Orchard Family Blog: June 2008

Monday, June 16, 2008

Happy Father's Day!

This is the picture the boys took for their dad and grandpa for Father's Day

Ben opening Father's Day gifts. Jacob was cute because he kept taking the stuff out of the bag and handing it to Ben instead of handing him the gift bag to open. Just trying to help!

Ben's attempt at a Father's Day picture with the kids.

At church, the kids gave their dads cards and little checkerboards with Hershey's kisses to play the game with. It was cute and they had fun before eating the candy:)

My first views of New York City! We decided to walk around the city before we met our friends to head over to the concert. This was my first trip into the city so it was fun and exciting. I had been to Chicago so it wasn't overwhelming. Lots of cool things to see and do that we couldn't squeeze in but a great reason to come back again some time.

My niece Christian at the their apartment.

The view down the street from my sister-in-law's apartment.

Hulk is huge in the city right now.

We had to go to Times Square!

Ben in Times Square

More at Times Square

The next pictures are from the Toys R US which is awesome. There is a giant ferris wheel inside the store and some amazing Lego sculptures and other cool things. Here are a few!

Blues Clue's at Toys R Us.

Dora and Boots

Ben loves Legos so here he is at the display

Na na na na na na na na...Batman!

The Bat Car!

King Kong Lego sculpture

Superman saving the day at the Toys R Us

Jimmy Neutron ferris wheel car

Mr. and Mrs. Potato Head car

Scooby Doo car

Ferris Wheel

Toy Story ferris wheel car

Hot Wheels display!

The Hershey store

Yay for free samples of chocolate!

Fire Station across from the restaurant we went to that helped with 9/11

This is for Carrie and Melinda. I love it! We so need to go!

This is the new M & M World in Times Square
and I knew that Evan would think this was cool!

Dinosaur in Toys R Us

R.E.M. at Jones Beach

For all of you who are R.E.M. fans or appreciate that I am, this was quite an interesting concert. Jones Beach Theater on Long Island is an outdoor amphitheatre right on the water with no covered seating for concertgoers. So there were cloudy skies for the 2 opening acts, The National and Modest Mouse. During the set from Modest Mouse, there was a lot of lightning and then it got progressively louder and closer. The set ended with Mother Nature's fireworks hitting the top of the amphitheatre and sparks flying everywhere and a hurried announcement that there would be a rain delay for the safety of everyone. Go to your cars and listen for info on a local radio station. So Matt and Ben went and grabbed us the lovely rain ponchos that you see us in and we made a mad, very wet dash back to the car. We waited it out and went back when they started playing in the rain at 10:10 pm. My favorite song of the night was the stripped down, acoustic version of "Let Me In" from the Monster Album. Very nice! Bad Day was also a great one and a song that I like and the video is great (another you can catch on You Tube). Despite the downpour, it was still a lot of fun and it did stop raining during the very last song, "Man on the Moon." Check out the videos at the bottom. Not the best but cool that I took them. There are other great ones at http://tour.remhq.com/tour-date/june-14th-long-island-ny There is a special rendition of "Have You Ever Seen the Rain" just for us dripping wet people right at the beginning. Michael Stipe came out and told us we looked like a bunch of garbage sacks and was just so funny through the whole thing. I have to say that Ben is a Modest Mouse fan and they were very good while they were able to play. We had a great time and it so reminded me of those road trips I took in college. I have to give a shout out to our friends that babysat our kids so that we could go. Thank you! An evening we will not soon forget!

Tuesday, June 10, 2008

May and some of June for the Orchards

Ok so I haven't posted in a while so here are pictures from the last month of our life. At least I labelled all of these. And be sure to check out the videos at the bottom.

Benjamin had his last soccer game on May 17th for the spring season. Here is his team.

Some action shots.

The boy on the far right in yellow is Oscar, Benjamin's classmate from school.

Benjamin gets a soccer medal to commemorate the season.

Of course he had to put it on.

Can you see the drool? His teeth are just barely through the gum.

He's so pleased with himself now that he can crawl around and get to things...

like brothers shoes!

This was so cute!

Cute but it can't be comfortable...

OK so we thought this was the best idea Evan had in a while and it gives new meaning to the phrase "motor mouth". Ha Ha!

Great googly moogly, Jacob!

Now he tries to get Matthew to wear them.

The strawberry patch! I went with my friend Connie and her little guy Andrew to pick strawberries last week. It was fun and it had rained the night before so no one else showed up which was great for us!

Connie shows the kids what color to pick. NO Green ones!

Jacob watches.

Our first berries. We ended up with 14 lbs so I made lots of yummy jam!

Jacob pretty much picked one strawberry and ate the whole time. He was happy:)

Matthew says mmm, tasty! (He says this about everything these days)

Oooh, take my picture

Cute Jacob

Happy Matthew!

We went to Benjamin's school fair where they got these googly eyes and some other prizes. Here's googly eye Evan.

Jacob plays with his slinky dog

Sleepy Jacob. This a pile of pillows we keep between our couch and the wall. It was so cute that he snuggled down for a nap.

Benjamin is ready for his field trip to Honey Hollow.

Bouncing around at the school fair

Matthew was happy at the fair

Googly eye Jacob

Googly eye Benjamin

Matthew is so happy to be eating solid food and likes to feed himself.

Matthew also loves the bath, although more water ends up out than in. He is so funny when he snuggles the washcloth and sucks his thumb just like he does with his bib or blankie.