Cowboy Superheros

Jake has been doing much more imaginative play over the last couple months. He will pretend to ride in rocket ships, take care of animals, escape from monsters, all sorts of creative, fun play. He definitely likes dressing up and on this particular day, he and Daddy were cowboy superheros!

I'm lucky to get this sweet and handsome cowboy to rescue me everyday!

My birthday

My boys are always super sweet, and this year's birthday wasn't an exception. I did my usual volunteering the night of my birthday, so we celebrated another night. What I didn't know is that they had a trick up their sleeve. I came home to them hiding in the pantry, then coming out with this cake, singing "Happy Birthday!"They made a red velvet cake, FROM SCRATCH! It did taste really good, but unfortunately, due to time constraints, the cake wasn't fully cooled when they iced it, so it's appearance was a little off. Here they are both laughing as they were telling me about the cake baking adventure.

My special request for my birthday was to go to the food trailer, Gordough's. I've heard amazing things about it, and trust me, they were not lies. We really should have shared one donut, but since it was my birthday we splurged. I got one with covered in chocolate and strawberries, a la mode, of course...

The other was banana pudding. It was delicious, but super, super sweet. I think this one was actually my favorite, but it seemed only possible to eat it in a much smaller portion b/c of how sweet it was. I definitely recommend Gourdough's for a sweet tooth. Thanks boys for a great birthday!

Take me out to the...

ballgame! The boys headed out to the Dell Diamond one night while the girls stayed home. Jake was especially super excited about the game---he LOVES baseball games. The game did not disappoint b/c they reportedly had a blast. Kevin did a great job getting some pictures, even a group shot. Here are all the boys...

My boys...Chad and the boys (Jake is apparently deeply into a play)...

and the cute blond cousins...

To be fair to Channing, she didn't miss out on all the baseball fun. We played a game ourselves at the house during the day and Channing took part too. Here she is up to bat...

Thatta girl!

Cousin Time minus one

I'm about one month behind on blogging--yikes! So, I'm hoping to play a little catch-up and get back on track soon. About a month ago, Chad, Cohen and Channing came to visit us for a couple days. We were very sad to miss out seeing Cassy and Campbell, but we loved having a least a part of their family here. We mixed their time here with some old fashioned fun at home with some excursions to keep us busy out of the house. Their first morning, we headed to church for Krazy Praizy. The kids did great listening to story time and singing songs. Here's Channing taking a look at the Krazy Praizy mascot...

There was another little girl there who fell instantly in love with Channing and took her under wing. She shared with her and even pushed her around in this car for a long time. Simone was being the perfect "big sister....

Another morning we headed to one of our friend's neighborhood pools. Amy generously lent us her key into the super nice pool, so we got to enjoy swimming for free! The boys spent a good amount of time jumping off the ledge and swimming out to either Kevin or Chad. They had a blast and it was a blast to watch them. They often held hands before taking the plunge...

Ready.....set....jump!

Channing was mostly enjoying Jake's little inner tube, but I did manage to capture a picture of her in on the action...

We ate a picnic lunch at the pool, and the boys were doing a great job at posing for pictures. This is my favorite picture from the entire visit...

And, of course, the kids played a lot at home. Here's some story time with Kevin while Channing is napping...

and a game of war. It was Kevin and Cohen against Chad and Jake...

The kids managed to also get out pretty much every toy we own. Channing especially loved Mr. Potato Head's glasses...

A cousin visit isn't complete without cousin bath time...

The boys ventured out somewhere else, but it deserves it's own post, so stay tuned!

Educational Fun

I definitely don't classify myself as an educator. I am in no way cut out to home school Jake, and am very happy there are people who have the education and the heart to do that within a school setting. I do, however, try my best to teach him what I can at home and it's nice to be able to be a part of his learning, which is something Kevin and I always want to do. Jake's piggy bank (actually cowboy boot bank) was getting really full, so we decided it was time to empty it out for counting. Of course, the bank can do this for free, but we took the opportunity to try to teach Jake the basics of the coins and work on his counting...

He already seems to know what money is, and even if he doesn't really know, he definitely knows money is a good thing to have, so he really loved sorting and counting. When we were all finished, we even took Jake took the bank and let him take the money in himself. He was a proud boy, and we're just a tiny (more like teeny, teeny, tiny) step closer to college!

Basic Fun

I post a lot on this blog about all the special fun things we do, but there's a lot of regular day, basic fun happening to keep us entertained too. We've been lucky to have Kevin around a lot this summer and Jake LOVES playing with his Daddy. One day they did an art project together on the back porch.

Here's Jake hard at work...

And both boys busy creating their masterpiece...

Thanks to Grandmama and Papa for the cool new sidewalk chalk and paint. It really is 3-D!