Big News!

Our family is growing!  I am almost 10 weeks along and due March 26, and we had the first ultrasound today.  We had not told the kids about the baby yet, but they got to come along and it was really fun to see Eleanor's reaction.  She was definitely excited and she kept calling it "the cute little grape baby".  "Mama, look at that cute little grape baby!  It is soooooo cute!"  The baby moved a little bit while we were watching and she kept asking me if that hurt me.  Of course, I can't even feel it at this point!

Eleanor really really wants this baby to be a girl.  If it is, she thinks we should name it Elly or Ella...because that wouldn't be confusing with Eleanor as a sister!  Hah!  And if it's a boy, she thinks we should name him Poopasaurus "because babies poop a lot."  She cracks me up.  My favorite part is that she kept asking me throughout the day if I love the baby.  Sweet, sweet girl.

Arthur's reaction was, of course, a bit more subdued since he is pretty oblivious to the whole thing.  When we asked him if he thought the baby would be a baby boy or a baby girl, he said, "Baby tortoise?"  (In his defense, we did actually see 6 baby tortoises this morning that had just hatched.  It was so amazing!)

Just a word about the picture...  I have to admit that I didn't come up with the idea myself, but I found it on Pinterest.  I saw a lot of ideas that have kids holding/wearing something with a 1, a 2, and then a 3 on the mom's belly, but of course Eleanor was not my first so I didn't want to go that route.  Getting this picture was not easy because Arthur kept holding his sign to face the sky, but they really did such a great job.  Of course, candy may or may not have been offered as a bribe...  ;)

Catching up

Summertime fun at the fountains

(Arthur was not a fan)

Birthday girl!  4 years old!

Her only birthday request: red fairy wings

We went to a sea turtle release at the Barrier Island Center in Melbourne Beach, and Eleanor got to help paint a new mural

Buela came to visit!

Hunter made Arthur his own chair to match his sister's.  I love that he can now get in his chair by himself instead of begging me to lift him into the high chair while I am trying to prepare food.

He was SO happy to sit in his chair the first time!

First day of VPK!

(Pre-K, K4, whatever you want to call it)

Arthur LOVES to water the plants.  He was trying to figure out how to squirt water into the watering can.

Way too many shots of this, but how cute is he?!

Eleanor's 4th birthday party

Eleanor really wanted a bounce house Angry Birds party, so we had it at this place that's like a giant indoor playground

Her amazing cake!

(I definitely did not make this!)

Arthur enjoys driving a police car and holding a plastic tortilla at the same time.

Sweet Evan playing with trains

Playing with animals

Best attempt at a group shot

Eleanor got to sit on the parachute while we spun her around and sang "Happy Birthday."  She was one happy girl!

Singing "Angry bird-day to you", per her request

Little brothers and cake!  I think Arthur is looking at the balloons.

Opening presents

July fun

How do you get siblings to cuddle?  Apparently you leave an old blanket lying on the floor.

He LOVES to "cook"

Watching Daddy mow the lawn

I came up with this one day for Arthur because he loves cooking so much, and both kids really enjoyed playing with it.  I just gave them a small bowl of water, some flour, some spoons and measuring cups, and the muffin tin.  They "baked" all kinds of stuff.

 Attempting to jump on the trampoline at gymnastics

Monkey bars!  He doesn't quite get the concept of supporting his weight, but he was learning to walk his hands along the bars.

V-sit on the balance beam

They had to step over the little animals - Eleanor did a great job

Balance beam

Walking on the (wide) high beam all by herself!

Arthur loves balance beams too

He is really good at climbing ladders now.  I'm surprise he has never climbed out of his crib - I bet he probably could if he tried, but no complaints here!

Ada's Birthday

It has been 5 years since we said goodbye to Ada.  On July 16, we went back to the place where we scattered her ashes and enjoyed a beautiful morning together.

We had the place to ourselves!

(Of course, it was 6:45 AM!)

Look!  Sea turtle tracks from the water up to the turtle's nest and back to the water!

(And this was actually one of two nests that we saw.)

Eleanor enjoyed being a sea turtle

The turtle nest

Close up of the tracks

She found a feather and was inspired to build a sand castle

Later, some researchers came along and cataloged the nest.  They measure the distance between site of the nest and the waterline, the distance between the nest and the dunes, and then they dug a hole in the nest so they can verify that the turtle did lay eggs.  This was as much as they are allowed to dig it up, and we got to see the eggs!  Then they put a stake in the hole before they covered it up so they can come back later when the babies hatch and count the number of eggs.  This was a Loggerhead turtle nest and the babies should hatch in approximately 52 days.

Being a sea turtle once again...

They loved playing in the water!