Last Day of Summer

Today was Max's last day of summer vacation.  Tomorrow he wakes up a kindergartener . . . this makes mama want to cry.  But moving on, we had a great last day of vacation today. We picked up Nonna and headed to the zoo. 
   

 

Every time we check out a different section, after riding the train of course.  Today it was the sea lions.  The boys, Nonna and I enjoyed watching the sea lions swim all around.  Jack and Will were worn out by that point, but Max just couldn't get enough.  He thought it was pretty crazy that they swam upside down.

We picked up lunch and headed back to Nonna's house.  While the little boys rested, Max, Nonna and I baked oatmeal cookies.  Yum.  They alwasys remind me of baking with my grandma when I was little.  It warms my heart to watch my boys with their Nonna.  So sweet.  Anyway, Max was a bit dissapointed in the cookies and declared that we should have made chocolate chip cookies instead.  Oh well, at least Will liekd them when he woke up.

Tomorrow my baby heads off to Kindergarten.  I really can't believe it, time just needs to slow down

Cheese

There was a point when Max would snag my phone and run around the house taking pictures.  He thought it was the funniest thing ever.  Will has entered this stage.  It is adorable.  Our little photographer walks around taking pictures and saying 'cheese'.  Here are a few masterpieces. . .

Cheese Dada

Cheese kitty

Cheese door

Cheese Max

Our little man in the middle just cracks me up.  He can drive me crazy with his antics, but he can always turn on the charm and make me smile.  Here is one more for good measure.  And for the record he climbed up there all on his own. . .sigh I'm in the trouble.

Painting Paw

We are huge fans of the St. Louis County library.  The boys and I are there weekly to pick out new books and they have pretty great story time options.  Max and Will both finished up their summer reading program this past week.  I have to say we have been a bit disappointed with the library prizes this year.  The first level was a one inch plastic stingray stuck in a block of plaster that he had to dig out.  The second level was a three foot beach ball and the third level was a ticket to the Magic House.  I think the library is responsible for sending a maid to clean up the plaster dust, sending a person to blow up the giant beach ball, and providing supervision for my wild men while at the Magic House.  Somehow that part didn't happen.  I guess I shouldn't be picky, but last years prizes were great.

This morning we headed to the Painting Paw pottery studio to redeem one of Max's library prizes.    Max did get a coupon to paint a tile for free, so we met a friend and her little girl over at the pottery studio this morning.  There were two of us with five crazy kiddos and it was so much fun!  Both Will and Max did a great job painting their tiles, who knows what they will look like when we pick them up next week. 

It was the perfect craft project and just took about 40 minutes.  Right when the kids were about to melt down we were finished.  I think we may return at Christmas because they had some really cute little ornaments to paint. 

After the spectacular tiles were finished we crossed to road to enjoy a Chick-fil-A lunch.  The kids just loved that they had so much time to play on the indoor playground because it was pouring! 

Today is the day I would have gone back to work had I not taken a year off.  It is finally sinking in that I'm officially a stay at home mom.  I'm so glad that my good friend Jothy is home with her kiddos too.  We can help to keep each other sane with more outings like today.  So much fun!

Our Little Firefirghters

 

Today was so much fun!  Aunt Anna is still in Columbia working on her masters degree - way to go Anna.  Since we don't get to see her too often we thought we would visit.  Brian took the day off work and we headed to Columbia this morning.  We got to see Anna's new apartment, which was much nicer than the places we lived during college.  Then we headed to the Boone County Firehouse for a behind the scenes tour!

Aunt Anna's very sweet boyfriend is a firefighter in Boone County.  He kindly offered to give the kids a tour and it was perfect.  They got to climb up into all the different trucks and Max even got to turn on the lights.

The boys were shocked at how heavy Scott's firefighter helmet was, but they sure looked cute trying it on.   They also learned a few ins and outs of being a firefighter.  For example the door of hte truck is always open.  The firefighters uniforms are always ready for them to step right into.  And I think their favorite was the sting that hung from the ceiling with a handle on it.  I think Will was pretty shocked when he pulled on it and the door opened.

I can't think of anything that we could have done today that would have been more fun for these two big boys.

I'm sure the boys could have spent all day on those trucks, but we had  big lunch plans - Shakespeare's Pizza!  Max loved it, Will was too tired to eat, and Jack passed out after some milk for lunch.  He sure looks comfy with his Aunt Anna doesn't he? 

Three Months Already?

This beautiful baby boy is just growing too darn fast!  I need to do something to slow down time.  Has anyone figured that out yet?  Sometimes it seems like our days are never ending - especially when we don't have a fun outing planned and daddy is working late - but our weeks fly by.  I just don't get it.

 We have been working really hard on building up Jack's strength with lots of tummy time.  Little by little his is making real progress!  He starts out lifting his head quite a bit and turning it from side to side.  He has one book in particular that he loves to look at.  I've also seen a little bit of the superman move when he lifts his head and his legs for a moment.  While Jack's on his tummy those sweet little legs just kick and kick.  One of these days these little power thighs are going to roll him over and he will be so surprised!

Here is his monthly picture in the chair.  As soon as I disappeared behind the camera so did his smile.  No matter what I did I could not get a smile on camera.  Will tried to help, but he just succeeded in knocking Jack over.  It was pretty cute how sweet

Will was when he tried to sit Jack back up.  Before I know it he will be sitting up all on his own.  I feel like if I blink I will miss it.  After dinner we celebrated three months of Jack with a bike ride.  Poor Jack wasn't to wild about it at first, but the big boys had a blast.  Will cracked me up in his helmet.  About halfway through our walk he tried to pull it off and kept yelling 'hat off' as loud as he could.  So funny.

Peach Picking

What an incredible day!  The boys and I packed up at 7:30 this morning and headed to pick up Aunt Carm.  Then we were on the road to Eckert's Farm.  From the tractor, to the orchard, to lunch, it was so much fun!  The boys were thrilled to eat the peaches right off the trees.  It was the only way we could keep Will from eating the ones that were on the ground. 

 Aunt Carm helped the boys to find the biggest and best red peaches from the trees.  I love that my boys love their Great Aunt as much as I do.  It warms my heart when I think of how many people love my boys. 

Will did take a little detour across the 'road' to peek at the corn.  I showed him how the ears grew - he just kept eating his peach.

 I love these little guys so much!  After we wrapped up in the orchard we enjoyed a yummy lunch in the restaurant before heading home.  I'm glad to say we didn't get lost on the way home.  Luckily for the boys the fun wasn't over yet.  We spent another three hours at Aunt Carm's house.  There was lots of catch and sidewalk chalk - I was amazed at Aunt Carm's sidewalk chalk skills.  I think the kids were too!

 Then I just had to throw in this one last picture.  This is the face that Will makes just about every time I take his picture.  Believe it or not, he is saying cheese.  I laughed out loud when I saw this one.  If you look closely you will see his battle wounds from our last few days together.  The little scab in between his eyes - that I picked off at Chipotle the other night thinking it was a black bean - and the cut on the upper right corner of his lip.  I'm sure there will be many trips to the emergency room in this little guys future - he has no fear.  In fact Brian has started calling him Will the Thrill :)

The Butterfly House

What a great morning with great company.  The boys, Nonna, and I headed to the Butterfly House this morning to meet Nancy and her daughter, Sarah.  Sarah has a sweet little girl just a few weeks older than Jack.  The boys started out exploring the exhibits outside the  Butterfly House.  Max loved playing the role of cashier.  I think I 'bought' that ear of corn about six times. 
 

This picture looks innocent enough, but behind the glass are about a million nasty roaches.   The boys had a great time feeding them 'roach food'.  Which happened to include a few cheerios.  I should have know this had disaster written all over it.  One of Will's roach O's fell on the ground and before I could react he picked it up and popped it in his mouth.  Disgusting. 

 Then it was time to head into the actual Butterfly House itself - it is almost like a giant greenhouse and it was hot in there.  These gorgeous butterflies did make it worth suffering in the heat.  It's such a surreal experience to wander around while thousands of butterflies surround you.  My favorites were the blue ones, but they didn't stay still long enough for a picture. 

 Max ran off to take pictures with Nonna's phone.  It helped to keep him engaged because after about five minutes he was done.  I guess when you are five you see one butterfly you've seen them all.  Will really enjoyed it.  Doesn't he look too cute in his overalls?

 Afterwards we picked up lunch and headed back to our house to visit and relax.  This gave Jack some time to make friends with sweet little Amelia.  He was happy to share his play mat with this little cutie.  They were just adorable!

I was able to get this little shot of Jack this afternoon.  He has a new favorite pastime - sucking on his hands.  He hasn't done the whole staring at his hands thing, but I think he has figured out that they are there, because they are constantly in his mouth.  Well when he isn't cooing that is.  I swear this little guy coos like no other.  I love it!