Fire Station field trip...

Last week I asked Auntie Mick to watch Lucius while I took Oliver into school for a field trip to the fire station. We had to wait for a few kids to arrive but then it was out the front door on a two block walk to the local Fire house. It was actually really fun. The firefighters were a blast and very entertaining.

 

Oliver's whole class got to walk through the back of the fire truck. Then each and every one of them got the chance to spray the fire hose. Even his teacher and this here Marmee got to try as well. Super fun!

 

What a special morning.

quotable: Remember you

Oliver was snuggling with me on a day that I was having a "rough day". And he randomly said:

" I love you SOOOO much. I'm going to remember you the whole time I'm grown up, I love you so."

Melts my heart.

Singing...

The boys have been singing a LOT lately. There's been whole days that I've felt like I was living in an opera, singing whatever they're doing. I love it, it's entertaining and lovely to my ears.

Here's a few videos of them singing, sometimes together, sometimes by themselves.

Tin Can Phones...

We've been playing with the neighbor boys pretty much daily all summer long. It's been a lot of fun for the boys but it's also been entertaining for the adults as well. We've had quite a few interesting, fun, and delightful conversations ranging from parenting, our backgrounds, and starting kindergarten. One such conversation we were reminiscing and talked of tin can phones. I mentioned I had the string and the neighbor started collecting the cans.

Just a couple nights later she brought me the cans and said it was time to make phones.  We gathered all our materials and put them all together. I used a washer inside the can to keep the string from pulling out of the can. Good thing I did, as the phones got pulled pretty hard between our fort and theirs.

 

I don't know who had more fun, the kids or their two geeky silly parents. 

Simple Pleasures: Misc

After finding that ladder in the garage, we've been sitting in the big front tree more often. The other day I wanted a turn and sat in the tree for sometime snuggling with each of my boys in my lap.

Lucius and I were waiting for Oliver to come home on the bus and it started to rain. It was just a brief sprinkle of rain so we made footprints all up and down the driveway. Here's his foot print next to mine.

We love boxes around these parts and this skinny box has been well loved. Oliver found it and crawled in shouting "look Marmee, I fit! I can fit inside!" It was so skinny I had to stand him up and take his picture. Silly guy.

Speaking of boxes... I got a message from my Uncle John that he had a sofa box and wondered if we'd like it to play in. My response was "yes PLEASE!". He was so nice and even drove it over for us. Right away the boys were inside the box having a grand old time. They had been across the street meeting new friends, a couple of neighbors who are 11 and 13 years old. They all came running over when the box was delivered. Boxes are fun for all ages. They spent the rest of the afternoon playing and reading in the giant box.

Best part (besides getting a chance to visit with my aunt and uncle) was they included a new roll of tape for repairs in their delivery. They're so smart- we made several fixes that afternoon.

Eight years and counting...

Eight years ago today I was preparing to marry the man who shared my heart. I had no doubts or fears, I was more than certain we were meant to be together...for always.

On that day, gathered with our friends and relations, we celebrated and said "I do".

I'm not going to lie, there have been rough patches. Not everything turned out according to our hopes and dreams, but other things seems to have surpassed expectations. We might not have had a lot of things go "right" but we've been (for the most part) happy.

Blessed with two terrific boys, a roof over our heads...

AND every day Jerimy says those three precious words : "I love you". Every Single Day!

Jerimy, happy anniversary! I still love you with all my heart. I hope we find even more joy together and our dreams actually become reality in the coming years.

letters...

When I asked Oliver what he wanted to learn in Kindergarten this year his answer was "to spell". I don't know that they work too hard on spelling in class, more on letter recognition. So I told him we could work on it at home with special spelling time. He's already spelling on his own, sounding words out, I just helpped by encouraging his zest for learning.

One day we had special spelling time on the driveway with chalk. He wrote a whole lot of names and words. I said one letter at a time and he wrote them all out. At the end he wanted to write his name but it had to say "by Oliver". Awesome.

He still spells his name by saying out loud "O...L...'i' with a dot on top...V...E...R". I believe when he first start writing his name I'd help him and said it that way a few times.

Cousins...

We love our cousins and its wonderful to have most of them living so close.

We've had the pleasure of watching Max and Casen a few times for Auntie Mick while she works. Oliver and Lucius fawn over their baby cousin. Now that Max is on solid foods, they both wanted a turn to feed him. Lucius helped Max eat his cheerios and then Oliver patiently fed him a whole jar of baby food. They're so adorable and kind.

On other occasions Brianna and Carl come visiting. Lucius and Brianna are as thick as thieves and its so cute to see them play, to listen to them talk to each other.

In case you can't hear what they're saying, here's what I heard:

Brianna: "Hold my flower" (Lucius throws flower on the ground) B: "No, no, that's my pwretty flower"

Falling asleep...

One afternoon Lucius was fussing and whining to me about something. I can't remember what he wanted but I told him to ask me without all the complaining. I walked away, busying myself with yard work. I went back to the spot I left Lucius and he'd fallen asleep in my chair. He must have been pretty tired, he doesn't crash too often anymore. I let him have his little cat nap, seeing as he was so cute, but eventually had to wake him up since it was just before dinner.

Here's another random sleeping photo of my little one. I can't resist snapping a picture of him when he's so peaceful. And I just love those little chubby fingers.

Reading...

One of our families most favorite activities is reading. It's been such a splendid summer that we've enjoyed reading outside several times. Instead of staying indoors to have our "quiet reading time" (in place of naps) we would gather a tall stack of books to take outdoors to read.

One day I found a ladder in the rafters of the garage, so we made a little cozy tree fort to read in. Reading can take us on so many adventures in our own imaginations, its fun sometimes to have an adventure while reading! 

The boys had a blast finding new places under the sun to read and I was thrilled to share in their excitement/ love of books. Selfishly it also gave me a chance to read in the great outdoors as well.

Quotable: Bad Guy

The boys were talking to me one morning. I was still in bed being lazy, not quite awake. Lucius got on the subject of his future house.

Lucius said:  "I'm gonna build my house out of wood and then paint it black and white with a red door"

Oliver excitedly jumped in with: "no, no, no Lucius...You can't paint your house white and black cause when the police drive by they'll think you're a bad guy. Cause bad guys favorite colors are black and white and grey."

the garden...

I have really enjoyed having a garden. Lucius doesn't like the work, but checks on the plants every once in a while. Oliver, though, has been my right hand man checking it and keeping us all informed on it's progress. We look at it most mornings and collect whats ready that day. We've had an amazing harvest of veggies so far this year and it just keeps producing more. So much fun. Plus some days we get so much we love sharing with our neighbors. Cucumbers, zucchini, tomatoes, tomatoes and more tomatoes!

Last week, Oliver helped me harvest our first ever Cauliflower. Pretty exciting stuff. We planted the "cheddar" variety and it was mighty tasty with that night's dinner!

We've got some Spinach also growing in the garden. The boys both like to pick a leaf off when we're playing in the backyard to eat it. Not sure that they love it or just that I actually gave them permission to eat a "leaf" thats got them excited about spinach.

Oliver's art...

I found this drawing that Oliver had made early one morning. He told me it was one of the "Incredibles" super heros. It's fun to see his artwork evolve.