stats:

bea
height: 33 3/4 inches
weight: 21 lbs 14 oz

henry
height: 40 1/2 inches
weight: 34 lbs

they both just had their well checks. both kept telling me for weeks they didn't want to get shots. bea did good with hers. she cried, but got over it quickly. he cried, too. but with him i think it was his feelings that were hurt more than anything. that was hard for me. he gave us a look like he couldn't believe we would subject him to such a thing. can't say i blame him. i hate it too. the good news is that they are both healthy and feisty.

bea has become quite the talker. she repeats everything she hears. EVERYTHING. she quotes movies, songs, us - it does not matter. she hears it, she says it. i'll admit we have a little fun with it. she's our book lover and spends much of her days pulling every book of the shelf and looking through them. we can't read to her enough. she also loves to paint. she's nuts in the best way possible. she is going full throttle from the second she's awake until she closes her eyes at night. absolutely living life to the fullest. loudly.

henry is our resident super hero / nature lover. he's a collector of bugs, rocks, leaves, and sticks. recently he caught a roly poly bug, put it in a jar and brought it inside to watch a movie with him. he's been known to let centipedes "tickle" his arms. (that gives me the goosebumps just typing it). we can't go anywhere without bringing home at least a handful of rocks. i find them everywhere. in my pockets, his pockets, stashed in the car. he's our treasure finder. he's very interested in letters, words, and sounds. he made up a game where we take turns rhyming words. he loves rhyming! he also loves mazes and tape of any kind. he can plow through a roll of tape like nobody's business.

just wanted to give a quick little update on them. in the next week or so i'll be uploading lots of photos and probably very few words. i've got lots of pictures to share!

henry had his four year check up yesterday. they tested his ears and say his hearing is just fine. i beg to differ.

film.

my camera recently stopped working. right now it is visiting the canon repair shop. in the meantime, i've been using film. you remember film, don't you?

spider-man has moved in with us.

mama tried.

this is what went down while i mowed the yard with our new (to us) push reel mower.

playing catch up.

well, i am so far behind. on everything. i think that can happen easily during the summer. we're spending more time outside than in, which is a good thing.
so, i'll just post tons of pictures in the meantime and you'll get an idea of what we've been up to.

to start with - water. blow up pool in the backyard. sprinklers. slip n slide. the hose. there's a lot of water play going on in these parts.

*and on a side note. this blog has a new address, so you may need to make note of it.
it's thelewisfamilylowdown.blogspot.com

i'll try to post a little more regularly. at least for a little while ; )

we're still here.

wow. i've been pretty lazy here. we'll start off with a little photo catch up to get things moving again. these two are growing like weeds. henry is having bouts of maturity mixed with frequent spurts of being possessed by a 3 yr old whining demon. bea repeats everything you say and does everything her big brother does. and she likes to be boss at the moment.

o≈o

today we trekked to the museum again to take in this exhibit and make a sculpture of a car, today's planned activity for the kids. more and more i'm so glad we bought that family pass. henry does not have that much interest in browsing the museum but is very interested in the art projects. since they often relate the project to a specific piece of art or in this case an exhibit, it gives us a chance to check out the museum in small portions.



upon walking into the car exhibit henry said, "whoa!". he was impressed with the size (and probably the shininess), and i admit i was too. these cars were pretty stunning pieces of design. unfortunately, he wasn't interested enough to linger and really admire the details like i wanted too, but that just means i need to go back. i think there are 18 cars in the exhibit and i didn't get to read about any of them. i took as many pictures as i could, but was not confident enough in the boy's ability to refrain from touching anything, so i didn't want to take my eyes off him for more than a few seconds at a time. also, no flash or tripods are allowed, so i got a lot of blur and was often shooting blind.

after the exhibit we headed to the classrooms for some sculpting. they wanted them to sculpt cars. i had already told henry to make whatever he wanted. henry and bea were really into the clay.




eventually their sculptures became one and turned into a car of some sort. henry calls it a bunny car.


those blue crayons sticking out are the horns. there was a 1937 mercedes roadster (gorgeous!) that had two large silver horns on the front. i was happy to know that he was paying attention.

i hope to get back to this exhibit without the littles. i'd love to linger and appreciate all the details on these cars, and of course get some better photos. if i do, i'll be sure to share.

*highlight from today - henry seeing a banner for this upcoming exhibit and saying, "i want a mustache like that someday!' . awesome. and it wouldn't surprise if he followed through with it. i'll be sure to share that if it ever happens!