Summer Lovin’

Loving the Sunshine

Sorry I’ve been so lax with updating this past month.  We have just been spending a ton of time outside and I’ve ran out of time to get on here to post.  Here is a collection of some of our favorite Spring pictures.  Thank you to all who have helped take them (namely Christine and Aunt Sheila)

Singing in the rain with her cute rain coat from Aunt Bev and her umbrella from Grandpa and Grandma Pat.

Ryan loves to play on his exersaucer while Erin is running around the yard or playing on her play ground. 

Erin still likes the exersaucer too, even though she is definitely too big for these toys!

Had to include this picture since Erin took it.  She is getting pretty good with the camera. 

Ryan was certainly fascinated with picking the long grass out of the yard. 

 

Erin LOVES to swim in the pond with her learn-to-swim life jacket.  She is doing so well.  It probably won’t be more than a year of two before she can swim unassisted.   Thank you to dada and Uncle Mike for spending so much time swimming with her in the pond on Memorial Day. 

Ryan and Mommy on Mother’s Day.

Erin had a blast with Uncle Mike at the Botanical Gardens.  I wonder who is winning this game of checkers:)

We had a very tough time getting a picture of the two of them.  Erin hates to smile for the camera these days and Ryan, well he just wants to put EVERYTHING in his mouth (his first tooth started popping through just a few weeks after this picture was taken, so definitely teething in this picture)!

Everyone loves Christine’s wonderful culinary skills, especially Erin.  She says from time to time that she wants some cake from Aunt ‘tine or that she needs to call Aunt ‘tine for a recipe!  So cute!

Baby Eastern Phoebes

Ok, I know they are not really a part of the Barker Family, but we really have grown quite fond of these little guys.  We first saw the mother bird make the nest on our front porch and didn’t think it looked like a great spot (on top of our outdoor thermometer).  However, she obviously knew better than us.  Her nest of 5 eggs successfully raised 4 beautiful baby birds.  We even got to watch them fly off.  It was really something….maybe someday we will use this as a lesson to teach the kids about “the birds and the bees” (LOL).

(see the dates in lower right hand corner) pictures taken over the course of 11 days

 

Princess in the castle of hoops

my favorite photo or Erin. Trapped in the hoopdom

uncle mike

Erin feeding Ryan some sweet potatoes

Well I decided to make Ryan’s baby food.  I bought this baby food mill when Erin was about 9 months old.  I didn’t use it much with her though, since she didn’t really need pureed foods at that age.  Well it is so easy and fun to make your own baby food.  Plus Jay loves that it is cheap!  For the price you’d pay for one jar you can make enough for 5 servings.  I’ve only made sweet potatoes so far, but here are some pictures of Erin feeding them to Ryan.

 

 

Windows Live Writer

Our new look is thanks to this amazing program that Christine and Mike recommended.  It is so much easier and quicker to post now.  You’ll be seeing many more updates now thanks to this user friendly program. 

Strong Museum of Play

We had a great day in Rochester with Trish, Zack and Anna.  This is one amazing children’s museum.  We will certainly be taking the 1hr45min trip there again. 

Erin is playing with this instrument made of PVC pipes.

Erin and Zack pretend to fix a car motor.  It doesn’t surprise me that Erin was drawn to this, since she is so interested in everything that dada does in the garage. 

Erin goes grocery shopping at the children’s Wegman’s.  I wish I had more pictures of this, it was a real “pretend” grocery store.  They even got to ring up the food on a cash register.  Very cool. 

Erin was really drawn to this airplane.  She kept running back into every time we walked by. 

 

Zack and Erin were having fun in Papa Bear’s workshop. 

Erin cutting some foam wood pieces with Papa Bear’s miter saw. 

Here Erin checks out Papa Bear’s drill press. 

Ryan was such a good boy all day.  He didn’t cry or even fuss once.  He loved watching all the big kids running around and playing.  It was very busy, as school was out for Spring recess all throughout western NY. 

Erin, Zack and Anna brush some really big teeth.