Best Baby Shower Cake Ever

We had a very nice baby shower at the weekly church dinner this week. It's nice to be a part of a church that genuinely loves its pastors, staff, and members, and we felt that this evening. I do have to say that this has to be the best baby shower cake design ever. Apparently our church is concerned that I might dip our newborn into a cup of Starbucks coffee like I would biscotti or a scone. I sure would be freaked out to have a baby emerge from a steaming mug of coffee, but I'm guessing Jess would rather children enter the world that way than actually go through birth at this point...

Enjoy the pictures.

Boo!

We're still trying to figure out if this is a St. Simons thing (or if it's another Hallmark holiday), but we got "booed" the other day. It was fun that someone surprised us with a treat, and Annika especially enjoyed "booing" two other neighbors the next night. We sneaked out after dark to leave a surprise on their porches. Good times! (The last picture is a preview of Sammy's Halloween costume.)

We Survived!

So, we resumed soccer today, and - surprise, surprise - I think it was a success. Annika seemed to be enjoying herself - at least for the first half. (And about half the kids were rolling around the field late in the second half, so she wasn't alone with that!) While there were no touches on the ball today, there were no tears, and I think that's a great start. As you'll see in the pictures below, she's one of the youngest and smallest playing, so I say, "Bravo, Annika!" We're very proud of her.

A Picture is Worth 1000 Words (And At Least That Many Toys)

This picture sums up our day with Annika. When she went to bed, everything in her room was put away - thanks to her hardworking mom. In a little under two hours, she quietly got out virtually every toy in her closet and littered her room with them. (Here's a game: Can you find Annika in the picture?)

Our entire day with her is pretty much summed up in that picture. We took her to soccer practice (#2), and she spent pretty much the entire practice grousing about her shinguards hurting rather than actually learning how to dribble a soccer ball. I'm guessing this whole season will be more a test of our perseverance - we won't let her quit - than it will be a time for her to enjoy learning something new.

The irony in all of this is that I start teaching a parenting class at the church tomorrow. I've never felt less-equipped as a parent than I do right now. Thank you, Annika for breaking us. Ugh.

Random Pictures

Since it's been almost a month since we last posted, I thought I would just put some random pictures up from this summer. With the fall coming, our schedules really picked up the pace. (And we seem to be doing a great job ignoring the fact that another HB is going to arrive here in two months.) Annika started soccer today, so I'll try to get a couple of pictures up as soon as I get them loaded. For now, these will have to suffice.


Sam does lots of "boy" things - cars and balls especially - but he loves stealing his sister's dress up stuff and cruising the house in it.


Sam and Laila are kindred spirits. She's only 1 month older than he is, and you can tell.


Annika took a couple trips to the beach this summer. It's actually a good place to cool off when the temps hit almost 100. She even lost her legs once.


We're proud members of the Jacksonville Zoo. On this trip, we got to feed the Lorikeets. Sam thought it was interesting - some of the time.


Finally, Annika's learning how to spell. Here's one of her first efforts with Sam's name. We'll keep trying!

Puddle Jumping

Not that I'm trying to paint too rosy a picture about the recent storm, but at least there were some puddles for the kids to romp around in. Sam, Ani, and I headed out for some puddle jumping this morning, and we all had a great time. Somehow I managed to catch Annika in midair for one of the pictures. Enjoy.

Stormtrackers - Tropical Storm Fay

We've been silent on this end for awhile, and I think it's mostly due to how much we enjoy watching Pete's video of Samuel. Now that we've had our first tropical storm, it's probably time to bump Sam down the blog a bit. (At least until we catch him dancing again!)

This first picture is of the marsh that's between East Beach and the main part of the island. This spring we kayaked through a creek that winds somewhere underneath all the water. Usually this will look more like a field than a lake. Welcome to life at sea level.


This next picture is of the pier down in the village. Usually there is around 15-20 feet of room between the pier and the water. Today it looked like there were around 3 feet. Annika and I stopped by the beach to see what it was like, and I'm guessing the winds were around 35-40 mph, and the waves were coming in all the way to the dunes. Interestingly, we didn't have winds anywhere near that speed at our house, which is only 10 minutes away from the beach.


Finally, this last picture is of the street near our house. The spanish moss on the trees seems to fall pretty easily, and so every road on the island is covered with debris. Most of it is small, but we did see a couple of trees that were uprooted.


We're safe and sound here. Quite frankly, we've been through some thunderstorms that were more severe than Fay. I know that others were not nearly as fortunate as we have been, but we wanted to let you all know that life is wet and fine down here.