An art update- Henry.

Happy Mother's Day to all you wonderful moms out there. We didn't have a big mother's day post, because mama got the day off. The day started with letting mama sleep in and breakfast in bed (eggs, bacon, sausage, english muffins, strawberries AND flowers!). We spent the morning at a park then sent mama to the mall. She's found that her previous summer wardrobe of mostly black business clothes doesn't translate to the stinking hot south as a stay at home mom. She was excited to blow some of her birthday money and now has new tank tops and flowly dresses to get her through the summer. Papa took care of the kids all day and even cleaned the house. What a great day!

Since we don't have any new pictures, here's some of my most recent artwork.

A giraffe puppet I made at school.

I painted this beautiful flower.

I glued the rainbow over Noah's ark. We don't know why the blog keeps turning the picture sideways.

Gluing is one of my favorite activities. Check out this bird's colorful feathers.

I don't care for coloring that much. I tried to finish this one quickly.

This is one of mama's favorites. I made it at the Leesburg street festival when we were in DC last month. I had a good time placing the stickers. Note the squirrel climbing the tree and the butterflies flying in the sky.

This bunny did have a pink cottontail before Juner got to it.We used bingo markers to decorate my kite.

Here's the flower I made mama for Mother's Day.

Here's the poem that explains the scrubbie on the flower.

I even painted mama a special card.

And put my hands in it!

Every year, papa gets out a special scrapbook that we decorate for mama with artwork and the reasons we love her. This year was especially fun because I came up with the reasons on my own. Among them were "We made her breakfast to eat in bed because I lover her" and she took me to the cookie factory." Then Juner got to scribble with a marker on the page and I drew some pictures. I wrote the letter H and drew the following: a rock, another rock, a big rock, a little rock, another rock, a beer bottle (eek!), and a road for cars to drive on to go to the cookie factory.

Tonight, mama was getting me ready for bed when I announced that I would sit in her lap for story time. When she asked me why, I explained that her legs didn't hurt so much when she wore shorts. (Confidential to mama: It's summer and time to bump up the shaving schedule to more than once a week.)

Finally, mama gave herself a present yesterday and announced that she was done nursing June. She felt a little guilty, but it has been 23 months since she got pregnant and she thinks June can make it on her own now. Next week, she'll expect us all to get jobs. Not to worry though, June hasn't hardly noticed the difference and is still going to sleep just fine without mama.

Celtic Festival and Highland Games- Juner.

Today we headed to the historic Moravian village for a Celtic Festival and Highland Games. We watched the Parade of Clans- these clans are based in the United Kingdom, but have been heavily influenced by southern culture. There were lots of "Real Men Wear Skirts" t-shirts and even one guy in Army gear but with a camoflauged kilt.

We were going to go watch the strong men games, but Henry was especially full of whine, so we got some Irish ground meat wrapped in pastry type food and listened to some Celtic/Appalachian music. Later, mama got Henry a snow cone.

Little did Henry know, I went with mama to get the snow cone and ate the mound of frozen ice off the top of the cup.

It was just what we needed on a muggy 92 degree day. Mama was wilting.

Snow cones and pretty Irish dancers made for a good afternoon.

Then we took turns posing with mama's drink- a slushie made with cherry syrup and Sun Drop. That's Irish if there ever was any.

This sums up the rest of our afternoon. I cried alot. Henry whined for hours on end. He refused to take a nap until mama told him he couldn't go out to supper unless he slept. He did finally fall asleep, but was woken up by a thunderstorm. Mama had to wake me so we could go to a coffee shop to meet our friends and watch a band. That was a royal disaster. Henry got a cookie and spent the whole time crying that he wanted a coffee and that he was still hungry. We finally ad to leave because Henry was disturbing everyone. Only because Chick-Fil-A was giving away free meals (with dessert!) to mothers did we even go out to eat. Henry perked up considerably when "chicky nugs," ice cream, and the restaurant playground were mentioned. When we got home, we were sent straight to bed. Henry proceeded to get out of bed 20 times, mostly to go into mama and papa's room to fetch books or to look out the window. Mama eventually got mad and put up a baby gate so he couldn't get out of his room. This didn't go over well. Something's got to give with this kid.

Here's something to lighten the mood. We tried to get a good video of me walking. It's certainly not going to happen with Henry around. That kid is intense.

Here's finally a good one. I think I'd be able to walk better if it didn't reduce me to giggles every time.

Preschool musical program- Henry.

Today mama and papa came to my school for our spring program.

The three and four year old were great, but my two year old class was a little nervous.

After a couple songs, I warmed up and did a few hand motions.

Here's our singing in action. Deciding to follow Jesus has never sounded so good. Mama laughed at the six kids in the front. My school buddies have certainly mastered the blank stare and fingers in their belly buttons.

We've got the joy, joy, joy, joy down in our hearts. If you looks closely, you can see my lips are moving. At the end of the video, you can see Maggie dance a little.

These messy hands came from the blueberries on my English muffin.

Mama got Juner a new dress this weekend. It's cute even if it's covered in drool and snot.

A nuk and a piece of celery? Life doesn't get better. At school, someone asked me if Juner was my little sister. I responded "This is Juner. She's my gugger."

On a sleep note, things are slowly getting better. Papa didn't put me down for naps while mama was gone, so I was pretty beat today. Mama put me down for a nap and I didn't get up at all. Tonight, I didn't come downstairs, but mama did hear a pitter patter of feet upstairs. When she came upstairs to check on me, my down was open and I was sitting up in bed. She said "Thanks for staying in bed and keeping quiet, buster." I responded "I didn't stay in bed tonight. I was in your room looking out the windows." At least I didn't go downstairs.

I declared today a "car parking day" and mama tried to get a video of how I talk non-stop even when there's no one to listen. I didn't fall for it, but I did give her an encore performance of my school songs.

Mama's birthday party- Juner.

Yesterday, we drove home from DC so we could celebrate Mama's birthday with the whole family. My birthday gift to mama was sitting quietly for the whole 6 hour drive home. We only had to stop once. It was especially remarkable because I only slept for the last 20 minutes of the ride. My secret? Mama let me watch Curious George and munch on celery sticks. Too bad she didn't take a picture.

When we got home, papa surprised mama with a clean house, an ice cream cake, and a night of Rock Band with our friends Mister Paul and Miss Susan.

Don't worry, mama was just joking about going to bed before the ice cream. (Did you notice mama's other birthday present on the counter? She says she's only drinking cheap beer in cans for the rest of the summer.)

Wait a minute! This part is getting out of hand!

Later, Henry got me all wound up by tickling me. We sure were glad to see each other. While we were gone, Henry always asked mama if he could talk to me on the phone. And he's been very nice and patient with me lately. Today he had his train out and set up a special train track for me and gave me a few trains of my own. This worked out well until I decided I wanted all of the trains he had too. I still have a lot to learn about sharing.

More of DC- Juner.

We're still in DC. Today we visited the campus of the Walter Reed Army Medical Center to visit a hidden gem of DC- the National Museum of Health and Medicine. We got to see the bullet that killed Abraham Lincoln and all kinds of medical oddities. Miss Colleen liked the human hairball exhibit and mama was really impressed with the megacolon (it's just like it sounds). I liked it too, but when we visited the exhibit "From Fetus to Birth," I got really freaked out by the row of babies with very rare birth defects. You should check out the link to the website and make sure to visit it if you go to DC.
We actually made it home in time for naps. Connor took a good nap while mama and Mister Josh went out for a run. Mama can't brag too much because Miss Colleen just ran a marathon on Sunday, but it was nice to get out to run with someone else.

Tonight, we got ready to go out to eat at a nice Italian restaurant.

Mama dressed me up in my fancy birthday dress from GG Parsons.

It looks pretty good!

No luck in smiling for the camera.

Do I have to leave this thing on all night?

We tried on the black shoes Sadie gave me, but they're still a little big.

But it was pretty late by the time we were ready to go out, and since I only napped for about a half hour, Mister Josh agreed to stay home with me. Why do I always get left behind? Mama says she had a great time without a messy baby though.
After they got home, mama took advantage of a cuddly Connor. None of her babies cuddle like him. He even fell asleep in her arms. What a nice feeling.

To Mama, from the boys

These videos are a bit long and not terribly exciting. They serve two purposes: first, to give Mama a glimpse of what she's been missing; second, to show GG&GG the magic of their Christmas gift to Henry, the GeoTrax Bridge Fly-by Track and its daring pilot, one Mssr. Loopy Loco.

Meanwhile back at home- Henry.

Mama and Juner left me and Papa to fend for ourselves at home. Luckily, my friend TJ invited me over for the afternoon, so I didn't have to sit with him at work while he gave an exam. Miss Kathy sent mama pictures of our afternoon. It certainly looks like we had a good time.

We ate popsicles.

Mama can't wait to hear the story about the bandages on TJ's knees.

And built towers.

I got to play with the bubble machine TJ has been telling me about.

But the best part of the afternoon was TJ's train real model train set. Papa says I haven't stopped talking about it yet.

The Turner Girls go to Washington- Juner.

Mama and I left the boys at home and headed to Washington DC to go to Miss Leah's house.

Miss Colleen and Connor also flew in from Cincinnati for vacation.Since it was raining, we were forced to spend all day walking around a mall. Later, Miss Maggie came over and we had a fun evening at home.



Despite the fact that neither of us had naps, we stayed in pretty good moods, but our mamas still put us to bed early.
We had a good time, but also spent a lot of time fighting over toys. We weren't happy when they made us pose together.

My mom is so embarrassing. She made us take a bath together. I know she'll get this picture out in 15 years.

Despite being 3 months apart, we're almost exactly the same size.

But Connor doesn't have quite the same belly girth that I do.

Miss Leah gives bathtime a big thumbs up.

After we got our jammies on, we jockeyed for position at the window.

Then, the girls spent the rest of the night trying to get me to walk.

I'm getting better and took 7 steps on my own.

More pictures? Can't you just put us to bed already?

Connor and his mama snuggle before bed.

After we went to bed, the party really got started. Miss Maggie made and awesome chocolate espresso cake for mama's birthday and Miss Leah made an excellent chicken pot pie.

Good friends and full bellies.