It's Hot Around These Parts!

It's been hot around these parts the last few days. We have no air conditioning. What's a team to do when it is hotter inside than it is outside?

Play in the water of course!

Watch out, Shawn! You're going to get wet!

Jack loved the water, but he wasn't exactly sure what
to think about it falling on his head like this. He
decided he'd try to whack it away with that shovel in his hand.
It didn't work. Ahem.

Jason's idea was to fill his dump truck with water so he could
go dump it all over everyone.

It's raining. It's pouring!

Jay, you have a little somethin' on your glasses.

After a while, though, the sprinkler got a little boring. So, the boys worked together to fill the (now empty) sand box with water.

Team work is the best way to get a job done.

But the water was sooooo cold. Daddy had the great idea to add warm water to the pool. That was all they needed to jump in.

Now we're talking here. This is awesome!

Rub a dub, dub. Three men in our tiny sand box tub!

Come on in with us, daddy!

~~~

Both boys said their favorite thing to do today was playing in the water.

Cute Baby Saturday

When he holds my hand, he doesn't even pause when he comes to something like this. He is a bit more cautious when he's all on his own.

Whoa, I almost fell off a cliff!

It took him a few moments, but before I knew it, he was off!

Meh. Ain't no cliff gonna stop me!

~~~

Shawn's favorite thing today was going to the park.

Jason's favorite thing today was listening to mariachi music.

Budding Artist

Someone likes to color! Yeah!

He's getting really good with recognizing and saying his color names while he works. So far, I think his favorites are "yey yo" and "pur PUL". :)

Oh, and I think we finally have ourselves a right hander!

~~~

Shawn's favorite thing today was playing with his cars.
Jason's favorite thing today was to go see Dr. Bob. ("But I didn't like him touching my feet.") - The boys got fitted for new magic shoes today. :)

Flowers

Another favorite pastime at the park is to pick flowers.

They search and search until they find flowers that are just right.

See how pretty?

For Shawn, it only takes one before he's satisfied and hands it to me as proud as can be. "Here you go, mommy!" I get a kiss and a hug for good measure.

And this one, too!

Jason keeps looking until he's found a complete bouquet. It's for me he tells me, so we can get married. He hums me the Wedding March when he hands them over.

 

I know, right? I'm fortunate enough to be the recipient of all of the beautiful flowers. I'm even more fortunate that I get to be mommy to such sweet little guys!

 

Jack in daddy's arms. Holding him was
the only way to keep him still.

Mostly Wordless Wednesday

More swimming fun!

 

The boys had a blast chasing each other around the pool while taking turns spraying each other with a water squirter. It was too funny!

 

~~~

 

Shawn's favorite thing from today was playing in the dirt out in the backyard.

Jason's favorite thing from today was serving people at his pretend restaurant.

They Had the Whole Park

...and this is where they played.

Of course, under the wood chips they finally found the dirt.
It's not fun unless there is dirt involved!

"Oh yeah. We're going to need some ants!"
(Don't ask me what that means, but he told us that over and over. LOL)

This is their version of playing "together." Ahem
(Notice the um, intense, look on Shawn's face. He means business.)

And while the big boys played in the dirt, Isaac and I did a whole lot of this with the Littlest.

Jack! Come back here!
Lather. Rise. Repeat.

Look at him taunting his father!

Fun times!

~~~

Both boys thought swimming today was their favorite thing!

Monday Moments

I had to mark this occasion.

All three sitting...

Quietly...

In the same area even.

I tell you this doesn't happen very often!

 

 

~~~

 

Both Shawn and Jason agree that today's favorite thing was when Puttentang visited. :)

Summer Bucket List 2013

It's summer (YEA!), and as we all know, that means it is time for our second annual bucket list!

We've all hear about “bucket lists” -- a list of all the things you want to do before you “kick the bucket”. This year after reading about this on a friend's blog, I thought we'd create a summer bucket list of everything we want to do before our beloved summer “kicks the bucket” and ends. (Thinking our summer will end already makes me a bit sad. :(   Sigh...)

This is just the tip of the iceberg. We had a lot of fun brainstorming ideas and even asked for a few ideas on FaceBook. As we think of new things we can do, I'll add them to our list. Of course you know I'll be documenting like crazy with pictures and blog posts.

Last year's list had 39 items. I loved how the list got me thinking and, more importantly, planning so we could make the summer fun. We managed to do almost half of our list. I thought that was pretty amazing, and more importantly, the boys had a lot of fun. They still talk about some of the things we did now!

This year's list, which includes some carryovers from last year, has 39 activities. I can't wait to make some great memories for the boys. Nothing would make me happier than them talking about what we did this summer for the rest of the year like they did the last.

Without any further ado, I present our list...

~~~

Summer Bucket List 2013

1.Go to the beach
2.Build a sand castle
3.Go to the library and get a library card
4.Learn how to write our names really well
5.Go on a picnic
6.Do some crafts
7.Go on a treasure hunt 
8 .Watch a movie at the movie theater
9.Have a sleepover in the living room
10.Learn to swim
11.Play in the backyard
12.See an animal we've never seen
13.Do a random-act-of-kindness 
14.Read
15.Go to the park
16.Go on a nature hike
17.Go to Sea World
18.See fireworks 
19.Go to the zoo
20.Go see the jets at the airport
21.Visit friends 
22.Go to the fair
23.Go see where Mom and Dad work
24.Spend time with family 
25.Visit a new park
26.Go to the Cross 
27.Go to an aquarium 
28.Go to a water park
29.Cook something for a meal with mommy and daddy
30.Learn about Pirates
31.Go to the zoo at the local college
32.Have a seed spitting contest
33.Go pick fruits and veggies at the farm
34.Take the train
35.Make s'mores by a campfire
36.Fly a kite
37.Create a family tradition
38.Go on a boat
39.Make butter in a jar

Cute Big Boy Saturday - Maybe White Wasn't the Best Choice

Oh man, does this boy love him some dirt!

I just need a little dirt, mom.

My truck can carry it in the back.

Okay, almost ready...

 

It's a dirt storm!

 

He'd play in the dirt all day long if we'd let him!

Maybe white was the best choice of shirts. Apparently brown is a much more versatile color. :)

~~~

Jason's favorite thing from the day was watching Tom and Jerry cartoons with daddy.
Shawn's favorite thing from the day was going to the "hamburger store" with daddy.

Jack loves the slide!



(Um, just ignore the crazy lady's voice on this video. Yikes!)

The Selfie

Jason's discovered the joy of taking pictures. He has a camera on his LeapPad, which he's used to take pictures of all kinds of things. He also loves to show them off.

Yesterday, while we were waiting at school, I let him play with my phone. When I got it back, I found this on it.

 

He took a selfie, complimented with my glasses worn over his own. Lol.

~~~

Jason's favorite thing from the day was IPad time with mommy. (We played the Reading Raven game.)

Shawn's favorite thing of the day was watching the Cars movie.

Mostly Wordless Wednesday - Two Is Better Than One

Duh...obviously. Even the littlest person around this house knows this to be true.

His cup runneth over.

Which is quite satisfying, if he does say so himself.
And I think the smile says just that.

~~~

(A new thing I'm going to try to do this summer is to write the big boys' favorite thing from the day.)

Jason's favorite thing from today - playing the matching game with mommy

Shawn's favorite thing from today - playing at school today

Swimming Take 2

Today was Jason's day for swimming. I was all confident in a "this appointment is at 11:30 so I have all day" kind of way until the receptionist called at 10:00. She said they needed to rearrange some appointments and wanted us to be there in 30 minutes.

Um...neither of us were dressed, we'd just barely finished breakfast, my mom wasn't due to arrive to watch the other two boys until 11, and we live 30 minutes away. Sigh. We made it there thirty minutes earlier than the original appointment. I figured that was pretty good for us. ;)

The therapist teacher, Beth, is two for two with the whole making my children fall in love with her thing. Jason practically ran into the pool with her. lol

Getting acclimated to the pool -
Jason started with a little hoops.

This shot made his one and only basket!

He found some weights at the side of the pool.
He thought he was pretty cool floating around with them.

Using the noodle to practice kicking his feet.

This was the reaction when I asked him to smile for me.
He looks more crazy than happy.

Beth had Jason focus on his lower body today. He's also working on getting over his fear of the water. Beth really worked at making him feel comfortable while she exercised his legs hard. Like his brother, Jason was worn out at the end.

I'm pretty excited to see how strong the dynamic duo will be by the time the summer is over. I'm certain Beth is going to make them work hard every chance she gets!

Swimming

Swimming therapy started today.

At 8 am.

In the morning.

It was a little obscene to make me haul my on vacation self across town to be at an appointment that early in the morning us an appointment for that time of day, but it was what it was.

Shawn had his session by himself today. He again fell in love with his therapist teacher, Beth, the moment he laid eyes on her. He wanted to ditch me and go play with her the second he saw her walk into the room.

Chasing the ball - using his arms to paddle through the water

A first attempt to float on his back - he wasn't keen on this idea.
Notice his death grip on Beth's hand? lol

Filling up a water gun - it actually took quite a bit of strength
to load the water

Fire! - more arm strengthening to shoot the water

Here he was reaching his arms out as wide as he could before he
brought them in to clap and make a huge splash

They did a lot of upper body work today, so that was really good. Shawn was pretty worn out at the end.

 

Jason's appointment is tomorrow at the more sane hour of 11:30. Ahem. I hope he has as much fun as Shawn did today. Fingers crossed that we see some great gains in their strength, flexibility, and stamina from all of this!