S&S INC. + B.: Please pardon my absence...

First and foremost, I need to offer an apology for my blogging absence.... things have been cRaZy these past two months--- "busy" doesn't even begin to explain life. I had every intention of finally updating the blog completely today--- I even woke up just before 5 a.m. to get a head start before any of the boys would be awake to interrupt me but of course I had loads and loads of pictures I needed to sort through--- before I knew it, it was 3 hours later and the two oldest boys were up asking for breakfast and I'd only sorted through maybe a quarter of our pictures! We've done A LOT these past two months... i.e. Easter, Ian's 4TH birthday, Mother's Day, swimming lessons and swim team, Memorial Day, Cohen's 3RD birthday, Father's Day, 4TH of July... we've been celebrating pretty much non-stop... and oh yeah--- how could I forget... of course at the end of April we welcomed baby Atticus into our family and Grandma Truesdell came up to visit for 10 days... I have SO much to blog about... anyhow, like I said I had every intention of getting the blog completely updated today BUT of course I got distracted...

... You see, I sent the boys out back to play for most of the morning and afternoon... yeah that's right, we FINALLY have a backyard with grass they can play in; it's nearly completed!!! It's HEAVEN!

(Below is just a glimpse of what the yard looks like... I'll show more pictures in a future post.)

The boys LOVE to play out back and this morning I got some nice quiet time inside the house to myself while Atticus napped... well that is until I looked out the window by the computer I was typing at and saw all 4 boys soaking up sunshine and cooling off in the sprinklers...

I decided to join them for just a minute--- but of course a minute turned into ALL afternoon out back with them... eating Rocket Pop popsicles,

(Not everyone was happy about the sprinklers being on.)

chomping on watermelon and jumping on the trampoline with all the sprinklers on getting soaked or shooting hoops... technically we're not supposed to walk on the grass yet since it's sod and it still needs to root, so we hop between the deck, the basketball court and the trampoline. It was humid outside today--- reminded me of the summers I spent as a kid back east in Western New York at my grandparents lake house on Lake Ontario--- what I wouldn't give to own that lake house now so that my family and I could take summer trips there... I spent some time laying out on the trampoline--- it felt good to absorb the suns rays--- after a L.O.N.G. winter, my pasty arms and legs can use some color... for a minute there, it even felt like I was at the beach, laying out--- just me and the sun... ( Come to think of it, I hope none of the surrounding neighbors were watching from their 2ND story windows--- that would be weird and if they were, they have a serious peeping problem). The boys and I took a a few minutes to lay on the trampoline and watch the passing clouds--- we spotted a hippo, a butterfly, a muscle man and a pirate's sword... we watched as airplanes flew far overhead--- each time a plane passed, Ian insisted that Grandma Truesdell was on it coming to visit from San Diego... butterflies and dragon flies also graced us with their presence, probably looking for water... the boys were enthralled.

The day came and went quickly and consequently, not much got done--- including the blog... but I PROMISE, stick with me, and look back in a day or two and I'll have an ear load, or an eye load, or both--- wHaTeVeR!- you know what I mean- to share.