A rainy day

The boys are out of school today and we woke up to GLOOM.  The perfect excuse to stay in pj's and be lazy.  We did lots of little things, which may have included eating cake for breakfast and playing a game of real life Angry Birds with castle blocks and bean bags in Ben's room.

We all decided to build a fort, something we haven't done in a while.  As the boys get older, their fort requirements get more complex.  Today's fort had to form a complete circle they could crawl through-and have several skylights and trapdoors.  I guess we succeeded because they played in it for a while.

They have really played so nicely together all day, I keep catching them hunkered down together playing games they make up.  Their voices together (in these sweet moments) is one of the nicest things I have ever heard.  I love how Nate is always questioning Ben and Ben so patiently explains (most of the time).  It is so nice right now because Ben is the obvious leader and Nate is just fine with that.  I know that will not always be the case, so I am enjoying this stage of their relationship while it lasts.

We have enjoyed decorating for Halloween, thanks to the Martha Stewart section at Michael's.  Nate wanted to take pictures of some of our spooky stuff.

And some little bats landed on some of our pictures.  Yikes.

Books!

We are so lucky that our two little monsters love books.  Frankly, they weren't really given any choice in the matter, but so far....so good. 

Nate is currently in the stage where he wants to read the same books over and over.  He doesn't want library books, unless they are Maisy books (see the picture Gil painted above his bed?  That's Maisy)  and he wants to pick out his own books.  His traditional bookshelves were not meeting his needs (seeing all of the covers to choose) so his handy dad put up some shelves so he can see the book covers. 

The happy accident part of the new shelves is how much color it has added to his room!  Books are good decorating options.

**Somehow I forgot to mention that these shelves are made out of rain gutters-yep, cheap rain gutters found at any hardware store!

(And please pretend like my little corner of the blogoverse has not been a ghost town for MONTHS!)

Testing

My long blogging break is the fault of two things. 

 #1-Extreme laziness.  I have just been too lazy to sit down and write anything.  We have had a great summer, filled with fun and water-and sitting down to write has just not been a priority.

#2-My complete frustration with being able to add pictures to posts.  I still haven't figured out the photo limit problem I am having and have tried to work around it, just to be stopped along the way. 

So, I am trying this out-we'll see....

(Yeah!!!  Now to make a new header since I skipped a whole season!)

Silence

Hello out there.  Sorry about the silence around here-I continue to have problems with Google/Blogger/Picasa and can't get any pictures on here-and what is a post without pictures?  Boring.  I just wrote a post about Ben turning 5 using Windows Live Writer, and that didn't work either. 

So, for the 2.5 people out there that read-sorry about the blackout!

Jump!

We had a great day today at Kristen's house at the lake.  Ben went to sports camp in the morning and Nate and I got to hang out with Kristen's Mama Brunch friends.  There were a few littles to play with and some yummy snacks. 

Then we went to get Allie and Ben, gobbled some lunch, and headed back to the dock for some more swimmy time.  The two big fish kept wanting to jump off the dock, but each time they jumped, they had to swim back in and walk up and back out to the end.  It wore them out.   It is our goal to wear them out, so success!

Hold my hand!

And going back for more.....

For the record, Ben only used the float to jump when I was not in the water with him (when I was taking these pictures for example).  When I was in there, he jumped in and swam to me (while I held my breath the whole time).

Oh yeah, and Nate had fun, too.  His brand of fun is different from Ben's right now.  You won't find him jumping off a dock anytime soon, but this sweet boy is usually very content wherever he is.  He is happy to watch all the action and entertains himself well.  He is easy to find, all I have to do is look right beside me-and that is exactly how I like it!

Thanks Kristen!  If you hear rustling down at your dock on a sunny day, don't worry, it's not a big turtle, just some wild boys and their mama!

Happy Father's Day

No big mushy post from me today, even though I happen to know the world's best dad pretty well.  I have two little boys that are lucky to also know him well. 

Gil is the best dad-and I'm not kidding, I think he really is the best.  I probably should have gotten him a coffee cup like Micheal Scott's, but then it would have seemed like a joke.

When Gil walks in the door after work,  I am forgotten.  Those little boys attack him and do not leave him alone until their heads hit the pillow.  The love to do anything with him, from getting the mail, to playing Bull and wrestling.  Lately science experiments have been added into the rotation, thanks to a book I had in the attic in my teaching stuff.

As a mom, I feel so lucky to be a part of a generation that has a lot of very involved dads.  Gil did not shy away from any of the newborn duties (like changing diapers) that dads of the past did not help with, and he has always been right in the trenches throughout all of the stages-from sleepless nights, to potty training.

These little boys will have such good memories of their very involved dad, and that is priceless!

With Ben at the hospital (like the coordinating blanket and shirt?)

Ben at a year old.

Nate at 2 months old.

After Nate's Baptism (look at those fat rolls-yum)



Daddy in action (I don't know how his back does this-over and over and over again)

Snow!

Happy Father's Day Gil!

And Happy Father's Day to our great Grandpa's!

Happy Day to Bully and Jimbo!

Chirp Chirp

Do you hear the crickets?  I don't know what I was thinking,  I was informed today that my public (Gil) is demanding a new post so I thought I would finally share some pictures from when Gil's cousin Leigh's little girl Alex was here. 

We had so much fun with that sweet girl. 

This picture sums up Alex's feelings about the birds-she and her Gammy share the "love" of the feathered ones!

This was a very popular pose with these three little nuts.

The three amigos were also seen like this quite a bit.

Everyone little one should be lucky enough to hang out with their Gammy/Mimi/Granny C! (These two ladies have so many names we couldn't keep them straight!)

And the ever popular bunny ears.



And one last Nate sandwich for the road.  This kiddo gets and gives kisses all day long! 



That's it for now public (I mean Gil).  I'll be back later with some beach pictures, and a few of Ben's graduation.