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Before I dive into our vacation photos I thought I’d post some of my favorites from June. Here goes!

Quinn and his friend Luke hiking at the Sheep Pasture (notice Quinn’s inside out shirt – mind you, I’m not complaining, I just find it amusing! The previous day Miles got himself dressed and put everything on backward. Fun times here, oh yeah.)

Testing out the slip’n’slide for the first time (we bought at the church fair last fall so it’s been a long wait!)

Testing out the new camera, too!

First dip in the pool for 2010! Don’t worry, the water is crystal clear now – we just couldn’t wait that long to take a dip. Think the boys like the water?

We celebrated Father’s Day and Becca’s birthday by going to a Brockton Rox game. It was SO HOT that the seats were difficult to sit down on! But before the game we got to go out on the field and toss tennis balls around. Check out Miles’s great catching form in the picture below – I guess his feet have to be off the ground to catch the ball! After we were done with our game of catch, Miles said to Becca, “that was a fun baseball game!” I think he thought we were leaving even though the game hadn’t even started yet. Oops! Luckily he still had a good time, despite the heat. We were all really happy to jump in the pool once we got back from the game!

Quinn also finished up kindergarten in June and is already looking forward to first grade in the fall. Yikes! Miles is starting preschool in the fall and is having fun playing school with Quinn this summer.

There are lots more photos in the June album! Go check them out!

This time we went to karate graduation, both of the boys earned new belts! Aunt Becca, Uncle Sean, Grandma, and Grandpa all came to watch the fun. I think we got the most laughs when Miles’s class was demonstrating kicks on their instructors…someone should have told his instructor to wear a cup when being kicked by 3-year-olds!!!

Here they are with their new belts:

After the graduation Grandpa had to go to work, but the rest of us went over to Oak Knoll Wildlife Sanctuary to enjoy the gorgeous weather!

Here’s a selection of photos from the October 2009 album. The pumpkin carving and other Halloween photos will be coming soon, I promise!

There was a mid-October snow storm that coated the everything – of course, by the time I got out of the house the next morning, it was mostly melted. But you can still see the unusual juxtaposition (at least for our neck of the woods) of our ghost decorations with the snow on the ground.

The boys and I also participated in some fun MOMS Club activities this month, like where they created a dinosaur craft and then paraded around the room to dinosaur music…

…and also the biscotti bakery tour, where the boys got to try out some hair nets…

…and where Miles decided two pieces of headgear would work better than one!

We also invited Aunt Becca and Uncle Sean to come hang out and watch a Patriots game with us. Here’s Miles trying out Uncle Sean’s jersey – it almost fits!

On Labor Day, the boys and I met Aunt Becca and Uncle Sean at Houghton’s Pond for a picnic and playtime. (Unfortunately Daddy had to work, since a big DDO update is out today!) Originally I’d hoped to take the boys to the ocean, but although the day was sunny it really wasn’t that warm, so we compromised on Houghton’s Pond – there’s still sand and water but the drive was much shorter for everyone.

Needless to say, it did not take Quinn long to start playing in the sand!

Miles was a bit more tentative about feeling the sand between his toes, but warmed up to the idea considerably once he got his swim suit on.

Even though it was a bit chilly, neither of the boys seemed reluctant to get in the water!

And Uncle Sean did a great job helping Miles warm up again once he was done swimming – Miles was so cold coming out of the water that he practically vibrated himself up the beach! Here I think they were playing keep away – Miles was chasing the ball and kept saying, “I have it? I have it? I have it?”

But Aunt Becca wins the prize for taking the best shots of the boys that we’ve seen in a while (actually, she took all of these pictures – I think I’m a bit jealous of her new camera!) Look! One of Quinn where he isn’t doing that weird winking/crooked-smile/smooshed face!

And a really lovely one of Miles:

And lastly, here is one of Miles hamming it up! He likes to say “cheese” for the camera these days!

To see more photos of our Labor Day fun, view the September 2009 album.

Father’s Day was a much better day than Mother’s Day this year, mostly because none of the fathers were sick sick sick on their day! But Father’s Day is extra fun in our family anyway, because we also get to celebrate Becca’s birthday. This year her actual birthday was a few days ahead of time, but who’s counting?

At Quinn’s request, we started the day with special breakfast (Eric chose French toast) and Quinn insisted that Eric open his gift right away. (Well, the part of the gift that he didn’t know about, since last weekend he bought a lovely widescreen monitor, and I said “Happy Father’s Day!”) I’d like to know what Miles was so excited about in Daddy’s card:

Quinn picked out all of the Father’s Day cards this year, and did a super job decorating them. Here’s the one he did for Papa – can you tell what it says?

Ok, did you guess? On the left it says: “Hope to see you soon Love Miles Quinn” After he wrote the “Hope” vertically I asked him to switch colors so that you’d have a chance in heck of figuring out what he wrote!

Later in the day, Grandma, Grandpa, Aunt Becca, and Uncle Sean came over to play MarioKart, take naps (well the fathers did, anyway!) and generally have a good time. We had a lovely dinner of fruity salad (a la Becca and Sean), shrimp and scallops (a la Grandpa and Grandma), potatoes fontecchio, and cake (a la me). After dinner there were gifts, including lots of bbq sauce for Grandpa, and a new yellow bag for Aunt Becca, for which Miles had a great time opening all of the pockets! But the highlight of the gift opening was when Grandpa opened the card that Quinn had selected for him – and it played the Pink Panther theme! Unfortunately my timing was off and I didn’t get a photo of the surprise and all the big smiles, but I think it got the reaction for which Quinn was hoping!

Then came dessert and it was YUMMY! I made the Pioneer Woman’s Strawberry Shortcake Cake. It was delightful and I’ll definitely make it again. Hmmm…I think there are some strawberries in my refrigerator right now…..