Newcastle Commons (again)

I swear I will stop taking pictures at the beach unless they capture what I really want to remember. Every trip, I come home with zillions of pics of kids on rocks, kids staring at the ocean, kids with critters, smiley kid faces... you get the picture. Same stuff, different day. A big snore and a hard drive with thousands of forgettable photos. Instead, I'm hoping to observe more and only take a shot when it's really telling our story.

Case in point, the "babies" exploring the rocks together...

Gabe's curly beach hair and the rash guard he feels naked without...Caden in his easy-to-spot tie dye shirt...True glee...

Water Play & Shark Boy (by Munchie)

A hot April day! What an oxymoron! Caden stripped to his birthday suit to celebrate and splashed,funneled,noodle scooped,and attempted a funnel-noodle duo (to no avail).Afterwards with Gabriel's blessing, he got busy in the sand box as Shark Boy.Life is good!

The Nut Weevil

Gabriel, our resident bug/spider/frog magnet, scored a new little critter today and identified it all by himself! After a mad dash to his room looking for a specific bug book, he had it all figured out.It was indeed, a nut weevil! But how he figured out that something that looks so monstrous...was actually this size:is beyond me! (Up close and personal for your viewing pleasure!)

Simone's FIVE

It's official though we suspect she has been five for quite some time already. We celebrated anyway with a few friends and a photographic scavenger hunt that I sadly did not document. Let it be known, it was a hit. The last clue led them to their goody bags containing silly string among other things.
What a fun mess!Poor Stephen's new "dreads" took quite a hit.He cried a bit. Believe me.As always we partied into the night stopping only briefly for a little last minute cupcake decorating.Caden graced us with his typical fit at not blowing out the candles...though quickly settled into cake and ice cream minutes later.

Random extras...

In no particular order and for no particular reason...

A tattooed forehead. Another not so easy to remove area...

Sleeping beauties.Playing in the rain.Yummy honey and wheat germ covered bananas. A fav.Laundry before....laundry after. (Wow, was I really that bored?!)This next series is Stephen on Manny duty (hard to believe he's actually wearing different shirts in every pic!):BFF's.Spring chicken sledding. Simone demonstrating her top notch Mommy skills...Gameboying and chick-sitting.And... the Eye of Smoke.

Fluff, 2 weeks later

They grow so fast. Sigh.

First beach day of the year!

Finally! Back at New Castle where we belong...Partners in crime these two are...LEAPing forward to a zillion identical blog posts about our weekly trips to our sandy oasis. ;)

Art in April: Fractals

We headed down to Lenore's pond and woods in the hopes of discovering fractals in nature. While most of the kids took off for the swampy woods...I stayed behind with Caden as he poked the pond with sticks and threw a rock or two.And guess what? A fractal was created right before our eyes...After doing some research on my own about fractals, I've decided to revisit the theme next month when I host "Nature in May" on wednesdays. Fractals are everywhere!

Eggstravaganza!!!

Nobody can pass up a good hunt! Two days after Easter, we found ourselves in Weare sniffing out plenty more plastic eggs. You can never have too many plastic eggs around. Well, actually you can but that's another story...(That would be a tattoo around her neck. Not a great spot as we learned upon removal.)The thrill is definitely in the hunt and not so much the loot as it turns out...Diane Kordas(sp?) made an appearance with some puppets, instruments and songs...which promptly made my anti-entertainment children clam up and revert to infantile speech and behaviors. I tried to send them off to the woods but the arrival of puppets sent them over the edge. Luckily Stephen's lap was available for comforting.

And you better believe nobody clapped their hands, shook a tambourine or even mouthed the words to a single song. You wouldn't catch my monkeys participting in such antics. Ever.

Easter with a side of Simone's birthday

Our 3rd annual Easter egg hunt at the Doherty's was highly anticipated.The search and rescue mission begins...Then it was back inside to sort whose was whose.

Can't say I know what that face is all about...Caden didn't understand our genius mastermind of dumping your loot in one big pile and redistributing the eggs to their rightful (and labeled) owners but forgave us when he discovered his favorite candy inside. If it looks like Nerds... and sounds like Nerds... then it must be Nerds! Later on, we celebrated Simone's 5 years of age with more genius; Bunny cupcakes! Almost too cute to eat! Almost... And finally, Simone garnered quite a few gifts from her generous friends. Pokemon's...ant farms...and unique Webkinz to name a few! And sadly, another year goes by where I didn't get a picture of the spread of food. Turkey tenderloin, I will not soon forget you!

Art in April

Honestly, I'm so far behind on blogging, I can't even begin to remember what artist we were focusing on for the day on this fine thursday... Or maybe it's because my kids were too busy frolicking around the yard...
And I may have been too busy eating Lenore's famous pasta salad while sunning myself on a blanket. But that's just a theory...

Early birthday present

It's tough buying the perfect gift for Simone. If it's not breathing then what's the point? This saturday we got up bright and early to check out a chicken swap and see if we could find a few baby bantam hens for Simone to call her own. Chicks we found, but hens? We have yet to find out... (fingers crossed!)Meet Peach,Basil,and the favorite around here, Fluff. They are bantam silkies and in time will grow to look something like this funky chicken (except for Peach who is crossed with an unknown parent):Until then, they are enjoying life in a bin in our living room and being handled around the clock.

Random side note pic: Caden HAD to check out the gigantic tractor/snow plow? at the swap...

Old fashioned block building

I just loved these shots of Caden imitating Gabriel. His only contribution was not knocking Gabe's creation over.Munchie's so proud. ;)Gabe decided he couldn't trust Caden afterall and built on the table afterwards...

Art in April: Cristo and Miro

I suppose I could ransack someone else's blog for more detailed artist info but I'm so far behind, it certainly must be better to just keep moving forward, don't you agree? All I know is Simone participated. Sort of. You were supposed to be blindfolded for the first activity...Simone, not so much...She decided to work on her freehand instead. It's coming along!
Props to Lenore for her fancy posters!And the second project...we didn't quite "get", but dived right in anyway...

3 headless kids