Weekend

Weekend pictures - Farmer's El:

Short hair!

Good sharing!

Play-doh:

Water table:

Cooking clams:

Hide-and-seek:

Lunch with Pa-Pa:

Seany napped and Clare did not (it's usually the other way around):

Water table (again):

Shaving cream:

Movie time ("Turbo"):

Pretty pirate:

Happy Father's Day!

Saturdays at the Races

We've spent the last two Saturday mornings at races! First up, a "paint race!" Daddy ran a full 5K which Mommy ran a 1-mile fun run with the kiddies. Daddy got a great time and finished shortly after we finished our mile :-)

During the race, there were 3 "color stations" at which volunteers would spray our white t-shirts with colored powder.  Sean was thrilled with each color station, claiming it gave him a "color boost" to help him run faster.  Luckily he didn't run too fast since I carried Clare piggyback most of the way - hehe.

After the race, looking very colorful:

The kids enjoyed their post-race snacks, of course - cereal bars and soft pretzels, yum!

At one point, the kids just took off and decided to finish their snacks in the grass on the far side of the playground:

After finishing their snacks, the kids played on the playground, took a couple of turns in the bouncy house, and then we waited patiently for the raffle - the Sooys did well!  Clare got a gift certificate to an ice cream place (not Rita's) and Daddy got one to a smoothie/burrito place.

The next race was the Moorestown 8K.  Either Mommy or Daddy (or sometimes both - and one time, Sean!) have run this race nearly every year since we first moved up here about 9 years ago.  This year Daddy ran it and the rest of us cheered him on:

We kept busy with the little bubble blower Sean got for his birthday - first, Clare would work the bubble blower and Sean would "fight"  the bubbles:

And then it was Sean's turn to blow the bubbles:

And then it would be Mommy's turn:

After the bubble fun was over, we checked out the fair getting into swing on Main Street. Sean got a mini-lesson on how to use Nunchucks from a karate school, Clare pet a puppy, the kids took a couple of turns in yet another bouncy house, and then we headed back over to congratulate Daddy on another great race!

Strawberry Picking

Last weekend we took the kids to a nearby farm to go strawberry picking. We boarded a hayride out to the strawberry fields - we had the whole wagon to ourselves, which thrilled Sean!

After we explained the basics of strawberry picking to the kids, Sean went down one row with Daddy  while Clare and I went down another.  Clare was quite good at picking strawberries - she stuck to picking large red berries and left the yellow and green "baby" berries to stay in the bush with their mommies.

After we filled up 4 tubs with strawberries, we headed over to the radish patch to try our luck with pulling radishes.  Thom John and I took a minute to work out what the radish plant leaves looked like, then we were able to quickly spot them, point them out to the kids, and let the kids pull up the radishes.  We ended up with 2 tubs of radishes!

We said good-bye to the fields and got back on another hayride to get back to the main farm.

It was a hot day and the fields were dusty, so the kids were ecstatic to get their bathing suits (or, "baby soups" as Clare used to call them) and play on the splash pad.

Looking for where the next spring of water will come out:

The water was freezing so it only took a little while for the kids to cool down.  After drying off and getting dressed again, they played on the big playground for a little while and then headed over to the petting zoo.

Our sweet little babes:

The kids worked up quite an appetite with all the fun, so of course we got some ice cream and water ice before leaving:

And this is what happened about 4 minutes into the car ride home:

When we got home, we let Clare get a few more minutes of sleep while Thom John mowed the lawn - with a captive audience, of course:

Outside

The weather is so nice out after school these days, so we've been playing at the playground, blowing bubbles, riding bikes, and playing with chalk.  I drew this Yoda for the kids and I was pretty pleased with it and of course, Sean had a great story to go along with it...

"Yoda is flying above our heads and he is coming to our house to bring us presents! Yoda has a walking stick and a 'light-saver' and he will use it against all our enemies!"

After we finished up with chalk on this particular afternoon, we rode bikes down to the creek to see what's going on at the "waterfall."  Sean and Clare made a game of throwing as many sweet gum balls as they could gather into the creek.

The kids really like to come here - they like to look around, throw things into the water, and play hide-and-go-seek.  This is a neat spot in our neighborhood - I even used to take Pepper for a break on long walks on hot days. I'd sit on some rocks and Pepper would work up the courage to try to wade into the water.  

Hide-and-go-seek... Clare is hiding:

Throwing more sweet gum balls:

When we'd had enough of the creek and the woods, Sean hopped back on his bike and Clare trotted along with him while I carried her bike all the way home.