4th of July

The boys have always enjoyed 4th of July in Marshfield, but this year was different… it was quite possibly the best day of their lives yet. Now that they are a bit older, everything about the 4th just seemed to take on a magical quality that little boys dreams are made of. Starting with the parade and ending with fireworks, the day was packed with fun and lots of laughter. The annual picture of all of the boys… this was the best shot I got.

Horseback riding with Aunt Christy and Ashley.

Goofing around with Uncle Rusty, telling knee slappers.

Playing in the pool for a good four hours with a bunch of awesome cousins and uncles.

The day before the 4th we went and fed the fish at Bennett Spring. We had a great weekend, and some very tired little boys!

Jack’s Last Day of First Grade

Thursday was Jack’s last day of first grade. He had the best year – I can’t imagine it being any better. He loved his teachers, Mrs. Compton and Mrs. Booth and loves his new school. We are so thankful for EPiC! . Now he’s ready for a relaxing summer break and to start the new year as a second grade.

Here are his favorites about 1st grade:

Friends: all of them! Here are a few: Cole, Quinn, Deacon, William, Corbin, Carson, Alyssa F.

Specials: all of them! P.E., art and music

Project: all of them! At EPiC, the learning is project-based so the kids get to do awesome, and huge, projects.

Recess games: Wall-ball, tag

Lunch: rib dippers, chicken soup in his thermos and tomato soup in his thermos, mashed potatoes (better than Mommy’s) and cinnamon rolls

iPad games: minecraft, food-making games, Mathmatier, Math Blaster

 

And just so we don’t forget how little he was when started 1st grade… here are the first day of school pics!

Ants in My Pants… and Pippin

The story of ants in my pants begins Wednesday afternoon. I took the boys swimming and then we had to pick Nathan up at work because my car was in the shop. By the time we got home Henry had a little accident in his car seat and we had to leave the seat outside overnight to dry out.

Thursday morning began innocently enough. Nathan put the seat back in the car, we took last day of school pictures of Jack and got in the car. Our first hint of trouble: on the way to school Jack noticed an ant on Henry’s leg. After drop off, we went to Starbucks. In the drive through line Henry announces, “Mommy there are more ants on me.” Hmm… more trouble. I turn around and see that yes, there are ants on Henry and ants on his car seat. I (very calmly of course) had Henry move over to Jack’s seat and texted Nathan, all of this happened while we were in the drive through line waiting for my drink. Nathan’s response to my text on ants invading Henry’s seat: “Probably should have anticipated that. It’s like an ant buffet.” Then Henry says from the backseat, “Mommy I’ve got ants in my pants.” And then he cracked up. He’s a funny one!

We get home, take the seat out, make Henry strip down to inspect him for ants, vacuum the car out (many, many times). An hour or so later the car was much cleaner than when we started and so was Henry’s seat. The moral of the story: don’t put a six-year old car seat on your driveway overnight. Ants will find the years of dried and crusted food in it and make it their new home.

In other news, we seem to have a pet baby bunny living in our side garden. Henry named him Pippin. So far, he’s eaten three carrots and some lettuce that we’ve left for him. We also left a small container of water so he could have a bunny bathtub.

Henry’s Half Birthday–4 1/2

Henry’s half birthday was last Sunday. He’s finally 4 1/2! We had a fun day celebrating our sweet boy. After breakfast he got a big surprise – a new bike!

Then we went to Red Robin (his choice) for lunch and came home to make his cake.

For supper he requested spicy pasta and chicken parmesan tenders (frozen from Aldi!) He says that’s his favorite meal. He has pretty fancy taste! Then it was cake time. Henry is just the sweetest little boy in the world. I am so lucky to spend my days with him.

Henry’s Last Day of Preschool

Henry finished his first year of preschool in mid-May. On his last day the kids put on a really cute program – they sang lots of sweet songs and his teacher made an awesome slide show with pictures from the year. Henry absolutely loved preschool this year, and his teachers Ms. Marti and Ms. Nicole. He made lots of great friends and can’t wait to start again in August. He’s actually told me at least twice this month that he is ready to go back to school with Ms. Marti. And once he asked me if he could have a playdate at Ms. Marti’s house! I think someone is going to be sad when school starts and he has to go to a different classroom… with a different teacher!

 

Sabbatical 2015

Our month of May was pretty awesome – Nathan was on sabbatical for four weeks! At Cerner, they get a four-week sabbatical every seven years. This was his second one; during his first sabbatical Jack was only seven months old. Life is a bit different now! He started out the month with some community service at Harvesters and then he went on a hiking and camping trip to Mt. Zion National Park and Arches National Park. He had a great time and was able to take lots of hikes the boys and I could not have done. And he got to camp in a pretty cool spot that I would not have camped in either! A bit too backwoods for me.

When he got home, we took the boys to Great Wolf Lodge. It was our first time there and they were pretty pumped to go. We went on Jack’s last day of spring semester. So we picked him up at 1 and had them guess where we were going. They loved the water park – both of them went down the huge water slides lots and lots of times. Henry was too short to go on the biggest one, but he definitely would have gone. We discovered he has no fear when it comes to things like water slides and roller coasters. When you check in to the hotel, they give the kids little wolf ears. Here are the boys in their bunk bed cabin part of the room and then in their jammies ready to go down to the lobby for storytime.

After Great Wolf Lodge we came home for a day, re-packed and headed to Oklahoma City for Nathan’s cousin Larson’s wedding. We had a great time seeing family and going to the wedding.  Here is my favorite picture ever of Jack and Grandpa Bill from the photo booth at the wedding. They had all sorts of silly props to wear for the pictures, including these funny glasses.

On Sunday the rest of the family headed home and we stayed for another day and night to hang out with the Turveys. On Sunday afternoon we visited an awesome science museum and then came back to swim in the hotel pool. Here are some silly boys and Josie.

Monday morning we had breakfast with the Turveys and then headed to Tulsa to eat lunch with Aunt Cheryl. After lunch, we hit the road for Branson. Monday evening we went to Dixie Stampede – the boys were quite impressed. On Tuesday we went to Silver Dollar City. We lucked out and had a sunny day! It was the first time we’d seen the sun since we started our trip. The park was so fun. It wasn’t too crowded so we rode tons of rides and stayed until closing time. We heard about the roller coasters for weeks afterwards.

The next morning we headed home and still had almost a week before Nathan had to go back to work. It was great to be at home and have time to get projects done and relax together. Nathan built a porch swing, a new vanity table for me and a side table for outside. We also took a very long trip to IKEA and got new furniture for Henry’s room. We squeezed in a bike ride at Watkins Mill the last weekend. It was the first time Henry rode the 3.75 mile trail instead of riding in a trailer. He did great! He did get tired but he didn’t give up. May was a wonderful month – we didn’t want it to end!

April & May Catch Up–Life Lately

I am way behind on blogging… here’s a bunch of pictures from April and May.

This was the first time Jack got to participate in Take Your Child to Work Day. At Cerner, kids have to be seven years old to attend. He was very excited and had a great time. Several of his friends’ parents work at Cerner so he enjoyed seeing them at “work”. They had all sorts of stations set up for the kids to go to with their parents. He even got his own name badge!

The boys found a great new hiding spot in the laundry room. Where are they?

Uncle Will came for a visit in early May after he completed a class in Texas. We had a great visit and now he is back in Germany (with no internet!).

Henry and Jack also finished their soccer seasons. Somehow, amidst all of the rain this spring, they were able to play every game. As a result, they played some pretty muddy games. Here’s Henry with a mud-splattered face!