Busy, busy summer

This summer has truly gone by in a blur. We've done so much and quite frankly I just hadn't been updating like I should because of all the activities. I thought I'd give a glimpse of our summer before fall sets in and we get back into a normal routine.

There were fireworks.

A rare moment of sweet brothers sleeping in.

Our first puppet show.

W loved the puppet show, and if you wait for it,

you'll hear him erupt into giggles. Too cute!

There's also been plenty of swimming and daredevil action by a certain 2 yr. old.

"Cautious" as we like to call him going into

the pool with his floaties and noodle.

"Fearless", on the other hand, jumps without hesitation.

We spent a little time at the farm with our cousins and Grandpa.

Having fun in the hammock swing.

Thirsty boy

Riding the tractor.

Of course, there was Zoo time.

No surprise that Fearless wanted to drive the tractor.

Big victory in that Cautious actually asked

to ride the carousel and loved it although he parked it on the bench!

Little bit choose to ride the rhino instead.

Notice G's face. He had just sampled the sand. LOL.

We can never turn down an opportunity to dance at the Zoo either.

There was also gym time and a trip to the Blue Bell Ice Cream Factory to see ice cream made.

Jumping

Did someone say ICE CREAM?!

"Look at me."

Love this smile!

But our biggest accomplishment of the summer was learning to ride our bikes!

Big boy W learned to ride first and was so proud of his new bike.

G quickly decided that he wanted to ride a bike too!

It'a been a summer of firsts for sure - first trip to the mountains, first time to the movie theater, learning to ride our bikes, and too many other firsts to count What a wonderful summer we've had! Hopefully, we'll get into a new groove once school starts up again. Until then, we've got one more vacation to go before summer ends!

Sum, Sum, Summah Time!

W and G's last day of school was last week, and boy are we ready for summer! But, prior to school being out, we had W's end of year field trip to the park and G's class party.

The Friday before school let out, all the 3K classes at W's school walked down to the locate park for some play and a picnic lunch. I brought our wagon and half a large watermelon to share with the kids. It was a hit! Unfortunately, severe weather is a normal occurrence in the South this time of year so our class trip was cut short due to a severe thunderstorm warning so we had a quick trek back to the school in case it got bad.

G's party was in his classroom so no big trips in his age group. They had party food and played a lot. At this age, they are so thrilled to have mommy or daddy pop in. Thankfully, one of the fellow moms took lots of pics and offered to send them to the class so I didn't have to pull out my camera.

Now that it has gotten hot, - yes, it's only May, but we've hit the 90s more than a few times already so it's going to be a HOT summer, for sure - we've pulled out our big inflatable pool and the boys are having a blast. The first day I pulled it out, they played for 3-1/2 hours nonstop! I imagine we will be party city for the kids circuit this summer. We've already invited a few of our friends over for some playtime.

With numerous playdates scheduled, involvement in MOMS club, a Zoo membership, a mountain vacation and a beach vacation planned, this summer is sure to great one and fly all too quickly by!

Monday Magic: Kids say the cutest things

I really should do this more often, but quite honestly, a lot of times I forget to write it and then forget it. ::hangs head in shame:: But, I'm resolved to do better, because the true is there is nothing funnier (or sweeter) than kids and some of the things they say or do.

W Funnies
- Me: Did you see all the strawberries growing on our deck? Pretty soon, we can pick them and eat them. W: You don't grow strawberries. You grow muffins!

- The other day we passed by my old office and I pointed it out. W will then onto ask me if I remembered when he used to work at his old office? He asked me if I remembered who he worked with and when I didn't he listed about 5 of his friends and "of course, Alex" (his cousin). When I inquired what they did at work, he matter of factly responded "Work." ::Duh::

- He likes to tell his daddy "Have a good day at school, Daddy. Be careful, Daddy." when S leaves for work.

G Funnies
- We went to Ross Dress for Less and they have these big poles attached to the shopping carts. I have no idea why or for what purpose, but G was fixated on them the other day. Every time we would pass by another shopper who were mostly female, G would exclaim, "Itsa ho!" meaning "it's a pole". Unfortunately, it sounds as if he was calling someone a disparaging name. LOL!

- He loves to tell people about "fissies in wa-wa" even when we are no where near fishes and water. The confused look on faces is priceless.

- He calls his his brother, "Bubbie" instead of brother, but more than that if you ask him what our names are, he will tell you. However, if you ask him his name he will growl and then laugh.

Clearly behind

Clearly I have got behind on keeping up with this thing so over the next few days, I'll try to catch up and post some pics. First and foremost, we did get the bonus room finished and it's already gotten great use as a sewing room for me.

From the stairwell, looking onto my sewing area.

View from sewing area.

View from opposite end.

The room also served as a guest room for my father-in-law who came to visit for lil'G's 2nd birthday. Oh, did I say that? Yes, my baby boy is now 2 years old! I can't hardly believe it. Time flies so quickly. I have to do his 2 year letter some time this week. We're at the point now where people are asking if we plan on a third and all I can say is I'm not sure. I think S would be fine with just 2 or even prefer just 2, but I can definitely say that I'm not ready yet to close the door to a 3rd baby. So, we'll see. But back to baby G, or rather toddler (preschooler?) G. Here are a few pictures from his "Dactor" aka Tractor Birthday Party which was partly held at the park near our house and then moved to our house due to rain.

At the park , taking it all in.

Our friends having a good time.

Playing with friends.

Our one table smooshed in between the other 2 parties

held at the park at the same time.

Tractor and farm animal birthday cake

A full house

Bird-day ca-ak! YAY!

Digging in with our good friend, E.

Also, we've been working on getting our garden ready. This is our 3rd year with 2 large raised garden beds (in addition to the container garden on our back deck) and I'm trying something new this year to see if we get even better results. A couple years ago, I started hearing such great things about Square Foot Gardening and Mel's Mix and I finally purchased the book this past winter. Apparently, it's a specific garden mix of 1/3 peat moss, 1/3 compost and 1/3 vermiculite which plants thrive in and weeds do not. I will say it has cost a bit more to create and put together than what I had thought so it better be worth it or Mel might hear from me personally.

Mainly a container herb garden,

or as my mother used to laughingly call it "a pot garden."

The beginnings of the vegetable garden.

Mmmmm...more great veggies!

I am looking forward to a bounty of cucumbers, squash,

zucchini, okra, sweet red peppers, sweet yellow peppers, tomatoes,

lettuce and green beans this summer. Think we got it covered?

You'd be surprised how much Mel's mix I put together and shoveled into those 2 beds. Wanna know? Over 18 cubic feet which worked out to 471 pounds of mix. *I am woman, hear me roar!* And yes, I am sore today from doing it. I still need to finish up the right bed. (I have French green beans to plant.) And lest I forget, weeding the pea gravel walkways and adding more pea gravel around the perimeter of the garden beds.

So as you can see, we've been keeping busy, but hopefully, these efforts will pay off in the long run. Stay tuned!

field trip!

W had his 1st school (mini) field trip on Monday to a local ice cream parlor that is within walking distance of his school. Lil'bit was sick so he got to tag along as well. At 9:30 am, because we all need ice cream at 9:30 in the morning, parents lined up with their children and walked to the store for ice cream.

To make it easy, students had the choice of four flavors: chocolate, vanilla, strawberry or Superman (which was a mixture of *bright* red, blue and yellow ice cream). W really didn't care about flavor as much as he did colors. He wanted "red" ice cream so he got strawberry. Of course, baby G had to have a cone as well so he got Superman.

W loved his ice cream until it started melting and from that point on asked me to clean it off which for him meant me totally dumping the ice cream and just giving him the cone to eat. G, on the other hand, wasn't about to lose any ice cream and tried to devour his cone.

Excited!

Yummy!

Class shot

"Don't even think about taking it away, mama!"

What a mess!

Ice cream is good.

Hats, hats, hats (sung to the tune of Girls, Girls, Girls)

We are quickly approaching my little guy's 2nd birthday. Where did the time go?!! I can't help but look at him and think he's one of the cutest things ever. (His brother is the other cutest little thing.) But, Lord, is he a handful! S and I often say G just goes from room to room looking for things to get into. You can not leave this one alone for a second. But, he can be so sweet too. He'll lay a kiss on you in a heartbeat and wrap his little arms around your neck in a tight hug. My mama's heart just melts when he does that. He is a daddy's boy for sure, but at night when he wakes up and is scared, all he wants is his mama to hold and snuggle into. I'm okay with that.

Little G is also my hat and shoe boy. W would rather be barefoot and only grudgingly wears hats. Little brother loves to accessorize! Don't get me wrong. He is all boy, but he gets the biggest kick out of wearing hats and wearing his "shuesh". Evidence below:

Little has also been known to sleep with his shoes on.

(Backstory: The other night apparently I didn't notice that he still had on

his "shuesh" when I laid him down. I did try to take them off when I went to check on him

and realized he had them on, but he wasn't having any of that.)

So you can see, he can be a bit of a diva too!