Just a day at home

Poor Steve is back from his night shift and has to sneak in a story before he goes to bed for the day!!! Sam is listening from the activity center!!! Ben and Tom join me in the garden to count the pumpkins (a word Thomas likes to say very clearly!!) and also to eat the many blackberries !! They are huge this year and delicious!!! Those are berries in the boys' mouths!!! (So proud!) We then went to the shed to "jam" and you can see Thomas still loves the "guitar" and plays the drums at the same time!! Ben takes his turn and whistles along!! Have a good last few days of August!! The MacNeills

A Sunday Potluck at Cabot Beach

We have been so lucky with the sunshine this summer and even into the end of August!!! The boys are listening to Matt read to them and Sam is trying to look up and see what they are all doing!! We headed out to Cabot Beach for a big potluck/corn boil. Not only was the food good, we had a pretty good time too. Steve did venture out of the shade so Ben and tom could play in the water while I went with Sam to pick up Matt from a birthday party. Matt was soon making stilts out of crocket sticks and we did manage to get the kids sitting for a few seconds... trouble is that Sam was in the middle of his supper and was not keen on the idea of stopping his eating!! He got over it once I started feeding him again!!! Benjamin sat under the umbrella with the pretzels while Thomas kept running off towards the beach... his favorite part of any day. (Funny that he screams for baths and showers but loves swimming and the ocean!!) Tom was so tired at the end, he almsot fell asleep on the slide!! Lastly we see Mama and Jasper at the end of a busy and fun filled day. Good night!! Poor Papa is starting his night shift now. The MacNeills

A Day at the Cottage with Friends

We had a fabulous visit to the cottage with our friends the Younkers and the Pendletons. We got to feed teh birds and chipmucks... Megan is showing Thomas how to do it and is jumping on the trampoline with him!! Ben got to hand feed teh birds, gramma showed him this cool trick!! We then took the kayaks out for a paddle. As you can see, Thomas loves to try and paddle. He is pretty good though occasionally he forgets about the person sitting in front and hits them with the other side of his paddle on mistake!! Matt and Benjamin took their turns in the front and forgave him. Thomas would not get out of the boat. We all had a yummy bar B Q and went for a swim in uncle George's pool. Papa and the boys had a great time. We all had fun watching the kids ride the tractors down the ramp and make funny faces. Zach, Sam , Matt and Ben are pretty good at funny faces!! Sam was along and watched all of this from the ground, the activity center and gramma's arms. By the end he was asleep as gramma gave him a bedtime bottle!!! Thank you everyone for a fun afternoon!! The MacNeills (By the way Astrid, your shorts are awesome!! :) )

Ben's Birthday

Ben is now getting bigger and bigger and after requesting his birthday breakfast (to include bacon) , lunch and supper at Pizza delight, our tummies were pretty full!! This day we decided small cheescakes were enough as we made a big cake for the party!! Ben says thank you for the phone calls and presents. He really liked the power miners (as did Matt)!! Matt and Thomas seem to enjoy climbing trees.. poor mama!! We took the new scooter to the "Secret Gardens" !! They had a great time, especially since 2 rides were added this year... one happens to be the airplane ride...Ben's favorite from Calaway park this June!! ( How lucky were we.) After about 6 rides (or more) in a row, we had to head home to pick up Sam. We then went for supper and then pitched the tent for papa, Matt and Ben!! With S'more supplies on hand and even some lemonade, the boys were pretty excited at the campfire. (Tom and Sam were sleeping soundly in bed by this point!!)So as the boys are outside, Japser and I are inside finishing this post of a very fun birthday with the family!! The MacNeills