Meetin' and walkin'

Karsten had back to school night tonight where he got to meet his new teacher and see his new classroom.  Since he went to his school last year and has been there for the summer program, he's met the teacher and seen the room, but he doesn't know her well.

Since he's technically old enough to go to Kindergarten, we had a debate several months ago about sending him to Kindergarten or giving him another year before school and sending him to Pre-K.  We opted for Pre-K and I'm 100% confident that we made the right decision.  His teachers seem great and I think he is going to learn and grow a lot this year.  I had intended to take a picture of him with his teachers, but that didn't work out, so I'll have to get one another day.


It was so nice outside tonight that we decided to go for a walk.  Karsten rode his bike but when we were on our way back, he couldn't make it up the hill.  Halfway up the hill, Liam decided he wanted to ride the bike.  Since he can barely reach the pedals, this meant that Scott got an extra workout coming up the hill.


Karsten decided he would walk next to Liam....in case he got scared or needed help.


Working hard and almost up the hill - I thought the sun flare was cool.
 

Karsten told Scott that he was the fastest, so they had to race to see who could make it to the top of the driveway first.  Karsten is pretty quick, but I think Scott still beat him by a hair!
 

Wordless Wednesday - Watching Reflection

Another Tooth Fairy Visit

Karsten has been wiggling his second loose tooth since the day after he lost his first tooth.  It's gotten so loose that we convinced him tonight to let us try to pull it out. Scott was ready to give up and try another night when he gave it one last tug and out came the tooth.

I have a feeling Karsten may be disappointed in the morning when he checks out what the Tooth Fairy brings.  The first time she visited our house, she left a toy AND a dollar since it was the first lost tooth. We tried to explain that it was a one time thing, but he didn't believe me.

Rock Jars

A while back we started rock jars - the boys get a rock when they do something above and beyond the norms or if they've been especially good that day.  Sound subjective? Yup, totally is.  But, it's helped us immensly in the mornings when we often have challenges about putting on sunscreen or getting things done so we can leave on time.

The rock jars are almost full.  Karsten has decided that we'll be going miniature golfing when his jar is full.

Movie night!

It was so hot outside, we decided it was a perfect evening for a movie night.  We watched Turbo and had popcorn.  Karsten loved the movie, but Liam didn't want to sit and watch the whole time so he played trains while he watched the movie. It was a fun evening - I think we need to start a movie night tradition!

Wordless Wednesday - Not getting past me!

Sprinkler Fun

It's been pretty hot this week, so when we were outside checking the garden after dinner, the boys thought it would be fun to play in the sprinkler that was watering the yard.  We pulled it up into an area where they wouldn't run into a tree, and let them have fun!


They took a brief break from playing ball in the sprinkler (thanks Gaga for the ball and catching thing) to check out the worms that Scott was pulling off the kale plants.  We thought we had gotten rid of all the caterpillars but I guess there were some in the dirt that have hatched.  GRRR.


Aww, sweet Liam!


He is far more daring that Karsten was - he thought it would be a good idea to run along the rocks.  Wet feet and slippery rocks sound like a bad combination to me.




The boys tried to catch the sprinkler, so Scott thought it would be funny to fold the hose and let them try to check out the sprinker when the water stopped.


Then he let go of the hose and they shrieked as they ran away getting soaked.  They quickly headed back for more...


It was fun over and over again...










Then Karsten wanted to try stopping the water and spraying Liam.  This was Liam saying 'YAYA, water NOW!'


With a little help from Scott, Liam got his turn as well.


I thought I could get a few pictures of the boys dripping wet before we headed inside, but Liam had other ideas.  He has the funniest expressions and knows how to work those eyes for maximum impact.


I totally lucked into this picture - we were playing a game where he tried to get as close to my camera as he could.  I happened to snap at the right moment as he backed away.  YAY!

Farmer's Market

I'm really not sure where this summer went - I can't believe it's late July already.  Typically, we've been to the Farmer's Market several times by now, but with our garden and a bi-weekly Door to Door Organics order, we haven't needed a lot of extra produce.

We headed down today for a few things - most importantly, peaches!  We like to sample the peaches before we buy them and typically they have peaches cut up and you can take one with a toothpick.  At this booth, they didn't cut them up, they just handed you a 'second' (aka slightly bruised) peach to sample.  As soon as he handed it to me, Liam said 'MEEEE, me peach!' and grabbed it.  I managed to sneak a bite to determine that these were good peaches!


Scott and Karsten weren't so lucky - by the time they got back from the restroom, Liam had mostly finished the peach.


The boys were good while we were shopping, so we stopped at the balloon guy on our way out.  Karsten wanted a transformer, but he said the transformer would take a bit too long to make, so we settled for two tigers - one mean and one nice.


Do you see the difference between the mean tiger and the nice tiger?  No?  Me either - but the boys are convinced they're different, and as long as they're happy, so am I?
 

We ended our morning at the market with a stop at Ponak's for lunch. We rediscovered Ponak's recently on Karsten's special day, and ever since then I have been craving their Sonora Tacos.  Mexican is the ideal food when dining out with kids - it usually arrives quickly and they enjoy munching on chips while we wait.

Swimming

Everyone is done with swimming lessons for the summer, and while they enjoy being in the water, I'm not sure they're quite where they should be for their age level.  We just aren't around the water too much - we aren't lake people and we don't get to the neighborhood pool as often as we probably should.

They're super comfortable when they have their life jackets on, we just need to work on their comfort level and swimming skills without the life jackets.  I'm not much help in this area since I can't swim and prefer to stay where I can touch the bottom of the pool - not exactly setting a good example!


Liam has a mean doggie paddle when he has his life jacket on - it looks like he is riding a bicycle under water.  I bet his legs are tired!


Enjoying a sucker and some people watching after getting out of the pool.
 

This was at Liam's last swim lesson - they brought out this super cool floating mat.  He had a great time riding it around the lazy river.

Swords

Apparently, when you have sword fights, your outfit is not complete unless you have gloves on.  Or, in Liam's case, unless you have socks on your hands. LOL.

Itchy words

Scott was telling me about some older kids climbing on the top of the playground equipment while he and Karsten were at the park.  He said the kids kept moving to be right over where kids like Karsten were playing on the ground.  Finally, Scott used his teacher voice and told the older kids that it wasn't a good idea and they should find somewhere else to play.

I said that I needed to learn how to say things like that nicely, because if I had told the older kids to move along like Scott did, it would have come out quite 'witchy'.

Karsten was listening to this conversation and right after I said 'witchy', Karsten asked why I had itchy words.  HAHAHAHA - hilarious.  When we burst into laughter, Karsten thought he was pretty funny so he kept asking about my itchy words.

Wordless Wednesday - Superheros

13 years

13 years ago, we were walking down the aisle to become Mr and Mrs to begin a wonderful adventure together.  I've enjoyed every moment of the last 13 years and can't wait for all of the memories we're going to make together in the future.

Look how young we look!  I also love looking at the people in the background.  The little girl in the white dress is Scott's cousin who is now in college.


We had a great anniversary celebration all together at home. We had agreed on no gifts, but I was so excited when I got home and saw these beauties waiting for me!


Scott made a delicious dinner - salmon cakes and farro salad with asparagus.  YUM!


We had Karsten take a picture of us, but it ended up a bit too blurry, so we took a selfie to commemorate our anniversary celebration.