We ♥ Summer!

Summer means spending tons of time outside and when the temps are hot, lots of time in the pool! Today we had the big pool out for Joshua, and his friends, along with the kiddie pool for Matthew. Pools = hours of fun at our house! Joshua spent all afternoon and evening splashing around and "swimming". Matthew spent the evening having the kiddie pool all to himself which he loved! Warning: Picture overload below!

Splish, splash

Joshua "swimming" (he will have lessons at the end of June).

Happy Matthew has the kiddie pool all to himself!

Joshua thinks it's fun to dump water over Matthew's head, good thing Matthew doesn't mind (for the most part).

A little payback.

Again with the water over Matthew's head.

Up close! Love those big blue eyes and long lashes!

Lovin' the pool!

Water fight with friends.

Joshua splashing around with Corrinne and Hunter.

Life would be easy if . . .

. . . we could just keep Matthew in a crate! He would also be less bumped and bruised due to the inability to climb EVERYTHING if we could cage him! Actually Matthew was just enthralled by Stella's crate when she was over last night and any time Stella wasn't in her crate, Matthew was. Apparently dog toys are very fun for a 13 month old, as is playing in a cage.

Moving on . . .

Yesterday as Joshua's last day of preschool! Hard to imagine that a whole school year has gone by, but so it seems. Even though it was tough year for me because I felt the program needed some improvement, it was a enjoyable year for Joshua. Some highlights from his year include: making new friends and actually playing with them (last year he still did a lot of parallel play), practicing his social skills, learning zoo phonics, starting to sound out words, writing words(some on his own and tons when we tell him the letters or he copies things), and becoming much more independent. Matthew and I will miss our one on one time this summer, but I think we are all ready for some sunny, warm, lazy, laid-back days that don't involve having to rush to get to school! We celebrated the end of preschool with a trip to the store so Joshua could pick out a treat and a package of gum for himself as well as buying ice cream from the ice cream truck after dinner. Next year my baby is off to kindergarten two/three full days a week (T-TH and every other Friday - at least that's what we signed up for) and will be riding the bus with his friends in the neighborhood, amazing how fast he's growing up!

Joshua, his teachers and his friends Fiona and Jocelyn.

Joshua with Mrs Gallagher

Joshua with Mrs Berens

Best buds from school and church.

Sprinklers

Cory turned the underground sprinkling on last night for the first time this season (long story on why we are turning it on late in the season that involves having to put another meter in for just the sprinkler system so we don't have an outrageous water bill). Joshua, or course, immediately heard the word sprinklers and flew into his room and before we could blink an eye had changed to a bathing suit. The fun of running around in the shade of the evening getting pelted by freezing cold water only lasted about 15 minutes, but the smiles and laughter were totally worth it. Even a couple friends in the neighborhood joined in. Matthew, who loves to play in water, was less than thrilled by the spraying sprinklers and wanted nothing to do with sticking any part of his body in the cold water; instead, he helped Cory adjust all the sprinklers around the yard.

Crazy little water loving kid!

Matthew was content to help adjust sprinkler heads.


Joshua and his friend Corrinne.

The neighborhood three musketeers - Joshua, Zoe and Corrinne



They each tried the slide, but found it was way too fast when wet.

Belated Mother's Day

We celebrated Mother's Day with my Grandma and Grandpa as well as our extended family yesterday. Even Matt and Katie were able to join us as they are back in MI for several days. It was nice to gather with everyone and honor my Grandma for being the sweet, caring and generous woman that she is. The boys love the extra attention they get from anyone since they are the only little kids on that side of the family. So glad we still have these family get-togethers with everyone! Unfortunately for me, I was delayed in getting my camera out so I didn't get many pictures.

Joshua just loves and adores Matt and Katie.

Watch out Aunt Cher, there is a monkey on your back!

Joshua and one of his most favorite people, my cousin Rachel.

Nicholas' birthday

Our nephew Nicholas' birthday party was this past weekend and his family was camping at Yankee Springs so we went out to the campground to help him celebrate. Cory's brother, Shawn, even brought his boat so the kids could take boat rides on the lake. It was a fun evening of boat rides, playing with cousins and eating birthday cake!

Getting life jackets on and loading kids into the boat.

Aiden and Matthew hung out at the shore.

Shawn, Cory, Owen and Joshua taking a ride around the lake.

The cousins taking a ride back to the campsite in the trailed boat.

The birthday boy!

Things that make you go hmmmm....

Upon seeing the rain this morning . . .
Joshua: "Do you think 'Nana in heaven' (how we refer to my mom) is helping Jesus dump the rain down?"
Me: "I'm not sure if Jesus needs any help with the rain or not."
Joshua: "Wait, I bet Nana would help put the sun out, not do the rain. Did Nana like the sunshine?"
Me: "Nana loved the sunshine!"
Joshua: "Mom, you and I love the sunshine just like Nana!"
Me: "Yes, Joshua we do. We are like Nana in a lot of ways and that happens to be one."
Joshua; "I like snow, did Nana like the snow?"
Me: "Nope, Nana didn't like snow at all; kind of like me. In fact the day she went to live with Jesus the first snow of winter that year fell. They were the first snowflakes you ever saw and the last snowflakes Nana ever saw."
Joshua: "I didn't know that."

No my dear, you wouldn't know that. . . you were only 6 1/2 months old.
Keeping the memory of Nana alive even in silly conversations about the weather.

Climbing

Matthew has been climbing stairs and the playground ladder since he was at least 11 months old, if not younger. However, in the last week the child seems to want to climb EVERYTHING! This is a whole new issue for us as Joshua was not a climber and didn't seem to have quite the same adventurous spirit that Matthew has. Of course with all the climbing he is doing the more bumping of his head is occurring because the kid is fast and try as we might to catch him, we can't every time.

He climbed into the walker by himself, the nut.

Joshua's chair is fun to climb.

Ahh, one more level to conquer.

Look at me!

Joshua rescues a climbing Matthew.

Aw man, someone caught me.

The toilet looks like a good spot to climb up on. . .

Ahh, yes the kleenex are up here to pull out one by one.

All that climbing tires a boy out.

Sticky, ooey, gooey fun

Today we got out the old, classic (at least in our house) Jiggle Jelly. I realized that Matthew has had the opportunity to explore such a sensory experience and since he has been less apt to put things in his mouth as of late I figured why not let him try it. At first he was not sure and only would poke at it with a play-dough tool or cookie cutter . . . he liked it though, so that was good!



Joshua loves playing with Jiggle Jelly and today came up with a new idea. . .

. . . interesting (at least his feet were clean).

Footprint in the Jiggle Jelly, mission accomplished!

Matthew did eventually touch the stuff with his hands. He wasn't exactly thrilled with it, but at least he tried it!

Umm. . . yea . . . maybe not.


He loved poking, digging and smashing things into the jiggly stuff so it was all good.

Want some mom?!?


Joshua experimenting with the Jiggle Jelly's ooze-ability.

Crazy kid!