We made it!! The last couple of months flew right by us. Anakai and Kacia are even sweeter and cuter than ever. We have a gaggle (?) of wild turkeys that live in our backyard up in the woods. Seven of them. They come out of the woods and meander about our (and our neighbors) lawn from time to time. They are silly looking big birds, taller than car tires, and look ridiculous airborn. Much like a caste iron skillet with wings. Much more a land dweller than bird. Anyway, Wawa Beth and the twinkies watched out the window all seven wild turkeys cross the lawn, pecking away slowly at the grass.
"What are they eating?" Beth asked. "What should we feed them?" She wondered. Then she exclaimed, "Stuffing!!" And continued, "This way, it will save time on thanksgiving..."
Here's some of the latest pics of us over this thanksgiving weekend, taken with a laptop cam. Hope yours was yummy!!
We all went to Fire Island to close out an incredible summer and had a spectacular time! Our barefeet walked (chased!) on nothing else but boardwalk or beach while on island. The only complaint were the mosquitoes, but that did subside. It was reassuring to observe the twinkies developing respect for the mighty ocean. Watching them splash in the surf, play with the sand, just too cute!
We had fabulous weather and a great time with Ted, Martin, Emma, Madison, Grace, James, Taylor, and Janet. Below are a few little clips too.
I call this one "This Way and That Way"
...And she's off! Giggling Kacia beachbound. The raised boardwalks had no guard rails, and were often uneven, and maintained over a 3" drop into piney, thorny, beach dune underbrush (not to mention the ticks!) but they managed to never fall off!
Below is sleepy Anakai with her version of 'the spins' along with a favorite blanky and toyfriend, blue ugly doll.
Here is the major mode of transportation on island: the double wagon. Taylor (who is also a twin :) with Anakai in tow. Curious Kacia leading, of course.
What does Kacia have to do to catch a wave around Anakai?
We met a lot of new people, thoroughly enjoyed ourselves, and watched the twinkies grow just a bit more. Thanks Ted, for dragging us all out to the beachhouse!
Here we are at our first native american indian pow wow. We saw Atka, the grey wolf, a falcon fly over our heads, listened to native stories, and did a tribal indian dance "The Candy Dance". All the children were asked to come to the circle where they had just scattered candy all over the ground. It was like musical chairs, but with candy. When the music stopped, you had to drop the candy out of your hands. Of course, K + A just wandered and danced around anyway.
Here's a short clip of a tribal dance with complete regalia.
At a year and a half old, I went away for a week, the first time away from the twinkies since they were born! When I returned, Wawa Beth + Chris elected to graduate the twinkies out of cribs and into their new 'big girl' beds... availing the rest of the house to their double-duty disposal (and consequently leaving the mama to cower in the kitchen, dispensing food as needed) That same week, earth-moving equipment arrived to our estate to dig a 300' long trench behind our house. Here's are the twinkies on the back hoe, digging up our property, and staying hydrated. Nothing was quite the same since! This one (left) was taken in the Spring of 2006. My older sis, Didi and the twinkies.
The photo below was taken at Ashley's graduation from nursery school and to kindergarten, Spring 2006. This question was posited to our young nursery school grad "What do you want to be when you grow up?" Ashley firmly exclaimed loud and proud, "I wanna be a princess!"
