As I said before, baseball is our sport of the summer. This is happy news for me. I understand baseball and I like baseball. Previous summers we would coach/play soccer and I didn't know what I was doing. It was probably apparent to the parents who watched me coach and saw that I was more clueless than their kid out on the field. Soccer is a great sport and all, but I prefer the all American sport.

We have been trying to fit in here, so we have been following the Boston Red Sox this year. It would be great to get to a game but we will never get to a Red Sox game due to seats being hard to come by and the cost of the seats that would be available. We can still pretend we are at the game though. Last night R.C. and I pulled on our baseball shirts and we all wore our Boston hats and turned the game on. We yelled and cheered as loud as we could until the very end. Max kept asking for peanuts but unfortunately I did not have any for him. This doesn't seem like anything too exciting, but we had a great night.

Russell was watching the game but was more interested in drawing.

It really was a great time. Don't let their faces fool you!

Max took this lovely close up of me. There were about 34 extremely close ups and in most I was making crazy faces as I cheered. There is a reason I am on the taking end of pictures. :)

Talk about a relaxing night.

Before my day had a chance to begin, I was a failure.

Before I could even get the coffee made I had Russell on the verge of tears and Maxwell was obviously concerned that he too would feel this same sadness that Russell was feeling at some point in the near future. I like to try to start the day off with happy kids and accept when we have a steady decline in attitudes until bed time, but today we started off at a very low point. Tears, or almost tears, is not how any mother wants their child to start the day, but when Russell emerged from his bedroom this morning his eyes were filling with tears.

"My tooth is still in the pillow..."

SHOOT! Now I understand why I couldn't sleep last night! I was so angry when it was 2:00 am and I was still awake, and I was even more angry when I finally did fall asleep only be awoken for no apparent reason at 5:00 am. (Or it could have been the espresso at 8:30 pm...) Obviously my mind wouldn't let me rest because it knew I was supposed to play Tooth Fairy last night and deposit a quarter into the pocket on Russell's tooth pillow...but I forgot.

I talked my (or rather the Tooth Fairy's) way out of it, but I still know that I failed last night. The Tooth Fairy will be stopping by tonight and hopefully we will wake up happy tomorrow.

Mom/Tooth Fairy: 0

Last week, before our guests came, the boys and I headed to the beach with some friends while R.C. tried to catch up a bit in his studio. This was a beach that we had never been to, but our friends knew the kids would have a good time and they did. It was a beach with a park also so the kids could splash around in the water a bit and then go play on the playground until they got hot and then go splash some more. What more could you ask for?

I keep writing and writing and writing and deleting and deleting and deleting. There is so much to tell and I don't want to keep you all day so here it is in quick form:

• Shane came to visit on Thrusday
• Took Shane to the beach
• Our wonderful little car hit 100,000 miles!!
  
• We all played in the huge waves and got ice cream
• R.C. and Shane went to the Paw Sox game
• Melissa spent the night painting the apartment upstairs
  
• Chris came on Saturday
• Melissa and Chris spent the day out at the outlet mall
• Chris, Melissa and boys went to the beach
• R.C. and Melissa finished painting the upstairs apartment
  
• R.C. helped the new tenant move in
• Rainy day spent mostly at home
• Weather cleared up so we could enjoy a seafood supper on the water
• Russell lost a tooth!

It has been such a great week having both Shane and Chris come to visit!! Thanks guys for such a fun couple of days!

Get ready folks...
Good grief!! This boy is growing up way too fast! This is his 3rd tooth lost and thankfully I can already see his "big boy tooth" coming in so he won't be toothless for too long!

Catching up on odds and ends:

Our sport of the summer is --- baseball. R.C. has been teaching the boys how to play catch and it seems Russell is a natural (so long as he keeps focused on the ball and not on something in the sky that he is certain is a UFO.). Maxwell was interested the first couple of times playing, but has lost interest. Most evenings we head to the park so R.C. and Russell can play catch and Max and I play at the playground. Russell received his first black eye a few weeks ago due to not watching the ball. Since that episode he has done a much better job watching the ball. His throw is fantastic though!! The boys are enjoying watching some games with R.C. in the evening and listening to the games in the car. We are hoping to get to a Paw Sox game before summer is over and R.C. and I were able to play a game of catch the other night as the boys played at the park. I was pleased to show R.C. my hidden talent of baseball after all these years. I had the disadvantage of using a kids glove, but was still able to out throw and out catch my dear husband. I'm not one to brag, but come on, when you're good, you're good.... (hahaha)As Russell is working on his ball skills, Max and I enjoy the playground where he has finally mastered the "fireman's pole". He was so proud of himself when he was finally able to go down without me holding him and he proceeded to go down the pole at least 20 times until he was invited into a game of tag with a little girl playing on the playground also.

We received a package from Korea a few weeks ago (I know, I'm really behind in blogging...) that had little things for the boys, along with some Korean chocolate and treats. One of the favorite items (aside from the elephant watering can you can see in beach pictures in previous postings) was a pair of soft gloves that we assume you are supposed to use in the shower/bath. Max, however, felt they work best on his feet. He loves wearing them on his feet so he looks like a frog and was taking a picture of them himself when I took a picture of him.

This morning Maxwell brought me the dry erase board and said he "did something".
That's right!! Max wrote PET all by himself and when I asked him what he wrote, he told me, "pet". Yippee!! He wrote it and he knew what he wrote!! Preschool here we come!!

The 4th of July. The day that Americans celebrate their independence. People get excited to wear a flag shirt, hat, shorts or even in some cases a flag bikini (why people do this I may never know). All kids get excited to see fireworks, hold a sparkler, and sing some American anthems. All kids that is, except my 2 little boys. All they cared about was seeing Spiderman. We woke up early to go to the Bristol, RI 4th of July parade. This particular parade has been held since 1785 and is the oldest continuous Independence Day celebration in the United States. We walked a little over a mile to find the perfect (only) standing spot to watch the parade go by. The boys stood in their matching Spiderman shirts unimpressed with much of the parade. The only time Russell felt the urge to wave/clap/look alive was when a cute girl waved at him from a float. Tell me that time is not here already!!? Soon our long wait was over and the man of the hour (or 3 hours) walked past. That was it. He walked past, the boys watched with their mouths hanging open, gave a little giggle, and then it was over.

They stood like this through almost the entire parade. Their shirts are the same, their hands are the same, their hair is the same, their stance is the same. They are such great boys!!

The reason we went to the parade...

Pirates!

Later that evening the Anderson family came to town and we headed down to WaterFire on the canal. It was a beautiful evening and we stayed downtown until 11:00ish. With 5 kids, that's really pushing our luck, but attitudes were good and I'm sure it felt nice to stretch their legs after such a long car ride.
The rest of their visit was spent doing the normal "visitor" activities (you will see, if you come, that we do the same thing with everyone! Next week we have a visitor coming who has already been here once, so we will have to come up with something new....stay tuned.)
We enjoyed a walk to the park and a couple of laps around the track. We had a picnic at the RISD beach (could not swim due to contamination from all the storms) and ran around the field for a few hours. The next day we went to the beach and relaxed in the sun and played in the water all afternoon. Our day at the beach was followed by strawberry picking and a lobster dinner. A good visit from the Andersons. It was great to be able to see Christopher before he is deployed and see how all the girls are growing.

Christopher and Quinn after a run around the track with Alannah and Alyssa bringing up the rear. Yes, little Quinn was trying to (and doing a good job) keep up with the big kids on the track.

Stacia and Russell coming around the last turn...

Chris bouncing the kids on the bridge.

Maxwell and R.C...

Alyssa and Alannah playing in the sand.

Russell trying to bury himself.

It was hard to get a picture of all 5 kids at the same time, but this one is pretty good...

As we all know, kids say that darnedest things. Let me share with you just a few quotes that were said during the past week.

"Sometimes life goes wrong" -- Maxwell

"I smell fruit snacks. Wait, mom, I think it's you. You smell like fruit snacks, but don't worry I don't eat human fruit snacks." -- Russell

(looking up at a bird house mounted to a tree out back) "Is that a pencil sharpener?" -- little neighbor boy

Neighbor kid:"What are you grilling?"
Me: "chicken"
Neighbor kid: "what kind of chicken?"
R.C.: "grilled chicken" (duh)
Neighbor kid: "yeah, I know, but it smells like chicken."
HUH!!???

neighbor boys: " You grew up in Illinois?"
R.C.: "Yes"
Me: "I grew up in Wisconsin"
neighbor boys: " So you guys were in different states? Aren't Illinois and Wisconsin close to each other?"
R.C.: "Yes, they are close to one another."
neighbor boys: "So is that how you met? You were just driving down the road and saw each other and were like, hi, let's get married."
Other neighbor boy: "dating sounds easy".

The weather has finally warmed up and the rain clouds have gone away. Last week we went to the RISD beach twice.

The first day was cloudy and we ended up leaving earlier than we would have liked due to thunder and rain moving in. We decided to head back to the beach the next day also and what a great idea that was!! It was a beautiful day. We could not have asked for a more perfect beach day! It was not windy, the water was warm and the boys were ready to swim. During the 2 days we spent on the beach we found several horseshoe crabs and a jelly fish which made the boys very excited. Of course you know that horseshoe crabs were around during the time of the dinosaurs so Russell was just beyond happy to find these. He was very sad when I told him he could not take one home with him. Sorry, but I wasn't too thrilled with the idea of riding home with a huge, dead, stinky, crab in the back of my car!

Max trying to swim

Russell and the horseshoe crab he wanted to take home.

Wading through the water to get to another part of the beach...

These boys are like little fish! They haven't caught on to actual swimming strokes yet (we're working on that), but they are not afraid of the water or any of the muck that floats up now and then. Each time that we go to the beach Maxwell tells us, "I am not afraid of the deep sea!" as he runs up and down the sand as fast as his little legs can go. We look forward to others coming to visit so you can join us on a beach outing.

For the past week we have been spending non-stop family time (aside from 1 day when R.C. went to the studio for the afternoon) together. We have been doing very normal things (grocery shopping, the library, the kids gym, etc.), but things that are fun now that R.C. is able to do them with us.

Today we spent our day at Mystic Seaport (again). It was a beautiful day! Perfect for walking around, having a picnic, and smelling the salty sea air. We saw many new things today that we did not see when we were there a few months ago. One of the most exciting things we saw was a jelly fish. As we were peering over the side of a large ship we had boarded, R.C. spotted this great jelly fish swimming between the ship and the dock. After watching it for several minutes we moved on and had a good (yet discrete) laugh at a man eating a fancy sandwich, dressed up as a pirate, sitting on a boat tied to the shore. We enjoyed playing some "sea games" in the discovery center and got our free coffee and lemonade in the members lounge.

Once again, I give you too many pictures....

Russell looks very confident steering the ship, but too bad he can't see where he's going...

On board one of the ships

Every little boat we would come across Max would climb in and try to row.

They had great sound effects for the canon.

All of us as we were taking a snack break on a dock.

If you can enlarge this one, please do. Max's face is priceless.

Playing at the "park"

Our sailors

The seas were rough this day!

And of course...we finished the day with an ice cream cone.

After such a great day we were sad to come home and find out that Michael Jackson had passed away today. Sure, he made some pretty bad choices on certain things during his life, but you can't say he wasn't a wonderful musician and dancer. I know in this house he was a favorite. I can not count the times that the boys have requested Thriller or PYT or Black or White for our "clean up music" or (yes I will mention it again) our daily dancing. In fact, I have a video of Russell dancing to a Michael Jackson song, Max dancing to a Michael Jackson song, and even R.C. dancing to a Michael Jackson song (oh how I would LOVE to post this for all to see, but I have been kindly told that it is not in my best interest to do so). Yes, even I dance to Michael Jackson, although there is no video to prove it. He was also my first celebrity crush that I can remember. I know that my sister (Carrie) had a bigger crush on him than I did, but oh how I loved looking at a sticker we had of him where he was posing with a llama and his face was painted with clown makeup. I mean, come on! If that doesn't scream pre-teen heartthrob I don't know what does! (ha ah ha)

Here is just a sample of pictures from our trip. This is only a few of the fun times we had. I did not get my camera out soon enough to capture much of our Greenville part of the trip, and then my camera battery died shortly after we arrived in Wisconsin so I did not get all the pictures I wanted.

A special picture for Aunt Jenny. Guess were we ate Jenny?

The boys helped Grandma Sayler make a special cake. The idea was taken from a famous family who also made this cake, but Grandma Sayler did not yell once when the boys snitched the fruit. Unlike the mother on this certain TV show. :)

Maxwell making cookies with Grandma Polka. Once again, lots of snitching was going on...

Climbing the "M"

Max trying to look tough at the children's museum

Chasing calves. Also meeting Carrie, John, and Grace's new puppy, Hershey.

At the zoo. Aunt Chrissy was more afraid of walking under the bird than the boys.

Cuties

We also got to see Grace take her first steps on her own, and I assure you, she is much cuter than the creepy man on the building downtown!

This weekend we have been unpacking and just relaxing. Tomorrow we are back to the real world. Back to the grocery store. Back to the gym. Back to timeouts (if necessary). Back to the studio for R.C.. Back to blogging.

We are home.

The trip was a great success.

There are too many stories to tell/remember. (I know I will forget something and offend someone if I try to tell stories. So I will not even try. Just know we had a great time!)

We are so happy we got to see everyone that we did, and sorry if we missed seeing you this time around.

The boys loved their plane ride home. This was their first flying trip and they got complements on both flights from the people sitting around us. They were told that they were such well behaved boys that people didn't even know their were kids sitting there. GREAT JOB BOYS! The most eventful part of the trip was sprinting through the Chicago airport as we only had 20 min. to switch planes (I swear they dropped us off as far from the gate we needed to get to as possible! Ugh!!). I was impressed at how quick the boys were and how they didn't complain about the speed at which we had to move. They did stop dead in their tracks for just a split second when we came upon a HUGE brontosaurus skeleton. After correctly identifying and yelling out the name of it we were off and running again. The second we got to our gate, they announced it was running 20 minutes late (which ended up being much later than that!). All that rushing for nothing, but we now had time to rest and have a granola bar before boarding. Flying was a breeze with these 2. Even the turbulence we hit was enjoyable. The boys put their hands in the air and pretended they were on a roller coaster.
It's great to see R.C. again! After 2+ weeks away from him, the boys were more than happy to see dad. R.C. was kind enough to go to the grocery store the day before we arrived (he got home a day before us) and got the necessities so we could just go home and relax together.
The kids on the block are happy we (mainly R.C.) are back. As we took the boys out to ride scooters this evening one of the boys came over to "chat". Soon he yelled down the street to his friends that, "R.C. is home!!" and we were swarmed by a group of about 7 boys showing skateboard tricks they have been working on while other little kids came and rode scooters with the boys.
Let the summer noise (I mean fun) begin...

(pictures to come later)

If you have a floor to sweep, this is your man. He does a great job!! Be prepared though, to see him sweeping fully clothed one second, and stripped to his undies the next...

And, likewise, If you have a toilet that needs cleaning call Max. He has been cleaning toilets since he was 1 1/2 years old, so he has years (almost 2 years!!) of experience. He also cleans in his undies.

This is the kind of silly crowd I run with.