Travel buddies

We have been in the car quite a bit this summer. For some reason, the kids don't want to chat, they don't want to read, they only want to play the Nintendo DS when they are back there in the minivan. So, to change the routine a bit, I've introduced them to their travel buddies.

I really don't know if this will work.



I interviewed a teacher the other day who had some great ideas to get kids thinking without realizing they are doing it.

We took pictures of the boys and their travel buddies. Michael has Cowee, Joshua has his blankie and for Jason, we picked up Tim the Penguin.



We taped these pictures to the cover of a composition book.



Wha-la! Now we have a travel journal.



Jason and Michael have completed page one. They were excited to draw pictures of their travel buddies. Tomorrow, they'll have to actually write words in them! I wonder how long it will take before they ask me if they can play their video games?

I'll let you know how it goes!

Happy Friday, everyone!!!

Finally...a day at the beach

The boys have been spending every single weekday at the pool for camp. They are quite dark, as you have seen.

The draw of the beach then wasn't the surf, but the sand.

We actually made it to the beach today. Jason and Michael made a beeline for a stretch of sand so they could get to work building castle villages.



Joshua went straight for a snack.



After a handful of 'nilla wafers, Joshua was feeling good enough to dip his toe in the water. Joshua was a little nervous at first, but Doug says after a few minutes, he was giggling when the low waves hit his feet.



Then, we buried his feet (Michael's, too) in the sand!

I didn't realize the boys knew anything about the whole tanning culture we have here. But Jason and Michael asked me if we could do without sunscreen today so they could get a proper "tan." What??!!! We told him they were bronzed enough, thank you very much.



We have noticed that camp has brought Jason and Michael closer together. This is what happens when these two get the giggles during dinner.




We can't help but laugh. Doug and I couldn't help but laugh at something Michael said this morning. We were at the dining table, eating breakfast. And Michael looks at us and says, "It has been nice. We've had Joshua for two years."

You really can't deny the truth of his words.

Dreamin' of the beach

We haven't made it to the beach yet this summer. All the baby can do is dream about it.

He parked himself inside his inner tube today and chilled for a bit.



We've been spending our weekends with Amah and Akong as Amah continues her recovery from a car crash.

We know she will be fine.
After all, the get-well-crew has been giving her plenty of kisses.



We love you, Amah!

Silly Bandz on sale

With three growing boys, you can imagine there's quite a bit happening at our house these days. I'm hoping I don't wait too long to put the stories in black and white. I know I'll forget.

Where do I start? Oh yeah. Silly Bandz. Have you heard of them? They are the brilliant invention of some now-rich adults who have somehow brainwashed kids into thinking wearing colored rubber bands in the shape of animals, instruments or phrases are the "in" thing. Adults are starting to wear them, though, which we think means they will soon be uncool. In the meantime, they are a big deal at our house.

Silly Bandz have certainly invaded. Even Joshua is interested in collecting and wearing these specially-shaped rubber bands. They sell for about $5 for a pack of 24. I tell you this on background.

Our crew has decided to step into the world of entrepreneurship and sell them. I applaud them. For the price of $50 (!), a special scented Silly Band in the shape of a rabbit could be yours. It smells like vanilla, by the way, not what you would imagine a rabbit would smell like.



Here they are working on the posters which will highlight their Silly Bandz on sale for the day.

Jason and Michael are a little (okay, a lot) darker than they were in the beginning of the summer. YMCA summer camp has been good to us and the boys have spent every weekday afternoon in the pool. They just got haircuts (1 1/2 hours at the barber shop, by the way) and it has GOT to be a more pleasant experience in the hot summer sun.

Michael, at the age of 5, is, I believe, officially out of the terrible 2's. We thought it would never happen!

He now continues to amaze us with his insights.

Today, I messed up their names. Called him Joshua or Jason, I don't even know which.

He replied, "It's okay, Mommy, because when you become a mommy, you forget names."



Do not let this charming grin fool you.

Michael may be out of the terrible 2's. Joshua, I believe, has entered them. Early. Earlier than the other two, at least. Everyone within a 1/2 block radius heard us as we made out way into the dry cleaner's today.

30 minutes and 15 'nilla wafers later, he was fine.

At least I'm not so worried about his verbal skills, though. Today, he told me, as he was pointing to a cereal he wanted to have for a snack, "That cereal." I hesitated, since it was FRUIT LOOPS! He repeated, loudly, "THAT CEREAL." "MOMMY. MOMMY. MOMMY. THAT CEREAL!!!!" WAAAAH!!!!

Can you tell we'll be working to deal with a sweet tooth on our #3? To think, we thought he would never speak.

Summer reading program

Now that it's summer, we're all trying to do a bit of reading.

Summer, here we come!

After months of what felt like living on the baseball field, it has all come to an end.



Jason, I think, was happy to see it arrive. He played a good season and was pretty beat by the last out of the last game. We had the chance to get together one last time with the team.



Joshua, of course, makes friends wherever he goes. I think he will miss most the candy he inevitably walked away with while watching the games.



Until next season!!!

Lots of milestones this last school year. If you had a chance to sit and think about it, you might tear up. It was Jason's first year in public school and I am so proud of him. He has to say goodbye to one school, though, and get ready for the excitement of another.

I had the opportunity to go to his Field Day. We baked under the hot June sun.




On another occasion, I went inside his classroom, where we had games and pizza. That was a GREAT day to be inside with all of them. By the way, hats off to all teachers. There is QUITE A BIT of energy inside a first grade classroom.




It has been a while since I've shared pictures, so there's plenty to catch everyone up on. The boys and I went on a 2-mile walk for charity on a recent weekend. Everyone looks refreshed and ready for a walk in this picture, but you should have seen us at the finish line! Jason did great, but apparently, Michael decided his feet weren't working after the one-mile mark. Doug, then, became the transporter.



Funny, but Michael was able to move on his own two feet during a birthday party at the park. We went on a hayride, ate lots of candy and cake and said goodbye to friends for the summer! He is getting so big!!!!




Finally, we went to a nighttime minor league baseball game. Here's when we realized the baby is kinda friendly. We happened to know most of the people in the seats around us. But Joshua didn't know that. He went up to complete strangers to see what kind of edible treasures they were interested in sharing.



Thank goodness this kind gentleman (a nice man from our church) was fine with parting with his peanuts. Our peanut wouldn't leave his side until the bag was finished!!!

It's tough to wake up from a nap

Back from Bermuda and back to reality

We've been back for a couple of weeks, yet looking at pictures of our journey to Bermuda still have the power to take us back.



If you're wondering what it's like to not be connected (no email, no phone access, no text messages), it's kinda nice. And scary.

The minute we left the cruise ship, I had to find a pay phone to call the boys. I almost didn't know how to use one of these.



It's funny that we live by a beach and yet, the beach is the first place we go on vacation. I guess it is what we know. We had to check out the world-famous Bermuda beaches, and yes, they were lovely.



We also did our fair share of eating. But we didn't eat as much as I thought we would. Or what we could have. Oh my, there's a lot of food on these big boats.





We met some really nice people, we had a truly relaxing time and we thoroughly enjoyed our 10th anniversary celebration.

Thank you so much to Grandma and Grandpa for making this trip possible. We love you very much!

Ham and cheese

We love our friends with pools.



And we recently made friends with a family who lives on a lake. We may have to start hanging out with them more often. Look at the view. If you look closely, you can see Michael in the inflatable on the left. Doug and some friends are sitting in the one on the right. Michael SWAM all the way to the raft. Jason ferried adult beverages to the grownups. Good times.



Joshua was passed around from mom to mom. He loved it.



At some point, the adults and the kids decided to battle it out on the makeshift baseball diamond. Glad to see the dads were putting all their effort into it.



Ahh, the freedom to not have a care in the world. By our third hour at this party, it seemed just easier to leave Joshua in just a diaper. And he just couldn't stand not being in the middle of the action.



It may seem that all we are doing these days is hanging out with friends. We are definitely trying to spend as much time with Claire and her family as we can. They are moving in just a few weeks.

Joshua will definitely miss Lizzie. Unlike our other two boys, who, at this age, played "next" to other children, Joshua and Lizzie are really pals who play together.




On another day we took the crew to the zoo. My favorite animal was the giraffe. All the boys agreed, they loved peeking in on the reptiles. Yuck!

Diamond disappointment

I have never been so proud of Jason as I was tonight.

Of course, he's 7. I do hope to share more proud moments in the years to come.

First of all, the last two months have been a whirlwind of baseball, baseball and more baseball.

Over breakfast this morning, the boys learned that Jason did not make the 7-year-old All-Star Team.

He didn't really understand. And we don't, either.

But the boy took it all in stride.

And tonight, at his first playoff game, Jason won the game ball. He hit at least two doubles, threw out seven people and generally rocked it!




One more thing. Michael chimed in on the day's events. Before the game, as we were discussing the situation, Michael told Jason he thought this could be an opportunity for Jason to get better. What 5-year-old says that??? We certainly don't think, at the age of 7, his baseball career is over!!!

Jason still doesn't understand why he isn't on the other team, but, in the meantime, we're so excited he's giving it his all right now.

If this is what happens at the age of 7, I'm not sure I can handle what happens when 8 rolls around.

Sleeping beauty

So peaceful, so quiet, so sweet.
Hope you get a chance to rest today.

Home run!

It looked like it was going to rain all yesterday afternoon. Good thing it didn't. We would have missed Jason hitting his first real home run!!!

Where was my camera?

At home.

No matter, I likely would not have been able to capture it anyway, I was so focused on the game, screaming so much for him.

He brought home two of his teammates with that hit and we were so proud of the entire team.



The boys need a haircut, badly. Hopefully we'll get that taken care of tomorrow.
Right now, they look like they should be part of The Monkees. Hey, Hey...

Have a great night!

Game ball

We are so proud of our Little Slugger. He's growing to be a good little ball player and today was a big one on the diamond. The team lost the game, but Jason gave it his all. He's holding up the game ball he received for doing such a good job today! Great hits, great in the field--he's so excited, isn't he?



His brothers are, too!



Who can blame Joshua for thinking about nobody but himself--he's the baby, after all!



The "baby" weighs 24 pounds 10 ounces and stands 34 inches tall. This kid eats like a horse, and I was a little worried the doctor would tell me we needed to put him on some kind of diet. But she told me he was only in the 20th percentile for weight. Long and lean, she said. I supposed that means, for now, his habit of eating just the ranch dressing can continue.