Fingerpainting

My son painted me a masterpiece this afternoon.  :)  He is such a cute little artist.  He really concentrates... I love to watch his chubby little fingers painting away.  He couldn't wait to put his finished painting on our refrigerator after it dried.  We have quite the collection of his art piling up around the house.  :)

Key Deer

One of the most unique things about living on our island is the endangered Key Deer, a sub-species of the Virginia White-tailed Deer.  It's believed that Key Deer were stranded here after the Wisconsin Glacier melted thousands of years ago and formed the islands after the sea level rose.  They are small - only about 3ft tall - and, sadly, many of them are not afraid of humans at all.  Here's a picture of one that walked right up to me and the kids this morning.

If you see deer, please don't feed them!  This makes them lose their fear of humans, which makes them way more susceptible to getting hit by cars, attacked by dogs, and transmitting or catching diseases.  If they come around human subdivisions more, then they are more likely to do annoying things like rummage in trashcans and eat all our plants!  While it is irritating to have to drive slow on the roads and cage every plant and tree in my yard so they don't eat or rub their antlers on them, it is really neat to have these gentle, beautiful creatures walking around everywhere I look!  Besides.....they were here first.

Trampoline Fun

Have you spent much time jumping on a trampoline lately? I highly recommend it!  It is hilariously, seriously SO much fun (and great exercise)!  As kids, we had one in our yard in Jupiter, Florida.  I remember so many hysterical times with my sister and my friends on that thing!  We used to catapult each other - a heavier person jumps at the same time as a lighter person and makes the light one go FLYING.  It's a wonder we didn't break our necks....  One time, I catapulted my sister (accidentally, of course ;-)....) OFF the trampoline into the nearby starfruit tree!  She landed like a crab sprawled IN the tree and miraculously did NOT get hurt.  We have never laughed harder.  I have no idea how my mom didn't have a heart attack holding her breath waiting for one of us to hurt ourselves on that thing! 

These days, we have a big safety net surrounding the one for our kids.  WAAAAY safer.  Phew.  But it still SO MUCH FUN!  The kids and I chase each other 'round and 'round and jump until one of us collapses from dizziness or exhaustion.  It is a blast.  I love to watch their little smiling faces or hear their hearty laughs on that thing.  Just great fun.  Here's a picture of one of my monkeys jumping this evening right before Daddy called us up for our bq dinner. :)

Family adventures

We had quite the fun family day today.  This morning, we went hiking through the hammock/wooded trail near the beach.  The weather was gorgeous - 65 degrees for a high, light breeze, slightly overcast in the morning.  We all were "explorers" in the woods and then came out onto the beach to search through the tide pools and dead seagrass piles for treasure....horseshoe crabs, hermit crabs, sea urchins, dead trunkfish, soft coral skeletons, driftwood, crabs.....anything we could find!  What a blast. I managed to catch a few pictures of one of my budding scientists sitting in a tree. 

Then, this afternoon, we all went for a ~5 mile bike ride through some of the fire roads here on the island.  I had my youngest son on the back of my bike in the bike seat.  He kept squealing with happiness because of all the bumps and puddles!  He called it the "bumpy bike ride".  :)  It was awesome!  But, now I'm sore....he's 40lbs and that makes the back of my bike BOUNCE - I need shocks.  Ha ha!  Too much disc compression for me today.  It's all good....very good.  Another day to be so grateful for....

Minigolf with the family

We went to play minigolf and have dinner at a local restaurant tonight for my birthday.  What fun!!!  I am so lucky to have such an amazing family...  Erich and I had such a blast sharing a "bucket of beer", competing (I'm not at ALL competitive....lol!),  and watching the kiddos play golf!  We only had to fish 2 balls out of the water! That's impressive!  What a great way to celebrate my birthday!   Here's a picture of our baby doing his stuff.... hee hee.  

Belated Celebration

Today I made cupcakes and brought them into my son's classroom to celebrate his birthday (better late than never), which was during Christmas break.  After the children sang "Happy Birthday" to him, they all raved about how yummy my "triple fudge chocolate" cupcakes were!  :)  Here's a photo of my big boy blowing out his candle.

Highlight of the day? One of the girls in my son's class found out that she and I have the same birthday (tomorrow) and asked if I was "so excited"...  When I laughed and said "not really"... she asked "Why??" incredulously. She was literally bouncing around with excitement about birthdays. I told her I was "getting old", and she took my hands and said "It's ok, Ms. Chloe, you should just be yourself and be happy with who you are."  Then, my beautiful boy walked up and hugged me and said "At least you don't look old".  Ha ha! Wow...out of the mouths of babes.  Gives a whole new meaning to "Happy Birthday".  :)

My heart

"Making the decision to have a child - it's momentous. It is to decide forever to have your heart go walking outside your body." - Elizabeth Stone  


Have you ever felt like your heart would literally explode out of your chest?  I have and do regularly.  It's pure love.   It still amazes me daily.  This is my sweet, amazing son.  Look at his eyes.  He melts me.  He is growing up.  SIGH....  

He was my helper last night. We had a family pizza picnic at the the beach and watched the sunset.  I needed to take pictures for my first "beautiful portrait" Week 1 assignment in a photography course that I am taking.  He was totally willing to be my "subject".  I think he is the most gorgeous client I have ever photographed....just sayin'.  I could be biased.  But, I wanted to capture not just his superficial, physical beauty but his inside beauty.  I wanted to show what I see when I look at him....... a gentle boy who has a heart of gold, who is a pleaser, who is super-smart, who adores his younger brother, who has a contagious belly laugh that makes him fall on the floor in hysterics and makes the whole room laugh with him,  who is so empathetic and even cries when I cry, who loves to read books, who, on Thanksgiving, told me that he was grateful for a family who loves him..., who, every night as I'm leaving his room, yells "I love you more than anything, Mommy", who loves to dance and sing, who loves baseball, who loves running FAST, who loves nature shows like Planet Earth, who just announced his new favorite animal is a giant Pacific octopus, who wants to be a scientist like his parents but also a "marine policeman" to save the oceans....  A photo can't show all these things....but I hope that I at least managed to show just a glimmer of his beauty as I see it.  There he is - my heart - slowly walking farther and farther away outside my body every day.......