Bounce House

Thursday was preschool for Blake. When I picked him up, Ms. Shannon said Lacie and Dylan are now BFFs and they did everything together.

On our way home from school, we stopped by Cohen's house and played for a little bit (we had played for awhile Wednesday so we didn't want to play too long this time). Then on our way home, Ashley and Carter were outside of their house and asked if we wanted to play on their bounce house. We just can't pass that up. It was hot, but overcast. Dylan had fun playing baseball...Aaron was so disappointed when I showed him the picture.




They had so much fun and were so warn out.

Hope Park

Tuesday we meet up with some friends at Hope Park. One of our favorites. Beckett, Kelsey, Dace and Ryker were all there, but I didn't get any pictures of them because I am awesome like that.


Can you see this kid dripping in sweat? It was so hot, but we had fun. The great thing about this park is it is close to Costco, so we made a Costco run afterward and then headed home.

We went to pick up Blake from school. As we were walking home, our neighbors, Ashley and Carter drove by in their golf cart and asked if Blake wanted to ride home with them. So, they took the long way home and then dropped him off at our house while Dylan and I walked the rest of the way. Yep, I didn't zoom on this picture, but they are in the far distance. Angie, the mom, said Blake and Ashley were in the back just chatting away. It was the highlight of Blake's day. He loves that golf cart.

Lacie

One of Dylan's friends from preschool is Lacie. She also happens to be his teacher's daughter. We had her over last week for a playdate. We went over to the park.


Then we walked home while collecting leaves on the way. Collecting leaves makes it seems like fall has come, but don't be fooled, we were in the 90s all last week.

Since it was hot, we played the rest of the time inside...playing in the curtains.


Reading...

being silly...


and blocks. They had a fun time. It is always fun to have a little girl over. They are so different. When we were at the park, she said, "Oh no, my hand is sticky!" She wasn't happy about that. When I suggested wiping her hands off on her dress she was disgusted with me.

One of the great things about Lacie is that she is potty trained, so Dylan noticed this while she was over and I made a big deal that day and the next couple of days how Lacie didn't wear diapers. (Flash back a couple months ago I was talking with a friend who also has a kid in the same preschool as Dylan and she gave me a book on potty training. Blake was hard  to potty train so I wanted to do something different. I figured it would also be easier because I didn't have a baby around like we did when we were potty training Blake. So I read some of the book and got the idea of the philosophy. I didn't want to potty train him until after our trip to Nauvoo for obvious reasons.) Now we are back..Friday morning, I finished reading the book with full intentions of starting potty training on Monday. We had been doing already some of the pre-potty training stuff. But Friday night, we were getting ready for bed and Dylan said he wanted to go potty in the toilet, which he did, then he did not want to wear his diaper, he wanted to wear underwear like Lacie. Um, okay, well, I am not going to argue, but I was then expecting a long night. He woke up dry and I took his potty..no problems. Part of this training is to not let your kid out of your sight at all during the day so that you can see when they are trying to go in their underwear. Well, we had plans to go to the Heard Museum that day because the dinosaurs were back. No worries, he did awesome. Then Sunday I had a meeting way too early in the morning, so I left before the kids were awake. Dylan didn't want to go with Aaron. This is our current problem. He does fine when he tells me that he needs to go and I take him, but it hasn't worked yet for Aaron. I hope this changes. So, this meant at church I took him during Sacrament when he told me he had to go and then I took him in between classes at church because I had to teach so that was the only time I could do it. Fingers crossed that he keeps doing great. In true Dylan form, I had plans to start at a certain date, but he did it when he wanted to. Sometimes kids just know better then we do...just good thing I was ready for it.

Rain and a Party

Thursday it rained in the morning and then Friday it rained all day. We are in a drought and so we were very grateful for the rain, but it kind of messed up our plans for  the park with friends. So Dylan and I went over to our friend Beckett's house instead. They just moved here from Virginia. They have a 4 year old girl and 2 year old boy. We have had them over a couple times and we like playing with them. Anyway, Aaron had meetings in the morning and was able to get home right as we were heading over to pick up Blake, so he went with us. Blake was so excited to see Aaron because it was the first time that Aaron has been there. We went back home and since we couldn't swim (it was cold....Wednedsay it was 100 degrees and Friday it dropped to the low 60s as the high), they decided to go on a hike/campout while Aaron did some work from home.

Saturday Blake went to Reese's birthday party. It was a Wild Kratts theme. Reese has one of the most creative and talented moms around who also now, has all her kids in school, so she has more time and was able to make these shirts for the kids. From what Blake tells me, they had different adventures to go on and would earn some creature power disc. Blake had such a great time and he wore his shirt the rest of the day and put it back on this morning after he woke up. 

This week we will be in the 80s as our high and the 60s as our low. This weather is so much more fun to run in then when it is 80 degrees at 5am. I think our summer heat is over. I just hope we keep this nice weather for a long time.

Treasure Map

Every night Blake's homework is to read for 30 minutes. Occasionally there are additional assignments. Wednesday night was one of those and for those who did this assignment, they got to pick out something from the treasure chest. He picked a treasure map. Super excited about this map. As we were walking home he said, "Mom, I have something special and I did something pretty awesome  at school today." That's when he told me about the map and that he earned blue on his behavior chart that day. Green is good and blue is awesome. Blue is pretty hard to get, but it is his favorite color so he has been working hard to earn blue. 

Back to the map. Dylan fell asleep on the walk to pick up Blake from school, so when we got home, Blake got the treasure ready. Once Dylan woke up, they went on the hunt. They started at the water like it said on the map, which was the pool and walked all over the backyard and did circles as indicated on the map until they got to the treasure.

This is our treasure chest...at least according to Blake it looks close to the treasure chest on the map...with snacks as the treasure. So they ate some goldfish and craisins for their after school snack.

Grandparents Day

Today is the greatest day of the week. I have a couple of hours when both kids are in school. So, what did I do today...well, I did take care of some stuff, but then I surprised Blake at school at lunch. Today was Grandparents Day, so only Grandparents were supposed to come to school. Blake's Grandparents don't live close enough to stop by for lunch, so I asked his teacher if I could come. She said yes. I was a "Grand Friend" not a grandparent...that's what my badge said at least. I thought it would be fun for just Blake and me to get to eat...without a little brother around.

Blake was sitting next to his friend Claire. Blake then introduced me to the other kids by him. "This is the mean kid, Luke M." So, Blake told me that there was a mean kid--remember a previous post involving a decision on Joseph Smith...apparently Luke M was that mean kid. Blake has also been praying about the kids in school to stop talking so much. Blake was telling me a couple days ago that Luke M. was moved to another table. Back to today...I met Luke M. Okay, this kid doesn't stop talking. I wouldn't classify him as mean, but he did not stop talking the entire time. I ignored the kid and he was still talking away. I now understand why Blake was praying for the kids at school to stop talking. 

We had fun. Blake ended up spitting up while I was there. (Not so fun) Why? Oh, because that is what he does. His teacher was surprised...he doesn't seem sick, etc. I told her this is how he is. Anyway, I had to take him to the nurse to get his temp taken...yep...totally normal. Fortunately or unfortunately I was there to explain this to the teacher and nurse because I am sure Blake wouldn't have told them that he does it all the time and then they would've called me to come get him. 

I went to a meeting at his school last week to go over the curriculum, where we got to hear from all the kinder teachers. When I left I thought Blake had the perfect teacher for Blake. She has a good balance of everything you need for a good kinder teacher. There weren't certainly other teachers that were more fun, but I don't think that would be good for Blake. Anyway, after today I was able to talk with her more and I still think she is great. Teachers are great, aren't they? And since it was grandparents day today at our school...grandparents are great too!

Projects and Treasure Hunts

Saturdays are always busy and this Saturday was no exception. Aaron had to go help with some church assignments in the morning, so I took the boys to Home Depot to make a Wizard of Oz birdhouse. It is the 75th anniversary of that movie...crazy right? It was funny because a lot of the kids at Home Depot were like, "Um, what is the Wizard of Oz?" Yeah, my kids didn't know either. After we put the stickers on Blake said, "Um, won't the birds be scared of the witch and not want to go in the bird house?"

Classic brother moment: Blake is moving Dylan's bird house to a position that Dylan doesn't want it.

Once Dylan sees that, he is sad. 

Then I had a baby shower to go to, then we went to our beach club at our HOA because Blake has been bugging us to do it and it is closing soon. We ended up seeing our neighbors there.

Aaron then had to go to a meeting for church. The boys do miss playing together and I miss them playing together. School gets in the way of fun sometimes. Well, I was doing something and I heard them in the pantry. This is what I found. Here is what happened....they drew their own treasure map (white pieces of paper in hand), then they had gone all through the house as their map had instructed them to do, then they ended up in the pantry where their treasure was...Blake's treasure were Cheetos and Dylan's were Doritos.

Speaking of doritos...Dylan was cutting paper. He ended up making the shape of a triangle, so I asked him what shape that was and he responded with..."A chip!". I think Doritos are corrupting our kids.

Since we are talking about learning, Dylan and I were playing Candy Land and Dylan starts counting in Spanish. It took me awhile to realize this because well, it is a 2 year old counting in spanish so the accent isn't exactly there, but when I asked him if he was speaking spanish he said, "No, I am speaking tres, quatro, cinco, seis." He did know that he was counting, just not that it was spanish. I guess he is learning some things in preschool. 

So we are about 3 hours from Austin, but there are still plenty of very loyal UT fans and grads in our area. Of course we watched the game...did you doubt? We had Stake Conference today and the final score might have been mentioned once or twice. We do know that there were a handful who went down to the game and were not at the leadership meeting last night. Apparently the BYU football schedule was not considered when scheduling our stake conference. 

Labor Day

Aaron had the day off and so did Blake, so we played...a lot! Then we had Cohen and his family over to swim.

We also sprayed for bees. Blake got stung the other day, then a friend got stung last Saturday and then our neighbor got stung yesterday when they came over to swim after school. The bees/wasps hate us right now.

The next day we picked up Blake from school and our neighbors pull up in a golf cart. Do they golf...no. They just thought it would be easier to drop off/pick up their daughter from school. Fun for us because they took us for a spin. She told us that there was one still for sale that was blue, so Blake told her, well, maybe we will buy it and then put a BYU sticker on it.

Cohen's Minecraft Birthday Party

Blake's friend, Cohen, turned 5 last week, so his family invited us over to celebrate Saturday night for pizza and cake.

The kids had so much fun playing with toys...the dads watched a football game...the moms talked. Great for everyone.

Preschool for Dylan

Dylan started preschool today. To make a long story short, he is going one day a week. I didn't think he would start until at least next year, but things changed. He is super excited. Blake was a little concerned for me though. He said, "Mom! What are you going to do with everyone gone? All your help with be gone!" I told him somehow I will manage :)

When I picked him up from school, I asked him about it and he said, "I don't want to tell you until Blake gets home so he can hear about it too!" It was fun to see Ms. Shannon again. We knew one girl, Sophie, was going to be in his class, so when they saw each other at school, they both were really excited. It was pretty cute. They are a month apart, so really close in age. He did great being dropped off. When I picked him up Ms. Shannon comments were, "He is so cute. He makes me want to have a boy." (she has 4 girls) and "You can tell that Blake and Dylan are brothers, they both get really excited about the same things."

His school is for 2 1/2 hours, so not super long, but long enough for me to get so much done because well, I don't have any kids with me!

Blake came home from school the other day and told me that they were dancing in their PE class. He then said, "Mom, some of those kids do not know how to dance....they must not have the dance game. It's a good thing we have the dance game so that I already know how to dance." Thank you "Just Dance" for teaching my kid some important lessons for school.