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?

New School, Part 2

I just got home from dropping off paperwork, so I can now officially announce that Sutton is going to be starting a new preschool too! Starting on August 17th he will be going to preschool with his best buddy, Hattie, on Mondays/Tuesdays/Thursdays at a school that is right down the street from Sawyer's school (YAY for not having to drive the boys in opposite directions at the same time anymore!!!). I would love for him to be able to go to Sawyer's school too, but they won't accept him until he's 3-years-old and fully potty trained, so he will likely start going there next summer.

It's bittersweet for me to have him leave Traci's house, because she has been so great with our boys and is very close with them, but ever since Sawyer left to go to his new school things just haven't been the same there for Sutton. I think that with both Sawyer and Hattie starting new schools Sutton was starting to feel sad and left behind, and he just wasn't having as much fun as he used to have. When we told him that he was going to get to go to school with Hattie at her new school his whole face lit up, and if it were up to him he'd start there today!

I'm sure that there will likely be some transition issues as he switches from a home daycare to a larger school/learning center, and I'm a little worried about his first couple of weeks as he's making new friends since Hattie doesn't go there on Tuesdays, but I know that he's ready and willing to make the change. I'm just so grateful that we have the opportunity to allow him to do so. With work picking up for me again, it'll be nice to have both boys in school on the same days so that I can have three kid-free chunks of time to get all of my stuff accomplished. I'm nervous, because change is hard for me, but I'm also incredibly excited. I'm so proud of my boys, and I love that they have the chance to thrive in creative and educational surroundings.

P.S. Holly posted a bunch of cute pictures from last Friday's trip to the water park on her blog HERE!

Outdoor Art: Mural Painting

A few years ago I ran across an amazing too-good-to-pass-up deal on 36' wide x 1000' long (yes, you read that right - a thousand feet long!) rolls of red kraft paper. I think it was a pricing error, but somehow I managed to run across it at $7.99 a roll, and because I am a sucker for a good deal, I bought two. Even though it feels like we use the red paper all the time, here we are three or four years later, and we've barely made a dent in the first roll. Clearly we will be wrapping every birthday and holiday gift for the next 200 years in plain red paper ;)

Today we decided to take advantage of the unseasonably cool weather we've been having here (they're predicting a high of only 79 tomorrow!), and we pulled out the good old red paper for some outdoor painting fun.

Sawyer: "I gotta little paint on my hands. Can I use my fingers?"

Mr. Copycat

They decided that painting is the most fun when you just apply a ton of paint directly to your hands and go crazy on the canvas.

Sutton was a little confused as to why his bright colors kept turning into a dark greyish puddle in his hands

"I'm all done!"

"Me too. Look at my messy hands."

Clean up time with the hose and the water table. I wish I had taken more pictures of clean up, because it was just as fun as the painting was!

Sawyer was so excited for Daddy to get home and see his artwork (the left side is Sawyer's work, and the right side is Sutton's).

We cut a few of their favorite pieces out of the mural for their art display frames that hang in the play kitchen area. They are always so proud of their work, and they love it when I deem a new art piece worthy of framing!

Week in Review

We finally managed to get unpacked and settled back in from our vacation, but now I have a whole week's worth of blogging to catch up on! Here are a few of the highlights from our busy week:


We finally hit up Maidu Park at a time where no one was swinging on these cool red lounge-style swings. The boys have been dying to try them out, but EVERY time we are at the park someone else has already staked their claim (and they stay on them forever!!!). They were so much fun that we didn't even make it to the other side of the park to watch Daddy's softball game!


Sutton actually got thisclose to falling asleep in his swing!


The cutest Home Depot worker you'll ever meet ♥

We made a massive banana bread castle bundt cake...and the boys devoured the entire thing in less than 2 days!

Of course, it wouldn't be a normal week without some painting time. Sutton will quite literally paint anything that you stick in front of him. In this picture he's painting a napkin and a cardboard drink carrier - at least I'm recycling for our projects!

On Friday Holly and I took the kiddos to the water park. It was perfect 84 degree weather (for August, in Sacramento??? Unheard of!), and the kids had a blast.

No matter how much or how little water is flowing through the rings, Sawyer always holds his breath and scrunches his eyes closed when he runs through :)

My sister, Kari, painted me this amazing painting for my birthday. I absolutely LOVE it!!! I wish you could see the detail better in this photo, but it even has pearlescent and silvery strokes to make it look both realistic and magical. For anyone who might have had their doubts, here's absolute proof that I am NOT the artistic one in my family! Creative, yes, but definitely not artistic! ♥


I absolutely adore the way that Sawyer can't pass by a yellow dandelion without picking it for me. He seems to get such joy by giving me flowers and compliments - his dad has him trained well ;)

We took a walk on the nature trail and watched the trains go by

Kari, Me, Krista and Jessica celebrating at Kari's bridal shower this weekend.

I made Oreo truffles too. You really should be jealous that you're not here to enjoy them with us!