first day

The first day of school is here!  I love all the nervous excitement that accompanies the first day of school!  Brody was more than ready to go back- that kids loves school!  I told him I'd wake him up and when I walked in his room- he was wide awake staring at the clock, waiting for "wake up" time!  

On his way to first grade!

 Here he is with his teacher Mrs. Cook

 Crew and Kade started preschool a week later, I opted for separate classes again, that just works best for us.  Ironically Crew has a set of twin boys in his class.  I asked him if they look alike and he said, very matter-of-factly, "no, they're different."  Huh.  Sometimes I think maybe it's easier for kids to tell the difference!

As you can tell they're also pretty excited to get back in the swing of things!

As for me, it nice to get back a little quiet time.  But sure enough, each day I end up counting down until I need to pick them up!  As much as I love the quiet, I miss these guys more!

august

I feel like it's so hard to get outside during the summer months.  It's a terrible irony for the kids, you're finally free from school to play all day and it's just too dang hot to play outside.  We've tried to do a couple bike rides when justin gets home from work, and I just was to publicly declare that I totally get the easier ride between the two of us!  Brody's wee-ride can pedal with me:

The twins are more dead weight... and a lot of it!  But justin's a trooper and doesn't really complain- well, except when they reach out the trailer and try to grab his tire.  we don't endorse that.

We also hit the parks later and try not to get bitten by mosquitos (west nile anyone?)

The boys all finished their swim sessions.  I really love watching swim lessons.  I know I loved lessons as a kid, and the boys are the same, they did great!  

The twins can each swim the width of the pool and can swim out from coming down the big slides.  Brody has been able to swim the length for a while and started working on breaststroke this session.  They all try so hard, it's just so fun to watch!

on justin's day off we went to legoland discovery.  i would love to take the boys to legoland in san diego, but this will have to do for now.  luckily they were having a star wars exhibit, so they we're super excited, and we spent most of our time "admiring the possibilities!"

Crew trying to work the death star (surprise, surprise)

darth kader marveling at darth vader

brody by the x-wing.  that kid is longing to get and build an x-wing.  lucky for him, about an hour later he got to use his birthday money to get one.  it was like christmas morning!

 These two long to be Han and Chewy.  And they make pretty awesome wookie noises!

We did more swimming at the pools.

We hit up the kids summer movie series at the the theatre.

Before school started we made a trip to the dentist office.  All three were cavity free!!  They definitely were not whine free!  I'm sure they whine more because it's dad so they can.  Brody got this fake mustache in the reward box, i don't think he's a fan.

I'm relieved to say we made it through summer!  I'm also 100% ready for school to start!  I should also mention that i'm 1000% (yes dad, i know that's not a real percentage) ready for cooler weather!

july

well needless to really say, july, in texas, is really hot!  so we've spent a little time trying to stay cool:

the twins belated birthday gift was a fort building kit, which has really come in handy for afternoon activities!

justin and i celebrated our 9th anniversary!  we pretty much called costa rica our celebration but we also made sure to have a date night closer to our special day!

Brody turned 6!  He's been waiting to turn six since last September, so we're glad his big day finally came!

engrossed in the new star wars paper airplane book

celebrating with cake!

Brody had another semi-annual eye checkup.  His dr totally tricked me, he said "well after checking him his eyes can see perfectly at 20/20."  I was shocked since he has an astigmatism.  Then, noticing my surprise, he continues "well, with the help of his glass of course."  Oh, right.  I felt a little dumb for not realizing that initially!

Anywho, just minor changes to his prescription and some fresh glasses on order!
CrewKade had their 4 year old check up.  They each got 4 shots in their legs.  It still makes me cryto hold those little guys down!  Kade was such a champ.  He didn't even cry!  His lips trembled and he took some deep breaths but he totally toughed it out.  Crew, on the other hand, totally lost it.  He was screaming and crying.  Not fun for any of the involved parties.  Luckily they took him to get a popsicle after so that calmed him down.  The nurse warned me they might want to rest today since their legs will be sore.  But here they were right after we got home:

Oh yea, those are definitely their "i just want to rest" faces.

And finally, Brody got the Y wing for his birthday, and after about 4 -uninterrupted- hours of building it was finished, he was so excited!

That's our July in a nut shell.  We're moving on to August, and trying to stay cool!

may to june

I'm definitely playing catch-up with summer, so here goes!  We came home from Costa Rica and jumped right back into all the busyness May had in store for us.  First up:  Brody and I completed a fun run the school district put on.  The run was a little over two miles and he did absolutely great!  He's been in running club the past couple months and really worked hard to run hard!  We ran past this dad walking with his middle-schoolerish son and the dad told him "come on, you're going as slow as a kindergartener!"  I wanted to yell over my shoulder "actually you just got passed by a kindergartener!"  But this wasn't a race, it was only to promote fit families in the district, so I withheld my comment.  Here's me and Brody after the race:

About two minutes into the race I went to retighten my ponytail and my band broke!!  So I did the rest with the lions mane, that part was dreadful!

A week later Brody had his end of the year running club party, he logged 15.5 miles over the course of the 2.5 months he joined the club (40 mins running once a week.)  I was proud of this little guy!

The next week the twins had their last days of preschool, here's Kade with his teachers:

The assistant teacher Mrs. G holding Kade was Kade's ultimate favorite!  Oh, how he loved his time with Mrs. G!  She will definitely be missed next year!

Here's Crew with one of his teachers:

The next week these guys turned 4!!

They were so excited to be bigger boys!  They got to move up to booster seats, and loved it!!

They got to eat gigantic cookies for lunch!

They had a gacc cookie with darth vader on it- they were in heaven!  And yes, they kept the masks on while we sang happy birthday to them!

A couple days later we had mormon ranger night at the ballpark.  

At the start of June we celebrated Father's day early with a surprise party for Justin so he could open his new gift:

The boys love going on the electric scooter with dad, and of course Brody loves having dad cruise him up to school in the mornings!

A week later this big guy finished kindergarten- do you think he was excited?

His school had a little kindergarten promotional ceremony so we took a little family picture together afterward:

And here's a pic with his teacher, the fabulous Ms. Bradanini!  We loved Ms. B, and I hope one of the twins get in her class for kindergarten!

This month month had so many big things for our family- I glad we were able to pack it all in!  Now we're off to pack our stuff to head on vacations!