exploring

there is so much to see in our new area including this great playground/splash park in brookline. we spent hours here with friends from boston who drove out to meet us. this went around and around and around...

and ben loved it too. even though he was really dizzy he would not come out.

jack was a little under the weather again. he stuck to the less nauseating rides.

 we eventually moved to the sprinklers and i actually sat and chatted for a half hour or so while these guys cooled down. (i actually mostly sat down for thirty minutes in a row!) 

 and back to the playground..

 we also visited a pretty lame children's museum. it was more like a playhouse for babies in a tiny space and everyone was sort of crabby about it until we went to the outdoor space.

(actually ben was a little crabby outside too.)

a giant sandbox. with trucks. awesome.

making roads and holes and piles of dirt.

busy ben

and a real road. with painted lines and signs and cones. even more awesome.

i feel bad calling a museum lame, it wasn't that bad, we have just been to some great ones recently. here are the highlights.

aha...now i see why little chewy is always under the weather.

babies building.

country picnic

face painting, hot dogs, tetherball, lemonade and our local magician!

 plus a daddy trampoline.

have i mentioned that i love summer?

ben's first haircut

the mop before:

sweet ben during:

 and my gorgeous boy after (after a mom touch-up too):

 he sat in the chair and did not move a hair :). same as matty (who always sits strangely still in the barber chair).

something tells me blondie here will not sit so quietly when it's his turn...

can not even bear the thought of cutting this beautiful tangle of curls.

not a chance.

we used to spend days like this sipping cold beers and playing trivia.

trade those days for this smile?  not a chance! and when we got back to the 'burbs it had cooled down to 104. nice.

 car washes are a huge hit...don't need to wake up sleeping babes (who always fall asleep in the car) and this one loves them! i remember feeling the same as a kid, so love taking him. our car is still shiny new. on the outside. the inside smells like sour milk and dirty, sweaty boy stink.

these guys just need a cell phone and our car keys. ben was looking at the window because he was making the car honk. (neighbors love us)

he may have called someone.

oh the horn! i did it again, ha ha ha! 

 we had the brilliant idea of heading back to boston for a science museum visit. apparently the rest of metro boston decided it was a nice place to cool off too. thankfully for friends who live within walking distance and have an arsenal of toys.

 matt assumed these were little bellies for some reason and i did not correct him. way too funny.

 anything with buttons, or "buh buh" as we call them for the tots.

on thursday we had a "spearmint" to see which smoothie we like better: berry nice or banana cream pie. matt took it very seriously, even taking two sips at once and mixing them in his mouth.

 i think he liked berry as he told me to only give his brothers the banana one.

 this was right before the great pink smoothie spill at natick ben and jerry's. we left a few minutes later.

 and we burned them off at the natick mall playspace. yup.  

jack is fearless. he actually tried to walk down the slide like matt, faceplanted on the way down and got up running after his big brother. with his signature grin.

ben played here for 10 minutes. then i realized he was just stuck. he was smiling though!

 no shopping. at the natick collection. is like torture. but then again so is clothing shopping with these little guys. trade a fashionable wardrobe for these scenes? not a chance!

got tooth.

ben's new tooth broke through. more importantly, he slept through the night again!

here is what we do in the 'burbs:

we eat on the deck. 

 and play with the hose on the deck.

 and climb all over wellesley's nature trails in our PJ's because we meet dad's train some nights.

and follow big brother.

 and eat mum mums. yup, still our favorite snack.

and rest on deck.

 and plant flowers and water flowers and add more dirt to flowers and dig flowers on the deck.

 and drink cool beer on deck.

 (the whole teething thing was bad enough to let him moose my bottle.)

 all afternoon.

and play new games. fancy, new games.

and enjoy non-chain chain-like restaurants.

 viva margarita!