Grandpa Pictures

Look at all of these fun pictures with grandpas!

4th of July

Our annual 4th of July celebration in Lebanon and Marshfield was awesome this year. We had lots of fun playing with cousins, swimming in Grandma Donna's pool and watching the parade.

Jack's Last Day of 2nd Grade

2nd grade flew by! Jack loved his teachers, Mrs. Peck and Mrs. Torres. He learned a lot, had lots of fun and grew up even more.

Summer Fun

Summer was so long ago! But it sure was fun. Henry was done with preschool in mid-May. Jack had a week off at the end of May and then had 3 weeks of summer session in June. Summer highlights included a visit with Uncle Will.

Jack and Nathan went to Bear Camp. It was only one night away, but was packed with lots of fun activities.

We went to a Royals game and Henry ate lots of cotton candy.

We tried to take a picture on Father's Day. And made Nathan an awesome t-shirt. He made a great corn hole game and we played it a lot in the yard this summer. He typically won -- surprise, surprise.

Henry's Last Day of Preschool

This post is way overdue, but I need to post a picture of Henry's last day of pre-K. He loved his two years at Second Friends. It is such a special place and his teachers were wonderful. He loved pre-K, and Ms. Margaret and Ms. Terry. He grew up quite a bit from his first day to his last day. He was a baby when he started preschool and in this picture he's all ready to go to kindergarten.

Pumpkin Patch

It's pumpkin patch season and we've gotten good use out of our season pass to Carolyn's. We've had our fill of pumpkin donuts, cider slushes, playing in the corn pit and jumping on the pumpkin jump pillow.

Loose Park

The boys absolutely love Loose Park. I love it because it's so close to our old house and it's the first park I took Jack to. It's also where we decided on Jack's name when I was pregnant. The boys love it because of the trees. There is a playground there but our rule is that we don't go there. Not when there are so many amazing trees to climb. They also pretend they are animals and that the trees are their homes. Or they make pretend kitchens under the trees. It's pretty awesome. We've gone twice this fall and even got to go with Nathan last week when he took a few vacation days.

Carving Pumpkins 2016

We carved pumpkins tonight. More specifically, the boys and Nathan carved pumpkins. They each did pretty much everything themselves except cutting the top off. They were very proud of their creations and are excited for trick or treat tomorrow night. The most fun they had was eating caramel apples after dinner. Things went downhill pretty quickly and ended with them smearing the apples all over their faces. They couldn't stop laughing, but wouldn't let me take a picture.

Reading

Books, books, books! All we do around here is read. Jack is an official bookworm and Henry is well on his way. We checked out almost 50 books from the library last week, all in one day. Those were books only for me, Henry and Jack. We also started listening to audio books during our road trip to South Dakota this summer. Now we listen on the drive to and from school. That gives us exactly 16 minutes of listening time each day. Henry's favorite books now are: Elephant and Piggie series, Cat in the Hat Knows A lot about That series and Magic Treehouse. Jack's favorites are: Harry Potter series, Percy Jackson series and Heroes in Training series. They also loved getting out all the Halloween and fall books, and are looking forward to getting Christmas books out soon!

First Day of School - Kindergarten and Third Grade

Yesterday was the first day of school. It was an especially big day for Henry because he started kindergarten!

His teachers are Mrs. Mason and Mrs. Monachino. He was a little nervous the night before, but yesterday morning he was excited and ready to go. He had a great day, but was very tired when I picked him up.


Jack started third grade and his teachers are Mrs. Conrad and Mrs. Shannon. He is an old pro at starting school, so he wasn't nervous at all. He was ready to see all of his friends and get back to school.

The night before school started, we enjoyed a special treat of their favorite chocolate cake.

In a way, I have been dreading this day since Henry was born. The start of kindergarten for Henry marks an end to the time of little boys home during the day with me. These years have been sweet and precious.

I was sad when Jack started kindergarten, but Henry was still at home. I was excited to have one-on-one time with him, as I had with Jack before Henry was born. We had three sweet years together at home, just the two of us during the day. He is my little buddy and our days at home were an easy rhythm of the normal things of life: playing, going to the gym, running errands, watching Lion King and Koko the gorilla videos on YouTube while we ate lunch.

I am thankful that we have two happy, healthy boys who are able to go off to school and thrive. And I recognize they can't stay at home with mom forever. However, for a few days at least, I am going to allow myself to be sad.

I suppose I am thankful for this ache in my heart. This ache means something is not quite right. But it also means that I had the gift of being home with them during these years.

About a year ago, I read a devotional that compared the changing of a season of life to a wave coming in to the shore. It said "If you try to stand and face the wave, it will smash you to bits, but if you trust the water and let it carry you, there's nothing sweeter... Unclench your fists, unlock your knees and the door to your heart, take a deep breath and begin to swim."

I guess it is time for me to start swimming. But this morning, I find myself listening for the voices of little boys and wishing for one more morning of playing outside with Jack and Henry in the cul-de-sac, with nothing on our to-do list except those seemingly mundane, yet oh so precious things of life.