Gentle Years

These shots are just of an afternoon at home while PB was taking a nap-she was sick and couldn't get well without some sleep-and the front yard-still with winter hanging on.

One afternoon this week RB and MB came home with us and the older boys refused to come inside.  It was just too nice out to sit on the porch and bask in the March sunlight.

MB stayed inside with me.  Doesn't he look happy?

The pictures really speak for themselves

On Wednesday we got a little over a foot of snow, so school was canceled.  I had already agreed to watch RB and MB for the afternoon so that their parents could make a treacherous drive to their mortgage appointment, and then JC called and asked if I could watch BB while she went snowboarding (our house is on the way to the ski area).  So I had all three boys.  Aidan and RB napped most of the time, which gave me time alone with the little ones.

It is rare and special to have all four kids at the house at once.  Here are some pictures from Sunday-both a morning visit by GB and PB and their children, and then an afternoon visit by RB alone.

Okay, but seriously-the top photos are great grandparents of G-yes, the woman is American Indian; two of his great grandmothers were.

The second photo is of my grandmother-she is the second to youngest girl in the picture.

We've been playing around with old photos and were actually photographing photographs with our camera, hence the flash over my great grandparents' faces.

Now, on to the intended photos:

The weekend actually began with a rainy Thursday night.  We got pizza and rented Madagascar so the boys could see the characters from their Happy Meals.  Also, I dance around the house with them-we all wear different plastic pails on our head-singing, "I Like to Move it, Move it", so they love that tune.

Then there was shopping-tis the season-first for gifts for a great niece's birthday (I think she's turning 13), then for the mundane things like groceries.  Those trips were with Mom, then with PB.

And last, we had BB's christening followed by about a three hour nap!

The boys needed to learn the difference between soft sand and wet sand when it comes to making sand castles, but they didn't need any instruction when it came to throwing a ball back and forth or throwing rocks in the lake.