A Super Strong Train pulling Super a lot!

Our camera is broken!
So, I dug out our old Cannon digital, which I thought could still record video. I was wrong. I only got audio...no video at all. This was so unfortunate because it was a gem of a moment. I was trying to get this clip of Anders playing with an entire line of trains, Thomas the Train in the lead. Thomas is a battery operated train, so he was hauling a freight line of 15 other trains. Anders has been down on the floor playing with this long train all afternoon. He was adorable, saying things like "He is mighty strong!" and other assorted cute phrases which you will hear if you have the patience to listen to and not watch this.

The scene you should imagine is Anders lying on the floor in the bedroom with a row of 16 trains slowing working its way towards him. He is calling them, saying "Come on Thomas, come on Thomas." The trains somehow shift their path and straighten out, to Anders amazement. He then sends them around the corner and into the bathroom, where Anna is sitting next to the bathtub giving Kuba a bath. Anna starts humming The Thomas song, you can hear Kuba saying "Hi Thomas Train" and you can hear the water of the bathtub draining. It segways into a swimming demonstration by Kuba in which he bravely lays in the very shallow tub and dips his head in.

There is something outrageously satisfying about listening to your children!

Scenes from the 85th

We celebrated my dad's 85th birthday last weekend...in a rented house on Keuka Lake. I love that my dad is 85!! Here are some snapshots from the trip- all taken with my sister's camera seeing that our camera is broken. I especially love the ones of the line up of my big barrel chested brothers and dad, and the one of Grandpa and Kuba asleep on the bed, and my 83 year old mother painting a landscape.

Grand Occasion

Anders last day of pre-school for the year was today. Here he is getting his little "diploma." He has one more year of pre-school before kindegarten, which is so hard to believe!

And here he is with his very best friend of all, Stella.
Anders and Stella have been smitten with each other since last year.
I think they are simply adorable.



Here is Anders little brother...pre-pre-pre school. Kuba has 4 more years until kindegarten. Although, based on Kuba's exponential growth pattern, this is even harder to believe!

Bear Camp Pond

Little Miss Muffet

Anders has a package of, like, 250 stickers of various sea life.
He likes to have them in the car and ask - "WHO WANTS A STICkER?"
He then passes them out to whomever wants one.
The other day Kuba responded with an "I DO!"
Anders asked him, "DO YOU WANT A TUFFET STICKER?"

Anna who was listening from the drivers seat and knew there were only sea animals, asked, "WHAT'S A TUFFET?"

Anders said "YOU KNOW, LIKE LITTLE MISS MUFFET."

When Anna looked at the tuffet sticker later, it was very clear that Anders is ONE clever little boy!

And may he find a sea urchin this summer on the beach somewhere!

Bath Time

Day TWO

After 7 hours in the basement today, I finally got it finished!
Organized, cleaned and sassy.

Now, I just need to haul the barn stuff to the barn (from the basement I might add) and then be done with it. I had plans to do the barn too, but just might save that until tomorrow. If I feel like it at all, that is. I might rather do gardening. Or read the paper and drink a lot of coffee.

All in all, I am still happy and enjoying this solace.

Anna reports that all is well in NH. Jakob fell in some waterfall on a hike yesterday as he was reaching for a rock and hardly noticed! He was so focused on snatching the rock! They were out playing rocket baloons when I called today.
Good to know mama number two has it all under control!