5th Birthday...Going Backwards...

On March 30, 2008 we celebrated little man's 5th birthday!

His birthday cake was much anticipated ... we made it together - homemade ice cream cake - minty ummy (mint chocolate chip), vanilla and chocolate - decorated with M&M's!

He made the 5 himself and was so psyched to turn 5 - to him - big boy status for sure!

Once in a Lifetime

Thanks to my amazing sister-in-law, who has one of the coolest blogs...I was able to post this video! The Talking Heads are one of my favorite bands ... many crazy, zany memories are attached to this particular song! If you know it, you know you love it too...it was just featured in Nim's Island which we went to see yesterday. Enjoy!

Ta ta ta T-Ball Season in Full Swing!

My little guy has embarked on his official career in the sports world...yes, ladies and gentlemen...it has begun.

Ready to field some balls...hey, wait, he's not chasing butterflies today...could that be my son...and a certain someone's godson????
Waiting his turn with his picture face on...he's really quite well behaved at all these games...notice he's the only one actually sitting on the bench! (brag brag brag...sorry)
Saaaawwwwwiiiiinnnnnggg batta batta.
Safe at First ... holy cow, I think he's gonna make it...you know you're singing along now!

AND can you believe that girl is only FIVE YEARS OLD!

The Bounty

A shoreline like this...
means coming home to a bounty like this!
A large piece of red like this is like hitting paydirt! Found this piece only five minutes after getting there on Friday! I nearly gave myself a heart attack tonight because I thought I'd lost it! The dark piece is actually a piece of black glass - also very rare in the sandglass world.
Above is a breakdown of the rarest colors...just so's ya know I'm not crazy or obsessive or anything.

PS - This isn't even all of it! Tuesday I came home with two buckets full of the rocks/pebbles that you see in the first picture and I've got tons of sandglass mixed throughout them!

(By the by...I've got every single color listed...mwahahaha)

Click to enlarge!

Beach day with Daddy-o on Friday!

Daddy-o surprised us ALL on Friday by taking the day off! YAY! Of COURSE, we decided to go back to the beach! We brought the surf rods, but it was not a very fishy day. We did bring the boogie and skim boards with us, so all was not lost. Not many pictures from Friday ... I was lost on another beach combing the sands for sandglass...it was a very sandyglassy day!

Two peas in a pod!
Creating TRAPS in the sand ...deep holes...then covered over ...equals trap.
Look at me mom!

Thursday Beach Day Cont.

This perfect little piece placed itself on the jetty just for me :)
Johnny's sand art
Colossal holes were dug that day!
Just a SMALL portion of the day's bounty!

7 Days off...3 days at the beach!!!

Thursday ... we went back to the beach!!! Woo hoo us!

Stephen's found another treasure!

I'm not sure how many they caught, but for hours all three kids, plus a new friend mastered the art of catching crabs on the jetties!

So many pools to explore that day!

She got another crab! Yay~

We tried...

to get to the Bronx Zoo on Wednesday, April 23, 2008....but so did everyone else in the free world ...so, we decided to make lemonade out of our lemons - which has become kind of our forte as of late - you should try it sometime - and we went to the New York Botanical Gardens instead! Coincidentally, it happened to be the perfect place to feed my flora fixation as of late! Ahhh, synchronicity!

Water lilly...serenity
Daffodils - thousands of them - all different colors and varieties on the way to...
the Conservatory ...etheric
Have no idea - but how unique

**I know now...see comment - Blue Passion Flower **
Double bloom on a cactus.

Seriously

If you've never been to the Botanical Gardens...just go...the energy there is amazing...and just so much beauty and diversity...to witness nature cultivated to its peak of perfection at every turn and then reflected back at us in the children's eyes ...well, it was exhilarating to say the least and buoyed my sense of serenity to no end... anyway ....gooo...you know you want to... just goooo!

Not a perfect flower, but the colors were just astounding.

I believe this is a hollyhock.

The crew at the zoo...

Oh...wait...we never made it there ... the crew in the Garden!

Hmmm....

Tuesday - Beach Jaunt!

Tuesday turned out to be a lovely lovely day! Although my little mermaid looks cold here, she was soon body surfing and rolling in the waves~!

The more "rational" child decided it would be a jolly old time if everyone pitched in and buried him in the sand... his cousins and sister and brother were more than happy to oblige.

The two that look most like me.

Digging for wiggly sandcrabs!

Come to me, my preshhhhhhhhhhhuuuussss.....

A tree made for three!

On the Daddy-o hike we found this tree when we decided to follow an old rock wall - we were off the beaten path that day!

Little man loved ...

the ferns too...

They're so soft mommy!

Wildflowers...the beginning

On the very same jaunt that we went out on with Daddy-o is officially when my obsessive compulsive behavior began with the camera ...so, it didn't really start with the weeds, it began here ....

Not technically a wild"flower", but the wild fern just fascinated me! I've got a thing for spirals, long story.

Daddy-o

Daddy-o is what my honey is called around here :) This past Sunday (April 20, 2008) Daddy-o joined us for our daily jaunt through the woods ... but suddenly, my always full of life little man ran out of steam....

No worries! Daddy-o to the rescue!