Building Project...

A month or so ago, Kellen decided he was going to be a baseball player when he grows up. This came about after Geof and my dad started Kellen's baseball card collection. Kellen told us that when he's a ball player, we will need to change his name to "Ronnie Wooten," because it sounds much better for a baseball player than "Kellen" (he invented the name Ronnie Wooten himself - as far as we can tell, Mr. Wooten is actually a music professor in the Midwest!). Anyway, more recently, Kellen has decided that he would rather be an architect, which would make my dad and brother very proud! He can keep the name Kellen as an architect (which makes me happy!), and he has mapped out a very busy life for himself. He plans to build houses, tall buildings, and churches, and play trombone and drums at church, and play baseball and tennis on the side. All this while living in the house he wants to build that will have TWO master suites and a bigger garage so that Geof and I can live with him, he can have a bigger room, and he can have a place to park his own silver minivan (sorry preschool girls - Kellen has informed us that he wants to live with Mom and Dad forever, so he's not getting married).

During the past two days, while the weather has been so hot, we've been building a house out of scrap materials we've found around the house. I'm thinking that from a career perspective, Kellen's well on his way to being a contractor/interior decorator as he's much more concerned with the placement of air conditioning vents and drain pipes and making quilts for the beds!










Mini-Kellen standing on the deck of his house, just outside the kitchen

Addie's Question

On our way home from dinner tonight, Addie asked, "why do daddies go to work and mommies drive to Target?" Convicted by my preschooler... :)

Kellen's Head

Last night Kellen and Geof got much needed haircuts, and Kellen was pretty pleased with how it looked. But when he got up this morning and went to brush his teeth, he looked in the mirror and decided there was still too much hair left in front. So I had to do a little trimming after breakfast. When I was done he looked in the mirror and said, "that's much better. Now I have more head." :)

Beating the Heat

It is so hot in Raleigh right now that we are having to stay inside a lot to beat the heat. Here's a few things we've done while the weather sizzles outside.

Kellen and Addie make interesting designs with squeezable play dough that dries into crystallized designs.

Showing off their beautiful flower bouquets that won't wilt in the heat.

Since we're not heading to the beach this year, we brought the beach to the kitchen table. The kids made their own sand castles from foam and dig for treasures in our rice box.

If you have any great ideas for indoor activities, please share! Or, if you're looking for ideas, check out Family Fun online, which has lots of cute ideas for your preschoolers.

SURPRISE!!!

So my plans for Saturday were to sleep in, do some laundry, take Kellen and Addie to Cailey's 5th birthday party, and go to Staples to get binders for storing some old photographs. So we all headed down to Lake Crabtree park for the birthday party, and when we pulled in at the picnic shelter I saw Cailey and her family and a few other families from our Sunday school class. I unloaded the kids from the car and was walking toward the party when I saw a girl who looked JUST LIKE my cousin Rachel. I think I even said to Geof, "doesn't that little girl look just like Rachel?" The little girl was looking at me like she knew me, and I kept staring at her in confusion, trying to make the connection between Rachel and the Barbour family. When I was about 3 feet away from the picnic tables I looked around and realized my entire family was at the back of the picnic shelter, as well as some neighbors and friends and it all dawned on me that this was NOT Cailey's birthday party, but rather a surprise party for my 30th birthday! (which is not for 9 more days, thank you very much!!) I WAS SO SURPRISED!!! Geof had been planning it for 4 months and had planned every detail without me suspecting a thing! I take back my email to Heather that said planning a party would be way over Geof's head! (What should have tipped me off - Geof was ironing his shirt for Cailey's party, he made the kids' beds, AND he mopped the kitchen floor before I got up on Saturday morning!).

Trying to figure out what's going on...

The light comes on and I realize the party is for me!

Geof was so happy he pulled off the surprise!

We had a catered BBQ lunch (with lots of hushpuppies - my favorite!) and Goodberry's showed up afterward with a full ice cream sundae bar and cake. There was a playground next to the shelter, so all the kids had fun playing, too!

Thanks to my sweet husband and all my family and friends who helped with the planning and kept me in the dark. I had such a fun day. Now I REALLY need to get on the ball for when Geof turns 30 in October! More pictures here.

Ellary is 2 months old!

EB is 2 months old and smiling now!

Ellary turned 2 months old on August 1! How the time is just flying by, so I'm taking every minute I can to soak in her babiness - especially that sweet baby smell and the little fuzz of hair on the back of her head! At two months, Ellary weighed in at 12 lbs 3 oz and is 23 inches long, so she's growing like a weed. She smiles at lot at Mommy when she's rested, fed and content (she is rather stingy with the smiles for Daddy). She will also stick her tongue out at me when I stick mine out at her! It's another fun game she'll pretty much just play for me. She's very interested in her surroundings and she likes to watch Kellen and Addie. She seems to be paying attention to her toys, and she has learned that when she kicks her feet, her bouncy chair plays music. Here are a few more pictures from the last week:

So you wanna take my picture?

Playing on the floor with big sister

Posing with Ducky Huge for her 2-month picture. She's growing!

Reunions

Over the last two weeks we've been able to reunite with several of our closest friends from the time we lived in Maryland. Maura Roberts came for a visit with her kids just a couple weeks ago, and last Friday Jason & Laurie Lamar came for a visit on their way to western North Carolina. Kellen had a great time playing with Aiken, and we were amazed at how big Bailey has gotten! The next day we stopped to visit the Thomases on our way to Williamsburg, so Kellen got to play with his buddy Will and we got to meet baby Josh. Addie and Jessie had fun doing their hair - maybe Jessie's girlieness will rub off on Addie. It's been so neat to see the boys grow from babies to little kids - their different sizes, they way they talk, their interests. I hope we can keep getting together over the years so that they will always know each other and the special connection they had when they were so little.

Bryan & Amy - we're due to get together with you next!!! :)