June.

Natalie with her patriotic berry shortcake!

Regina is by far the most tech-savvy kid I own.  She had been adeptly using our Kindle tablet for the first two years of her life (until I killed it).  The first time I showed her how to operate a mouse, she was spot-on.  

My beautiful hanging basket of Lantana, a gift from my wonderful oldest daughter.

Philip backed himself under his dresser and couldn't get out.

He's determined to fall and break his head.  This is the only place where the stairs aren't completely kid-proofed.  I really gotta get plexiglass on that side.

I won my first stuffie from the claw machine!

Regina's shiner is almost completely healed.

Saturday night Noelle tried to show me how well she could go hand-over-hand across the rungs on the swingset.  She almost made it.

Her face impacted the ground.  Hard.  At first I thought the bloody nose was the only injury, but while we were stanching the nosebleed, she started complaining about her arm.  At first she said the upper arm hurt, but later said it was the elbow.  No matter...either way it meant a trip to the emergency room.  Thankfully the xrays didn't show any breaks, so we're just managing the pain until the soreness goes away, and she can wear the sling whenever the arm bothers her.

Recent Happenings.

The dogwood tree had a serious split from a very heavy, wet, late snow.  We tried to repair it, but the  branch kept cracking further and further down, so Andy had to take it off a few weeks ago.

Since Sarah has been home from college, the little ones want to hang out in her room as much as possible.    This is what happens with they hang out with Sarah.

These pics were taken at the beginning of May on a trolley ride.  We went to a free performance of an educational play about Ben Franklin, and the trolley ride was included.  During the play, Philip ate 3 cups of peach yogurt.  

On the trolley ride back, Philip threw up 3 cups of peach yogurt all over the trolley floor.

Regina and I cut out the sod and planted flowers the day Brian left.  By now, much of the grass has retaken its territory, but we do have several seedlings coming up...sunflowers, cosmos, etc.  

OK, these next pictures...........

Basically, Saturday night Regina climbed up someplace high and fell down.  Initially there was swelling the size of a golf ball, and a small cut on the top of her cheekbone.  After I assessed that her vision was undamaged and there was no concussion. we iced it to keep the swelling down.

Sunday morning, this is Regina WITH her ice pack.....

and here she was WITHOUT.

Her eye was able to open wider and wider as the day went on.  At first, she wanted to hide her face from everybody so they wouldn't see her and ask what happened.  By the afternoon, she had gotten over her self-consciousness and was back to her peppy self, and her face shape is much more normal now.  

It's turning some pretty colors, though.  Brian would be proud.

The surreal shot was taken with my crappy cell phone on the carousel.  Regina, in the foreground, names all horses Buttercup.  The twins, in the distance, have just become big enough to catch rings.  I was hoping to catch their outstretched hands, too, but my camera just doesn't have the right stuff.

And finally, Little Man at 9 months old.  He was in the baby pool (and loved it) for the first time today.