Last Of Summer Break

I don't know how it's already August 8th and I haven't blogged at all this month. The boys finished up with swim lessons on the 31st and had a week off before school started. I think I mentioned in the last post, but the graduated from their swim lessons and are now in the next class up. That will start on August 16th and will they'll have them on Saturday mornings for 4 weeks.

 

We went to Chick-Fil-A last Friday, we had two coupons for free kids meals from the boys summer reading program, so I took advantage of that. We met my sister there and the boys had lunch and got some play time in.

 

Evan was clearly too busy eating to even look at me, but I wanted to post this picture because it has his bbq sauce and his ketchup and I wanted to write something about that so I'll remember later. Both boys require bbq sauce and ketchup every single time they eat chicken and they will dip it in one and then the other and eat it. Every.single.time. We always have to have both on hand at home. I'm sure I'll forget this little quirky fact about them when they're older, so I wanted to put that in here.

 

I tried to be good and didn't order a delicious chicken sandwich with mayo like I wanted to. But, I saw they had iced coffee and had to try it. It was delicious!

Sometimes, the only way to get a picture of them sitting still is to get one while they're eating.

Both boys know that I can switch my camera phone so that you see yourself on the screen as you take a picture, so they now will insist on getting at least one selfie when I'm taking pictures. They also demand to see pictures after I've taken them, I may be creating little monsters.

This is a HORRIBLE picture of me, but I wanted to share this little gem since I think it's funny.

We went out to my parent's house on Monday. It feels like it's been forever since we had gone out to spend the day there, because of my dad's knee surgery and then swim lessons, so it was nice to go. Evan loves this little pinwheel my mom got for the boys. You never know what they're going to love, it's just so random the things that end up becoming their favorite toys.

My parents built this incredible sandbox at the beginning of summer and each time we go over the boys will play for a little bit but since there's just so many fun things to do there, they only do each thing for a few minutes before moving on to the next. The boys actually finally played in the sandbox for a good little bit this time.

It's so big and my parents have the best sand toys to play with.

It had rained recently so the sand was just perfect, not wet, but just still a tiny bit damp enough to hold a good shape.

We went to the library on Tuesday to get some books. The boys always insist on helping while we're there, they like to carry our bag for books, put the books in the return, hand the books to the librarian who checks us out, etc.

The boys love the checkers. The one upstairs in the kids section is kind of rough looking (very used) but we had to run downstairs to the adult section so I could look for a book and there's a couple really nice checker tables, right next to the windows. The boys love playing and the floor to ceiling windows that look out at the park.

Afterwards, we met up with Caroline for lunch at The Pizza Joint. We normally don't eat out during the day very much (just some chocolate milk or nuggets when we meet play groups at Chick-Fil-A or McDonalds) but we can't do this much during the school year because the boys and Aunt Caroline are in school, so we wanted to take advantage of our last week of summer.

The boys have been into dress up lately and their imaginations are getting so big--I love to hear the things they come up with. But, they insisted on wearing their hats outside the other day to play. I thought they looked so cute. Carter loves this construction hat, we had them and all their tools (and tool bench) at our house for years, but they didn't really play with it. I moved it to my moms, thinking that maybe if they got a break from them, they'd be more interested in them. It worked and he insisted on bringing his construction hat and hammer home from their house when we played there. He puts it on and says he's a "builder man"

The boys each got a cowboy hat and handkerchief from open house at school on Wednesday (I'm doing a separate post on that) and Evan just loves his. He insisted on wearing it to the park and when we arrived he got out of the car and announced to everybody that "Cowboy Evan is here, Yeehaw" and then proceeded to gallop towards the park like he was on a horse. He wore it outside, he wears it in the house, he just loves it.

I couldn't narrow down the pictures (shocking, I know) so I'm posting all of them. He just looks so precious to me.

He insisted on getting a selfie so he could see what he looked like.

So silly.

Of course, Carter had to have one too, he wanted to make sure his "sword" was in it. This sword is actually some part to their tricycles (I think it's to keep the wheel from turning if you wanted it parked, or something) he's had it for a couple years and has always referred to it as a sword and it's one of his favorite toys.

Thursday morning, the boys got in my bed when they woke up to watch a cartoon on my ipad ( like they do every morning) As soon as they woke up, they went and got dressed up before even coming in my room.

 

We also went to a moms of multiples play date on Thursday and I did not take a single picture. I don't even know how that happened, but we had such a good time. We were there for about 2.5 hours and the boys played so good. It was hot, it said it was 102 on my dashboard when we left and it was humid, but there was a splash pad at the park we went to and picnic tables that are shaded. I had such a great time with the other moms and all the kids were so sweet and played so well. This is the 3rd time I've met with this group in the past month or so and the boys and I always have such a great time. I hate that I didn't get any pictures.

The boys had an open house at the preschool on Wednesday and had their first day today, so I'll do a separate post on that.

Park Play Date

Wednesday after swim practice, the boys and I went to the park with my friend and her daughter, Taylor. The weather was perfect, it's been really mild here this week plus, we went to a park that had a ton of shade. There's a splash park, two different playgrounds and several little things like a merry-go-round, monkey bars, swings, etc. to do. The kids had a blast. The boys are still napping every day and they've been napping almost every day this summer, but especially since we started swim lessons, they've been exhausted. Well, the kids had so much fun, we stayed for over two hours, well into nap time.

The boys love the monkey bars and I think these are my favorite out of any park we've been to. They're low enough to the ground that I don't have a heart attack watching them but they still get to play and climb on them.

Carter spent the most time at the splash pad. I think this splash pad is the best free one in Augusta, and that's kinda sad. But, Evan and Taylor were much more interested in the playgrounds, so Carter played over here for a long while by himself, then got bored with it.

Evan did join him for a little bit. Maybe the water was just too cold because it wasn't that warm out.

The boys spent most of the time on the merry go round. Taylor and Evan discovered it and then Carter eventually wandered over and got in on it. They had everybody and anybody pushing them on that thing--moms, grandparents, older kids, etc. Those kids were working anybody that came near them.

Then the boys went over to this thing to play for awhile. I think that they both think it's a treadmill because they kept saying that they were exercising. They've seen treadmills at the gym when we pass them and we always point out that that's the area that mommy and daddy workout while they're in the kid zone, so I guess they were listening.

We decided to walk over to the turtle pond before leaving to check them out. Taylor hadn't seen it before. Evan insisted that Taylor hold his hand.

How cute is that!? So sweet. They all went down there and saw all the turtles and fish and then we went home. On the way home, the boys were so concerned with Taylor in the 3rd row of our van. Evan kept asking "How are you doing back there" then they invited her over so they could share their pineapple with her. They each had a small bowl left and they each wanted to give her half of it, which I thought was so sweet, so Melissa and Taylor came in for awhile when we got back to my house.

Greg ended up pulling in right when we did, so the kids had their pineapple snack and then played, for about 2 hours while Greg, Melissa, and I sat and talked. We've all known each other since 1999, so we go way back and it was fun talking about old times and catching up. The boys and Taylor played so good, they basically entertained themselves that entire time. Our afternoon playdate was so much fun, it kind of makes me sad that summer is coming to an end and school's about to start.

Happy Boys

I never did a weekend recap, but we didn't do a whole lot. Friday night, we went to the pool when Greg got home. Saturday morning, the boys had a tball game and Saturday night was Parent's Night Out at the Y. Greg and I dropped the boys off, went to dinner and then shopping for school supplies for the boys.

Sunday, Greg had to do some work from home, so I took the boys to church. The church we've been going to has free coffee and cheese biscuits for everybody, so the boys each had a biscuit before I dropped them off at the kids church.

And, a car selfie on the way home from church. It's really hard to remember to be in the picture since I'm always the one taking the picture.

After church, we took the boys to the pool. The weather was nice and they had a blast.

They insisted on wearing their goggles there. I don't know how those things are comfortable, but the boys love them.

Monday, the boys started week two of their swim lessons. They go from 10-10:45. We usually run errands after swim practice, and it always requires food for the boys, like a hot dog from Sam's Club, popcorn from Target, etc.

The rest of this post is pictures from swim lessons and there's a ton! We get there a couple minutes early, and I always try and get a quick picture of the boys together every day.

I hate that this is blurry, but I love it so much, so I had to post it. I asked the boys if I could take a picture and they said yes and then I went to take one and they both yelled "No" so I made a sad face and put my phone down, so they said "ok, you can take a picture" and then when I lift my phone up again, they both yell "no" and start laughing. It has become a game and it's the reason I was able to get all these pictures of them smiling and laughing.

It's so hard to catch them both laughing and I'm just so in love with these pictures.

After swim lessons on Tuesday, I took the boys to the outdoor pool. Of course, they had to start off with a snack. I swear these growing boys never stop eating.

It's  been a lot cooler this week than it has been most of this summer, plus it was only 11, so I guess the pool hadn't warmed up enough for the boys. Evan was freezing. They ended up only playing for about 40 minutes because they said it was just too cold.

Wednesday, the boys decided to play their same "yes/no" game with me on pictures, so I was able to get several of them smiling and happy.

So cute!

The boys are doing really good in their swim class. They can both swim 5ft unassisted and that's the requirement to be moved up to the next level, so that's exciting. We're going to sign the boys up for the next level swim lesson that will start in a couple of weeks. They only have two more weeks of tball, and the next swim lessons will start after that's over, so it shouldn't be too much going on for them. I want them to be able to build on these skills they've learned these past two weeks. The boys start school next Friday (the 8th) so we'll get done with these daily swim lessons tomorrow, have a week off and then school starts, summer is flying by.