"Breakfast time, come on, let's eat!"

Our boy Timo LOVES his breakfast cereals. Every morning he starts out with a bowl of porridge, topped with honey and hemp seeds. (Hemp seeds are high in protein & good fats.) Then - before I've barely managed to serve my own bowl and take one bite - he's polished that off and is on to a bowl of shredded wheat. Sometimes he follows that up with another bowl of shredded wheat or a bowl of flakes (either bran flakes or oatmeal flakes).

"Very yummy shredded wheat from Mr Joe's!" he proclaimed this morning at breakfast. That's the frosted mini wheats from Trader Joe's that we prefer (it's not as puffy and hard to fit in one bite as the Kellogg's kind).

*As the Sandra Boynton book, "Hey, Wake Up!" says.

The exploits of Mattias: 9 months old

 

Mattias is 9 months old, and crawling! Watch out!

At his doc appointment yesterday morning, he checked in at 22 lbs 4 oz and 29.5 in. That's 85% and 90% respectively. Yoicks!! (and only 7 lbs lighter than Timo...)

  

He has pulled up to standing once or twice, but he's still working on that leg strength and balance. However he loves to stand at a chair or stool, or hang on our legs. 

He also loves: watching Timo bang and throw things (or just watching Timo in general) - that's sure to get him laughing; playing with his blanket or bunny in his crib; listening to music; sitting outside in the grass; going for walks or other errands. Also he seems to be "over" baby toys and now prefers to play with Legos and cars and the treehouse, just like Timo. He's figured out how to swallow food better, and he enjoys eating bites of whatever we are having: porridge and bananas for breakfast; sandwiches and fruit for lunch; roasted veggies, rice, etc. for supper.

Happy, healthy, handsome guy!! We love him!

A few last ones

One afternoon the older cousins (who don't nap!) went out for a swimming & tubing trip, while the younger cousins stayed back. After their nap, Timo and Mattias played in the sprinkler - SO happily! It was Mats's first time and he was making so much noise and flinging his limbs around. I set him right next to the sprinkler so he would get sprayed (even on the face as it rotated) and he seemed to think it was the greatest thing. No tears or fussing, just happy noises and clapping.

Samuel with Mattias, our barrel-chested boy

The usual post-dinner scene. Parents having "adult beverages", rubbing sore muscles, and relaxing together.

The last night we had a little fire and roasted marshmallows. All the boys were very excited to throw sticks on the fire and toast their marshmallows.

Adella (age 3)

Wes (age 5)

Thank you, Hawkins fam, for a wonderful Reunion! Let's not wait a decade until we do this again!

Another Day

And it starts with pancakes.

And some songs and Bible reading out at the firepit. 
 

Wow, these cousins actually look like cousins!

And more tag!

Matt and Hannah had their 9th Anniversary earlier in the week

Oh, hey, Jim, you made it into a photo!

Thanks to Mom's incredible yard sale skills, we had a blue VW van cake, which was presented to Dad in honor of the 1986 blue Vanagon that was in our family for many, many years. A few months ago Dad finally worked up the courage (well, that may be an exaggeration of the emotions) to list in on craigslist, and sold it almost immediately to its new owner. If you see it driving around in Winston-Salem, give a hearty wave.

Last month, Katie and Kyle had their 14th anniversary!

Pete and Rita celebrated their 5th anniversary during the Reunion!

And WE had our 14th anniversary during the Reunion! Yep, that's 3 sibling anniversaries in one week!

Disclaimer: we didn't get a great pic of us two at the mountain house, and Dad snapped this one at Duke Gardens - my favorite place in Durham! - a couple of days later.

Busy days with that Hawkins fam

Scenes of mealtime and playtime craziness...

Breakfast! Look how calmly all these kids are waiting to eat their Cheerios. And look at all those plastic cups on the table. We all labelled our cups with masking tape (Jenny Hawkins style) and used them the entire time.

 Yes, there are a lot of boy cousins in this family! Eight of them, from age 8 months to 8 years old.

the upstairs hallway/playroom area for the AMAZING fisher-price toy collection!!

Timo was quite enamored of Lillian, and she was very patient and sweet with him. Throughout the day he would repeat, "Where's Lillian?" and "Look, Lillian, look!" to draw her attention to whatever he was doing. It reminded both Jim and I of how much Gemma had adored Lillian, following her around and wanting to sit on her lap.

Mattias is the youngest cousin, and his older boy cousins in particular were gentle and kind with him, paying attention to him. Unfortunately he's a bit heavy to be carried around ... but watch out, soon enough he'll be running after them, too!

Samuel (5) and Daniel (4 1/2) with Mattias

Adella driving while Abram (10 months) rides in back - good balance! - and Adah Joy pushes

Lunch! Mom/Jaja was amazing at having SO much food and so many options on hand for our meals. Lunchtime we had all kinds of sandwich and salad fixings, fruit, plus chips & salsa and a variety of cold salads. Yes, those pickles were hand-sliced. With love. In a small batch.

Afternoon playtime usually meant a game of baseball or tag in the yard, or a trip to the river for wading. Timo discovered t-ball for the first time, and was surprisingly good at it. He would hit again and again and didn't want to stop. Since coming home he has continued to ask to play... I need to look for a t-ball stand at a yard sale. 

At his own initiative, he bats left-handed.

Grandpa pitching for the baseball game

Another grilled dinner - this time Craig and Kyle laboriously cut up and grilled RABBIT (previously slaughtered) from the Frey's "urban farm"

The men got in a couple of basketball sessions - Dunkball and Horse games - over at the church next to the house. Amazingly, none of them complained about being sore after these sessions... Maybe we aren't too old for this yet.

In the evenings after the kids were all in bed, the adults talked and ate dessert and played games. One night was Men vs Women in Charades. We were all a bit rusty... and it was hilarious.

"Small word"

Hawkins Reunion Craziness!!

What's this, what's this, another family reunion (one week after our Gieser get-together)! And a Hawkins family reunion?! Yes, it's true! The Hawkins family finally agreed on and planned a reunion of all five siblings and cousins (and the patriarch and matriarch, of course) - our first reunion ever. That's 12 adults and 12 children, as of 2014. I could almost stop right there with the description because it already sounds so impressive, doesn't it? We even had matching t-shirts. More on that to come.

We gathered in Sylva, NC at the Woody home (sister in-law Hannah's parents' place, and the location of Matt and Hannah's wedding exactly 9 years ago), an 1880s farmhouse in the Appalachian mountains. It turned out to be a terrific home for all of us - bedrooms and bathrooms galore, and tons of outdoor space to explore and play: kickball & baseball, bicycles & scooters, swings, a hippo sculpture to climb on, firepit, spooky ancient basement/cellar to explore, garden with abundant squash and tomatoes, an incredible Fisher-Price town collection, and board games. (It helps that the Woodys have 11 grandchildren of their own so they had plenty of toys and games to keep the kids happy!). We were close by to numerous rivers and natural parks, so there were also some fun times exploring the mountains.

We Giesers flew to Durham a day ahead, and then helped Grandpa and Jaja pack up the cars with foodstuffs and drove out together to Sylva, where we met up with the rest of the family.

Front of the house, and the beginnings of a first baseball game (Lillian at bat and Grandpa catching)

Back of the house, taken from the vegetable garden

Uncle Matt and Mattias - I just love their expressions!!

first dinner - Timo and Adella (4 months older) had their own special table

The morning of our first full day together, a big group went to the Smoky Mountain visitor center and did a hike along the river. Here's Grandpa with his 3 granddaughters. This photo makes me miss Gemma so much. She would have been the second oldest at 4 1/2 years, and what boisterousness might she have contributed!

That afternoon/evening we went to a public park along a river for wading, tubing, and a picnic supper. So fun! The water was cold at first but none of the kids minded, so eventually we adults warmed up to. The tubing was gentle and a short ride, great for kids. 

Timo was very focused on carrying and throwing rocks

Jaja and Adah Joy, age 3 1/2

Grandpa and Daniel, age 4 1/2

Phillip, oldest grandson, age almost-8

Mattias was genuinely really excited to get in the water and splash and grab rocks. It was a workout holding onto him!

this little guy (Abram, 10 months) was happily occupied while we ate our picnic