Quick Catch Up

The boys are back in school, and you would think that would mean that I've got more free time on my hands, but we've been caught in the middle of a whirlwind of visiting relatives and old friends, a wedding and back-to-school activities. It's all been fantastic happy chaos, but I can't believe that I haven't had a chance to blog in almost two weeks - I think that might be a record for me!

Hattie and Holly came over one evening last week to stay with the boys while Mitch & I attended a parent orientation meeting at Sawyer's school.

I can't believe that Holly managed to snap a self portrait that included all three kids - and they're ALL looking cute too! LOVE this picture!

Snuggled up and ready to watch The Lion King

My high school friend (and college roommate!), Courtney, just moved back to town last week, so we got together for lunch and finally got a chance to meet her three little ones. Darcie and her boys also joined us from the Bay Area, so we had a total of five boys and two twin girls...the adults were SO outnumbered ;)

Sawyer absolutely loved Courtney's twins, Isla and Paige, and was so incredibly sweet with them. He really loves babies, and he keeps asking me if I can grow one in my tummy...JUST so that he can name it "Hot Wheels" LOL

Walker & Sawyer...Darcie and I joke that these two are "bromance" soul mates. Really though, they go together like peanut butter and jelly. It's a shame that we only get the chance to see them every few months. Actually, with the schemes these two hatch up, I should probably be glad they don't get together more often ;)

It's been SUPER hot here, hence the lack of shirts in these pictures. Nevermind that they seem to feel the need to take their shirts off because it's hot and then cover themselves up with a quilt. Crazy boys!

Sawyer & Sutton discovered that they can watch You Tube videos on Mitch's cell phone. Here they're watching "Wow, Wow, Wubzy" music videos together.

Mitch & I all dressed up on the steps of the state capitol for my cousin Kelley's wedding last weekend.

Grandma and Grandpa graciously came to stay with us so that Mitch and I could enjoy the wedding weekend without worrying about trying to find a babysitter for the boys. They LOVE having Grandma and Grandpa here, and Mitch and I were grateful that we got to have a night out knowing the boys were in good hands :)

Teacher Commentary

I just got a call from Sutton's new teacher, Miss Kim, simply because she wanted to call and tell me how awesome she thinks Sutton is and how great he did at school today. Yay!!! She said that he was one of the best first-day kids she's ever had before, and that he held her hand a lot and was her little cuddle buddy all day long. Kim said that he is so sweet and loving and that he really had a fantastic day making new friends and doing all of their school activities. She said he LOVED circle time where they sing and dance, ate his snack and lunch SO nicely (my boys have always been good and polite at meal times, thank goodness!), and that he did everything with a smile and contagious enthusiasm. I'm so proud of my little guy :)

Sutton's First Day of School!

Today was Sutton's first day of preschool - yay! He seems to be coming down with a little bit of a cold, so instead of being awake at 7:00 like usual, I had to wake him up at 8:15 so that he wouldn't be late! He was really excited for school, and he didn't even seem to mind that Hattie isn't there today ("Hattie not here today. Her be here next time, okay?"). He met a new friend right away who liked his Wall-e shirt, and he did a quick lap around the play area before hopping on a tricycle and riding off like an old pro. He is the youngest there by quite a bit, but I don't think he'll mind since he's used to being with kids who are closer in age to Sawyer anyway (all of the other kids there are already 3 or just about to turn 3), but he is the only one not potty trained yet, so hopefully the older kids will be a good influence in that department. He's definitely not the smallest kid there though - the teacher asked me again how old he is, and I told her that he turned 2 at the end of April, and she said "Wow...he is one BIG boy for only being two!" If I had a quarter for every time I've heard that...LOL

I stayed with him for a little while until he got comfortable with everyone, and when I had to leave he gave me a big hug and kisses and said "See you later, Mommy!" before zooming off on his trike again. I hope he has a great day today (and that he doesn't end up getting any more sick than he was this morning - booo!)!

Last Lazy Days of Summer

Today is the last day of summer! Tomorrow Sutton will start his new preschool while Sawyer spends the day with Gigi, and then both of them will be back to their normal Monday/Tuesday/Thursday school schedule at the end of the week. It's going to be strange for me to have more time to work without little fingers trying to sneak in random keystrokes while I attempt bookkeeping, but it's going to be nice not to have to be so stressed about finding time to squeeze my work in. Maybe I'll even have a spare minute or two to complete a project off of my ever growing "things I'd like to make" list!

After a seemingly endless standoff this morning (aka "clean up your mess from last night or you can't go outside and play"), the boys finally cleaned up about a gazillion Hot Wheels cars from the living room...but when I announced that they had earned their outdoor pool play time, they looked at me like I was crazy, and Sawyer said, "We're so tired now. We just want to lay down and watch Word World."



I don't mind watching a little tv when it's hot outside, but if we're going to have television time, let's at least do something creative at the same time instead of laying around like lumps! Sawyer went into the craft closet and pulled out one of our pre-assembled craft boxes - pony beads and pipe cleaners - and got to work...



...and before I knew it, all of their puppies had fancy schmancy new collars!




"Wait, Mom! You gotta picture me when I'm covering them up with their blankie." He was SO proud of his work! (and yes, he calls it "picturing me" when I take his picture lol)


Naturally the puppies needed to have new dog houses too. It's a good thing that Mommy just got new shoes for the two upcoming weddings we're invited to or those poor, poor puppies wouldn't have ANY special place to sleep! ;)


While I'm already blogging, here are a few "catch up" photos and stuff from the past week:


Sawyer used the decorative edge scissors to cut strips of paper and then insisted that we turn his creation into a paper hat. A staple or two here, a teensy strip of tape - viola! Your wish is my command Little Man!


We got busy in the garage chopping and sanding some scrap wood and 2x3 into new blocks.

Then we painted them, some with beautiful colors, some with actual pictures of trees, windows, etc, and sealed them with clear spray varnish. We have a few more to paint and seal before the set is complete, so it's still a work-in-progress, but I LOVE it. They are just like the ones that I made when I was little (and that the boys still play with when they go to my parents' house!).

I finally found the time to organize the toy bins in the playroom - woo hoo! I took a photo of what is supposed to be inside of each bin, laminated it and stuck it to the bin with double sided tape. I also used Daddy's label maker to add a label to each bin (mostly so that Daddy himself can better understand how I divided the bins up since there are about 10 bins dedicated to cars/trucks/trains!). I found that it works better to flip the stand around so that the bins sit flat instead of at an angle like we used to have them. Between the two sets that we have, I think I have about 5 bins that are still unlabeled...I'm sure that won't last long as I find more things that can be better organized!

You can actually see the playroom floor again! I am proud to report that the photos on the bins are working even better than I expected! Sawyer has been taking the bins out one or two at a time, and then cleaning up his own messes and putting everything back in the appropriate place. It only took us about two minutes to pick up the toys in there this morning after the boys had spent almost two hours playing up there! Amazing. I'm seriously thinking about labeling and photographing our entire house now lol

Lastly, we want to say a big Thank You to Christy at Superheroes and Princesses for our new Preserve Jr. toothbrush that we won from her giveaway. Sutton loves his new toothbrush, and I love that it's both 100% recycled and recyclable!

Happy 1st Birthday H-Man!

Today I took the boys to Traci's house for a mid-week 1st birthday party for her son, Hunter. She had kiddy pools set up and an inflatable water slide, and the boys both thought it was both fun and funny to be there on a non-daycare day. It was really nice hanging out with everyone and letting the boys have some time to play with their friends since tomorrow will be Sutton's last day there. I know that the boys will both miss their friends, so I was really happy when Traci told me that she'd love to have us come hang out with them when they take fun field trips on Wednesdays or Fridays. She mentioned a new place that I hadn't heard of before (and I forgot the name of it!), but apparently it's some sort of hands-on art discovery museuem for kids, so we might tag along with them to check that out in a couple of weeks. I need to run out at some point tonight to get Traci and Liz a little thank you gift for all the hard work, love and care they've given to our family for the past two years.

Sutton wasn't really interested in the water play today...so strange for him! He was pretty sleepy though, even when we first got there.

Ty, Sean, Riley, Sophia, Sawyer, Amanda & Sutton taking a break from the heat to enjoy some pizza and pretzels

Hunter and his Daddy having fun on the water slide


Sawyer said "I totally wish we had one of these slides!"

After almost an hour, I finally got Sutton to venture into one of the little pools. I think there was just too much chaos and too many kids for him earlier in the party, because he ONLY wanted to hang out in the pool when it was just him and Hunter!

"Look! I swimming Mommy!"

The older boys had the most fun jumping off of the top of the water slide and bouncing down into the splash pool below

So much for trying to keep the glue on his wound dry!


Cupcake time!

Happy First Birthday, Hunter Man! Thanks for inviting us over for a fun day!

Ouch!

Last night Sawyer spun himself silly in the living room, and then stumbled and fell face first into the corner of the entryway bench, splitting his brow bone open pretty badly. I have to admit that I wasn't exactly the picture of calm, cool & collected, as much as I tried to maintain my composure and not freak out. Luckily Mitch is far better with bloody situations than I am, so after quickly calling the nurse helpline to see if there was any way to treat the injury at home, they headed out to the emergency room...for almost FIVE hours!!!

Sawyer seemed to take all the waiting in a stride, probably because Mitch completely wore out the battery on his BlackBerry letting him watch cartoon videos on YouTube, but it was definitely a long, late night in the extremely busy ER. In the end, they used layer upon layer of medical glue to seal the wound, which is actually really cool since we won't have to go back anywhere to have stitches removed. Sawyer came bouncing through the door (literally) at midnight last night, tossing me his medical bracelet and telling me all about how he got to see ambulances and how nice the doctors were. He stayed home with me today, and we went to the toy store to pick out a birthday present for Traci's son, and he got to pick out a new puzzle for doing such a good job last night. He's currently in the middle of a marathon nap (3 hours so far!) since he was still pretty worn out from all the excitement.

Summer Fun

Here it is - our latest brightly colored plastic acquisition! I don't know how Mitch always manages to get his hands on such cool free stuff, but yet again this was passed on to us from one of Heard & Engel's customers. The boys have been having SO much fun with this, and it's really nice to have something that they can play with on the shady side of the house since the weather has skyrocketed back up to the triple digits again this week.


The boys playing with their buddy-from-next-door, Connor. The cube has also been a big hit with all of the neighborhood kids, naturally.

This little daredevil quickly realized that he could scale to the top of the walls and jump off...

...so his little brother tried to one-up him by clearing the entire slide in one leap. Luckily, he made it uninjured. Not so luckily, this is now their favorite activity, and all of Mommy's hair is turning grey.

Waiting patiently for the ice cream man to drive by. We keep hearing his music, but he rarely makes it all the way down to our end of the neighborhood. At this point, I think we had been waiting outside for him for the better part of two weeks.

Yay, he's finally here!!!

Be sure to share your $1.50 popsicle with your brother (seriously, does anyone else think the ice cream man is kind of expensive these days!?!).

Trading treats is also an acceptable option - just be sure that you keep trading back-and-forth every three minutes!

Ah, summer fun...

just be careful not to eat your ice cream too fast...

BRAIN FREEEEZE!

The Park: Through Their Eyes

Usually it only takes me about half a second to grab my camera away from the boys' sneaky little fingers, and they're lucky if they can get off an extreme self portrait before their time as a photographer is over. Luckily for them, my camera seems to be on its way out again (this time the zoom is busted thanks to the fact that the metal striping that holds the case together is coming loose, and the auto picture default setting consistently takes horrible and blurry pictures), so I decided to indulge them and let them take some pictures at the park. It's always kind of fun to just let them loose and see what they come up with. I wish there was a durable camera for kids that had a higher resolution than the Kidizoom one that they have. Anyone have any recommendations? In fact, while you're at it, why don't you recommend a new camera for me too! I'm definitely not wasting my money on another Exilim again, even if the flash recharge time is pretty awesome.




Sawyer's first picture


"Say Cheese, Sutton!"

Sawyer's photos are definitely more picture-album-friendly snapshots while Sutton prefers the artistic look of extreme angles and zooms ;)

Daddy actually sent Sutton out in public wearing a camo shirt, camo shorts, and red Keen sandals worn with blue and orange striped socks. Ay yi yi.

This looks like a self portrait, but I'm really just reaching out and trying to get the camera back from Sutton...

which lead to Mommy snapping this one last shot with the camera. "I wanta camera BAAAAAAAAAAAAAACK!!!!!" Future photographer, perhaps?