pictures and play

this morning i took the kids out early to get their one- and three-year birthday pictures. unfortunately, mason was in the worst mood i have ever seen on him and really wanted no part of it. thankfully, we were able to catch a few cute pictures anyway.

and here are some others in a slide show (i have had a lot of slide shows lately, huh?).


after pictures we drove over to a local beach for some fun in the sun and lunch with friends. the kids and i changed in the car and headed out for our first trip to a wisconsin beach. this was a man-made beach and it was really nice.

the water didn't open until 11am when the lifeguards came on duty, but we were able to play in the sand right away. in our rush out of the house this morning (and with baby brain) i forgot to bring any sand toys. madelyn's friends brought buckets and shovels and were kind enough to share with her too. mason was fine just eating sand until the older kids forgot about the sand toys and went to play on the playground for a while. he just sat in the sand by himself and filled the bucket with sand.

madelyn and dylan made 'sand angels'. apparently, dylan loves laying in the sand. madelyn thought that it was pretty fun too. and all dylan's experience came in handy as he expertly instructed madelyn to keep her eyes shut very tightly.

i didn't get any pictures in the water because i didn't want to be distracted and there were strict rules about children under 6 being within arms reach of an adult, but i really wish i had video of mason. he kept trying to dive into the water. he loved splashing and dunking his face. totally different than when we went to the pool and he kept heading for our chair.

after playing in the water for a while we dried off and ate lunch. as we were walking to the car madelyn told me, "that made me really tired", and that she wanted to go home and take a nap. unfortunately, while both kids fell asleep in the car neither one took much of a nap and were cranky the rest of the day. oh well. we had a really fun morning out.

two more brief madelyn stories. i forgot one the other day about driving down the road and madelyn called out, "look! there is an owl!" matt was driving so i tried to figure out what she had seen because that was an odd declaration. and then i saw it - hooters. yes, indeed. there is an owl in the hooters sign. sigh...

after breakfast today mason was reaching for the remote control on the back of the couch and actually reached it. madelyn and i were talking about how he must have grown last night and i asked her what made him grow? her simple response, "God." you're right, madelyn. love.