A couple of random things

I thought it was time to start potty-training Simeon. I also thought it would be a good idea to do it the Monday after we got home from the beach, you know, the same Monday on which we started our new school year. I seem to have all the good ideas in bunches. NOT!!! So he spent a week of sitting on the potty for the morning. He never accomplished anything, not a single drop!! But he did manage to wet several carpets and a living room chair. I put him back in diapers and will wait a little longer. However, he consistently tells me when he's doing something and that he needs to be changed thereafter (so, now I'm using more diapers than less...rrrr). Philip really got into ironing a few days ago. He's using a real iron--but it's not plugged in! We have been over ironing safety rules in the event he ever finds a really hot iron.

Abigail is loving her Saxon math. It is right up her alley and she never complains about doing it. There are other things to complain about (jk).

Here's our little iron-man.

Father's Day

Kevin asked to celebrate Father's Day early by taking us to the Durham Bulls baseball game last Tuesday. We all had a lot of fun--the weather was perfect, we shared several requisite ballpark goodies (nachos, fried dough, cotton candy). Generally, they were all kind of like this: stuck on Kevin--which I guess is appropriate for a Father's Day celebration!

2011 OBX Family Reunion

17 adults, 15 children, 7 cars, 42 rolls of toilet paper, 7 pre-cooked dinners (for 32), pack n'plays, bathing suits, sunscreen, snacks...you get the idea. We throughly enjoyed our family reunion consisting of my parents (Fayetteville), my mom's sister (England), my mom's brother and sister-in-law (Wales), my cousin along with her husband and three children (Wales), my sister and her husband and 3 children (Fuquay), my brother and his pregnant wife and his 3 children (Florida), my brother and his wife and two boys (Hawaii), our good friends who are basically family (England) and us. It was some serious logistical planning as we needed to get people from airports, rent at least one car, get some people back to the airport (but not the entirely same group who came on planes), get some people back from the beach who came with parents but left without parents...you get that idea too. But we had lots of fun times and good memories. The children ranged in age from 13 down to 4 months, with a concentration in the 4-9 year old range! I have 142 pictures, so I'm only including 1 or 2. The rest are on Facebook, if you're interested!

Gareth is wearing a hat that Owen brought him from a missions trip to Peru, and Owen is wearing a hat Gareth brought him from Krygyzstan.

We put on a play about the book of Esther--written by Lydia and me. Here's the audience.

Here's the cast.

Here are some of the men getting into a rugby scrum!