Aw, shucks!

Another one of the places we are going to miss when we move (starting this weekend!) is the local produce stand. They are famous locally for their tomatoes, but their corn is quite tasty, too. Recently, Osten tried his hand at shucking.

It's hard work for small hands!

Daddy helped a little, and before you knew it . . .

the corn was ready to go on the grill!

2 KooL 4 sKooL

Recently, when I went to pick up the kids at school, I walked into Marci's room to find her sprawled on the floor, proudly displaying both her belly button and her secret one-handed bottle hold. Funny, we can almost never get her to hold her own bottle at home!

Marci and I walked down the hall to get Osten, and he insisted upon showing us how he sits on the potty at school (unfortunately, that is still ALL he is doing on the potty). Sigh . . . Come to think of it, just like his sister holding her own bottle, this is also one of those things that rarely happens at home!

Team Work

Lately, there's been much more sibling interaction around our house. Usually, Osten is very sweet and helpful and will often hold Marci's bottle for her.

Unfortunately, he almost always loses interest in it before she does!

And, since he's older and more mobile, he's off to bigger and better things.

But Marci's no fool. I swear some times I think she's just biding her time and plotting her revenge!

Sweet Serenade

Osten gave his solo rendition of the birthday song this morning at breakfast. It is currently one of his favorite tunes, and the lyrics are ever-changing. We occasionally will hear him belting out this song while he is waiting to fall asleep at night.

I got the full-chorus serenade last night followed by a cake dinner. When Daddy came back from Publix with this cake, it looked and smelled so good that we decided to cut into it a day early. It was such a hit that the pre-birthday cake dinner may be a new tradition for us!

Presents! Presents! This year I had lots of help with the unwrapping.

I think everyone enjoyed the celebration, which was somewhat messy for the two littlest revelers. Daddy had Osten sign Mommy's card in the car, and as a result, his arm was covered in ink. The card also ended up in two pieces, but it was covered in fabulous, one-of-a-kind artwork. And somehow Marci ended up with some Gerber leftovers on her forehead.

G.R.I.T.S.

Marci had her first taste of this traditional southern food at breakfast this morning.

Although she is a big fan of corn, she didn't seem too jazzed about its porridge counterpart.

At least for the time being, I think we'll add grits to her list of culinary dislikes, which currently includes peaches and bananas. But since she is a Girl Raised In The South, I don't think we'll give up completely on grits just yet!

Sand in the Place Where You Live

The best thing, by far, about where we live right now is that we can be at the beach with our feet (and face) in the sand in just twenty minutes! After we move next week, we'll be about an hour's drive from the sand.

Since it's our last full weekend in our house, we took a trip to the beach on Sunday partly out of nostalgia. As usual, Osten had a great time mixing water and sand.

He's at that age where he just loves to cover himself in the stuff.

It looks like Marci is following suit. We caught her trying to eat sand off of her foot!

More Sand

Osten knows the drill at the beach now, and he is so proud to be able to pull his wagon of toys all by himself.

Marci had her first taste of salt water, and she wasn't too impressed!

She was much happier once we got her under the umbrella. Osten's shovel kept her busy for quite a while.

They both had a very busy morning, but they humored us with a quick picture in the swing before it was time to head home for baths and naps. They are both now squeaky clean and sleeping the sound slumber that always seems to follow the sand and sun at this age!