Cheese!

No corn on the cob for Jacob this summer! The other front tooth is loose and about to come out too - he can't wait! I think its adorable... :)

A great freebie

Have you ever heard of Lowes "build N grow" workshops? We recently discovered these on a random trip to Lowes on a saturday morning. Every other saturday they host these workshops for kids. It is completely free. They give the kids kits to build something new each time. They also give them aprons, badges, and certificates of completion. They provide tables and hammers, or you can take the kit home and do it there yourself. They are super easy for adults to figure out, so anyone can help a child do this. Our boys LOVE it. The first thing they built was a bird feeder (which they then colored) and last saturday they built these schoolhouses. The lids on the schoolhouse open to store school supplies or whatever. I am sure someday down the road I will be getting rid of these - since all projects eventually recycle themselves! :) But the boys are so proud of their work and they loved hammering the nails in and knowing that they made it themselves. Did I mention that it is free?! Go do this! (no, I am not getting paid by Lowes for this free advertisement....)

Sad day

Last Tuesday it was time to finally change out my California license plates for new South Carolina plates. I haven't been looking forward to this day. Most of you will think this is silly, but some will understand. It's not that I have anything against South Carolina. It's a nice state - I even like that they still say "In God we trust" on their license plates. It's just that we loved California so much. So the day finally came to remove our last "visible" sign that showed everyone where we came from. Sigh.
Fast forward to Thursday. I drove Jake to school sporting our new plates (by the way, these pictures aren't our plates. I just pulled them off the internet!). He is doing his standardized testing this week so his teacher keeps telling them to eat healthy breakfasts full of brain food. She was teasing him and asked him if he had his grits that day. He smiled and said "what are grits?". I was sort of proud that he doesn't know what they are, but she looked at me like we were crazy. "We aren't from the south" I said. Jacob laughed and said "no, I'm from San Diego!".
                                                                                  

Yes Jake, yes you are! I walked happily back to the parking lot. Who cares that my car makes me look like a local. I have something even better from  California - one the dmv can't tell me to change! My two little California boys!

No training wheels!

Noah has been begging me for so long to take his training wheels off. I have been putting him off saying "wait until daddy can help you". Of course, when daddy's here he would forget and it just never got done. I don't enjoy this task of parenting. Running slowly, bent over, holding onto the bike. My back ends up hurting and I find myself thinking "just put the trainers back on". However, I finally decided that the poor kid had waited long enough. We started out on his little bike so that he could easily touch the ground. This was going well and I figured we would wait to do the big bike until, well, until daddy could help him! So one day Jacob asked if he could take Noah's training wheels off for him and help him learn. This was either a brilliant idea, or disaster waiting to happen. Either way, I said "yes". Jake got out the wrench and got the training wheels off and, while I watched, he held onto Noah's bike and started running with him. It was so cute to see big brother seriously helping little brother and little brother completely trusting in big brother! And suddenly Noah just had it. He took off on his own and never looked back. He started shouting "I'm doing it! I'm doing it!". To which Jake shouted back "good job little brother!". Oh, be still my heart. It was one of the sweetest moments! Wish you all could have been there to see it too.....

Who says goggles are just for the pool? They work quite well in the bathtub at our house....

Snugglers?

This picture was taken in our hotel room last weekend in Atlanta. I love that the boys are old enough to share a bed when needed. Noah told me today that he wishes Jacob would let him on the top bunk so they could snuggle at night and stay warm! That's NOT gonna happen since Jake values his space, but I think Noah must have enjoyed his temporary sleeping arrangements. :)
The only down side to this story - when they woke up they turned on the tv and Jacob ordered "pay per view" cartoons. I walked into their room and there they were, snuggled in bed watching $10 worth of "special agent oso". Nice.

Boys

My life is surrounded with boys. Even the dog is a boy. I like boys, But sometimes I don't understand them. Take today for instance. J and N were out back playing with the neighbor boy. I glanced out the window just in time to see Noah casting a fishing pole and hooking the dog. Hmm, who thought this would be a good idea? I go out to stop the madness when I see the other boys with their fishing pole. They didn't hook the dog, but they did hook the trampoline net where they are now hanging from the fishing pole trying to get it to rip off. I freed the dog (and the trampoline), gave a lecture, let them all know that I meant business and went back inside. All was peaceful - until they all came running inside a few minutes later. All i could see was blood and all I could hear was "noah did a cartwheel and knocked L's tooth out!". It looks like disaster, but as I look closer I notice they are all smiling. L had blood everywhere, but was grinning and saying "Noah kicked my tooth out!". What, cause that's the greatest thing ever? Umm, I don't get it. See, I don't understand boys. They're crazy. But I love them.