Our Portsmouth Adventures

Ma'am, please don't let him touch that. Right along with the huge chain that that he was having a ball pulling on. Once again...ma'am please don't let him do that. Yikes, what can we do........Climbing up the forbidden stairwell.We're big enough to play with the trains too, right!?!
Mommy, I told you I didn't want to ride the dumb train

Hmmm..can we install one of these in our house somewhere? This can be called the tantrum bubble!! Hey us mommies can use it too so we can have our PMS fits in it!!

They had a blast mailing letters over & over& over.....

Waiting for the train that never came...bless their little hearts!!

Bradley & Alexander working so hard to enclose themselves in a huge bubble. This is a really fun room and yes I did have a blast running and sliding across the slippery floor successfully without falling on my rear.Yep, that's my girl!!! Bradley proudly doing some of his own grocery shopping

Well Sue beat me to blogging about our day braving it thru the streets of Portsmouth. I'll just fill in the gaps, although she covered it pretty well. And mom since you already read Sue's this won't be new for you Ha! A trip to the Children's Museum in Portsmouth was the plan of the day and Bradley had never enjoyed it more. I don't know if it was because he was older or he had a buddy to share in on the fun. To start the trip Sue got a glimpse of the high pitched screams that my tiny precious little girl can yelp out. As I'm driving us there and back just praying that no ones eardrum was going to puncture Sue so graciously kept reaching back to pop in the pacifier. Sometimes it worked sometimes it didn't. Bradley did the same thing as a baby. I would always remind myself that no two children are the same as every mom says so that's what made me decide to have another one. As month 8 and 9 passed for Alayna I was like "WHEW!!....she's not going to be like that because that's when it started with him....sure enough around 10 months there she goes. I don't know how to describle it. Maybe like a pig squealing while it's being slaughtered to death. Anyway, thank God it's not as bad as it was with Bradley and it's mainly when we are in the car so whatever right!?!?

The kids did awesome in the museum and Alayna actually took a 20-30 minute catnap in the stroller. Everytime we were about to go we would look at each other and say "are you ready to go?" or "I'm ready if you are" and we just kept playing and pushing on. When we got to the little spot where there was a train track...you could push a button to hear the sound of a train coming closer and closer. Poor little Bradley & Alexander thought the train was actually going to come and they kept waiting and waiting.........and the train never came. They would keep looking or going back to that spot and waiting........Neither one of us really had the heart to tell them that the train was never going to come so we headed to the train room so they could see the electric ones instead. It was one of those mommy moments like Ooohhhhh........

So the adventure continued because we still didn't want to go home and YES, we were starving to say the least. We thought about going to this little cafe and quickly realized it was a little too fancy for us and just envisioned us all sitting in the middle of the resturaunt with a fancy chandlier on top of all of us. I don't know... I could just see Bradley sling shotting something at it and it falling on all of our heads. So what do we do.....we go and tear up a mexican resturaunt. I imagine what was going thru everyones head as we take our 4 kids in tow. The screams of Alaynas had me nervous to be interuppting everyone's lunch so I just kept throwing gerber puffs at her and realized when we were leaving she really wasn't eating too much just throwing them overboard. I still feel guilty about that mess. I just wanted to quickly escape. Aw yes, and the hiccups....Sue, couldn't even talk and between me mimicking her and laughing at the same time and that dreaded cackle that I inherited from my mom (sorry mom) once I really got going was enough to top the cake. She looks at me and says "don't you ever get the hiccups?" and I was like "of course I do" but I was thinking to myself "but certainly not like that" Has anyone heard Sue hiccup??

And continued.... to the light boat.....or whatever it was....Now Bradley screamed the whole walk there because he was "itchy" which is a story in itself... so off with the shirt...but they wouldn't let him in the other museum without a shirt.....Well then it's 100 degrees and Sue has Alexander in a long sleeve sweatshirt thing so his shirt was off by then too.

Sue saved me from being hauled off to the Portsmouth jail "(which might not have been so bad being it had a perfect view of the water like she had pointed out earlier) Anyway, I paniced as we were going out of the parking lot "Cash only" for parking....oh shoot I forgot about saving cash for parking....Sue says..."do ya'll take checks?" Yes, ma'am....YES!!!! we were free to go. Thanks a million Sue!!

Spontaneous days of just forgetting the normal routines turn out to be some of the best days (sometimes....but you have to be willing to risk it...right moms, which in our case it just worked) and at the end of it all we both realized it was just what we both needed. We had intervals of quiet moments to share heart thoughts and moments of laughing hysterically at the comical moments our kids can bring ...and ourselves for that matter. Sue does a great job at putting up with my quirky airheaded PMS moments and I think I do a good job at keeping her focused on one conversation at a time. Hmmm...No rabbit trailing allowed please!!! HA!

Friendships are priceless and each one adds something different and unique to our life when we allow it to take root. I say it's like a garen...no one flower is the same and each one has a uniqueness and beauty that adds so much to make it a beautiful place. There's is something to give and something to take away. Here's to all the friendships in our life whether they are near or far whether they are old or new that the Lord continues to grow and bless them all.

Girl Crazy? Not my little boy....

We all know that one day our sweet little boys that only have eyes for their mommas are going to grow up and yes of course notice girls etc.....But that's forever away right!? Well I've had a few panic moments thinking that it is happening too soon.....Anyway, the first incident happened a few months ago. Bradley had swimming lessons back then and we were in the dressing room changing and I caught him staring at this little girl waiting for her sister. She was sitting there minding her own business reading her book. So Bradley is inching his way closer to her just mesmerized. He then motioned to his little buddy Diego and says "Diego come here!!!" and he was quite demanding about it. I guess so Diego could stare at her too. The girl looks at him and Bradley says "Hi" in a shy little voice...she is polite and says "hi" back. Well that was that, I didn't make a big deal...just observed.....We get in the truck and I say "Bradley, why were you staring at that girl?" and he says "because she was so beautiful and looks like a princess" I was like "OH MY!!" She was a very pretty little girl for sure, with long blonde curly hair and big blue eyes. But he's not suppose to notice that yet. Is he? Next story...Bradley is always out playing with his little buddies Ben and Abbey. Abbey is the type that crawls in the dirt with the boys looking for frogs and bugs (which by the way last night the little tree frog that she was holding jumped out of her hands and stuck to my leg and I let out a yelp the whole neighborhood heard) I think I scared her to death. That's besides the point....anyways my house is always full of flies because I leave my door open alot and she always wants me to pull my blinds up so she can kill them with her hand like a little indian child. Well, Bradley has now found great fun in this as well. The other day he so flirtatiously runs up to Abbey in a sweet little voice and says "Abbey, I killed two flies for you" and opens his little paw and there are two dead flies in his hand and she's like "whatever" Well, he's been acting funny around her lately so that night as we are getting ready for bed I ask him "Bradley, do you think Abbey is cute and he says again in a shy little voice "Aw mommy, she is so adorable" so then I say what about Brynne and he says "oh, she's adorable too" I'm thinking ok, that's why he blew the applesauce in her hair because maybe that's a 4 year old way to flirt. He probably thought by giving Abbey those flies she would like him better knowing how much she loves bugs. Who knows, I just left it at that. I didn't want to entertain the thought, just wanted to confirm my suspicion. It's a long way to go but I just can't even think of my little boy growing up. I tell him all the time that I have special medicine that I'm going to give him so he will stay little forever and sometimes he says "oh no you won't, I'll just run from you", and we get all silly about it or if he's in a sweet mood he'll say "don't worry mommy even when I'm big like daddy, I will still sit on your lap." That's all I need to hear. Nothing like making him feel guilty for growing up right?!. Craig assures me this is all normal and that he kissed a girl at 5 and I was like "oh no, not like father, like son in this case" Anyway, this story is more for me to remember, but someone may get a kick out of it.

Time With Grandma & Grandpa

This past week we had a wonderful fun filled week with Craig's Dad, his wife Barb who we adopted long ago as Grandma... better known as "Ma Barry" They came down from New York and stayed with us. Along with them came her daughter who is Auntie Lindsay who played so much with Alayna and of course Alayna loved every minute of it and soaked up all of the attention. Lindsay was so good with her. They also brought a little girl Destiny who is 7 that lives with them and on the way they stopped in Maryland and picked up Craig's brother's little girl Brynne who is also 7. Needless to say we had a full house but there was never a dull moment and the kids had a great time with Grandpa and Grandma. They all love the Beach so we spent a few afternoons there and Bradley couldn't get enough of playing with Grandpa in the waves. I know he completely wore him out but he never resisted Bradley's desperate pleas of "Grandpa please come back out in the waves with me."

Bradley is so into Board games now...candyland, chutes & ladders, memory ect...I don't know how many games of memory Grandpa played with Bradley but it gave me a game break and Bradley loved the chance to beat someone else. Although, I don't know how many games Grandpa actually let him win. Anyway he was loving it for sure! Thanks Grandpa for the fun time!

Barb and I chatted the whole time like there was never anytime between us since the last time we seen each other. As usual she had me laughing like crazy with all of her life adventures and true life stories. Half the time my mouth was open in shock at the humor she displays in her stories. I love it!!! I know she thinks I tire of listening to her, but I love you Barb. I tell her I like people who talk alot because I like to listen better anyway:)

We had dinner one night at the Lucky Oyster and my lovely little boy who I swear is going to grow up as a comedian. To those of you who don't know how Bradley can really be.... well.... you just need to spend more time with us. Our dinner came and Bradley got applesauce as a side and he was sucking it up with his straw and he turned to his cousin Brynne and decided he was going to blow the applesauce in her hair. Ha ha ha!!! Well, that ended up with a trip to the truck for discipline to say the least. She wasn't too happy with him. When she first got here she told me right off the get go that she just knew Bradley was going to get on her nerves... and he sure did. On top of that he thought it was funny to keep calling her "stinky head" Once again discipline for Bradley....Hmmm... do you still want your kids hanging out with mine? He's not mean, he just plain thinks he's funny!!

We did try to get a whole group picture, but Bradley was crying, Brynne wouldn't get in the picture and no one else was looking so......I guess that speaks for itself. We just chalked it up to everone being too tired to function properly. We did manage to get some other good ones though.

Bruce to the rescue.....During the storm that we had while they were here something got hit that caused our router and modem to fry and due to Bruce's computer mastermind he was able to figure it out and get us up and running in no time. Thanks to you Bruce for your intelligence with computers and getting everything back in working order for us. You know we are both computer illiterate.. no doubt.

All in all, we had a great week catching up since we don't see each other often and making new memories.

Twin Lakes State Park

Well our camping trip this weekend was a success!!! We had never been to Twin Lake State Park before and it was beautiful!! This only thing we didn't care for was how the campsites were set up. Not very private at all...but the rest of the park was perfect. From the minute we got there Bradley was out of the truck collecting rocks with his truck and gumballs (that's what we call those weird round brown things with the little pokers coming out of them) Not sure how many of those rocks Alayna ate but as she poops the next few days we'll see. HA! Now that she is more mobile she was eating all kinds of nature. She just couldn't resist. We kept making the icky sound and we said it so much she would try to copy it...Too Cute!!

Each morning we enjoyed Craig's signature bacon and eggs and ended each evening with a campfire and toasting marshmallows. The kids slept great and had us raring to go by 7am each day. There is just something about being out in the middle of the woods with your family taking a break from the all too consuming technology...tv, cell phones ect... We took hikes, swam in the fresh water lake, which brought back memories for Craig and I. Growing up both our Grandparents owned lake homes up in Northern Wisconsin and we both thought the smell of the lake was just the same. It was so refreshing! Bradley of course was obsessed with fishing. He thinks that's all camping is. That's all he wanted to do and it didn't matter that he didn't catch anything. I think he just likes the casting part. It was a constant "look mommy, watch me" "daddy, did you see how far I casted? "do you think I'll catch a fish now?"

It was so funny...camping in the 3 sites next to us was a whole family...some of those deep southern talkin folks. They had a ton of kids....I didn't know it at the time but 2 came over and I gave them some m&ms and oh my word they started coming out of everywhere! The 2 I'm sure ran back to tell the others and here they come. Everytime I brought the food out they were like... "can I have some of that?" Bradley played with them almost the whole time and by the end of the weekend he was copying their southern drawl to a tee. It was hysterical!! I was like..."where'd ya learn to talk like that?" We had to kindly shoo them away a few times because they just took ownership of our spot. It was a hoot to listen to their little lingo. I wish I could recap it all in a blog.

The squirrels were everywhere!! One time when we were coming back from swimming we seen a squirrel running off into the woods with a plastic bag and I was like "what was that?" Bradley starts screaming "THOSE ARE MY FAVORITE COOKIES!!!!" One of the little scavengers got into our backpack and stole his cookies. I told Bradley I'd get him some more and this morning he's still asking when I'm going to get his cookies. Was he that traumatized or just plain spoiled rotten? Hmmm......

I'd be lying if I told you that it wasn't at times hard work camping with two little ones but more than not it is relaxing and a great way to get good quality time together and it is so worth it just to enjoy all the precious moments of watching your children play and just focusing on them and each other without any distractions. So to all of you contemplating going, I'd say go for it!!! You won't regret it. Trust me I'm not fond of bugs, snakes and spiders in the sleeping bag either but if I can do, you can too!!!! Sometimes it's nice to just throw on a hat and no make up for a few days, but today I was glad to feel like a human again. Hey Jayne, if you are reading this... I bet I was a sight for sore eyes running threw Walmart like a wild animal with Bradley running behind me like a little banchy trying to keep up as I was buying food for our trip on Friday HA!

Alayna Finally Did It

My little lazy bones finally did it!! Good for her and busy for mommy. One part of me was anxious for her to crawl because of her frustration and the other part of me wasn't ready for my world to change. She's been scooting on her butt for awhile. For the past few days she would get up on all fours and attempt to go for it and would move one hand and one knee but then fall back on her bottom and flap her little wings 100 miles an hour and scream or roll on her back. She just knew there was more to life than sitting. Well today it was official although she's not all over the house yet. She's content to stay in one room. Along with that she's been pulling herself up on things for the past 2 days and has her first black and blue mark from pulling up on a two tier table and loosing her handling and knocked the side of her face. Poor baby could hardly catch her breath she cried so hard. So as she gets more brave and ventures out into other parts of the house I too will be baby proofing my house in a hurry!! YIKES!! You could tell she was so proud of herself once she realized what she was doing and so was mommy!!

An Evening On The Beach

We love just hanging out on the beach in the evenings and have found ourselves doing that quite alot. Last night was one of those nights....Alayna usually just sits in her stroller enjoying the walk along the ocean front and will usually fall asleep while Craig and I take turns chasing Bradley up the Beach playing tag. He loves it and along the way we find ourselves tumbling into the water. Bradley who is suppose to be my little protector always wants daddy to "get mommy" and soak her. Alayna wasn't quite as content last night so we found ourselves leaving a little sooner than we wanted and as we were about to head out there was a magic show that was about to start...well Bradley absolutely loved it and Alayna changed her sassy little attitude and was laughing and clapping at the show. It was so cute!! It was amazing to watch! The whole way home Craig and I were trying to figure out how they did their tricks but put it to rest because we just couldn't. Oh well....Anyway, we were thankful that an evening that almost ended too early ended up being great fun!!