Well, it's not ski season quite yet, but the Morningstars are ready! Steve just got Ben his first pair of skis and we couldn't decide which photo best encapsulated the sheer joy of it all, so you get to see all of them :)
And not to be outdone by Ben's crazy poses, check out Sam showing off his new boots!
Now all we need is snow.
Sasha has been in quasi-potty training since we first met in January. She uses the potty regularly and successfully, but we hadn't made the leap to underwear - until now.
I wish there was one word that encapsulates the moments of sheer elation, large swaths of time spent oscillating between anger and despair, and lots and lots of laundry. Oh, wait, there is one such word: toddler.
Oh, and I believe that the doll is fully potty trained now, Sasha has been giving her lots of positive reinforcement. The first draft of this blog post was proud to report that the doll hadn't yet taken a bath in the potty, but Steve corrected that overly optimistic report. I only wish that the doll being dunked into the toilet head first was the grossest thing's happened this week.
A few weeks ago, Sasha was completing her assessment with Kids on the Move, a local early intervention program, and the coordinator mentioned that they had a Kindermusic class starting up that Sasha could participate in. Knowing Sasha's love for all things musical (second only to her love for all things K-9), we signed her up immediately. 
Sasha has truly perfected her kissy face. This is the last thing I see every morning as I leave the house - milk-soaked toddler face begging for one more kiss before I go. Love like that will last you through the whole day.
So I'm eating lunch at work, perusing CNN.com, and what to my wondering eyes does appear? A link to an article about the nearly-nude geezer calendar inspired by my grandfather - on the CNN main page. Can you believe it?!?
Greater love hath no brother than this, that he assemble a doll bed for his sister.
I could give you all of the reasons - Steve got a good rebate on a new phone and we already had unlimited family texting so adding another line was super cheap - but at the end of the day the reality is that my children have their own mobile phone.
Not just a marginal Paul Simon song - it's also how we spent our Monday evening!
cubs, and baby giraffe. I think that the elephant, born in mid-August, probably got the biggest "awwwwww" factor, although unsurprisingly the wolf was Sasha's favorite exhibit. I think she's the only little girl in the history of the world who goes up to the wolf enclosure and says, "awwwww, so sweet!" The girl loves her dogs!
We tried to take the traditional photo at the lion drinking fountain, however, and Sasha would have none of it despite her normal passion for all things watery. The man-eating wolf is adorable, the cartoon lion with a drinking fountain in its mouth is terrifying. Whatever.
We finished off our rather rainy but still delightful evening at the zoo with a spin around the carousel. I was so proud of Sash - she actually consented to ride on an animal, although she wanted nothing to do with the zebra I suggested and instead went straight for the snow leopard. Now that I think about it, aren't snow leopards indigenous to Kazakhstan? Let me check... yep, the internet says yes! Go ethnic heritage!
Ben chose a gorilla carousel animal; so appropriate for our little monkey. Sam went with the elephant, which was so big that he had to climb onto it from the saddle of the cheetah next to it! And we all had a fantastic time. Boy do I love a good carousel. 
We rounded out the evening with dinner at Buca di Beppo, a family favorite, where Sam successfully secured the kitchen table using his good looks and natural charm. As you may have guessed from the very clever name, the table is... in the kitchen. You get to see the chefs preparing the food and you get a lot of special attention from the servers, which is a total thrill for the kids.
Last week, Ben came home from church announcing that he was going to use his allowance to purchase Diet Coke and "Mintos". His allowance is his to spend however he pleases, so later that day we visited Target and he purchased more Diet Coke and Mentos than any six-year-old should ever have. Trust me, I tried to talk him into purchasing only one package, to no avail.
And where did our son learn about combining Diet Coke and Mentos? Why, Sunday School, of course!
The kids are studying wisdom in Upstreet (Children's Church) and there was an unfortunate "misunderstanding" where Pastor Chris mixed up wisdom and fizzdom. It could happen to anybody. Clearly the object lesson made quite the impression on our boys!
We have this slight Birkenstock obsession in our house, and I have to say that Sasha wears her Birks like a pro! They're still a little big, but that just means that she'll get to wear them for that much longer :)
You've gotta get suspicious when your oldest son comes running into the house shrieking, "Mom, Mom, where's the camera!?! I've got to get a picture of this for the blog!"I hated the bush at the end because it felt like thorns were being put into me. Other than that, besides falling off the jump, it was really quite fun!There is hope for Ben's good sense, however - he was wise enough not to take Cappy (that's the little scooter's name) up the slide again for a second attempt.
Steve and the kids loved it... I was a little disappointed because it's really just a very cool front for an arcade (this was in no way disappointing to the rest of the family) but it was nicer than Chuck-E-Cheese and had way better pizza so I'm sure we'll return often.
Just look at these crazy newlyweds... and why do I have exactly the same haircut as I did 11 years ago? Some things never change (our love, Jamie's hair) and some things apparently change a lot (Steve's hair and pretty much every other detail of our lives).
Martha's Vineyard will always have a special place in our hearts and we had a wonderful time sharing the Vineyard experience with our kids - hopefully it's not another 11 years until we make it back again! Egads - in 11 years Sam will be the same age I was when we got married!
Saturday was my cousin's wedding and we had a really fantastic time celebrating with the family. The ceremony was at the Old Whaling Church in Edgartown, a beautiful church built in the mid-1800's, and the reception was at a historic home next door. Everything was perfect, well... I guess with the exception of the weather - beautiful couple, tons o' love, great time hanging out with our family, excellent food, and impeccable gummy lobsters and Tiny Chiclets (they had a little candy bar at the wedding and I consumed disgusting quantities of gummy lobsters and Tiny Chiclets).
We finished off the day with a little more romping at State Beach (an 8:45 ferry leaves plenty of time for romping) and then we were off! As you probably gathered from the past week's posts, we had a really wonderful vacation. It was everything a trip to the beach should be - plenty of sun and surf, great time with family, and miraculous little email time (although I did have to keep up with work a little while we were gone).
See, you just knew I would find a way to weave potatoes into each post :)
Day 6
Today I went to aquinnah beach. The waves were a perfection from the Atlantic ocean. Lunch time! My grandfather saw president obama at the lighthouse on his way to get lunch from the car.
Sam's journal entry on Aquinnah Beach sums it up well, it was a perfect beach day - great waves, lots of rocks to play on, beautiful cliffs in the background, and President Obama! Ok, I guess that one deserves some more explanation.
The Obamas were vacationing on the Vineyard the same week were were there (copycats) and although we saw lots of evidence of their presence on the island, we only saw them in person on Thursday at Aquinnah. My dad went up to the car to grab lunch and while in the parking lot he saw lots of commotion at the Gay Head lighthouse. He stuck around for a few moments and saw lots of secret service (oops, I mean "vacationers" with giant binoculars continually scanning the crowd) and then a few minutes later the entire Obama family walked down from the lighthouse! Too cool!
Can't you just hear the mommy-nagging now? "Ok, one more and this time without Ben giving Sam bunny ears!"
They are masters at obeying the letter of the law.Day 7
Today I went to state beach. it.......was........freezing. There was a "secret" service helicopter, how does it count a secret service if it says secret service inside?
Friday was our last quality beach day before the rain blew in and it was a chilly one. As you can see, Ben spent quite a bit of time working on his "muscles" and we got in a little more playtime with the cousins while Steve practiced with the stunt kite.
And, yes, Sam's report is accurate, we did see a Secret Service helicopter scanning the beach with a light board on the inside that read "U.S. Secret Service." I guess they figured everybody would know they were some kind of Presidential security detail so they might as well just admit it!
Day 4
Today I went to south beach. The waves were so masive that we couldn't go into the water half the time. We built mini-pools with our cousins. Our cousins names are sennica and colter.
The best part about traveling to Martha's Vineyard was that my mom's whole side of the family was there, too, so we got to hang out for a whole week with family we haven't seen in years. Of course, a week wasn't nearly long enough, but it was a start :)
Day 5
Today I went to state beach. The waves were more calm than Menemsha beach, but there was pretty decent wind, enough to make my Dad's kite line break, causing the kite to fall in the water.
The major excitement of our Wednesday on the Vineyard was definitely Steve's swim to rescue his errant kite. Like Sam's journal entry says, the wind was very strong at State Beach that morning and just as Steve was getting a new kite into the air (clarification - a "new to us" kite, it's one that he brought home from my grandfather's estate) the line broke off at the bridle! Unsurprisingly, a semi-waterlogged kite in strong wind moves very quickly, but with the grace and speed of a dolphin (or maybe a manatee... whatever...) Steve leaped atop a boogie board, doggedly pursued his quarry, and (eventually) returned to the beach victorious! As you can see from the little dot in the picture that is Steve, it was a long swim. Don't worry, he replenished his energy stores with plenty of potato chips after returning to shore - why is it that potato chips taste so incredibly good at the seashore? I singlehandedly consumed several bags in the course of our week in search of the answer, but maybe it's just one of those unanswerable mysteries.
I know - they're so stinking cute! Trust me, selecting the "best" four photos for this post was no small task.
