000-07:00

I got in my own spring football training this weekend with a visit from Uncle Parks, Aunt Lexi, and Sophia!

I was a real task master, hardly giving Uncle Parks a break to do anything other than throw, punt, and catch with me. It was a blast!

I also had fun playing with Sophia and the play dough,

And showing her around the neighborhood.

She and Lilli also spent some time in the sand box once Lilli got up from her nap. (Lilli has been running a fever the last few days, so she has slept a lot!)

Our visit started off with a trip Friday to the “aquarium” – it was fun to go with Sophia, especially since it’s been so long since Lilli and I went.

Saturday we had to say goodbye so that they could go to Moultrie to visit with Coach and Lil. Plus we had to go help Mom and Dad at the marine lab’s open house. We were in charge of helping with the snail “races”!

Unfortunately, both of us were running a fever by the time we got there, so our help was rather short-lived. Dad stuck around to give a talk and chat with all the visitors, but Mom brought us home, assuming that we were going to rest. Fooled her! Apparently we just wanted to come home, because as soon as we got here, we felt fine and absolutely refused to nap.

Today was a yard work day! Things are looking good out there.

Thanks to Uncle Parks, Aunt Lexi, and Sophia for coming to see us!

Love,
James