Poor Lucius got staples...

Lucius was playing outside this evening with his brother. Oliver came in and said Lucius wanted us to come outside to see something really cool. By the time we got outside to see what was going on, he was already in tears. Turns out Jerimy started looking for blood, which is always his first reaction, and there was drops of it dripping from the back of his head.

Lucius had fallen off our tree swing and had a deep gash in the back of his head from hitting a large rock. He had taken a stick and put it into the rope of our tree swing to make a handle. Unfortunately, the stick broke while he was swinging and holding on. When it broke he went backwards off the swing and crashed his head into a rock. Poor guy was terrified of getting stitches after Jerimy mentioned it needed them. Daddy and Lucius jumped into the car and raced off to urgent care while I stayed with Oliver to get him ready for bed. 

Two hours and two staples later they were both back home. Poor guy. Daddy snapped this photo of him waiting for the doctor to come take a look at it.

Poor guy. He had the staples in for 10 days and had them removed on Oct. 10th. First major injury wasn't so terrible.

Simple pleasures: pokemon

They boys have both totally been into Pokemon this summer. When we stopped by Target one evening they just had to take a picture with the giant poke ball.

First Day of School...

The first day of school 2016! Oliver is starting 3rd grade and Lucius is in first grade this year. How the time is flying by.

Look at all our first day of school pictures here to see how they have grown. WOW.

Last week of summer...

We were able to squeeze in a bunch of stuff before school started. Our last couple weekends and last full week of no school was pretty fun. I will miss hanging out all day with my two little misters!

We took our cousins to Toys R Us to a lego build one saturday.

On Sunday, Great Aunt Melanie brought her new bunny to play with Oliver.  Oliver was in love at first sight.

We somehow managed to make it to the library.

Daddy has been teaching the boys how to paint miniatures like he does. They are both loving it, Oliver is really focused on the details.

Friday evening I wanted to start a fire and have an outdoor movie night. The neighbors had nothing else going on and came over to join us.

We dug up the rest of the potatoes from the garden and happened to find not one, but TWO frogs buried in the dirt.

Oliver has been really interested in cooking lately. We've been watching master chef as a family and he REALLY wanted to make bacon wrapped asparagus (he saw it on a commercial) and mashed potatoes "his way" (which was to leave the skins on). He absolutely wanted to use potatoes from our garden. So we invited Oma down to eat his yummy cooking.

The Sunday before labor day we scheduled our annual "glow ride" with the neighbors. They had a friend staying with them so we had one extra. The neighbors made pizza for dinner and we provided the glow sticks to decorate the bikes.

Once it gets dark (around 8pm) we lined up and rode around the block. Actually, the kids ride and the parents walk.

On Labor Day the boys went across the street to make a nature fort around a tree.

Then later in the day we went back to the Central Park playground in Maple grove.

At one point (I think this was the evening after the first day of school)- I caught the boys reading together. It was adorable!

MN Zoo trip...

During our last week of summer I asked the boys what was one thing they really wanted to do before school starts. They both were determined to go to the MN Zoo. So one Wednesday morning we dropped Daddy off at work and drove down to Apple Valley for a whole day adventure. On the way down to the zoo Oliver told me "This is going to be EPIC!".

We got there only a little after they opened and headed start for the grizzly coast to see the bears. I know they are really active in the mornings. We were not disappointed. Of course, the boys didn't want to watch the bears trying to catch fish but I made them stay a little bit for me to watch.

We walked around seeing the animals.

Then we found the amazing new natural playground the zoo put in near the farm. It was huge and REALLY fun. I wish they made more playgrounds like this one.

 

After a snack, we headed to the farm to feed goats, watch a cow being milked and see a few bunnies. 

Oliver had seen that there was only a few days left to see the dinosaur exhibit at the Zoo. I wondered if it was really worth the five extra dollars per person to go see them.  Since I wasn't feeling crazy about it, and another mom I stopped coming out of it wasn't too impressed, I only spent $10 and sent them in to see the dinosaurs. They took my phone (eek) to take pictures with. They both came out safe and sound and excited to have seen so many dinosaurs. So I suppose it was worth $10, maybe.

Then it was onto the aquariums!  One of my favorite places at the Zoo.

Just before we had to leave we were by the butterfly room. I figured we could finish our trip with one last, quick walk through. Oliver caught a butterfly (even though he wasn't supposed to touch them).

All in all we had a great day and it was fun to share one last adventure together before the start of school.