End of Summer: anything goes

Its the last week and a half before school starts and its hot out.  All bets are off.

You'll recall our fro yo outing with unlimited candy toppings??!! Tip of the iceberg.  We have been missing bedtimes, eating weird meals and have treats before noon.  And all of this mostly because its just too hot to function.

This morning we got to Mimi's at 8 and walked to the coffee shop for iced coffees and juice boxes.  Some of us were still in jams.

Cheers Mimi!

Mimi saw a kiddie pool for sale next door (she's been looking for one for their house) and grabbed it up.  We walked home with it on our backs.  We were a sight.

And then we tested it out!

After that we decided ice cream was in order.  Its never too early for ice cream right?  Well that's what we are going with this week.

We finished the morning by heading to Papa's rehab facility to bring him lunch and hang out, he continues to do really well and has been doing some walking so we are excited that he will be headed home soon.

 Yesterday we had a play date at an indoor playground nearby.  We played for a solid two hours, ate our lunch and finished off with a train ride.

 We went home for naps and when Owen woke up we (Scott) decided we should go back.  Well it was too hot to do anything outside and we had already paid (you can come and go as much as you want) so back we went for another two hours.  We ended up closing the place down.

Before we headed back the boys asked for chicken meatballs as a snack.  They each had 4.  So I wasn't super concerned about dinner.  After we left the play place (at 6, when they closed) we hit up jamba juice for smoothies and pirate booty.  Super healthy right?!! 

Clearly the kids are callin' the shots these days, but I'm ok with it.  Its been fun going with it and saying "yes" a lot.  Happy Thursday friends - and yay for it almost being a long weekend!!!!

3 & 1/2

 We celebrated Scott's half birthday yesterday, and by celebrated I mean we told him he was officially three and a half, to which he responded: "show me how to do that on my fingers."

Some days I can't believe he's already 3&1/2 and other I can't believe he's only 3&1/2.  He seems so grown up to me now.  Always has an question, or an argument or a new opinion that I find myself negotiating half my day away!  He is still proving to be incredibly kind and sensitive and the best big brother to Owen.  He is fiercely protective of his little brother and loves doing thing with him (melt.my.heart.).  The two of them are always playing together and sometimes I go in their room and catch Scott "reading" to Owen....and Owen sits there patiently listening (more than I can say for when Brian or I read to him). 

Scott's favorite things to do still include all things imagination.  He plays pirates, super heroes, dinosaurs, robots etc.  all day long.  He loves listening to stories and reading and has even started making up his own stories to tell us.  The most recent original is about the "Lava Giant", ask him, you won't be disappointed.  Of course he still loves to watch TV, which we try to keep to a minimum.  I think a big part of the TV thing is that he just loves the stories, lately he has been enjoying some old disney classics like "The Three Little Pigs" and "The Tortoise and the Hare" and old Mickey Mouse cartoons like "Mickey and the Beanstalk" and "The Prince and the Pauper" (these are all on netflix and range from 8 to 30 minutes).  I love that he enjoys some of these older, slower paced shows so much, its been a fun way to give him a taste of these classic stories, and a nice break from the Jake and the Neverland Pirate songs for me!

As you've been able to see from previous posts, Scott has really taken to helping in the kitchen lately which has been fun.  And that desire to help extends beyond the kitchen to anything we happen to be doing, especially if it involves Daddy and tools.  He has also been on a kick of opening and holding doors for people.  He is insistent, even when the door is really heavy, and he races ahead to be the one to do it.  It is sweet and a trait I hope he never forgets.  One of his favorite places to do it is when we leave cardio barre in the mornings, probably because all the women I workout with give him tons of attention for it! HAHA!

So, like I said, we didn't actually celebrate Scott's half birthday yesterday.  It was a crazy busy day (as Tuesdays tend to be for us) which had us shuffling in the afternoon to get everyone looked after while I worked.  Long story short, Mimi picked up Owen to hang out with Auntie, Parker J. and Ryder and Scott came to work with me.  Mimi and Owen left early, much to Scott's dismay, he was broken hearted that he couldn't go with them, but since they left early Scott and I had time for an ice cream date just the two of us.  We rarely hang out just the two of us so it was a special treat (well for me, Scott said he wanted to go with Mimi and also that he wanted Owen to be with us, when I asked if he was having fun he said "yes, but I would rather have my bruver here to have fun with us").  I let Scott put all the toppings he wanted on his ice cream and we sat by the fountain to eat before we headed to my office for the evening.  Then at my office he got to watch TV, so I'd say that was a pretty great half birthday!

Love you my baby munch!

End of Summer Lovelies

We ran up to Santa Barbara on Saturday for a little pool time with Grandma and Gpa.

And we all looked at the camera at the same time {and almost all smiled}

On our way home we were able to stop and visit Papa since he got moved to a rehab facility (no kids allowed in hospitals).  He is recovering well and we hope he is outta there soon.  We had explained his injuries as best as we could to Scott, but he was still a little freaked out by the wheel chair and everything when we got there.  Thankfully we were able to stay long enough for Scott to understand that Papa was ok and for him to warm up to everything.  At one point I took Scott to the bathroom and Scott told me he didn't want to visit here anymore.  I asked why and he said it was sad.  Broke my heart.  Such a sensitive boy!

The next day we swam all morning and then headed back for dinner with Mimi and Papa, by then Scott was totally used to it all and had a great time hanging with them.  We see Mimi and Papa at least once a week, and usually more, so the boys were definitely happy to have that time with them (and us too!).

We are enjoying the last two weeks before Scott heads back to school even though its been scorching outside (making for lots of indoor play which equals short tempers by the end of the day).  We are looking forward cooler temps and dreaming of all things fall.  Let the Halloween costume planning commence (Scott wants to be Jake from Jake and the Neverland Pirates, who's surprised?)

Little Chef

Scott has really taken to helping in the kitchen.  Melt.my.heart.  I love it!  Sometimes it means meals take a few minutes longer because we have to set up chairs or measure slowly, but that's all fine by me. I absolutely adore this.

The other night it was risotto primavera a la chef Scott.  A perfect helping dish because it requires lots of slow stirring.

And today was pancake Friday and Scott wanted to help again.  He measured and stirred up the ingredients and then he wanted to help flip them.  I was a little nervous.  I envisions half flipped pancakes all over the stove and or kitchen.  I did the first one and then handed over the reigns to Scott.  He rocked it.  Perfect flip every time, no mess!

See:

So come on over for a meal soon, chef Scott is happy to accommodate!

A week (or so) of pictures...

Brian was in Chicago for work last week so the boys and I held down the fort.  What?  You'd like to see pictures from Brian's Chicago trip?  Maybe later.  After all, why look at fantastic city scenery and fun excursions like baseball, boating and a Rascal Flatts concert when you can see pictures of boys in their jams hangin out in the good ol WV??!!??!!  And maybe, if Brian uploads the pictures from his phone, I'll post some Chicago fun later ; )

Just a little breakfast fun with my two smallest dudes.  These boys have been doing some major growing lately and practically eating us out of house and home, especially at breakfast!

Horses waiting on their breakfast too.  So much for the 'no toys at the table rule'.

Fun with the fur baby...

 Seriously, how patient is this dog...

Block towers happened and amazingly didn't get knocked down by baby bro (maybe O was sleeping when this occurred because if not it was surely divine intervention)

So proud...

Daddy went out of town just in time for the first heat wave of August (almost of the whole summer, its been gloriously mild).  We were stuck indoors beating the heat most days and were going a little stir crazy.  Several evenings the boys and I headed to the park after dinner and stayed until sunset when it was cooler out.

Daddy came home last Sunday and we were so glad to have him back!!!  And he brought some rad glow sticks from the concert.  They were kind of a hit...

Monday morning had Owen feeling those back to school vibes as he sported Scott's back pack for a few hours around the house.  (Scott doesn't go back to school for a few more weeks yet)

And no morning is complete with out a little glow stick dance party

Monday afternoon riding back from a play date, we had barely made it across the street before we had to stop for a snack.   It took us nearly half an hour to get home and our friends only live around the corner, good thing we weren't in a hurry.

 Tuesday morning we hung out with Parker John all morning and decided to take our breakfast to the park.  Coffee and raisin bread with my tiniest guy, sounds good to me!!!

These two had about two bites of breakfast before the playground beckoned.

After a few hours and a meet up with Katelyn, we headed back from the park and loaded up for Scott's last soccer practice.  Lucky duck Owen got to forward face for the first time (it was the only way to fit all three car seats) and there might be no going back now, we'll see.

We were a little early so we stopped for some Starbucks (drive thru duh!) on our way.  Peach iced tea lemonade (my new FAVE!) and three tall (watered down) lemonades and we were a happy bunch!  And I think our car served as some pretty intense birth control for the sweet 19 year old helping us out at the window.  Let's just say we weren't quiet when it was our turn to pick up our drinks!

 Hilary and I had kind of prepped Parker that he would be coming to watch soccer practice, knowing full well he wouldn't be allowed to play but that he would probably really want to.  Well as luck would have it only 3 kids showed up for the last day and the coach asked Parker to join in.  Everyone was thrilled.

Scott participated almost the whole time (which has not been the case for the last 5 sessions, the first two weeks were great and it was downhill after that). 

I was sure to take lots of pictures of Parker for Hilary and Matt considering this was his first soccer practice and they didn't even get to see it!

Wednesday Hilary and I traded off watching all the boys so she could work and I could attend a seminar.  My seminar was about the early signs of brain degeneration, fascinating stuff people, and we watched a few video clips of brain dissections to illustrate certain points.  Well its been a while since neuroanatomy lab (five year since I graduated and neuroanatomy was probably in my 2nd year so, yeah, like 6-7 years, yikes, I'm old) but I kid you not those images came on the screen and I could smell that smell like I was in the lab.  Talk about bringing back some memories.  I probably complained a lot when in dissection labs (years worth of them!) but looking back it was probably the most intense learning I have ever done in my life.  You can study text books for days, but, for me at least, there is something about it seeing it in person, touching it, cutting it, that makes everything come together, it made everything I had ever learned in all of my anatomy and physiology classes solidify in my brain, never to be forgotten.  Plus the smell, it took a while to get the smell out of my clothes...and hair.

Shout out to my sister for moving her work schedule around to accommodate my seminar schedule.  I came home to theses three crazies running around pants-less.  It seems we are pants-less a lot in this house, well I wear  pants (usually) but the boys almost never do.

The 5 of us braved trader joe's that evening and this cool dude even got to sample a graham cracker.

What it looks like after a loooong day:

Can't handle the cuteness...

This past week Papa also had a pretty nasty bike accident.  He is still recovering in the hospital and is hoping to move to rehab soon (today or tomorrow).  We have gotten lots of kind well wishes from friends and family, thank you all for that.  We are hoping to be able to visit this weekend, we all sure do miss him.  It seems it will be a long road of rehab and PT but the prognosis is good that he will be back to normal at the end of it all!  Thank you friends and family for your continued prayers and support for him!

Milk art

Another fantastic Pinterest idea for some nap time fun with Scott.

The other day we did "milk art".  So easy.  We put a little milk in a dish, then Scott dropped some food coloring in, then he touched a paint brush dipped in dish soap and TA-DAH!

 The dish soap makes the color shoot out.

Its very exciting.  We did it several times.

The bummer part is that after you've done it in one bowl you have to clean it out and start over.  But we did it a number of times and then used the "paint" we made to paint on  paper (it was mostly gray by then).   Scott thought it was neat so I count it as a win!!!  (also I don't know what happened with these pictures and the spacing.  And I'm done trying to fix it. - blerg to you blogger.)