Stephen

Stephen's day care has begun to implement a curriculum. He comes home with schoolwork that he did during the day. This is his very first assignment. It is currently hanging on the art/special homework wall in the dining room.

 

 

Stephen loves to help.

He particularly loves to help when you aren't looking.

Here he has helped to feed the cat.

 

With so much going on in the mornings now that we are back into school mode, we have to keep a sharp eye out to make sure Stephen doesn't make it into the bathroom alone.

MIB

The fellas are really starting to get into action movies - especially Wyatt. His favorite thing to do is use legos to recreate characters or locations from movies. His second favorite thing to do is to rummage through his clothes and put together costumes so he can be his favorite characters. Here he is as one of the agents from Men In Black.

 

BTS 2013 2014

First day of School 2013 2014.

Short Stack wanted in on the photo op so he drug his back pack over to the line up.

 

Jack was nervous because his teacher sat him between two girls. He actually told me I couldn't leave. I whispered to him that his teacher has to keep the girls separated because they talk to much. He seamed ok with that and let me get on my way.

It won't be too much longer and he will be taller than the sign!

Ready to get to work!

 

Home again, home again, jiggity-jig! First day of school chocolate cookies and milk. They hugged me, kissed me and crowned me "The Best Mom EVER!"

I'll take it.

 

 

Go Rockets

 

Wyatt is playing soccer again this fall. His team is called The Rockets! They had their first game this Saturday. Unfortunately they lost but at least they were starting to play positions instead of Herd-Ball where everyone runs as one overly large amoeba.

 



 

Jack will not be playing soccer. 3rd graders move up to a larger field and they needed so many boys to maintain their team. They didn't have enough players moving on so the boys who chose to continue wound up trying out for competitive teams. That isn't something Jack is interested in doing. So we are going to try cross country if we can get a coach. I'm not sure what we will have J do if we can't come up with a coach. I think he needs to be involved in some sort of sport. We will just have to wait and see what happens.

Tro-Sno!

Mom, Devon and I picked up the boys early from day care last week and took them for a surprise trip to Tropical Sno. They have the best shaved ice!

 

And these are the SMALL option.

Jack has pina colada with blueberry.

Wyatt selected green apple.

And we saddled Short Stack with cherry (which is now my favorite).

Devon picked root beer float.

Mom opted for rainbow.

I had my standard pina colada.

The best thing about going with friends is the sharing of bites!



 

Even the small is bigger than his whole head!

 

We love Tropical Sno!

Helpers

 

Wyatt has started reading to Stephen. He only reads Star Wars books to the little guy but he is reading to him. We have also started calling Stephen "Short Stack" so much so that Wyatt now calls him by that nick-name.

 

The boys often play Rock-Paper-Scissors over who gets to buckle Stephen into his car seat. I love that they help him so much.

Birthday Boys

John and Daddy share the birthday and their day fell on a super busy Monday this year. Wyatt had his speech therapy at 4:30 then J & W had piano from 5:15-6:15 then it was swimming lessons from 6:30-7 and Wy had 1st grade jump start from 7-8. I was not cooking dinner after that so we went out to Joe's Crab Shack.

And since we are watching the gluten, I made up a GF dessert in advance.

 

 

I tried a variation on a graham cracker crust substituting corn chex for the graham crackers. I put the corn chex through the food processor and combined it with melted butter but I wanted a bit of a surprise so I threw walnuts into the processor and added that to my crust mixture. Then I made chocolate pudding and put half of that on top of the crust. I added half a tub of cool whip to the remaining pudding and put that on top of the straight up chocolate pudding. Then I put the last of the cool whip on top of that layer. Then I took a vegetable peeler and shaved chocolate bark on top of the whole thing and put it in the fridge.

The pudding pie was a hit and I have been asked to make it again. That sounds like a win for everybody!

 

Happy birthday John & Daddy!

Swim lessons

Jack & Wyatt have been taking swim lessons all summer. It turns out a few of their friends and classmates have been in the same time slot (though different class levels) as the boys. They have had such fun being boys before and after lessons.

Swim lessons are divided into Waves. Once you complete all the objectives in Wave 1, you can move on to Wave 2 etc. The boys have been in Wave 1 for all of their sessions but I have been told this is quite normal from new swimmers - especially if a kiddo is nervous about having their face in the water which applies to both Jack & Wy. They have made progress is each session though. I'm sure we will start off in Wave 1 again next summer and see where it goes from there.

 

Tropical Sno

A friend of mine runs a Tropical Sno operation in Martin City. It is the BEST shaved ice!

 

 

This was the first time we took Stephen with us. Coincidentally it was also John's first time to join us for the shaved ice and he selected Bubble gum. We picked watermelon for Stephen because he is a watermelon-head. Don't let that child see a watermelon unless you plan on cutting it up RIGHT THEN and giving him his body weight in watermelon.

 

 

 

 

Jack didn't care what flavor he got as long as it was the same flavor I picked so he wound up with Pina Colada. Wyatt didn't care what flavor he got as long as it was green. He had a great conversation with my friend (who was running the counter that day) about the green flavors and decided on Green Apple & Kiwi.

 

Everyone took turns sharing their ices with Stephen who appreciated all the love and deliciousness.

 

 

The other thing the boys loved is that the spoons are heat/cold sensitive and change color accordingly. The spoons are yellow until they are exposed to cold. The cold areas turn green. Jack & Wyatt made sure we kept the spoons so they can use them with ice cream at home.

 

 

Me and my Pina Colada ice! Can't wait to go back!

 

My My Mah

Stephen could live his entire life outside. He begs to go outside each day and he cries when it is time to come in - no matter how long he has been out. I had been riding my bike with Jack and Wyatt a bit this summer and felt bad that Stephen couldn't join us so I picked up one of those bicycle car seats and a helmet for him. I did not take J & W with me on our maiden voyage as I was not sure how it would go (balance, stamina etc) but it went well enough that we will be able to get in some family rides. I had no idea how hard it would be to find and maintain my balance with shorty on the bike. I also had no idea how much harder it would be to ride with him on the bike. It. Was. Hard. But, we shall manage.

These guys love to wrastle. Jack will get Stephen all wound up by chasing him through the dining room, kitchen and living room. Jack will suddenly decide the game is over and sit down only to be tackled by Stephen who thinks the game is still afoot. Jack looked at me and said "I think he won that round."

Stephen is working on his vocabulary. He is behind other 18 month olds but we believe it is due to the ear infections he suffered until having tubes put in earlier this spring. We are slowly adding syllables to his collection. He LOVES Spiderman and recently pointed to something Spiderman in a store and said to me "My-My-Mah!" Without even seeing what he was looking at I knew what he had said.

J & W came to pick me up from work the other weekend. We made a pit stop across the street to watch the fountains. It plays a choreographed display every 30 minutes or so and the kids love to watch. I think Jack was conducting the music.

Brousins.

Brousins

 

 Recently Jack referred to Stephen as his "Brousin" (Brother/Cousin). We have been using that term ever since.

I don't know what we were doing this day or where we were going but when I opened the door to help Stephen get out of the car they were all just smiling at me like they had planned to make me laugh.

 

Just so you know, I would love to share more with you about Stephen but there is a lot of information that is not mine to share and many times I do not know what would be crossing the line. Please pray for Stephen and for us.

Visiting

Shorty spent an afternoon with me at the theatre. (Look at those eyebrows!)

 

 

He had fun making messes. 

 

 

July 4, 2013

John and I took Jack & Wyatt to see The Lone Ranger and we got a family shadow shot after the movie. Jack was not interested in seeing said flick but once the movie started he was on the edge of his seat the entire time!

Then we went to Beth's house to hang out with family. My cousin Tommy spent some time teaching Jack how to throw a football. Jack was doing a really great job!

After that we went over to Corporate Woods for their display.

 

Gratuitous fireworks shot.

On the way home the boys got a little creative in finding ways to get comfortable.

 

To the Zoo

I decided to spend my day off taking the boys to the zoo instead of running all my 'day off' errands. Both boys got to invite a friend. We packed a lunch and off we went. First we stopped by the Polar Bear - Wyatt suddenly became camera shy but Jack decided it was time to kick it up a notch.

 

Here we are on our way to Africa. The boys loved the giraffe, elephants and zebras.

Then we went to Australia. Look, I found a couple of kangaroo.

Then it was over to the kid's place for some welcome air conditioning before heading out to RIDE A CAMEL.

Of course we had to ride the carousel.

 



 

And then it was Dippin' Dots (that weird ice cream formed into pellets which is RIDICULOUSLY EXPENSIVE!)

 

 

before getting our friends home, grabbing French fries, heading to piano lessons and then swim lessons. The boys were asleep the second their heads hit their pillows.

Family photo shoot

One of my famous impromptu photo shoots in the dining room. I love these faces!

Swimmin'

The boys are taking swim lessons all summer. Jack was very nervous about the whole thing because he didn't want to put his face under water. He was surprised by how much fun he had and looks forward to his swim lessons each night.

Wyatt is having a good time learning how to swim. They both made a new friend in their first two week session but now that we are in the 2nd session of the summer we were surprised by a number of their classmates who are also in the same time slot.

Poor Stephen strokes out when we leave for swim lessons. I don't feel that we can keep an eye on the boys and Stephen so home he stays. Poor boy.

Gin & Tonic cupcakes

Did I mention I turned 40 a few weeks ago? My birthday is a few days before Wyatt's and I was super busy getting ready for his army part but I decided that 40 was indeed a pretty big milestone so I took some time out to do something for me and I made these DELIGHTFUL gin and tonic cupcakes. I had seen a few recipes online and sort of combined a few (cause I really don't bake from scratch) and they came out AMAZING!

There is gin and tonic in both the batter and the icing. I found a Key Lime icing which turned into a hybrid icing/glaze when I added the gin and tonic. Then I zested some limes on top for an extra little punch of flavor and color. They were so good!

Cuddle Puddle

We started reading Jeremy Thatcher, Dragon Hatcher this week. Jack was immediately absorbed. Wyatt could only talk about how annoying the book was and Stephen wanted to play. I just kept reading and when I finally realized everyone was asleep I looked up and found this little cuddle puddle going on.

A little sweetheart

My Daddy hasn't been feeling well this week. Here is little man giving his Poppy a cuddle up the other morning. I think he knew Poppy wasn't up to par and needed some love so he just cuddled and cuddled.

What a sweetheart!

"Hot, Hot, Hot, Hot Shoes!"

I know you turn in (when I finally post) to check in on the children and not my fashioin sense but you must admit, these shoes are pretty fantastic.