Friday, June 11, 2010

Summer Kickoff Party


Luke & Brady hosted a Summer Kickoff Party today at our house. Each boy picked a few friends to invite to come over to play, splash, eat, and have fun to get the summer off to a good start.


My party people!


A summer party isn't a party without some watermelon.


Alex & Luke being silly!


Madi, Alex, & Luke splashing and enjoying some chips.


Brady & Abi on the fort.


The whole gang eating popsicles!


Ashton & Brady


Madi & Luke (or should I say Batman & Batgirl?)


Everyone playing in the sprinkler.


This morning as we were getting ready for the party Luke said, "Mommy, you're the bestest mom ever!" It made me feel so good!

Thursday, June 10, 2010

Swimming with the boys!


Today we started our summertime Thursday Swim Day. We had ALL BOYS today! They swam for a while then played in the sandbox.


Here is all eight of them lined up by age. Ranging from 7 years old to 8 weeks old. It was the cutest thing!
Summer is SO MUCH FUN!

Wednesday, June 9, 2010

Father's Day Pictures Continued

After I got my disk from our photo shoot the other day, I had to put a few more of my favorite pictures on my blog...

































Tuesday, June 8, 2010

Earning Their Keep...

Lately I have been trying to teach the boys about responsibility. I want them to pitch in around here to help keep the house clean and functioning well. I recently discovered a new chore for Luke, vacuuming! He is really good at it too! He vacuums for me twice a week and he does the entire house. It is really a HUGE help.

His other chores at the time consist of:
carrying his & Brady's clean laundry to their rooms & putting away
emptying all of the trash cans into the main kitchen trash can twice a week
carrying morning pajamas to the laundry basket
carrying finished plate to the sink after all meals

Luke really enjoys doing his chores and the pride he feels when his job is done well. I am very proud of him for doing these without complaining. He is growing into such a big boy SO fast!


Here is a picture I got of him diligently vacuuming the kitchen floor.

Even though Brady is two years behind Luke he enjoys having responsibilities too. While Luke vacuums he is right behind him with his little pretend vacuum.

His chores at the time are:
carrying his plate to the sink after all meals
carrying morning pajamas to the laundry basket

He does a very good job at his chores too! At this stage in his life he just likes to be doing whatever his "Bubba" is doing.

Here is Brady vacuuming the play area.

Saturday, June 5, 2010

Father's Day Pictures

Tonight we went out to a park in Alvin for a Father's Day photo shoot.



The above picture is my absolute favorite!


We also got one of Caleb & I which I am really happy about. Seems like we are always taking pictures of the kids & never of the two of us.
I am SO blessed to have such an amazing man as my husband & father to Luke and Brady (soon for Owen too). God could not have picked a better person for us.
We love you Daddy! Hope you have a wonderful Father's Day!

(photos courtesy of our sweet friend Mindy Himmel)

Thursday, June 3, 2010

Summer School- week one


This summer we have a few things I want to work on with Luke before he begins PreK-4. First things first..his name. He knows how to write his name, but instead of writing it all in a straight line he was stacking the "ke" under the "Lu". So, we have been working on that.


Here's the result! Very good! I think we mastered the first problem. While working on this, I noticed he was struggling a little writing his "k". I was trying to help him as much as possible and as best I knew, but really wasn't getting anywhere. So, I called one of my teacher friends! (I am blessed to have several teacher friends that teach all different grades!) She advised me to use sticks and let him form the letter first with the sticks, then try to write it.


We pulled out some toothpicks and got to work. Here is our first project using her method. I have a few more to do and hopefully before to long that silly "k" won't give him any more grief!

Tuesday, June 1, 2010

A Fun Summer Day!

Today was a very busy, but fun day!

To start the day off we went ran errands most of the morning, came home for Brady's nap, then we went swimming with our friends Kristen, Madi, & Abi.

Madi & Luke ready to dive in! Both have come so far since last year. They swam most of the time without their floaties on.


Abi & Brady!


When we came home, the boys wanted to try out their new butterfly catchers. Luke has been extremely interested in catching butterflies lately, so I got him a new net.


Going on a hunt! (no butterflies were harmed in this expedition)
Luke mainly likes the challenge...

After dinner, Daddy surprised the boys with a water balloon fight! All three absolutely love water balloons!



We finished the night with a walk to the new snow cone shop at the entrance of our neighborhood to enjoy a delicious snow cone!