Swimming videos

My girls have been taking swimming lessons all summer at a friend's parents pool. The swim teacher is fantastic, and the lessons are paying off big-time.

Recent Pictures

Gosh, it's been awhile! I last posted in 2011. Here is a random assortment of pics especially for you, Mom.

Here's my girls, pretending they love each other ;-)

Arden with the Strawberry Shortcake wig.

Alana and two of her best friends at preschool graduation.

Cari with who knows what on her face :)

The girls engrossed in a session of "melty beads". I think maybe Anela gave that to Alana awhile ago...?

Arden showing off one of her new school outfits.

All three girls doing a fashion show of their new school clothes.

Potty training arden

Well, it was a glorious week and a half, but I've given up. Having spent 40mins to an hour unproductively on the toilet numerous times, I've found out that Arden just isn't that interested and I don't have the energy to incentivize her. Plus I am SO tired of the urine all over the house. I'll try again after she starts preschool. In the meantime, enjoy some cute potty videos.

Homeless

Some videos from Gramma Rose's house. We were "between houses" at the time. Alana was so intent while making her music.

Playing at the children's museum. Grammy Jean was visiting at the time.

Finally some pictures - Beach vacay

For a few days while temporarily made homeless due to our renovation, we stayed at Blue, the Inn at Plum Island. Plum Island is a barrier island located about an hour north of boston. The cottage we stayed in was nice and across from the beach, but tight quarters for our family of 5. The kids really enjoyed the beach even with the noseeums that bit them on their heads.

Snack time

We took a day trip to Newburyport when Chris went into the office one day. Newburyport is very charming.

Get Ready...

The Murphys are going to Hawaii in October! The visit will be shorter than we originally hoped for since it's during the school year (rather than in August), but we are excited nevertheless. We want to get a chance to see everyone, especially all the babies and kids!

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RENOVATION REALITY

The renovation is finally winding down. Overall the house looks good and we are happy. The kitchen looks great, but still needs a backsplash. The kids bath turned out surprisingly charming in turquoise and white. The master bath is still not done. Sigh. Around the house, the tilework is passable to barely adequate. Sadly, our contractor is not a skilled tilesetter and let us down in that regard. He also made some mistakes re: building code when he put up the staircase, which otherwise looks pretty good. Let's hope the inspector starts drinking early when he comes to check things out. I can't stomach the thought that the stairs might need to be redone. Lots of touch-ups needed to the interior painting and the exterior painting is the most disappointing, especially considering what we paid. Overall we are going to hit about 30% over budget! Yikes!!

Love the neighborhood. It's like a liberal Mayberry where older kids actually ride their bikes unsupervised and neighbors all know each other. Two of our friends live around the block, which has been great! We'll miss the block party in October, which is going to be held on our street, but we'll will be back for Halloween...a time when the neighborhood goes crazy. Usually there are a couple haunted houses, people dishing out hard cider and hot cocoa to trick-or-treater parents, houses decorated to the nines, and so forth. I'm already plotting my decorations...I'm thinking stuffed crows, haunted signs, and ghosts for year one...hoohahaha

I'll put up pictures of the kids and the house when I can. Sorry it's been so long but things have been crazy up until recently.

The twins are so cute. They like to get cozy and tuck themselves into our bed!

Daddy and Lani had a "date" this morning, so the twins and I went to the park to celebrate this beautiful spring day. So we get to the park and immediately they wanted their snack. I think they spent 15 minutes just sitting there eating and sipping.

Took the T into Boston in April with our friend Ari...