sunday evening outing

hi there! yep, i'm alive over here. buried under piles of laundry, unfinished art projects and a sink full of dirty dishes. i have numerous blog posts started yet never finished and even more formulated in my head... inspired by such things as fruit smoothies being smeared all over the back window, anthony's son throwing mud balls at passing cars and me not knowing until some irate lady stopped to inform me, and being covered in spit up at 3 am and being too tired to change or even care.

life is good around here. but incredibly busy and i rarely have a spare moment when both of my hands are free.

yet last night, i decided to shake off my old stick-in-the-mudness and actually join my family on a sunday evening outing instead of seeing it as i usually do... a golden opportunity to sit in a quiet house and stare at the wall.

we had a super fun hike. "hike" being a very generous description of the trail on which we meandered.

the kids loved it and kept exclaiming "this is the best place EVER!"

gotta love nights like that.

there were sticks to throw and stumps to climb.

and even a bee tree!

which is super fun since we had just learned about them. (i recommend patricia polacco's the bee tree to you homeschoolers out there. and then you can come visit and see a real live bee tree for yourself! ahem angie) not that this picture is all that great or anything but it wasn't as if i was actually going to get up close and unleash a flurry of bees on myself.

we even met a horse.

ella is in love.

she proceeded to talk to me about how much fun it would be to have a horse. and how she would just love to take riding lessons.

yeah, well, i'd really love a nap but we don't get everything we want around here.

this one has become super camera shy.

which is a shame since he's so darn cute.

well, they all are.

and why does mason look like this whenever i ask him to smile?

do we still wonder why i wanted a girl?

oh well. i'll keep him.

and now i leave you with me and my little lovebug: