sliding back home

we're back from vacation in michigan. we had a blast and will post more pics from our trip soon!

totter otterville

went to totter otterville this week with holly, owen, and caroline. the kids had a great time! otto spent about half his time in the ball pit, just pretending he was a baseball player and throwing ball after ball. greta enjoyed the dance area, where she was able to put on a tutu and follow along to a ballet instructor video. now that i think about it, it's funny that i paid for them to come and do these things....this is what they do at home!
here are the kids in the dressup area. i particularly like otto's purse.

camping

we had been talking of camping for a while. not that we are wilderness folks, but we definitely did a ton more camping before we had kids. and needless to say, our two person tent wasn't going to cut it anymore. so the kids got joe a 6 person tent for father's day....he upgraded to an 8 person tent and off we went.
we decided to do a trial run at a place closer to home before venturing out somewhere. we headed up to hueston woods for our first (of many, hopefully) camping trips. it was so much fun. we hiked, we swam and played at the lake, we roasted hot dogs and made smores. the kids were dirty and sweaty and loving every minute of it. well, mostly. selma, it turns out, does not really prefer sleeping in a tent. she had a hard time, which made for a pretty sleepless night for joe and me. but greta and otto slept like champs. will we do it again? definitely. will we wait til selma's a bit older? possibly.
all in all, it was a great time. every time we take on a new adventure, i realize how flexible and resilient our kids are. and how fun. they threw rocks in the creek, stepped around goose poop at the beach, cooked their own hot dogs, and got dirt under every finger and toenail. it was nice to step away from regular life for a bit and just enjoy each other.

puddle jumping

nothing better than jumping in the puddles with your rainboots on. the kids had such fun, and i loved watching them.....

take it away!

it's a running theme around here, but our kids are definitely a little obsessed with baseball. otto especially. they study their baseball cards, they turn any toy into a bat and ball and run the bases, and they love singing "take me out to the ballgame" and "God bless america." here is the latest rendition. the video is a little long. notice how otto totally hams it up for his audience.

listen here selma!

highchair

selma has recently joined us around the table in her new highchair! she's not eating food yet (6 months), but she likes to sit and play with toys and drool over our food and laugh at greta and otto. what a big girl!