Girls' Night Out!

On Saturday evening, Mommy took Amanda, Christy, Katherine, and I on a girls' night out. We went to a Greek restaurant for a delicious dinner, and then to Elmer's Diner for dessert. We had a great time chatting, laughing, and getting caught up on each others' lives.
Christy is taking a class on child development at school, so as a project she had to take care of a high-tech baby doll for the weekend. It cries, needs fed, and needs diaper changes. It looks so realistic that several people commented on the cute little baby before realizing it wasn't real!

Happy Sweet Sixteen, Amanda!

Yesterday was Amanda's 16th birthday! The boys started her day by bringing her breakfast in bed. (And waking me up at the same time, but without the breakfast!) Later she went on an A-Team themed scavenger hunt I made her. When Daddy got home at 11 that night, we celebrated with chocolate swirl cheesecake. Her main present was a new hammock, since her old one died. It's pink and khaki and she already tried it out.

~Megan~

A Day at the Beach

We had planned to go to the beach on Monday, but when we woke up, the weather had turned drizzly. We went anyway. At Napatree Point in RI, it was even chillier with the sea breeze, but Amanda, Joshua, and I went swimming in spite of the weather. (What does that say about our intelligence?) I was completely numb in less than 30 seconds. When I got out of the water after a minute or two, I literally could not feel my legs. I think it's the coldest swimming I have ever done. The wind was good for kite flying, however.

On the way back, we stopped at Harkness Memorial State Park. Harkness is a really cool mansion and grounds on the oceanfront. There are all sorts of gardens surrounding the house, which looks like something out of Pride and Prejudice. Across the enormous lawn and over the sand dunes is the rocky shore and a 180 degree ocean view. One tree on the property splits into multiple partswith branches everywhere, creating an ideal climbing spot. The entire place is so much fun to explore. It looks like it ought to be the setting for a book.

~Megan~

Catch Up

OK, we haven't posted in almost a month, so I'm gonna sorta do a post that will hopefully catch up on most things. Then in the future, I'll post more often. I mean it. So here's the news in reverse order, from newest to oldest.

Hannah Stories
Nathan keeps a locked chest in his room with his weapons in it. Yesterday, Hannah came running downstairs ecstatically waving the combination lock in the air. "I cracked Nathan's combination!" she said gleefully. "Next day, I'm gonna crack it again!"
Apparently, she decided not to wait that long, because she broke in 3 more times that day, with 3 different combinations. It seems that if you turn the numbers enough,, you can randomly come up with the right 3-digit combination. My baby sister is a genius. (She's insanely proud of herself too.)

"Why did the Easter bunny bring us all this floss?" Hannah asked from behind me. I turned around to see what she was talking about and found her with a strand of Easter grass in her hand, trying to floss her teeth!

Happy Birthday, Mommy!
Thursday was Mommy's 38th birthday. (Hopefully I don't get in trouble for mentioning her age. Grown-ups are funny like that.) Daddy made her breakfast in bed, and we celebrated the next day with a birthday dinner and cheesecake.

Cabining in PA
We stayed at a rustic cabin at Promised Land State Park in PA for 3 nights. It drizzled most of the time, so we mostly hung out in the cabin round the woodstove. We played Monopoly, Hearts, and other board games, solved crosswords, colored pictures, played Mab Libs, told stories, read out loud, scared Nathan when he was in the bathroom, and ate. The biggest problem with sticking around the cabin was that we tended to want to snack all day. We did get in a few walks around the park, and they were beautiful. It was a lovely, relaxing vacation.

Kittens
Two weeks ago, four new little kittens were born! All of them are black. Unfortunately, one of them appears to have been the runt of the litter, From the start, he wasn't nursing and was weaker than all the rest. Nothing we did could induce him to nurse. He died around 36 hours after birth. We had a little funeral and buried him in the cemetery the boys built. Nathan wrote this poem about it:

The Kitten

The kitty was born weak and frail,

We thought for sure he'd not prevail,

-

We tried to restore its strength,

We went to such great length,

-

We hoped the kitty would live,

A chance is all we could give,

-

But the next day,

The kitty passed away,

-

We all hysterically cried,

But at least we had tried,

-

We buried the kitty without delay,

We'll remember him to the end of our day.

-

Visit from the Grandparents

Grandpa and Grandma Nisly came to stay with us for almost a week. Unfortunately, Daddy was away on a business trip for the first two days of their visit. However, we had a great time while they were here and were sorry when they had to leave.

Happy Birthday, Hannah!
While they were here, Hannah had her 4th birthday. She very much enjoyed being the center of attention, though by the time we celebrated in the evening, she was tired and grumpy. She threw a huge fit because Mommy had baked a chocolate cake even though Hannah insisted she wanted a white one. (She had chosen chocolate a few days earlier.) However, when the cake was served, she ate just as heartily as usual, so chocolate can't have been that bad.
I think one of Hannah's favorite presents is a water bottle with her name andrainbow swirlies on it. It also has a no-spill top so she can drink out of it. She has enjoyed taking that on every outing with her and having water of her very own.

~Megan~

Fun at Squantz

Wednesday here was hot and sunny, getting up to 89 degrees. Before Daddy left for work, we headed over to Squantz Pond for a little outing. We had a great time wading, playing in the sand, and having a water fight. Most of the older kids ended up soaked. :)

~Megan~

Easter

On Easter morning, Amanda, Nathan, Joshua, and I got up very early and hiked over to Sweetcake Mountain Preserve for our own sunrise service. We enjoyed the cool morning peace, sang a few songs, and took turns reading the Easter story aloud. It was very pleasant and beautiful.

Just before the sunrise

This isn't really what it looked like. We were having trouble capturing the real colors, so we turned on the sunset setting on my camera, which tends to put in colors that aren't there. Looks pretty anyway, doesn't it?

~~~

Later in the morning, we attended the regular Easter service at church. That afternoon, we hung out outside and hunted for Easter baskets. In the evening, Grandpa and Grandma came up for a delicious Easter dinner.

.

Nathan and Josh in the stream in their nice clothing, hunting for rocks

Benjamin on the swings

Hannah looked so cute running around outside in her gorgeous dress with her pretty hair, so I went a little shutter-happy taking pictures of her. The ones below are just a sample of some of my favorites.

~Megan~

Gloves!

The weather here today is beautiful, at almost 70 degrees and sunny. So I was a little surprised when Ben walked into the kitchen with his blue wool mittens on. "You don't need those, Ben," I said. "It's warm out."

"But I want to help Mommy in the garden," he answered.

I tried to explain to him that work gloves are different from winter mittens; that he needed a different kind of glove.

He obviously didn't quite get it, because a moment later he walked back into the kitchen, this time wearing his heavy snow mittens.

I think we need to find that boy a pair of work gloves!

~Megan~