A boy and a dirt pile

Can a boy resist a whole trough of dirt? Not if they're one of ours. There is a built in planter/flower box that runs along a big window at Grandma and Grandpa's house. The boys are allowed to dig all they want until flowers are living there! I can live with a little dirt when the kid doing the digging looks so darn cute in a puffer vest =)

Library Time

Som This summer meant many trips to the public library. Usually Beckett and I went on Saturday mornings, or else Grandma took the boys on Monday evening while I rested between my "day" job and "night" job. Now that the boys are back in school they're utilizing their respective libraries at their schools, but Beckett still likes to check things out at the public library. I'd like to point out that he usually picks out 2 books and 2 movies, either VHS or DVD--USUALLY movies that we already have at home. Yah. Sometimes on Saturdays I would drop him off and then drive to the post office to mail things in the drive up box, which is approximately 6 blocks away and then come back, which meant he was alone for about 4 minutes inside the library, but oh he felt like such a big boy when I'd do that =) This week he wanted to play on the computers for awhile, which was a refreshing change from him watching Victorious music videos the way he does at home (insert eyeroll)

I see a pattern.....

Today when I picked up Beckett from Grandma and Grandpa's, I noticed a wider gap in his smile. "Beckett!! You lost your other loose tooth!". "I did?!" he said, completely puzzled. "Where is it?" ask I. He smiled and said "I think I swallowed it"!
Yes folks, TWO teeth down the hatch. At this point I think he enjoys the reaction he gets when he does this and now I'll be very surprised if I see ANY in his little hand after they exit his mouth....

Storytime....

Sometimes it's like pulling teeth to get Paxton to do reading at night, other times he LOVES to do it. The boys are really into a book I picked up at Goodwill--A Monster Followed Me to School. Paxton reading + Beckett sitting still + NO FIGHTING = Happy Momma =)

Lazy Sunday and What NOT to Wear...

We're having a pretty laid back Sunday here. I ran a couple of errands and cut Kurt's hair, now it's study time (OB!) and the boys are playing nicely with legos. Paxton is s Lego FIEND!!! Far too often Beckett just plows through what Paxton is trying to build, but today Paxton builds and Beckett is playing with the results =)
Speaking of Beckett. The disclaimer is that HE DRESSED HIMSELF!!! He came in our room carrying the shirt today and said he wanted to wear it and I said fine. Then he asked if he could wear shorts (yes, it's only 35 degrees today, but he's not going anywhere--ESPECIALLY dressed like this, HA!) so I said OK. Egads, this is what he chose! He's pretty proud of it too......

Fun in the Sun, errrr......

Maybe not the sun so much. When given lemons, you make lemonade, right? If you're 5 and 7, yes. If you're their Momma, you stand inside and snap pictures through the french doors!!!
Notice Paxton working his little tookus off to pull that wagon through 3 feet of snow on the deck. Notice Beckett, sitting on one of the little adirondack chairs, eating snow. Glad they enjoy it out there!!!

In case this whole nursing thing doesn't work out...

The boys think I'd make a great engineer (not the whoo-whoo, all aboard kind), no they think I could make a go of it as the kind that lays railroad track, HA! It's harder than you think, peeps! Beckett tries to hand you track that you don't need and Paxton will drive trains right up to where you've built, waiting for you to lay the next section. LOTS of obstacles. Maybe I'd just better plan on graduation...

I don't know where he gets ideas like this...

Um yeah. Please rest assured that we don't encourage laying on the countertop while playing LeapFrog!! And you can be certain he was ordered down from there (right after I took a picture for a blog post...)

He works hard for his money....

Parker actually has been working TWO jobs this summer--what an ambitious kid, eh?! He's been doing the golf course at the country club since this Spring and returned for his second season at the pool as an attendant (he's seriously considering being a lifeguard next year though!) The night I took these pictures, he was doing a rotation in the sand play area. He was starting to pick up the toys as time ran down and Beckett was following right behind him pulling the stuff back out!!

First sweet corn of the season

Last week sweet corn was abundant at the grocery store, so I picked up some ears. It wasn't the best we've ever had, but certainly not the worst either. Beckett was quite the helper in getting it peeled--as long as you aren't on a schedule, HA!
We weren't sure how well Paxton would do with corn on the cob considering that his smile has more spaces in it than this paragraph =) He managed to plow through 2 ears, so no worries there!!

Sights of Summer

We are LOVING Summer!! Pool trips whenever we can, shorts and T-shirts, flip flops and sandals, time spent playing outside, eating on the deck---all of it!!!
The boys are getting as brown as little nuts (it fits in so many ways--HA!) and Momma spends just a little extra time on her tootsies =)

Plan B...

I WANTED to post some pictures of our "last day of school" celebration dinner out (chips and salsa which translates to Fiesta Cancun in boy speak), but when I tried to load the pictures onto my laptop there was a problem =(
So instead you get to view some random shots of the boys playing outside, enjoying the summertime!!!!!

Are you ready for the summer?!

Now that you've got the theme for "Meatballs" in your head, you can peruse some pictures of one of our first trips to the pool this season! I say ONE OF THE FIRST because the first time we went it rained/poured several times (until Momma said, enough!). The boys didn't mind a smidge, but I was not bringing a camera out in that!
They picked up right where they left off last August--Paxton is venturing out just a bit further and loves to practice his strokes and "diving" (except he keeps his eyes open, ew!) and Beckett will jump off the side about 47,205 times each time we go, with occasional trips to the splash table area.
With no online classes this summer, no Graves Disease to deal with head on, and little fishes for offspring, I predict we'll be spending LOTS of time at the pool =)

Shopping with Paxton

It actually goes pretty well when it's just he and I--throw Beckett into the mix though and that totally changes things! Paxton has a birthday party to attend tomorrow so we had to go gift shopping. I fully intended to get some pictures of him perusing the aisles of pink to choose the perfect girly gift, but he walked past the Zhu-Zhu pets, I suggested one and he said OK! We used my fistful of coupons to save about $16 on household-y things and then onto the grocery store.
Once I talked him out of pushing one of those disgusting race-car carts around, he was content to push a regular cart and give me the commercial version of products he recognized--especially the Go-gurts! We didn't come away with TOO much excess, pop-tarts, but they were on sale so not a biggie and he chose a bottle of water from an end-cap, so you KNOW I paid too much for it, HA! Oh well, he was a huge help and pretty cute too =)
I hope there isn't a lot of junk food visible in these pictures!!!