Milestones

Spencer turned 10!  My little boy is growing up.  It doesn't seem like a decade since he was the length of my forearm. 

I told him he could have a friend party, and since he's Mr. Popularity, he had a hard time narrowing down the list.  We decided to have just neighborhood friends this time, so here's the group.  They went to a trampoline park, which is basically a warehouse with wall-to-wall trampolines.  It's a perfect activity for a bunch of energetic boys!

Ten candles on a lemonade cake.  He probably wished for LSU to have a better season than last year.

No, he's not flipping you off, Carson lost his first tooth!  He was eating lunch at school--a chicken sandwich.  He eats a chicken sandwich nearly every day because he says he can't find anything else.  Gone are the days when the lunch ladies plopped a scoop of mashed potatoes on your tray for you.  Now the kids have to serve themselves.  That can be a problem for first-grade boys.  Anyway, he said he finished his lunch and got in line to go back to class when he realized his tooth was gone! 

He was worried about not having the tooth as proof for the Tooth Fairy, so I suggested he write a note of explanation.  It says, "Dear Tooth Fairy, I swallowed my tooth at lunch.  From, Carson."  The handwriting was so cute I had to take a picture of it.  She got the message--the next morning he had a dollar in his tooth fairy pillow!

Parker Pictures

Parker continues to grow and change and surprise all of us.  This is just a sampling of his daily activities.

He enjoys "coloring," and as seen here, he is very intent on his work.  He recently learned to count out loud.  He decided to count his fingers in church and said loudly, "DOO!  WEE!"  (That's "two" and "three" to the rest of us.) 

He's a pro with the iPad and we have to be very careful to disable the Internet access before letting him play with it.  He takes lots of pictures of himself and even listened to an audio book of "Dracula" a couple of times.  It wasn't the abridged version, either.

You can see he has a bandaid on his knee.  That's been a constant all summer.  He LOVES to go for walks.  He's at the stage now when he stops to look at every rock and clod of dirt and ask, "Mama, this?"  That means "What is this?" as if he didn't already know!

I wanted these pictures side by side, but I'm not technologically advanced enough to do it.  This picture was taken about five years ago.

And here's the current version!  Cute little guys.  They change so fast!

This is a grocery cart.  I happened to have my camera in my purse, so I captured the moment.  They get lots of attention from other shoppers (especially older folks) when they're driving like this.

Parker's first popsicle!  He's a big fan!

Shucks!  What a cute little cowboy!

Back to School

Kids started school July 25!  This summer has been so hot, I don't mind sending them back so early.  We might as well have our break when it's pleasant to go outside!

Carson is in first grade!  He has a morning teacher for reading and writing, and an afternoon teacher for math and art.  He is very reserved, but has already been labeled "a strong student."  I went in to help his class this week.  I was helping a small group of kids log in to the computer while Carson was in another group doing an art project.  When my group was settled, I went over to see how Carson was doing.  I was careful to be discreet and un-embarrassing, but before long he hissed, "Mom, you can go back to the computers now!"  It's already started!

Spencer is in fourth grade.  He's moving into "big kid" status now!  He was one of the first in his class to pass off his multiplication facts.  He is reading The Hardy Boys series and just bought a big stack of baseball cards.

And this is how a happy, contented mom looks when her children are at school and the baby is napping!

Summer Fun

We had a very brief (3-week) summer vacation.  We tried to party hard, but frankly, we just didn't have much time.

Spencer and Carson were invited to ride in the parade for Heritage Days.  It was hot, but they had fun.  Parker loved watching the fire trucks and horses go by.

Good times in the kiddie pool!

Parker looks beat up because he somehow tipped forward off his chair at the parade.  He hardly ever cries when he gets hurt.  He just points at the sidewalk and says, "Ow!"  He had a scraped knee almost all summer because as soon as it started to heal, he fell on it again!

Always a show-off!

This is what we do after the kids are all in bed.

 

 We went to see Monsters University.  Carson laughed the most! 

 Spencer and his friend next door decided to dress up as "old ladies."  They hobbled around with baseball bats for canes and talked as if they had no teeth.  Crazy boys!

Day to Day

Here's another snapshot of daily life in our household....

Parker is a techno baby.  He is quite skilled at using computers, iPads, etc.  He has "the swipe" down, and he does it with flair.  He has played with Andy's phone and changed the wallpaper to a picture of himself (zoomed in on his own face)!  We have to be sure to turn off the WiFi so he doesn't make purchases.

Lately he is using this grumpy face when he doesn't get his way.  The grumpier he is, the more the bottom lip sticks out.  He also tries to hide when he doesn't want to have his diaper or clothes changed.  He hurries (as only a toddler can) into the kitchen or laundry room and presses himself against a cabinet or the washer, as if he could melt right into it and not be seen.  It hasn't worked yet.

YEEEEE-HAAAAAWWW!!

 Yeah, like I said...Techno Baby.  He knows how to relax too!

 They weren't just tired, they were WOOPED!

Baseball baby--swing, batter, batter!

Carson likes to put on all this gear and go bug-catching.  The thing that looks like a gun is a bug vacuum.  He also has a special explorer vest and a microscope to examine the species. 

One day the boys were discussing cartwheels.  Carson wasn't sure what a cartwheel was at first, so Spencer described it.  Carson said, "Oh yeah, my entire class can do those, except me and the people who never tried!"  Makes sense.

Home Life

Just some random cute moments....

Parker looks cute in his towel.  He's even cuter when you can see how small he looks standing there!

What a happy thing for a parent to find in the morning--everyone reading quietly!  Rest assured, this doesn't happen every day!

Spencer has a fascination with attics, probably because of books about magical things happening in an attic.  So when Andy announced he was putting some baby stuff up there to store it, Spencer got excited.  I don't know if it met his expectations, but he can check it off his bucket list.

They snuggled up like this to watch a movie one night.  I think they'll always be best buds.

 Supposedly two heads are better than one, but I don't know about these two....

 Yep, probably up to no good!

 He's not quite as accomplished as Spencer yet, but he sure does practice a lot!

 Can't get enough sleeping baby pictures.

After we finished the boys' rooms downstairs, we converted their old room into a playroom.  Parker loves to sit at this table and play with cars.  Put a little music on or throw a brother in there with him, and he's a happy guy.

Disneyland Part 2

The next day, we explored the other side of the park, which is called "California Adventure."  This was my favorite.  It seemed more geared toward the younger children, although that's just the opposite of what people told me before we went. 

Each morning, the boys would hurry down the hall ahead of us.  When we got to the elevator, this is what we found....

That was before we saw the green army men from Toy Story!  Spencer volunteered to be one of their recruits. 

You can't tell, but most of this "street" is just a big mural.  Even when you're standing right there, it's hard to tell where reality ends and the illusion begins!

"Cars Land" was probably the most sought after part of Disneyland for us.  It's like walking into their favorite movie!  We took a tractor ride at Mater's Junkyard. 

Then we saw Lightning McQueen at the Cozy Cone Motel!  These characters are very real.  They talk and move with real facial expressions.  Pretty impressive!

White wall tires--only the best!

Who's that snazzy babe?  There was a HUGE line for this Cars ride, but Andy got us fast passes so we zipped to the front of the line.  Whew!

We got in these cars that look just like the ones in the movie.  There's another one right beside us so we can "race."  It was quite a ride!


So that's pretty much our trip in a very small nutshell.  I think we all had a great time, but it was nice to come home and get some sleep!