Is this where this goes?

Kids invent new uses for all sorts of things. Elise decided that Max's new toilet seat would make a great hat. (don't worry, it was NEW)

Max's First Day at Preschool

Hooray! Max started preschool last week. He loves it, but Mom loves it more.

Here's a couple of pictures from his first day. (He hugged his sister good-bye.)

Hiking Usery Mountain

Saturday we hiked Usery Mountain. Hunt explained to Max that Usery Mountain is named after a man named King Usery. Max replied, "like King Benjamin?" "No relation, but good word association" said Dad.

We did the same hike last week. So this week we tried to beat our time from the previous week. We shaved 5 minutes or 10% off time. Yeah! Hunt is the amazing athlete in this story because he carried Max on his back and Elise on the front.

Alisha, we missed you on the hike. Maybe next week....

We really enjoyed the beautiful sunset.

Sweet, Sweet Max

Our boy is so sweet and sensitive. Here's a few examples of his tenderness:

+ A dog in the park was whining. Hunt explained to Max that the dog was "crying." Max proceeded to console the dog saying "don't worry doggy" again and again.

+ To comfort his crying baby sister, Max said "there's no monsters here, Esie." (I'm sure that's what she was probably worried about.)

+ Max asked mama, "what doing Mama?" "I'm praying, Max." Max responded, "help you?"
Then he knelt down next to Mama, folded his arms and started muttering for a few minutes, followed by a loud "AMEN!"

Strawberry Fields Forever: Max the Farmer

Yesterday we went strawberry picking in Northborough (in honor of Grandma Jan?).
Max was in charge of holding the bin of strawberries we had gleaned. Mainly he just kept dumping them back into the patch, so he was relieved of that duty. He then just carried around an empty bin. But the part he loved the most was "driving" the tractor. He's obsessed with tractors.

the Zoo(m)!

Max has a new passion in life- the zoo, which he calls "the zoom". Every time I ask him if he wants to go the park, his former love, he now answers, "No park... ZOOM!"

His favorite animal was the peacock, which he thought he could command to spread it's wings. His least favorite animal was the parrot, which he tried to shush because he thought they were too noisy. Here are some highlights from our day.

Taking a rest....

The zoom is like the park with lots of space to run.

Max said "Hooray! Raise your feathers!"

Elise's Big Day!

Elise was blessed on Sunday May 3. All family members from both sides of the family were able to join us, with the exception of just a few. This is Elise in her special dress, which was on loan from cousin Amelia. (Thanks Amelia!) We decided to ditch the bonnet type hat because it didn't fit her quite right- must have had something to do with the fact that the dress was newborn size and Elise is now a petite six-month-old. But it also could have had something to do with the fact that her parents couldn't figure out that they had it on backwards. Duh. So we went with the old standby- the bow.