A little bit of August

In my attempt to catch up.  Here is some of our summer shenanigans. 

The boys happy to go to the pool!


On one of those August Saturday’s it was jammed packed.  I went to a baby shower for a good friend Kyndra. This is her first baby and it’s a girl.  She has since had her beautiful baby girl named Reina.

Isn’t she the sweetest little brunette bug!
At the same time as the shower in the morning the boys were at the lake with Daddy and all the other Dads and all the other kids of the women at the shower.  They got some sun and had so much fun and I wouldn’t expect Brad to have any pictures of that.  I am so thankful that he is a Daddy that proudly wrangles our Woodward Warriors on his own. Without naps we then went to an afternoon Birthday party for the crazy Wyatt! We are so blessed to have traditions with so many friends that have not moved away 7 years later.  For military families that it impressive so we count it as blessings for the times we still are around this town and to be together.

Wyatt how old are you?  Geez Wyatt, Five sure does look like “get that camera out of my face Aunt Em!”
 
It was a great day for Wyatt to be King and for cake, Spiderman moves and waterslides!
 
When we are home the boys do stuff a little like this.  Same stuff we have seen before but somehow it’s always cute, a little worse or a little more crazy and funny.

The boys were shaking their booties on the table.

Then it was time to not “shake our booties” on the table anymore and here is Easton caught in his “testing us” phase.  What grade will Daddy get?  I think in this moment he backed off and Daddy won but it did not come without the pout face afterwards….

{In Disgrace}

He is also such a little whiney boy sometimes.  Did I mention he is 2?
  
When that happens we just have to tickle it out of him!
Here are some more normal moments when the boys are overly bored and forced to get along.  Normally dress up does the trick. They begin to work as a team as their alter ego’s.


Another August adventure was a nature center we went to with Liz and the kids.  We went on a walk and checked out a small museum with a dark spooky room with animals that lit up randomly.  The kids loved that! It taught the kids all about this pine tree area they live in.  It is always good to know about your surroundings, just in case they missed it amongst the millionth pine needle.


     
Our crazy crew.  Four stinky boys and a little lady.
There it is.  August in a nutshell. I know I am missing some highlights somewhere and hope to update more soon. Like our trip to Granddad's with family and all the waterfall’s we saw. 

My little nudists

You know, I think we may have a problem over here.  I am beginning to wonder where did all the pants go?!

They eat popsicles naked.

Go out to play naked. 

Easton is completely comfortable smiling for the camera in his birthday suit.

They are naked spectators.

They even twirl in the buff and Bradley does not even care. This tells me he is so used to the naked factor in this house.

Gavin and Easton are like me and could care less and Bradley is like his Dad, very modest.

Embracing their young innocence and care free nature now and enjoying their cute little bums because I know (or at least I hope so) they will eventually keep their pants on more! I pray for this.

First Grader!!

On July 15th, Bradley went back to school.  Kindergarten was fun but first grade will be even better! We started off with his back to school night on the Thursday before.

Posing with Finny and his buddy Jack that is not in his class again this year :( I secretly hope Easton’s hair stays curly and is like Jacks growing up.  He totally rocks the curly look!

We got all his school supplies ready, labeled, put batman stickers all over everything and he drew a picture to insert into his binder.  We packed his lunch and were all set for school when he threw me for a surprise loop.  He asked (for the very first time ever) to take a shower.  He was never interested before and I never really pushed it.  I would get annoyed at how crammed the bath tub was some nights and mention ‘you know Bradley you could start taking showers’.  All this talk was too soon and I like his timing better anyways.  The night before he entered into the first grade he stopped taking baths. 

Our big kid!

 

Walking into school with his friend Craig.

 

His desk in Mrs. Rallings class.  He sits with one of his very best buds Patrick and Ava.  He told me today that Ava announced to him that he was her boyfriend.  Well then.  I guess he doesn’t have a choice in the matter, the girl knows what she wants!

I decided to put Bradley on the bus coming home from school only.This way, I do not have to wake Gavin and Easton up from naps.  They both still take naps and I would like to keep it that way as long as they allow. We do not have the same carpool situation that we did last year so this was the next best thing for me. He was on cloud nine with excitement over this as you can see.  I wait outside for him and read a book and then walk across the street to get him.  The bus driver come from the direction that the door opens up to my neighbor across the street.  He is the second one off the bus so that makes it worth the route she takes but I hope I don’t run into my crazy neighbor too often. 

So far Bradley has been doing great and all his statements above stand true.  That is his work from last year and I look forward to seeing how much he grows this year. I don’t even know what month this was written (oops).  I have been scanning them into my computer and printing them on 3 x 4 cardstock and including them in my project life book.  This way it cuts down on all the paper piling up.  Bradley says his favorite thing about school is recess (really, how original?).  He also gets very enthusiastic when he has library days and brings home different books he has checked out.  So far this year he has done a lot of surveying in class.  His work he brought home said he was excited about starting first grade  and he is good at riding his bike.  He needs help with doing stunts (really, seems good to me when he jumps off all my furniture).  He wants to learn math in first grade and he likes math and to read sometimes.  He already has us cracking up at the things he writes on the first week.  He had to write cat, hat, rat bat, fat in a sentence and it went like this….

I saw a cat.

I wore a hat.

I saw a rat.

I saw a bat.

Some people are fat.

(True statement but it took me off guard to read it and how out of place it is compared to the other sentences)

Here is his first thing completed in the first grade.  He messed up on following the directions at the top but his awesome picture all but makes up for it don’t you think?  If he keeps making his hair like that I may have to style it like that to show him how silly it is.  He definitely does not take time to draw.  He does the required and nothing more. 

See, there is just so much things to enjoy about the first grade and he is off to a great start! I have not volunteered yet but plan to soon.  Patrick’s mom volunteered and told me to be easy on Bradley when he gets home from school.  Apparently first grade is a lot tougher than Kindergarten.  The teachers are also completely different from last year to this year.  There is less wiggle room to be yourself and possible act out (for a kid that’s tough to be proper all day).  There is also more straight through learning without breaks.  In spite of all this he continues to have a good attitude about school so we are very thankful for the student he is. 

Maryland Time

We headed to Maryland for the last weekend in July.  It was the annual family reunion time.  We went on Wednesday and the reunion wasn’t until Saturday so we had some time to hang out and see some more family.  Since Bradley is already in school we had to drive home on Sunday. 

On Thursday it was Livi’s Birthday.  She turned the milestone 4!  Auntie Em let her wear whatever she wanted and Jen and I took the kids to the park and to chic fil a for milkshakes to celebrate.

Later that afternoon the kids just played in the backyard.

Easton always with a dog by his side.

Looking at this picture I love that Bradley still has small teeth like Livi (when he doesn’t smile big you can’t see the missing bottom ones) .  That is going to make me said once the top ones fall out. Bradley has no shame in the Barbie car driving around his girls.

The boys appreciated the redneck swimming pool.

On Thursday evening we went to Mr.. Lee’s place.  It’s always fun to spend time with Dad Lee.  From time to time I do a poor job of it but I never want to forget my child hood and I try to still incorporate family then into my family now.

 

He and the boys shot some rocket bungees into the air.

Jumped on the trampoline.  One at a time.  That rule definitely wasn’t around when we were younger and jumping with no nets.

On Friday morning I got to keep Live for Jen to go to a hair appointment.  We hung out with GrandPop at Target and the park.

 

 

On Friday evening we drove to the middle of nowhere Southern Maryland to see my friend Shannon, her daughter Ava and meet her new husband Tim. It is horrible of me that we just talked forever and I took no pictures.  Then on Saturday we went to our family reunion. Always a blast!

 

Always great food! Easton was literally ripping into a yummy hot dog.

 

Easton with his cousin Nicholas.  They are only a week apart.

Bradley and Jackson. 

Livi being the doll baby she is. 

The smaller kids had a slip and slide so I wouldn’t have to worry about them in the deep water.

Gavin and Livi loved this thing.  The took turns for an hour straight sliding down.

When I was taking the pictures I caught the conversation too. Those are some of the best memories.

Gavin: Livi, now, watch me go down, it is going to be so cool! Ok, you better watch me!

This is her watching him! Proof she listens.  Then he got out and said to her, “You didn’t clap!” She replied, “ I said it was awesome.”

It was hilarious to see this little conversation between these two like there was no one else in the world and they were little adults.

Aunt Darlene and Easty having a moment.  Aunt Dar is mommy’s favorite aunt, she was the cool Aunt you have that let’s you get away with fun stuff that your mom doesn’t let you do. We love her!

    

After the first round of food we had more, a crab feast!

   

Here are the boys saying bye to Great great Aunt Ruth and Great Grandma, G.G.  I was bummed that grandma left so early.  It is a sign that her age is getting to her and I don’t like that. We had a wonderful time in Maryland.  Until the next reunion.