Half Dozen Cousins

Alan, William, Alexander

Robby, Kaitlyn, Sarah

These are just the cousins on the McGiffin side of the family. My brothers are finally married and catching up with us in the kid's department. (The Rose cousin count still have the McGiffin's beat by far. My kids have 13 cousins on the Rose side of the family. )

Strawberry Jam

Kaitlyn and I made strawberry jam yesterday. The first time I ever made jam was with the Griffin's when I was pregnant with Kaitlyn. They took us out to a strawberry farm, and we picked them, then came back and made a big batch together. It was so much fun, that I decided to do it every year after that.

This year I didn't pick the strawberries like we usually do, because it costs more in gas to go all the way out to the farm than it does to buy them here in the grocery store.

So, we washed the strawberries, cut them, and put them in our huge pot. Then I got out the potato masher and let Kaitlyn go at it. She had a great time. We both got strawberry juice all over our clothes, but it was fun. An hour later, we had some yummy jam!

Planting the Garden...

Every spring I have high hopes for a garden that
we plan and plant. This year I have two garden spots because I wanted to be able to plant everything. My goal is to be able to grow enough food that I can can use some of it for food storage. I've really been thinking about the neccessity of food storage lately. I want to try to turn our tomatoes into tomato sauce and salsa. I want to be able to pickle our carrots, and can our green beans and peas. We'll see if it works this year. Last year it was so hot, and the drought was so bad, that I had to let the garden go because we weren't allowed to water anything.

Kaitlyn enjoys playing in the dirt as she "helps" me in the garden.

The sprinkler does double duty as it waters the garden, and provides a great place to play!!

Check out my Slide Show!

We Love The Ocean!

Alan on the beach playing, with Tom and Kaitlyn in the background contemplating the waves.

Pictures of our Room

Here's a few pictures of our room. It was called a condo, but it was very small for a condo. The front room was nice with a sleeper couch
(that we didn't use) and a view of the ocean. The kitchen was very small, but it was big enough for us to save money making our own meals in it. The bedroom had two queen beds, and a nice bathroom with a double vanity.

Playing in the waves

This is another picture you'll have to click on to get a better view. Alan is on the right running from the waves, and I'm holding Kaitlyn on the left just getting hit by one. Kaitlyn for the first 2 days of our trip called the waves "wales".

Tom holding William at the beach for the first time

Flying Kites on the Beach

Tom and Alan let nearly all of the 200ft string out when flying a kite on the beach. We actually had two of them, but the strings crossed, and one of them broke off and flew away. It was so windy that there was no way we could get it. That's ok, because we still had the one flying really high. The best place to fly a kite is definitely at the ocean!!

Here's another picture of Sarah in the Sand in front of our umbrella. I'm holding William safe in the shade. Like all the pictures on this blog, you can click on it and it will get bigger so you can see it more clearly.

Castles from the otherside

This picture gives you a better idea of how big Alan's castles were. If you click on this picture it will open up bigger and you can see our rainbow umbrella in the background with me holding William, and Kaitlyn beside us.

Castles and Canyons

Alan called this his "canyon". I guess he was thinking of the grand canyon when naming this. Sarah and Kaitlyn and I also helped, but eventually he took over construction of it, and stayed at it for an hour or more. Of course he'd get up from it occassionally to go play in the waves too.

Sarah in the Sand

This was a favorite activity of Alan and Sarah while we were on the beach. We'd dig a big hole and then they'd get in and cover them with sand. It was funny to watch people look twice when they walked by us on the beach and saw her little head sticking out of the sand.

Room with a View

We just spent our Spring Break in Daytona Beach Florida. We only live 6 hours away from there, and so we decided to go when the crowds were smaller. It was so much fun!! We left on Monday and stayed until Friday. Because it's not tourist season quite yet, we were able to get a really nice condo on the beach at the "Daytona Beach Resort" for a very reasonable price. I took this picture from the balcony in front of our room on Friday morning.

Kaitlyn's Creative Foot

Lately Kaitlyn has been drawing all the time. She always draws these cute little people with a circle body, and then cuts them out and tapes them on the walls. She gets very upset if I move the pictures she tapes on the walls. This time, she decided to forego the paper and use her foot as a drawing pad.