July 17

Today's pictures are courtesy of my mom's iPhone. I know - I've been lazy with the camera lately! I promise to make up for it this weekend, when Lily turns one on Saturday and has her birthday party on Sunday. For now, some pictures my mom took when she and Ryan took the kiddos to play at the lake:

This girl is a stinker, and I love her. I also love her new striped leggings - a clearance find at Old Navy!

This girl is still not feeling well. More yucky diapers, and she spent much of last night sleeping in Chris' arms. Poor baby. Let's hope tonight is better!

I may have cropped this image too much. I forget that cell phone pictures aren't as hi-res as the ones I take on my big camera!

Chris and I bought this scratchy blanket for $4.99 at Wal-Mart when we were dating, in college. It's funny that it's found a second life as a beach blanket for our children!

Goodness. Can you believe that young man in the water is my nephew? I was 16 when he was born, and he's 16 now. Weird. I still remember when he was the size that Caleb is now... It's strange to think that one day, Caleb will be that big!

The afternoon brought naps for all of us. Lily napped easily, but the (clearly tired) big kids fought it. Amazingly, the "rest in Mommy's big bed" card worked again, and I found myself snuggling and dozing with Caleb and Daisy. I'm trying to hold on to the picture of my sweet darlings, sound asleep in my bed, with the afternoon sunlight drifting in our big window, filtered through the tree branches outside. I know that all too soon, Caleb will be at school and those sweet, snuggly times will be few and far between. So for now, I'm savoring them. Yes, mama has other things to do. But I'm not going to pass up snuggling and napping with my darlings!

After dinner, I was craving an outdoor escape with my family. We headed to the ice cream shop at the river front, and I even brought my camera. At the last minute, I decided to leave it in the car. Boo. As we sat on a bench and ate our ice cream, passersby stopped to smile at us. One elderly couple got into their car parked on the street in front of our bench, but instead of leaving, sat there for a few minutes just to watch Lily as she shared Chris' ice cream cone.

After we finished our ice cream, the children ran around and played. As they played under a large ginkgo tree, we noticed its fruit littering the ground. The fruit was the size of a gumball, and there were lots of them. Suddenly, I got the idea to collect as many of them as we could find, and then go throw them into the river. (Caleb loves throwing rocks and sticks into bodies of water, and I thought these little fruits would be less destructive/distracting and kind of fun.)

It was delightful. As we stood in the golden hour sunlight, tossing green fruits into the river, I was kicking myself for leaving my camera in the car. Trust me when I say it was lovely. 

Maybe we'll do it again sometime.

Also, just for fun, here's what we were doing this time last year, as we waited for Lily to make her arrival.