busy, busy, busy!

The end of summer has been busy!!  Here are some of the highlights from August...

 

 

A trip to Richmond Children's Museum with some good friends!  

 

Gary got to take some extra days off this month, it was GREAT!! He enjoyed 4 or 5 day weekends the entire month of August because of the huge amount of overtime he did in July! He also had 3 weeks off from his grad school classes, so we got to spend lots of time as a family. 

The boys have REALLY enjoyed swimming this summer... we made at least 3 or 4 trips to the pool almost every week!  Their biggest accomplishments over the last few weeks have been jumping in!  Alex can jump in by himself as long as someone is standing there to "catch him" (or pretend to because he really doesn't need it at all!)  And Nathan needs a little more real help being caught but also has taken the plunge to jump in!

 Here is a movie night (almost a weekly event and one of our favorite things to do on lazy weekends!)

One of several trips out for ice cream!  Nathan LOVES ice cream... he also loves getting cones but doesn't so much enjoy eating the cone ;)  He makes a huge mess, needless to say! 

A zoo visit with friends! 

A weekend of camping!! 

The boys had a blast!!

Gary introduced Alex to checkers one afternoon... it was a huge hit! 

Sweet sleepy boy... he was wiped out...

Catching rain drops as we packed up to head home...

We've also had a busy start to September... a visit from the in-laws and the start of soccer, kids choir, and preschool for Alex!  More on that later...

Bunk Beds

We've been talking about the idea of bunk beds for the boys for quite some time, and finally decided they were ready!  Alex starts preschool next month and we figured we should spread out all transitions a little bit.  We've also been talking about the fact that we need to take Nathan's beloved pacifiers away here soon at some point (I'm TERRIFIED of that day...) and potty training will be around the corner, so we needed to pick something to happen soon to avoid a million "new" things at once!  We went bunk bed shopping as a family the weekend before and the boys were SO excited about the thought of them!  We ended up ordering some online and they came in last weekend.  We spent the whole day Saturday getting their bunk beds up and furniture moved around. 

We started by taking apart Nathan's crib!  Nathan was a big helper :) 

Next came assembling the bunk beds!  The boys helped all day... I have to say, these boys are so blessed to have such a patient daddy!  They had their tool box, every toy tool imagineable, and enjoyed playing with the big box of screws too ;) 

The boys were just THRILLED with the result!  They requested a "superhero" room, so they have Spiderman sheets, Avengers comforters, and big Spidey pillows!  More on their "new room" to come (I had lots of fun redecorating!) 

At bedtime, Nathan still wasn't quite sure where he got to sleep... When we said to get in their beds, he double checked with us, "my BUNK bed?"  Too cute!  And his little smile tells how he felt about this whole transition...

I was a little anxious about Alex being on top, but he wasn't nervous about it at all...

So it took them a good while (1.5 - 2 hrs) the first few nights to fall asleep in their new beds (they were too busy talking and giggling) but they did great!  No one got out of bed or anything, and it went just as smoothly as when we moved Alex to a "big boy" bed 2 years ago!  It was really cute watching them come down together in the morning too, Nathan has been thrilled to be able to get in and out of his own bed and not have to wait for me to get him up :)  Most mornings they wait until they are both up and then play in their room or talk for a while before coming out.  (Nathan can't open the door by himself yet, it's a little hard and high, so if he gets up and Alex is still sleeping he'll yell for me).

Summer Fun!

July has been busy with regular day to day activities since getting back from vacation.  Gary's been super busy at work this month (he's accumulated over 40 hours of comp time!) and on top of grad school has been MIA a lot of the time!  August should be a nice change... he's going to use some of his comp time and we'll have a couple of extra long weekends with him :)  Anyway, the kids and I have been very busy with playdates, pool and library time, and outings with friends!  Here are a couple of our special outings from this month: 

We went to Frying Pan Farm Park one day for a picnic lunch and farm fun! 

Another one of our "bigger" outings was a trip to the Dulles Air and Space Museum! 

Such a fun time with friends :) 

The Lake

After a week at the beach we all headed up to the Lake for the first week in July :)  We always have a great time boating, fishing, swimming, having campfires, and just being outside!  We had a couple of little bumps in the road because Alex got pretty sick the last day we were at the beach (sick like 104.5 fever, scary!).  The really high fever didn't last long, but a low grade fever lingered for the next few days.  He was a trooper though and did pretty well on tylenol/motrin.  Nathan caught the bug after that, our last night at the Lake and was sick the week we got home.  Poor little guys getting sick on vacation :(  But anyway, through all that excitement, we still enjoyed all of our usual "lake fun" :)

Nathan enjoying the loooong 12 hr drive from Myrtle Beach to Treasure Lake!  We even ordered chocolate milks at Starbucks for the boys per request of our sick one ;) 

Poor Alex, sick on the drive :(

Playing in the backyard! 

Gary and I got to enjoy a couple of dates - always a big perk to visiting family! :) 

The boys both enjoyed the boat.... but Alex preferred to go slow ;)

Nathan would say "faster, faster!" He loved it!!

Alex, again, had no fear!  He was way out in the lake swimming! 

Cousins playing in the sand!!

Nathan loves anything that shoots...

Another boat ride :)

Lots of playing outside!

A little fishing...

Great grandpa came for a visit and enjoyed a campfire with the great grandkids!

A family shot on 4th of July :)

Sisters! 

Setting off fireworks, the boys loved them!  No one was crying or scared this year... (but, Nathan was throwing up because this is when he came down with the bug :(  )

Alex loved the sparklers! 

We had a great week!! :)