It was a rainy morning - pouring rain. We weren't sure what to do, but since Josh peed in the potty a bunch of times we decided to take him on an underwear buying trip to Target. He chose Diego, Ben got some Spiderman ones, and I found a cute little hooded towel on clearance for the baby. Funny how you like them to have new, pure things when they are so new and pure.

We ended up at the Holyoke Mall - escalator heaven! - and walked around window shopping and killing time for a while. Made a quick stop at Big Y on the way home for strawberries, which they neglected to put in our cart. It was a real bummer when we got home and the kids were both tired and whining and had been begging us for strawberries for twenty minutes. And we promised them that when we got home they could gorge on them and it turns out we LIED. Again!

The kids played in the pool for a bit but I decided I'd like to take a long walk - gravity, swaying.... I had a bunch of contractions at the mall and I thought maybe I could get things going with some exercise.

Well it turned out to be an awesome walk (though no sign of impending labor). Ben informed us that he has a plan. He is going to be a painter when he grows up. And as soon as he grows up he wants to paint a house right away. And do you know where it will be? Right in the middle of the road. That sounds like a great idea!

We stopped at the Stone Soup Farm, which is a new farm stand less than a mile down the road. We ate some fresh cukes, chatted with the staff, and walked all around the grounds. There was a barn, there were chickens, the community garden plots looked beautiful. Up a small dirt road there were approximately five hundred abandoned tractors and tractor attachments to look at. A butterfly found us and fluttered around us forEVER. It was tinkerbell-inspired. We even got to see cows.

Matt made an excellent dinner and we put the kids to bed at 7:30. They get up at 5 no matter what we do. Oddly, at my mom's they always sleep until a reasonable hour. Do they love her more or just take her more seriously?