Yesterday Ellie and I were in her room cleaning and packing up for the trip home today. She tackled me with a hug and this is the conversation that followed.

Me: I love you Ellie.

Ellie: I love you Mom.

Me: Guess what Ellie? Someday you are going to be big and not want to snuggle with me.

Ellie: WHAT! (said with her famous head cocked, scrunched up nose look)

Me: Yep.

Ellie: No! I will always want to snuggle you. Even when your dead. I'll dig you up and snuggle with you.

Me: I hope so.

Catch up!

Since we leave on Sunday I figured I needed to try and catch up on the blog of our time here in New Jersey.

The kids showing off their gumball machines that they got in the mail from Aunt Lindsay.

The small roofed building in the background is the bathroom building on the beach. That's how close we are.

More park time.

McKay and Ellie showing off their climbing skills inside of the "Cool Kids Club". That is what they named this little building at the park

McKay and Ellie are the oldest kids out here so they sometimes really enjoy being the ring leaders. On this day they had all the 2 year olds going down the twirly slide together in a train. You could hear the scream and laughter from across the park.

Clara, Kelty, Cody, and Tanner all dividing up the goldfish.

Ellie and McKay had a little bit too much fun at Forever 21.

Ellie as Madame Mim from the Sword and the Stone.

I am happy to announce that the back of Clara's hair can now fit into pigtails. The front will be a long time coming. It's funny that she has the same mullet hair growth that Ellie did.

I love this action shot of Ellie and Ellie Peach. I don't know what they are running from, but I know they are having a fun time doing it.

Clara scooping out the caramel brownies.

On this rainy day we made the trek to the Freehold Mall. Inside it has a two level carousel. The kids loved going for a ride.

Ellie Peach

Clara

Cody

McKay

All in all we have had a great time here. McKay could have done with a friend close to his age but he has been a trooper putting up with all the little ones. Ellie has loved playing with Ellie Peach everyday. Clara is just happy where ever she is. We have enjoyed our summer on the beach but we are ready to go home.

Raspberry Picking

About 20 minutes from our apartment there is a wonderful fruit farm that offer U-pick on all sorts of different fruit. There is also a great food market. On this day we went there for the raspberries.

It was pretty hot so the kids didn't last that long picking. That left me to pick my pound of raspberries, which takes a lot more effort than you would think.

The raspberries were delicious though. A lot of them just ended up in our mouth as we were picking but the ones that made it home ended up in a great dessert.