A Day at the Beach

Last weekend, my husband was out of town and so I took the boys out to the lake for a few hours. They loved it and had a blast! This is a 'end of summer' tradition that we started last year, and I hope to continue. Last summer a friend of my husband's invited us to spend the day out at their house (they live on the lake) and go boating. We had a picnic lunch and cruised around the lake. Lucas even went tubing for the first time. This year since my husband was out of town, I just took the boys to the beach. Andrew spent most of the time throwing rocks into the water, but the big boys got in and did a little swimming. They dug up a huge rock from the bottom of the lake and collected a bunch of smaller rocks and some bird feathers. It was a really nice way to spend the afternoon.
(The time/date on my camera is wrong, but I don't know how to fix it.)

Messy Sensory Play

This is something we do every once and a while, and the kids really like it. I use cool whip, but many people use shaving cream for this activity. I just put it right on the table, but you could always use a cookie sheet or some other shallow container. Last time we did this I just had them play with the white cool whip, and had them practice writing their names, making shapes, doing math problems, etc. depending upon the age of the child. This time we did color mixing. Lucas started out with blue and red food coloring, and made purple. Ryan started out with blue and yellow food coloring to make green (his favorite color). Then they both added other colors and ended up with brown. I gave Andrew blue and yellow to make green because he likes to be like his big brother! It's a mess but it cleans up pretty easily and they have so much fun with it!

First Day of School!

I can't believe that its the first day of school for my boys already! This summer has just flown right by! I wish they didn't start until after Labor Day like I did when I was in school. They were both excited and ready to go this morning, they even woke up on their own. Ryan was a bit disappointed that he didn't get to go until this afternoon, but he got over it. Lucas is in 3rd grade this year and Ryan started Kindergarten!

My little one is napping, so I have some time to myself. I'm making some cookies for when the boys get home - a first day of school tradition! I'm going to relax for a while and then do a little cleaning before I have to go and pick them up. I'm haven't been looking forward to this new routine, but I think it will work out well. I was thinking it would've been better for Ryan to go in the mornings like he did last year, but this way Andrew will nap while everyone else is gone and I should have some quiet time!

Tye-Dye Fun!

Earlier this summer I bought a tye-dye kit at a local craft store. Then I got 3 irregular white cotton t-shirts at the grocery store for $1.00 each. I've been waiting for a nice day when we don't have much going on so that the kids could make their own tye-dyed t-shirts. I waited until Andrew was napping and took the boys outside because of the mess. We finally got to make them yesterday and they turned out pretty good! The boys love them!

p.s. I went back and added pictures in some of the previous posts.

You will never guess...

what my toddler did today! Andrew is very "high needs" and he often will literally hang on my leg while I am in the kitchen making breakfast, lunch, snacks, etc. As you can probably imagine, this makes it quite difficult to get things done. So I just was making the kids lunch, and as usual he was hanging on me. I had my back to him and was preparing the food. He proceeded to pull my pants down! I am not kidding! I couldn't help myself and started laughing, which of course made him think it was a game so after I pulled my pants back up he again pulled them down two more times. That kid, I don't know what to do about him! LOL.

Weekend Fun

We had a great weekend visiting family, and taking the kids to the amusement park! We stayed at my Dad's and got to visit lots of people there. we also saw my inlaws and my mom's side of the family. We played a few games, went to an indoor play park, visited the arcade, had way to much to eat, and Ryan learned to ride a bike without training wheels! Lucas loved all the rollercoasters and other rides at the park. He ran onto all of them with my brother, his wife, and my husband while I took the younger two on all the kiddie rides. We spent way to much money and ate too much fair food, but had a good time! Yesterday we were all exhausted from the park and staying up late all weekend long. Today I have tons of laundry that I need to get caught up on. I would love to have some down time, but the kids have their school and therapy today and we have an ice cream social at the park to go to tonight. We also need to go to the grocery store today! Hopefully I can upload the pictures tomarrow.

Another box of cereal wasted...

Full boxes of cereal dumped on the floor: 3
Containers of powdered chocolate milk dumped on the floor: 2
Having a toddler: Priceless!

Off to see the wizard...

Okay, not really. This weekend we are headed off to visit our families and go to the amusement park! I'm looking forward to it, but today I have to do some cleaning and laundry and then all of the packing. Why is it that moms always have to do all the packing? Our families live 3-4hrs. away from where we live, so its not too far and we stay with family which has its upsides and its downsides. We are getting together with my inlaws at a park on Saturday, and going to a family reunion for my mom's side on Sunday afternoon. Later on Sunday is when we plan on going to the amusement park. My husband and I met working there during college, and some of the people who used to work there are trying to organize a meet-up for Sunday evening. I thought it would be fun to take the kids, because we haven't been in about 5 years. Our oldest is now tall enough to ride on almost all of the rides - including the big roller coasters! Unfortunately, I won't be able to ride on many of the rides but it should still be fun and I can't wait to see what the kids think of the whole thing. We will have to come back early on Monday morning so Lucas can go to summer school and my husband can get back to work!

New Computer, New Game

I've been neglecting my blog, along with my house, my husband, and my children... okay so maybe not the children. LOL. You see, my husband was kind enough to get me a new computer over the weekend. So then I had to start all over w/ everything, and... I got a new game. My old computer would not run Sims3 but this super awesome one runs it very well, too well in fact. If you've never played the Sims, it is a very addicting and time consuming game. I have spent waay to many hours playing the origninal Sims game, The Sims2, and well now Sims3. So today I need to NOT play and clean my house, my kiddos, and check on a bunch of stuff that I have going on. The big boys also have swimming lessons all this week, and Lucas has summer math at school this week and next. Busy!