hot summer days

This summer has flown by and I haven't posted in months! Wow. There is a back log of pictures so we will see how much of the summer actually makes it on to this blog. 

Before the water ban in July and before our grass turned completely brown! It is now back to green. 

Popsicles are quite the summertime hit at our house.

Many fun hours were spent on this new playset outside!

Noah enjoying a book with his cousin Elijah.

Isaac enjoyed some coloring time with his cousin Benjamin

Noah & Isaac's favorite friends, kids of our friends from life group

I  might have helped them make a water slide....

More pictures soon!

summer cookout at Sarah's

 

mother's day (a little late!)

Every year I want to capture a photo of me and the boys around Mother's Day. As difficult as taking pictures of these boys smiling and looking can be at times, I think it will be fun to see how we all change from year to year.

Self timer does a pretty good job!

Noah, before his super short (accidental) haircut.  

Cute little boys. They are so busy and so active but I love them so much!

summer fun in the pool

This is our third summer living in our very kid-friendly neighborhood. One of the many perks is having access to a neighborhood pool. The boys love jumping in and playing in the water, so we have taken several trips there already.

Isaac is pretty fearless.

Noah likes the occasional comfort of the side of the pool and the steps, but he has his very adventurous moments too. He puts his face in the water and tries very hard to swim unaided. He does well with his arms but he needs to work on kicking his feet a little more.

Splash, Isaac jumped in the water! Hopefully someone caught him! (He has jumped in several times with no one waiting to catch him...a scary thought for any mom!)

Noah is going for a belly flop?

Isaac is holding a tennis ball. The boys love to throw the ball a few feet away and then swim to it.

Taking the leap to Aunt Christine

Swimming in the evenings or on weekends is the best because Daddy can join us. Daddy loves to let the boys ride around on his back or shoulders and swim across the pool together. Other times, if I am the only one to take them to the pool, the boys are wearing life jackets. 

Noah says he wants to be on a swim team. We will see how he does with swimming in our pool this summer, but I think he could possibly get there. 

The new backyard playset, DIY style

Playsets cost anywhere from $300 to $20,000. Guessing the average new set would be between $500-1000. Yes. Seriously. What we do for our kids.

Anyway, not in the budget for us. I posted on our neighborhood Facebook group if anyone wanted to get rid of one. Someone answered and said we could have theirs for free since it needed a lot of work!

She turned out to be a neighbor who lives only 4 houses north of us. 

Jason was not sure it was worth anything when he first saw the damaged boards and the rusted screws, but he consented to work on it. 

He proceeded to spend hours upon hours in the evenings taking the pieces apart and stacking them in our garage, going to Lowe's, buying tools and stain, sanding the wood, reattaching the pieces, staining the wood and installing new hardware. 

After many, many hours of hard work, the playset looks like new! We were both very impressed with the quality playset it is now!

The boys wanted to help every step of the way as Jason worked on this project. 

The finished product

The new playset is now in action!

All in a Day's Work

Here are some bits and pieces of our week so far.


Isaac dumped several cups of water on the carpet in the living room. Noah scolded him. =) Mommy cleaned it up.


Isaac has woken from his naps several days now completely naked. Yes. We have an in house stripper??? More laundry from wet sheets...


Both boys put sand in the water in the backyard swimming pool. Then Isaac dropped his popsicle on the ground and "rinsed" it in the "clean" pool water. Then they took buckets of sand/pool water to dump down the slide to make a water slide. At least the water slide was pretty cool.


Isaac lost my car keys when we were leaving to meet a friend. A few search-filled minutes later, we found them. At least they were not gone for days like the last time!


I managed to vacuum under and behind the couches since I hadn't done that in a couple of months. The toys and bits of paper under the couch were expected. But the oreo cookie and muffin paper under the couch were signs of someone's sneaky eating. Then I found not one, not two, but three used Pull-ups behind the couch! And one of Noah's dirty underwear. Yuck!


Isaac colored on the wall with a pencil. Noah colored on the kitchen floor & back door with a blue sharpie. Grandma Judy worked on cleaning that one up for a while. However, both scribbles are still decorating our home. Maybe I will just leave them?


Isaac trampled some flowers/landscaping at the splash park. Noah just picked them! Ahh! Who is the mother of these children?!


Oh, and Noah didn't want to play in his classroom at church on Sunday. So Jason got a call because he was hitting kids at church. Why? He told the teacher if he hit other kids he just could go home!


Oh these boys are quite adventurous and quite destructive. No wonder I go to bed exhausted...


Growing up, my mom used to tell us, "If you don't laugh, you'll cry!" I so understand the truth of that now...


It is a good thing they are so cute!

strawberries

It is strawberry time! 

As we did last year, we went strawberry picking at a local farm. I took the boys and we met up with three other moms and their kids. I like getting together with other kids and moms for playdates, and it is nice to mix it up since we usually meet up at a park or in someone's home.

Noah and Isaac were very interested at first.

This is one of Noah and Isaac's friends from church and from Bible study.

They weren't really interested in putting them in our box....just eating them! 

Oh Isaac. 

Despite the boys' lack of real "help" picking strawberries, I managed to pick several pounds of berries for freezer jam.

Oh the difficulty of photographing two boys. 

Look at the camera!?!

Smile, Noah! Look, Isaac!

Don't blink!

Put your hands down, Noah!!!!

And THAT is why we don't have a nice picture from strawberry picking! =)