Kindergarten

My babies are growing up! Spencer started Kindergarten this week. He is on year-round school, so he starts in July. He will be off for three weeks in September, though, so that will be nice. Life is different around here now! Carson was one of several little brothers who were bawling as they were dragged back home by their mothers on the first day of school. It's hard to be left behind (for both of us)!

Here he is, ready to go! I didn't get many details about school, but he seems to enjoy it. He came home with a Fruit Loop necklace on. He talked to Grandma S. on the phone today about school. She must have asked if his teacher was smart because he said, "Smarter than you!" (Sorry about that, Grandma--he didn't mean it!) He is learning to read now, and just the other day read seven little stories out of "Dick and Jane." He didn't need much help, either!

The library had some fun summer activities this year. They made these bird hats at one of them. They love to do everything together. Today they were pretending to be space men. Spencer brought a large diaper box upstairs to use as a space ship, so I had to get out a laundry basket for Carson. Then they landed on the moon and were jumping around like moon walkers. That was entertaining (for me)!

Carson thinks it is way fun to get in Spencer's bed with him. I can't imagine what will happen if/when they share a room!

Lots of giggling and "jiffling" as we call it in my family. Jiffling is our word for goofing off and messing with each other until the parents go crazy.

How's that scalp looking??

Fun in the Sun (And the Water)

Summer has been so fun this year. The boys have had a great time outside riding their bikes, playing with neighborhood kids, and splashing around in their new pool. The following are some of their fun times....

Last year Carson bawled when I put him in the pool, but this year he's into it. It's like a double bath night...outside!!

And there's even plenty of space to play!

Luckily Carson doesn't mind a little splashing!

Baby Speedo

Spencer spent the entire month of June in swimming lessons. He is doing pretty well, but he is like his mother and hates putting his face in the water. He also performs better for the swimming teachers than for his parents. We're doing another class in September. Wish us luck!

Waiting for class to start. Spencer was the only boy in his class!

On the last day, they let the kids play for the last 10 minutes. I had to beg Spencer to go down the slide so I could take his picture!

It's no big deal in the backyard, though.

Mr. Hollywood, on the telephone as usual. I think he has his pirate's skullcap on and that's why you can't see his hair.

Our Baby

Here are a bunch of pics of my littlest guy taken this summer. He is growing up so quickly and learning a lot all the time. He is finally using more words. Some of my recent favorites are "'Lijah" (Elijah), "dut" (dirt), and of course his father, who is sometimes "Dada" but most often "An' " or "An'y." We really have made a concerted effort to use "Daddy" around the kids, but for some reason Carson prefers to call his father by his first name. Whenever he hears the garage door open, he says "An'y hooooomme!" He still can't say Spencer's name, but he has no trouble with his favorite Old Testament prophet.

They may be on a first-name basis, but Carson loves his "An'y!"

Watching Spencer at swimming lessons

At a family reunion at my parents' house.

My uncle rode his motorcycle to the reunion and Carson was awed.

He and cousin Maren did lots of inspecting. When I went for a ride on it, Carson thought I was never coming back. It was heartbreaking (for both of us)!

He LOVES to be outside and will start yelling "Ouf! Ouf!" when he sees someone else go "out." He can go down the slide all by himself and enjoys playing in the sandbox or digging in the garden. Next year we'll teach him how to weed and our time working in the yard will be minimal!
Wheeee! What a rush! It's amazing what 3 feet of slope will do for a 2-year-old!

Curious George is his favorite character currently. After all, he is a monkey and monkeys are the ultimate. He calls them "ha-ha's," not to be confused with alligators, which are "ah-ah's."

As difficult as eating with a large monkey in one arm may be, you must never, never put him down!

Especially not when you're watching a show about him!

Mini Vacation

I may have mentioned (or maybe I didn't) that instead of doing one big vacation this summer, we decided to have several small trips, mostly just during the day. Over this last weekend, we went up to Logan, about an hour north of our house. We did spend the night there, just because we had to work around naptime and there were lots of places we wanted to visit. Also, the kids think it's fun to sleep in a hotel and go swimming. We had a great time! I recommend it to all!

First we went to the American West Heritage Center. We learned what it was like to be an Indian (Shoshone) and live in a teepee. There were actual natives on site, but they weren't very lively. Andy is pretty good at throwing a tomahawk, but I'm lousy.

Next we visited the mountain man. We learned about trapping and the fur trade. Here is Spencer modeling a real bear skin.

Then the boys got a pony ride. Carson's helmet was bit large, so I don't know if he could see anything, but at least he could feel the pony and he seemed to enjoy the experience anyway. (We'll have another pony ride at the county fair in a few weeks.)

Spencer is a seasoned horseman. He leans back and relaxes in the saddle.

Here I am with "Patch" at the woodwright shop. He is demonstrating his giant fingernail file on me. He had some lovely wood sculptures he had made. He's a funny old geezer, just the kind you like to hang out with. He is a happy man who loves his hobby.

Andy practiced his lasso-ing skills, too, but he wasn't so great at that. I guess he won't be a frontiersman any time soon. Spencer had fun riding on the wooden horse anyway. We also "panned for gold" and found a beautiful gem, strangely similar to a shiny marble. The sign said we could take one home if we found something. We visited the pioneer women in their dugouts. They were hot in their long sleeves and brooches and made special mention of how they had just finished "sweeping" the floor. We didn't hang around them too long.

After a scrumptious meal at The Beehive Grill (also highly recommended), we tried out the pool in our Super 8. We were the only ones interested that night, so we had it all to ourselves. That's good, because after I saw the pictures of myself in the pool I was glad no one else saw me!

This one was the least of the uglies, probably because I have my back turned. Yikes! Time for a more regular exercise routine. It's fun holding Carson in the pool because he is so lightweight! I can carry him for hours like this. It feels cute when he hangs on to me like this too! You may notice that his hair is much shorter. We had the hair stylist use the clippers this time and he looks so different! He has a little boy haircut now. I kind of miss his little baby curls, but I know his head is a lot cooler this way!

Trying out the motel crib. As expected, there wasn't a lot of sleeping that night, but at least it was only ONE night! The boys had their own room, and there was a lot of giggling at first. I can only imagine what might happen when they share a room at home someday!

The next morning, we went to Willow Park. It's a great place for kids. They have a mini-zoo there. I read something that said they have 100 species of birds and 12 different mammals there. Carson loved the monkeys, of course.

They also loved the ducks! It's hard to see here, but there was a cute, little, young duck that came right up to the fence and "visited" the boys for a long time.

Carson could have squatted like this and watched the tortoise for many hours. Mommies can't squat that long, though, so we had to tell him goodbye.

It was a perfect time to go to the park. It was early enough in the morning that the temperature was pleasant, the animals were active, and there were hardly any kids there!

Carson loved the swing. I wish we had bigger swings like this at home.

Fourth of July

We had a great Fourth of July and hope all our favorite people did, too! Here is some documentation of our experiences.

We enjoyed our parade a week early. Syracuse has their "Heritage Days" celebration and parade the week before, so we took advantage of the pleasant weather and watched the parade that day. Carson already had his "wave" down long beforehand.

When he wasn't waving, he was being polite.

They're pretty cool dudes in their glasses. We had a good time and hauled a loot home. If you've never watched a parade with Andy, you're really missing out on the spirit of the experience. EVERY vehicle or float that went by got a hoot and a holler out of him. "WE LOVE ___!!" And then the candy would shower down on us. He really knows how to draw attention! Our children are going to grow up thinking that's normal.... Well, they've already been misled about a lot of things like that.

So the morning of the big day, we went out for breakfast. That's not usually something I'm inclined to do, but it was pretty good. Then we all went for a bike ride. The weather was perfect, and I have a bike now! Andy bought me this one for $67 for our anniversary. Now I can hitch Carson to the back and off we go!

This is how we look cruising around the neighborhood. The first night I tried out the bike, my legs were SO sore!! I was worried about trying to pull my chunky little Carson, too! Then I learned that if I don't try to go fast all the time, I do much better.

Here's Carson in his Mommy-drawn carriage. He seems to like it back there. How bad can it be to be pulled around and watch the scenery go by??

Spencer didn't have time to put on his performing face for this one....

That night we had our own "fireworks" at home, since the boys just needed to get to bed. Spencer got up early and wouldn't take a nap. We also have church in the morning, so I didn't want them up late. Our kids may grow up not knowing there are "real" fireworks out there! (Just kidding, one of these days we'll take them, but it hasn't been worth the repercussions yet.)

A little entertainment from the audience first....

Wow! Carson had never seen such things before! Daddy's lighting stuff on fire and watching it explode! And Mom's okay with this?? Cool!

Spencer really gets into it, of course!