{labor-less}

we enjoyed a fun and relaxing Labor Day weekend. a final summer trip to the lake...a day and a half of sun and crazy heat...and another day of cool rain (and non-typical lake fun!). then we headed home a bit early on monday and enjoyed a fun picnic and park playing time.

luke loves his poppy



enjoying "poppy"-sicles ;)

decorating a playhouse! :)


homemade beignets...kate couldn't wait!


the girls had a mani/pedi "train" :)

and some glimpses of our fun at the park! :)

messy fun

what better to do on a sunday while watching some of our favorite friends...how about pull out the paint and suncatchers...and, of course, a whole bunch of water for clean-up! :)



the whole crew


a careful elizabeth....


...contrasted by a not so careful (but really happy) jilly


fun clean-up time! :)

true love ;-)

luke and his lady friend, anna :)

applicious :)

the kiddos and i made our first orchard trip of the season a couple weeks ago...it was gorgeous morning, and they'd just started picking honeycrisp--my very favorite apples, especially freshly picked. :) the girls were fabulous picking helpers and thoroughly enjoyed running through the acres and acres of apple trees (and we even picked some raspberries--yum!). luke enjoyed taking it all in...hard to believe that by next year he will be running right along with his sisters, picking and eating as many apples as he can!

2

oh my, what craziness a year can bring...both laughter and hard times...and jillian, you have been right at the center of it all. we've gone through two hospital stays, a couple ER visits, and a LOT of laughter, snuggles, spunk, and fearlessness. jillian, you are a gift...a treasure...our little adventurer. you are always right there, keeping up with your sisters....and sometimes blowing right past them. you climb, you swim, you run, you live your little two year old life to the fullest. and while you surely love and try to keep up with your big sisters, you are totally loving your baby brother...every morning i get you out of bed, and the very first thing you do is say, "uke" (luke) and run toward his room. i can't wait to see how the two of you grow in friendship in the coming years.

jillian, you are bursting out of your "shell"...although, to be honest, you've never had a shell...you've always been pretty sweet and spunky...but the words are coming, and with them, the massive dose of personality. you love to dance to music...sneak into markers and pens (and anything else you know isn't yours--hehe!)...eat grapes (i mean, really, kiddo, you could eat grapes all day...and you like any and every other fruit equally...and beans and olives...odd, but true). your little bobbling ponytail head...your gorgeous, big blue eyes...your infectious smile and giggle...your wiggling, waddling, jiggly run...you are too incredibly sweet. we love you. we cannot wait to see you grow and learn and become the woman God has created you to be.


"hey y'all! where's the cake?!" alternately titled, "yep, i'm FULL of personality!"


there it is...happy birthday to me!




she seriously started out by eating ONE sprinkle at a time...too funny


then she moved on to the fork (love the birthday girl's shirt from grandma and grandpa)


...and finally...after the sprinkle by sprinkle and fork approach, she went for the "pick it up and jam it in" method :)


YUM!


present time


weebles! (and, yes, mommy did score these as an amazing deal...and we now have a weeble empire in our living room!)


and yes...i DID wrap the houses in trash bags...what can i say, i'm resourceful ;)...or maybe better said, i completely ran out of time and didn't want to drag all four kiddos with me to the store for gift bags or wrapping paper :)


whee!


the big girls had just as much fun playing with jilly's presents


first luke watched from the saucer


...but eventually he got in on the action...oh this picture makes me smile, all four of my babies...together..."playing"...and can you see my hand and iPod on the right...we were FaceTiming with grandmommy and poppy, letting them get in on the action.

it was low-key, but oh what a sweet little birthday celebration we enjoyed tonight...

HAPPY BIRTHDAY JILLY!

scenes from a saturday

my little artists


pitas...all rolled out and ready to pop in the oven


puffed up and ready...these puppies are seriously tasty.

we had freshly baked pitas, grilled "gyro" steak (steak in a mediterranean marinade), feta, tomatoes, homemade tzatziki sauce, and olives...yum!


daddy manning the grill...actually waiting for the coals to heat...see the swimsuits drying on the picnic table...we also enjoyed a fun family swim, and the girls are getting so brave. elizabeth is popping all the way under the water and practicing her swimming skills more and more!


and for dessert we made beignets...here's the dough rolled out and cut up


we don't use it much, but sometimes the occasion calls for the fryer :)


here they are...in all their puffed up powdered sugary glory...seriously, these were so tasty....from scratch definitely beats box/bag mix any day...i think we'll be making a tradition of beignets....maybe even some beignet mornings where we invite friends over! :)


yum


and ending the day with a freshly bathed, snuggly luke is always fun!

{buddies}

big sisters and their thomas pj wearing baby brother...kate is beyond excited about luke's jammies.


elias, caleb, elizabeth, aiden, and kate at the YMCA playland


my favorite is sweet jilly just chillin' on the other side

checkin' out the animals at the zoo...
elizabeth, kate, caleb, aiden, elias, and jilly (luke and anna are hiding)


watching the dolphin show


jilly and her buddy the worm bike...sweet girlie tries so hard to keep up with her sisters...just truckin' along on her wormie


the tater-sack from daddy

emmett and jilly playing trains :)

luke giving his friend rilla the "hey baby" suave look :)

while luke and rilla posed for pics the girls were merrily playing with rilla's sister maureen (one of jilly's bestest buddies)


the best kind of buddies...sisters. they are totally on a coloring kick lately...i don't even know how many coloring books and boxes of crayons we've gone through in the past couple weeks


umm...sweetness.


and the daddy and son buddy-ness. :)