KITTENS!

Eric holding Lucy, Bay holding Luke




Yes, it really is true, the MacQuilliam family has welcomed into their home some animals! Well, not into our home, but into our family! We just adopted 2 kittens from a neighbor and right now they are living in the garage. They are about 7 weeks old, the boys named them Lucy & Luke (although we have no idea on their gender), and are quite cute. Luke has white paws, and is quite the adventurous one. Lucy is all orange and is more reserved and shy, although she likes to be held more than Luke.

Eventually they will live outside all the time and hopefully hunt all the mice, squirrels and other varmits around here. For now, though, they are making their home in the garage, specifically underneath the ramp leading up to our door where it is nice and cool. The boys spend most of their free time out there playing with them, and Eric is learning to feed and take care of them.

Eric with Lucy

Big Girl!

We are so thrilled, and I think Leah is too, that she just learned how to get herself to a standing position today and has been doing it over and over again. She is so pleased with herself everytime, and then she falls down, and gets up and does it again! I guess walking will come pretty soon now!

Warm Weather at Last!

The weather has finally warmed up a bit, and the kids are happy to be outside most of the time. We have just about wrapped up school for Eric (except for Math, which we continue through the summer). Eric and Bay got their summer haircuts...it's all gone!!! Leah's new favorite is pushing her walker all over the driveway and the yard. She feels so independent. Here she is pictured with a clover flower crown mommy made for her. Later it turned into a necklace :)

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Heather just froze a bunch of collard greens and spinach from the garden. We are getting ready to harvest the peas, and have had a continuous supply of lettuce for 2 months now. So far, so good! We now have corn, green beans, tomatoes, squash, and eggplant planted.

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Connecticut Vacation

We just got back from an exciting vacation in Groton Long Point, Connecticut.

Of course, the weather looked nothing like this until Wednesday. It rained buckets constantly most of the time and was quite chilly (average 55 each day). But it was a beautiful and charming area we stayed in.

Heather's parents rented a beach house with a nice view for the week for us all to stay in. Heather's brother, Andy, graduated from the Coast Guard Academy on Wednesday (one of the beautiful days) and is now officially an Ensign, due to be out in California in about a month. There were lots of activities and picnics at the Academy, and we also ventured out on our own to explore the surrounding areas.

We took a day trip up to Plymouth, Massachusets for a field trip to Plimouth Plantation and Plymouth Rock. Eric learned so much and it was a great conclusion to his study of the Pilgrims. We all also had a great time!

We also explored the surrounding waterfront towns: Groton, Mystic, Stonington and saw lots of neat lighthouses, neighborhoods, historic homes, boats, old colleges, etc.

Check out all the photos from our trip using the Webshots link to the right. Click on the Coast Guard Graduation album and the Plimouth album.

Pictures of House


Some friends had asked awhile ago to see the final pictures of our house remodel. I finally put some pics up on the web and you are welcome to see them. Just follow the webshots link and click on the "House" folder.They include where we made the most changes. Of course, there is still lots of trim painting to do, who knows when that will happen!

Bay's 3rd Birthday


Bay just finished celebrating his big boy 3rd birthday. He started off the week with a family dinner, lots of presents, and a home made triple chocolate ice-cream cake. All he actually wanted was the cake, but he tolerated everything else anyways! His favorite present was the much awaited Buzz Lightyear toy, and he played with it all day since Mommy and Daddy gave it to him at breakfast.

At the end of the week, we had a small get together of some of Bay's buddies and their families at the playground for some lunch and cupcakes. He had a great time and it turned out to be a beautiful day.

Now that Bay is 3, he has some new responsibilites with being a big boy. He is learning to put his own laundry away, starting to get undressed and dressed by himself, and mommy is hoping that he will potty train this summer and get him out of diapers!

Enjoy the pictures on webshots.

Camping

"The Ultimate Happy Camper!"

Last weekend we went camping all together as a family for the first time in a loooong time! We haven't done that for about 1 1/2 years! It was Leah's first camping trip, and we just went overnight down to Newport News, VA to a favorite campground. http://www.nnparks.com/parks_nn.php

The girls slept in a tent for Leah's test round (just in case she should sleep horribly, we didn't want to disturb the whole family), and the boys all slept in the pop-up camper. Boy, that sounds a little backwards, doesn't it??!! Well, Leah slept great, so she is officially approved to join the family in the pop-up. We did lots of bike riding and enjoyed letting the boys drown some worms in the lake. Of course, no camping trip is complete without s'mores on the fire, and the boys had their fill.

We are looking forward to another, longer camping trip, hopefully in May sometime!

Click on the webshots link to see pictures from the trip.