lovin'

I saved my favorite for last. 

It was only a few quiet minutes during that golden hour at the end of the day. 

The rest of the family had gone inside but Nessa continued to play in the sandbox. The setting sun provided back lighting while loose strands of hair made a natural veil perfecting capturing Jenessa's soft and gentle personality.

soakin'

Before the wheels of the plane even touched the ground in Baltimore my eyes were soaking up the green landscape like a thirsty man crawling through the desert gulps down water. The barns and fields, laundry hanging on the line behind Americana homesteads; it all looked so lovely.

But  a week full of littles flew by without me taking any photos of the eye quenching scenery. So the morning of my departure I snuck quietly out of the house before any little toes wiggled out of bed and took a shutter snapping walk. It had rained the night before and the resulting morning mist was the perfect backdrop for my golden hour country wandering.

parentin'

Still more fun times from Pennsylvania....

I was so blessed to observe Joel and Judith parenting their three little ones with so much love and patience, as well as being encouraged by their healthy relating as a couple.

Only a dad would come up with a balloon game that uses the baby as a bat.

Family swing time...

I never realized Joel read with such wonderful voice animation.

Fun with Mommy at the Hands on House.

To Julie

 

Dear Julie,

Today Natale ate a mango for snack time. We talked about how much we both LOVE mangos. I told her how you get to eat fresh mangos right from the tree. We thought we would send you pictures about our mango-love conversation.

Love you more than Mango Smoothies,
Tia

PS Natale did the editing on the photo :)

PPS Note it is tricky to eat mangos when you are missing two front teeth!

touchin'

We spent an exciting morning at the Hands-on House Children's Museum. The girls wanted to paint their faces to be kitty faces. Even Austin ended up with a blue kitty nose.

I loved the velcro corn field with different places the corn might be delivered.

Austin thought the pig was a great place to explore.

After playing in the store 

the girls had a great time playing in the dress up area.

On our way out Kaelyn decided she wanted her kitty face to be black so back to the face painting we went.

Once we were outside we spent time in the playground. My favorite part was the musical instruments.

Judith took a picture of me with the three little kittens.

Bonus points will be awarded for finding how many times my reflection shows up in this post.

flyin'

More of Nessa's swing-dance. 

The whole family ended up playing outside on Saturday afternoon as the sun started going down. The slanting light brought some flare to the photos.

grinnin'

This little guy was such a delight to be around....

happy almost all the time and busy all but when he is asleep.

makin' lemonade

Tuesday we made plans to go to the Sight and Sound Theater with the girls to watch see Moses. But alas, when we arrived all the tickets were sold out. We were all disappointed but decided to make the most of our day out. We bought a couple dvd's of past performances then played 18 very interesting holes of putt putt golf. I've never played putt putt with anyone under 7 and found the rules are much looser when you are young.

Afterwards we visited Friendlies Restaurant and found them to be very friendly with desserts.