July Fun

I haven't been diligent with the blog (all of our pictures are now on facebook), but we're having a fun July! We started off the month with a week long visit from our amazing friends from Boston-Tammie, Sienna & Jenna. It was fun to act like tourists for a week! We went to Stone Mountain for the laser show, World of Coca-Cola, Centennial Olympic Park, Chattanooga, Six Flags White Water and even had a spa day. We were sad to see them go...and we hope they come back soon!
That was followed by a week of getting together with friends and then Luke's 1st birthday party! I can hardly believe he's one. He's on the verge of walking, we're working on baby sign language and he's developing his own personality (which just happens to be the exact opposite of his big brother). He's so incredibly happy, always smiling, but he also has his stubborn moments! The year definitely flew by and we're looking forward to watching him grow this year.

OK, so back to the blog...
On Friday, the boys met their good friends Jack, Caroline, Dru, Marley, Riley and Mattie Lou at the zoo.

Ryan's favorite part-feeding the parakeets

He actually got a parakeet to land on his stick, but then it got nervous and flew away (which also made Ryan a little nervous) from this point on, he wouldn't feed any of the other blue birds, only green & yellow.

Ryan, Dru, Jack & Riley loved the see-saw

Soon enough Luke will be playing on the playground with the boys, but until then, he's happy to play the drums

Sunday was a Dora/Princess party at Gymboree. Happy 2nd Birthday, Caroline!

Luke loved it! He could crawl & climb to his hearts content.

Happy Birthday, Monkey!

Yesterday we celebrated our monkey's very first birthday! Luke had a great day, he was surrounded by his family and wonderful friends...what more could a boy ask for!


(a special thank you to Prashant, Angie, Dru & Marley for the ADORABLE birthday hat...it couldn't be more perfect!)

Here we go Red Sox, here we go!

Today was an extra special day for all of us! Ryan, Lucas and I purchased tickets to the Braves vs. Red Sox game for Dave as his Father's Day gift. Since we couldn't figure out how coordinate a trip to Fenway for a game, we had to settle for Turner Field. It was a 1:35pm game with temperatures in the high 90s so we were a bit worried. But, we opted to leave our seats and head straight to the covered section which was primarily empty. The boys did great! Ryan loved it...ok, really he loved all the snacks and dancing...but whatever works. And Lucas was a trooper-it certainly was hot out there and he didn't complain once.
We all did our best to cheer Boston on to a victory...but despite our best efforts, Atlanta came out on top 2-1. Next time we'll have to cheer from the stands at Fenway!
Happy Father's Day Daddy! We hope you enjoyed your day!

Locomotive museum & the park

On Friday we started our next lesson plan which was trains. So, on Saturday we met up with Landon & his mommy to continue the learning fun at the Southern Locomotive Museum. The boys had a great time exploring together, as always.





Today we took the boys to the park to play. Ryan is absolutely loving the fact that Lucas can finally interact with him the way that he wants.

The Zoo and "why didn't God bring me any presents?"

We had Gavin all day on Saturday while Jaclyn worked. I knew I was going to have to keep the 3 boys busy all day...so we packed up the three of them and our lunches and headed to the zoo. Ryan and Gavin had a blast! Ryan always has so much more fun when he has a friend to explore with.

This morning, we started our second week of summer learning. I had purchased a bag of alphabet sponge stamps that Ryan has been begging to use so we started off with those.

He already knows the sound that each letter makes and can identify the letter if you make a sound so I figured why not try to work on spelling. As he stamped each letter we talked about the sound it made and which words might start with that sound. He picked the words and we spelled them together. Please excuse my illustrations, an artist I am not. lol

For our second week of lesson planning we are working on learning about God & The Bible. I know when I was little I always thought God was a man that lived in the clouds :) So, I thought Ryan would enjoy starting at the beginning. He already knows that God loves him and that he's talking to God when he says his bedtime prayers but I think that's about it. His time at church is spent on snacking and his etch a sketch.

Anyway, we started off by talking about God. I was explaining to him that God is way up beyond the sky & clouds in a place called heaven and although we can't see him that God is everywhere and always looking over us. Ryan proceeded to calmly walk away. I didn't know quite what to make of it. He promptly returned and said "God is like Santa & the Easter Bunny?" I told him maybe a little bit, only because we can't see them but we know that they are there- but that God was more like the wind-we can feel it but can't see it. And he replied with "then why didn't God bring me any presents?" I had to hold back my smile while I told him that our presents from God aren't wrapped or toys, that God gave us the earth and trees and that He gave daddy & I two healthy little boys to love. He looked at me like I wasn't speaking English! Precious moments like that make me so incredibly happy to be a mom. And it should be an interesting week of learning!!

Today our focus was that God created day & night

Catching up...

Last week was a busy week for us. Ryan had his last day of soccer and his last day of school back to back.
On his last day of soccer he got his very first trophy & a pizza party. He was so proud of himself, as he should be! This was his third time doing Soccertots, and his favorite. Of course, having all of his buddies in his class didn't hurt!




getting his trophy from Coach Carrie

The following day was his last day of mom's morning out. His school had a picnic at the park to celebrate. It was so neat for me to get to see him interact with his teacher and classmate...I say classmate because only one other child from his class was there. Luckily, it was the one that Ryan has been talking about non-stop since he started school. It was so incredibly cute to watch him with his favorite friend from school. And I learned something about him that I never knew...he is super bossy! :) I thought when I wasn't around he was shy and reserved, but turns out...not so much!

Lucas enjoying his first cupcake...compliments of Ryan's teacher!

On Saturday, we decided to take daddy to the zoo since he's never gone with us before. First stop, Parakeet Adventure. Ryan just loves feeding the parakeets! We spent nearly an hour feeding them, and still had to drag him away. Both boys got the birds to land on their sticks, which Lucas loved, but I wasn't quick enough to get the photos!

And finally...partly out of a desire for Ryan to be learning this summer, and partly as an idea to keep us busy...I decided that Ryan and I are going to have our own little summer school session. I found a great website with step by step pre-k lesson plans that includes learning, crafts, puzzles and more for each individual theme. This week we decided to start with weather and water. We're just getting started so we are still trying to get organized and figure out what works for us and what doesn't, but I think it will be fun for both of us. Ryan is already loving the projects that go along with the lessons.

We learned about clouds, rain & rainbows...

and came up with this

And then we talked about the ocean and waves, so we made an "ocean in a bottle"

Let summer begin! :)