I should have received a warning in the packaging.

I have stumbled upon a dangerous toy.

It's called photo booth and it's on my new computer and it has now become my number one source of entertainment.

Now, when people ask me what I do all day as a stay-at-home mom of 4 babies, I finally have something worthwhile to tell them.

I eat bon bons.

Sip lemonade by the pool.

And now, thanks to my new computer, I take hundreds of pictures of myself.

Humility is my middle name and time is on my hands.

Because he is.

Middle Child Syndrome

I realized, as I was placing updated framed pictures throughout my house, that we have very few recent (as in, the last 2 years) pictures of Buster Boy. Poor guy. We got the first year of his life a-plenty and then took a break until the Dynamic Duo was born and then they got all the funding for pics. And, of course, Big Sis had her 5 year portrait made and that cost half her college edumacation.

And his.

So I asked our friend Patrick to take some pics with his ultra cool camera while he was over for dinner tonight.

BLOWN. AWAY.

Now, I know everybody has their own cutest kid in the whole world, but SERIOUSLY y'all...I think I really do have myself a little model. I might just have to call VogueKids or BoysFitness or GQkidz or something shmancy so my boy can earn his college fund back.

This little photo shoot took a total of 4 minutes. For one minute, I ran into his closet, picked out his only clean Polo, grabbed some matching shorts, ran some hair gel through his hair as he used the potty (multi-tasking...I am a pro) and the other 3 minutes consisted of Patrick clicking away before we drowned in sweat out in the backyard.

We get things done around here.

Quickly.

The results:







Now my house will be full of pictures of ALL of my precious kiddos...not just the 3 that flank the middle kid.

The darn cute middle kid, that is.

Singing in the shower

Taking it to a new level with the face wash guitar.

Big House from Suzanne Akins on Vimeo.

Dear Broken A/C: Your timing is perfect.

As I sit in the 86 degree heat of my house, I reflect on days gone by sunning on the beach, splashing in the pool, lazing in an air conditioned condo, eating my weight in root beer floats, bathing in sunscreen.

And then I remember the vacation is over.

In other words, the glass is half empty.

But lo, there is cold air coming out of the vents and we may get down to 84 by tomorrow morning before it rises back up to 92. Going outside might be a breath of fresh air.

Enough about our heat strokes. Here's the lowdown on the final vacay of the summer.

Picture it.
St. Augustine.
2010.
The Akins 6 plus about 50 more with similar bloodline.
Good times.

Here we have Wild Man with a smile on his face. The opportunity to catch it on camera = even better!

Our afternoon for 7 days straight.

Little fishes.

Girlfriend couldn't even finish her lunch.

Showing off their beautiful starfish moments before returning him (her?) to sea.

The beach proved to be good fuss-therapy for this one. Thus, our morning. Every day. All week.

"Thank you all for coming to see me. I'll be here all week."

My handsome boys. Love them so.

We may be color coordinated for the 4th but we sure can't all look in one direction with 6 simultaneous smiles no matter how many takes we do! A girl can dream.

My sweet crazy babies.