Summer!

We thought long and hard about buying an "easy set" pool for us to use this summer. I sat on the idea for a few weeks and we finally decided to go for it. It was NOT easy by all means and was a major pain in the ass to set up, but it's been worth all the pain a million times over. This weekend alone we've been in every single day since Friday when I hit the door from work. I figure this is where I'll be most of the summer.
The boys have been having a blast in it. It's finally warmed up to almost 90 degrees thankfully. Last weekend wasn't quite as nice when it was around 80 degrees. I still managed to get a good amount of sun last week and am happily adding to my tan this weekend.
Mammaw bought them some life jackets, kick boards and pool toys to play with. The boys can reach the bottom and walk while I float around them. Today they added more squirting toys and some creepy goggles that look like lizard eyes. Taylor calls them his dragon eyes. The boys still aren't too keen on letting me try to teach them how to float on their backs, but they'll float on their bellies with the kick boards and kick their feet...so they're getting the general idea of swimming for now. Ideally I'd really like them to get swim lessons.
The pool has been a great source of entertainment and keeping us out of the house and enjoying our backyard for the summer. It makes me feel better about the boys not spending the summer inside watching tv and playing video games constantly.

I'm on a two week break from school! Thank goodness. I definitely needed it. I'm pretty happy to report that I am mostly positive that this will be another 4.0 quarter for me. Next quarter looks brutal so I am thrilled to have this break to come straight home from work, eat warm dinner with my family and enjoy our boys before kindergarten starts up sooner than I'd like to think about.




Callum is figuring out how to float and kick himself around the pool with the little kickboards. He was brave enough to float around on his back with them yesterday.




Taylor zooming around the pool with Aunt Ashley





These water shooters were the best $1 spent at the dollar store, although getting shot in the face with it is not fun.










Firefly catch and release




This is exactly how I want to spend the summer!

Science Museum

The boys and I went to our local Science Museum Saturday.
We spent almost five hours there. I was exhausted by the end of the day.
They had a blast. Right now they have Body by Sesame Street as a visiting exhibition.
They loved being able to see Elmo's house, play in Harper's grocery store and especially the grosser parts of the exhibit about poop, sneezing, and stomach acid.

Besides that part of the museum they love going to see the giant Polar Bears the museum has had for years. They're still scared to stand too close to the glass figuring they will wake up any second.




This was Grover's relay to teach them over, under, through, sliding and jumping. Callum was getting mad at the other kids that were going the wrong way.





Sneeze Machine



We were stopped more times than I can even count to ask if they were twins. Everyone had the usual "you have your hands full" "I'm glad I'm not you" the typical stupid comments that people normally make when we're out in public.
The boys hardly notice anymore when they're being ogled and I am being questioned about if they were conceived the "regular" way or not.

What the boys are up to about now.

They are growing so fast.

It's just crazy.

Taylor lays awake at night because he is too busy trying to do math.

He'll call out, what's two two's? What are three three's?

Also, is a crocodile nocturnal?

They are both in love with math right now and it's so awesome to watch them figure it out. You can see the little gears moving.

They are both SO into Star Wars. My husband downloaded purchased all six scores from the movies. The boys were so excited. It really brought a tear to my eye to see them so passionate about it.

They were both bopping their heads and humming along and asking what the name of each of the songs were.

We are now rid of the baby potty's in the house and they are strictly using the little seats that go on the toilets.

We found seats that look like this , they're really great. The boys feel more like "big boys" using a big seat with their own little seat that magnetizes right up into the big seat. We get to be happy to not have little potties all over the house, or seats with Elmo, Diego and other characters in every bathroom.

We have also rid ourselves of pull-ups at any time of the day or night! I am really excited about this. Callum was hanging on there for a while and finally decided that he doesn't want to use them anymore. They were a crutch for him for a little bit. Taylor has been without the pull-ups since before we moved. Callum never wore them for naptime but felt he really needed them at night. So far so good!!

They've been on vacation from preschool for the summer spending a lot of time with their Nana and breaking my heart.

One of the mornings Callum declared that I must really hate to go places with them since Nana is always taking them.

Cue hearing my heart shatter into a million pieces.

I had to explain that this is why weekends are so important to Daddy and I. and this is when we get to do things with them. We have to work so that we can have our nice house and all of our fun things like our Wii and the games and toys we have.

I wanted to try to explain it without having to have the "well do you want a roof over your head?" mentality.

I still went to work with my shoulders slumped and my head hanging low.

It hurts to hear that, even if it is just because they're three and don't understand why you have to go to work everyday.

I didn't have off for the day after the Fourth of July, but did get to come home early so I made extra effort to tag along to wherever they were headed with Nana that day.

Thank goodness our town has great little water parks for kids all over.

They had a blast, I nearly got sun stroke but felt happy to be going out and doing things with them during the week.

I can't always go to the library or take them to the museum but I want to make sure that the time I do spend I try to consciously make it quality time.

Lightning Bug Hunters

Things are moving along nicely with us getting settled in.
We still have lots of things to hang and find a place for everything.
The boys playroom is still in disarray. We need new storage shelves for everything.
I love having so much more space.
It's been really weird getting used to the creaks and noises at a new house.
The old house I would walk through in the pitch black and feel totally comfortable, I'm not quite there yet with the new house. I'm a big chicken and I still get jumpy.
The first week or more I kept one of the kitchen lights on if I was up late so I could have a light on when I moved from the downstairs family room to our room upstairs instead of being in the dark.
The boys started yelling at me about a light being on downstairs so I had to buck up.

Because we live next to a huge empty field we have SO many lightening bugs at night.
The boys favorite thing is to go out at dusk and collect a few each in a container we've poked holes in.
They like to have them in their room up on a dresses to blink through the night.
My mom bought them little bug catcher things but there seems to be a way for them to get out. Each morning when we go to release them there aren't any left in there.
We've got a good catch and release program going on.
Except some have escaped and are hiding in the house somewhere.



Taylor & Nana capturing bugs



Taylor's Catch



Callum's Catch



Snuggling in bed with Nana with their buddies for the night

One of the things I love about living in our town is the number have parks we have to choose form to go to on a daily basis.
We can almost go somewhere new every weekend.
This weekend we decided to go out Sunday to a park somewhere that had water features for the boys to run through.
They have quite a few around town.
We set out on our way before naptime Sunday and figured we would at least drive by the river front park and see how bad it was.
That place is usually packed on the weekends, especially how gorgeous it was out early Sunday.
We got there and there wasn't even a dozen kids there, there was even parking which was a sign that all was good.
The boys had so much fun.
I'm so glad that they aren't so scared of water now.
Hopefully we can renew our zoo membership and we can hit their water park this year before it gets cold again.
We played for a few hours in the water area and some of the playground and decided to go to the Tumbleweed on the river so we could sit outside and watch the river and let the boys watch the boats go by.
Our service was absolutely horrible.
The server spilled our drinks on Josh and Nana and proceeded to mop up the floor before even offering them napkins to dry off their legs that she had soaked.
Instead of having someone help her and either mop it up or get our drinks she did both and took forever. We had to ask for napkins to dry off with.
Josh had to go to the bar to get his Coke refilled and she disappeared basically the whole time we were there.
It was awful.
Josh didn't want to go to Tumbleweed anyway since he doesn't like their food much, that just solidified that we probably won't be patronizing another one anytime soon.