VBS Show and Tell

What a fun week!  All three boys participated in vacation bible school at church and they are having a blast!  I'm volunteering as a crew leader for the 2nd grade group, and I'll admit I'm having fun too.  It makes me miss teaching.  Last night was show and tell - a chance for families to see the kids perform their songs and dances.

These sweet preschool volunteers had their hands full - 20+ preschool kiddos!  Oh my!  Jack had a great time.  He loved going every day and the teachers said he did a great a great job.  He participated in most activities and had so much fun!

 Max had a wild and crazy crew.  He knew many of the boys from baseball and PSR so it was no big deal to him.

Will also had a blast.  This morning as we were getting into the car he told me - Mom please sign me up for VBS every year, because you know, I really like God."  It was so sweet!

 The program stared with the opening song before each group got up to perform.  Jack was closet to me so I was able to snap a pic of him during opening song.  He loved it!

 Once it was time for Jack's group to get on stage, he wasn't so sure.  At first he walked up on stage but immediately wanted off.  Then he started doing the dance on the floor.  His crew leader reminded him that everyone could see him better on the stage so he was ready and willing to go up there to finish off the song with his group.  I'm so proud of him!

 William didn't hesitate at all!  He was front and center the entire time.  In fact he was a little disappointed that his class had to share the stage with the kiddos going into kindergarten.

Max's group was a lot smaller, so it really took some guts to get up on the stage and sing and dance in front of all those people.  Max had his eyes cast down the whole time, but he did every movement and sang every word.  He gave me a huge grin at the end of the night when I told him how proud I was of him.

I'm so happy we are part of this parish.  It really is a thriving center for our community and they have so much to offer!  I also love to watch my kids develop a sense of faith.  It melts my heart to hear them sing about God being their amazing maker :)

Camp for Jack

Jack is doing so well!  We found about some support that our local parks department gives to kids that need a little extra.  Since Jack sometime has a tough time with peer interactions we thought the camp would be a perfect chance for him to work on his peer skills and have a great time!  Wow did he ever!  He loved camp - mostly because of his sweet helper, Miss Alex.  He spent the past two weeks with her and a ton of kiddos playing games, making crafts, swimming in the pool, and playing on the playground.  Jack loved every minute!  We have him signed up for one more week in July and I know he can't wait!

Things Will Says

Oh my this little man. . . The other day we were at the pool and he kept chatting up the cute high school lifeguards.  Another dad leaned over and told me I would have my hands full with him in about 10 years.

During speech therapy when Miss Lolo mixed two words together.

William:  "Miss Lolo you need speech therapy."
Miss Lolo: "You think so?"
William:  "Yep.  The good thing is you can just give yourself your own speech therapy when you aren't giving kids speech therapy!"

When trying to convince me to get him a soda with his meal at Lion's Choice

Me:  "No soda, William."
William: "But mom I really want a Sierra Mist - you know, becuase our dog Sierra went to doggy heaven - and I missed her!"

Oh William. . .

Family Night at the Zoo

Every year Brian's company does a big party - it used to be a fancy dinner party without kids - the past two years it has been a family night at the zoo.  I'll admit I miss the fancy party :)  That being said we really had  a great time - until everyone got cranky the last 20 minutes.  Or maybe I was the only one that got cranky, I'm really not sure. 

 All week long Jack talked about wanting to see the penguins.  They didn't disappoint!  They were swimming fools and the boys loved that there weren't' too many people around to block their view.

 Feeling the feathers on a real penguin skin was prettty cool too.  William tried to tell the docents all about thier maps - after all he had maps in his room. 

 Of course we had to ride the train!

 The big boys rode the carousal while Jack met some of Brian's coworkers.
 Before we knew it the time had come for the sealion show!  Max is just getting so old! 

 I swear he was too cool for some of the things we saw - or at least he acted like he was too cool. But he loved the show and had a huge grin on his face the entire time. 

The little boys loved it too.  I mean come on - look at that sealion jump through a hoop after going down a water slide. 

That's pretty cool no matter how old you are!  He was huge!  I really wasn't sure he would fit.  All in all it was a pretty great evening. 

Happy Father's Day!

 What a weekend!  Yesterday Brian and the little boys celebrated the Father's Day with Grandpa Jack over lunch. Mom and Max were at golf and Dad didn't get any pictures.  Today Brian took the big boys to Six Flags with a friend and his daughters. They all had a great time!  Tonight we headed to Nonna and Nonno's house to continue the celebrating.

  Unfortunately I really need to learn to use my new camera and these were the best pictures I got.  For the record we said make a funny face on the last picture.  Jack says this is his surprised face - I think he might have a future in acting.  Love these men so much!  Happy Father's Day!

Max the Golfer

This winter Brian noticed that there is a golf league through our church.  We talked to Max and he was very interested - I think he just wants to learn to drive the cart.  He has been playing for the last six week and he has really enjoyed it.  The program included lessons from a pro for several weeks and then three weeks of 'real golf' on their par three course.  Yesterday was the first time I took Max.  I was super impressed!  He had a par and two bogey's which compared to everyone else was pretty awesome. 

I think this new sport may be a good fit for Max.  It is so much fun to see him take a risk and try something new!

Look Mom!

Brian and the big boys are at the baseball game with scouts tonight, so Jack and I were on our own as we walked Duke tonight.  Jack was so excited about this little friend that he found!  We spent about 15 minutes watching the caterpillar.  Poor Duke just wanted to walk.  Jack tried feeding it lots of grass and told the caterpillar that it needed to go over to the tree and build a cocoon.  It was adorable!

A Week in Pictures

Wow.  That was a crazy one.  The big boys started summer school this week - they are loving it!  That means every morning I dropped them off at 8:00.  Then Jack and I tried to get some things accomplished before we walked the dog,  had an early lunch, packed a lunch for the big boys to eat in the car and picked them up at noon.  Then we were off to chess camp for Max.  It was a bit of a drive from home, so the little boys and I spent three hours exploring before picking Max up again at 4:00 and battling traffic back home.  I don't think I have cooked dinner all week.  Thank goodness for rotisserie chickens at Costco.

So here are a few pictures to document the craziness. . .

Taking turns paying the parking meter.  It is pretty sad when you put $0.50 on your credit card - but I loved that I wasn't always worried about having coins.

Meeting the head of the chess camp the first day.

Jack and Mommy killing time at a park while the van got an oil change - this was the morning after we were at the dr for him for three hours.  My poor baby has walking pneumonia.  Hopefully the current antibiotic - our third -  will do the trick.

He has had this awful cough for a really long time now, but luckily he has no other symptoms and is acting totally normal.  If the cough isn't gone by Tuesday we are off to a pulmenologist.  He told me in the car "Mommy, my really bad cough won't leave my body" :(

Wednesday we explored the Kids Clubhouse at the history museum.  It was empty!  The kids must have played with these magnetic blocks for at least an hour.  

 They also spent about 5 minutes fishing. . .

 And the remainder of our time honking the ships horn - or fighting over whose turn it was to honk the horn.

 A little snack and we were off to the jewel box.

 They loved looking at the ponds outside.  There were tons of tadpoles - I explained that they would grow into frogs and now they want to come back and see 'their tadpoles' when they are frogs.

They weren't as excited about the inside.  

Thursday afternoon we helped do some yard work at nonna's house.  We met dad at Max's baseball game.  Before I took the little boys home Brian snapped this little gem.

Today we ended up at another new park and the boys were able to entertain themselves for a bit.  I think this was the third new park we explored this week.  We also explored a new to us library - but there are no pics and that one got a big thumbs down from everyone.

For the next two weeks the big boys continue summer school and Jack is attending a local day camp in the mornings.  That means I will have a couple hours to myself each day.  It feels like the best birthday present ever :)

I love by boys so much, and we have really had two fabulous weeks of summer vacation together - but I'm ready for just a little bit of mommy time.

Memorial Day Weekend

 We had a very busy Memorial Day weekend.  On Saturday morning we headed to the garden bright and early - we have a membership this year, so Brian wants to make sure we get our moneys worth.  

We started out walking the grounds for a bit before heading to the tram station.  The boys were cute as could be :)

 The kids had a great time riding the tram through the garden.  Brian and the big boys were in the front -he let them take all the pictures they wanted.  I have about 100 that look something like this. . .

We wrapped up our visit in the children's garden.  As always these locks/damns were a huge hit with the boys.  They must have played here for 40 miutes before we had them move on - and no one fell in trying to retrieve a boat.  Huge win.  Before we left everyone cooled off at the splash pad and I was reminded why I had them wear swimsuits last time. 

Sunday was pretty calm - cleaning out gutters - but we were just saving our energy for Six Flags on Monday.  I don't think we planned our first ride very well.  We went on the mine train.  Last summer all three boys rode Fire in the Hole in Branson and loved it.  Jack has changed his mind.  He hated it!  In fact he pretty much refused every ride for the next two hours.  We finally got him on hte carolsel long enough for a picture, but he wanted off before it started. 

He did agree to a carousel chariot ride iwth mom and it helped to ease him back into rides.

 Then there is this man.   He rode the Screamin Eagle and LOVED it.  I think he is crazy.  We ended our day with Thunder River and the Log Flume.  Both here huge hits with everyone.  Brian and Max have season passes and Will has a ticket from school he can convert to a pass, so I see more trips in the future for the big boys.  Jack and I will stick to the bring a friend for free days and we will skip the roller coasters :)