A Word of Caution...

to the Grandmas who are coming to watch the boys for us in less than three weeks!  Have I mentioned that Chris and I are going to San Francisco for a whole week to visit Megan and Tocco?!  We leave on July 3rd and CAN.NOT.WAIT!  My mom and Chris's mom, Jackie, are coming into town to watch the boys for us.  They're super excited.  Or lying.  But either way, we're gettin' on that jet plane.

Back to the advice for those Sweet (unsuspecting) Grandmas...

If the house is quiet and A) Peter is in it and B) he is not asleep... fear.  Fear should envelop your body because HE IS UP TO NO GOOD.

At any given moment, he may be....

Painting the vanity with toothpaste...

Pushing his older brother down...

Dumping an entire box of noodles on the floor...

Laying on top of Charlie with my iPad...

Painting our BRAND NEW bed...

Squishing Slash...

"Helping cook" when you're not cooking... 

Half naked with the outside hose on...

Or trying to hitch a ride...

However tempting it may be to sit and enjoy the silence... and, Oh Sweet God, it will be... DO NOT rest on your laurels.  You must get up and investigate.  Because Peter....will....win.

You have both been warned.  :)

$1 Movie days!

The local, new movie theater started their annual $1 Movie Days for kids this summer!  For only $1 per child (and kids 3-and-under are free and adults are free!) and $1 popcorn and $1 drinks, we all got to watch The Lorax!

We had quite a crew with us this morning...

A bunch of kids for only 3 mamas!

Friends of ours from West Point, the Moraleses, moved in across the street from us over the weekend!  We are super excited they're finally here.  Two of their three children joined us at the movies so it was extra fun.

Silly kids :)

 Let's see... I think Pete sat like this for exactly 4 minutes.

Yup.  4 full minutes.

 And then he did this for the rest of the hour and twenty minute movie...

Back and forth...

Back and forth...

Well, save the 20 minutes Sweet Ms. Brittany took him "on a walk" around outside the theater.  She's so good to the boys (and me!).

Oh.  Annnnd Pete's back...

Overall it was a great time and the kids seemed to love it.  I imagine we'll be back again soon.  Next week the theater is showing The Smurfs!  Any takers??  :)

Last Day of School!!!

Yesterday was James's last day of 2nd grade.  Cortney and I decided to surprise her son, Nicolas, and James when they walked off the school bus.  We filled about 250 water balloons and several water guns and waited...

The sign read "Happy last day of 2nd grade!
These are your Water Balloons!  We are armed
with Water Guns!  Catch us if you can!"

It took a LONG time to fill all these balloons!

Classic.

 After the water balloon fight, we took all the kids to Gillis Hill Farm for their homemade ice cream!

It's been on my local "to do"
list since we moved in last year.

The farm is much bigger
than it looks from the road and
is literally only 1/4 of a mile from the house.

Rocking and eating...

Miss Cortney stealing a bite!

Henry and his chocolate cone...

"All gone!"  

James

Waylon

Nicolas

Gabby

Checking out the farm animals...

Walking down the path to check out more animals...

Feeding and petting the goats...

But what happened next was the most fun we'd all had in awhile...

It started to MONSOON!!!!

 The kids had an absolute blast running and playing in the summer rain...

It was a "last day" we'll all remember forever!

Falling Short...

I promised my girlfriend Krissy last time we were on the phone that I would do a better job of just saying "No!" to all of the boys who come over to play.  "Or tell them all to play OUT--side, Beth!" was her advice.  "And when they're thirsty or hungry?  You tell them they have a mama and a home.  They'll figure it out."  Sage advice my girlfriend, Lauren, has told me a time or two or twenty and oh yeah, that hubby of mine may have mentioned something along those lines too.

Clearly I didn't take their advice yesterday...

In their defense, though, they were all
*basically* quiet and well-behaved!

But today?  Well, something magical happened today.  James went over to his friend Waylon's house and Henry took off for Jonathan's house.  And you know what happened next?

This...

Sweet, sweet silence.

Chris has to leave for work tomorrow (Sunday) at 3am so it's nice he is able to nap today.

Even Charlie got in on the action.  Or I suppose I should say lack of action...

Now if you'll excuse me, I have a new US Weekly magazine to catch up on!

Ramblings...

Two nights ago, as I was getting Peter out of the tub and into his jammies, he leaned in to me so closely.  I could feel his little wet face on mine and was anticipating a sweet kiss.  Instead he scootched over to my ear and whispered.... "Poop....Face."  Ahhh, yes.

But then, last night he redeemed himself.  Henry and I made chocolate chip cookies for dessert and after I handed Peter one, he looked right at me and said, "Tank you, mama.  We bessst friends."  I've never even heard him use the expression 'best friend' before but it was so stinking cute!

After dessert we all snuggled up on the couch to watch the movie, Rudy.   Henry immediately found a spot on my lap and said, "My thumb hurts."  "Where?" I asked.  "Right here," he said pointing to the base of his fingernail, "where the glass part starts."

Kids sure are exhausting but every once in awhile they say the funniest damn things!

This was last night.  It's Charlie and me,
hiding out from the crazies on the kitchen floor.  At least I
remembered my wine.  Silly dog shoulda grabbed a bone!

Catch Up!

It seems computer time is more and more limited now that Henry is home with me all day.  And with James's last day of school this Monday, I imagine it may get even trickier to sit down!

Here are the latest happenings around here...

James "crossed-over" from Wolf Cub to Bear Cub last weekend!  The current den leaders are moving this summer so Chris and a few of the other dads are going to "co-lead" the pack next fall.  They already have a bunch of cool things lined up for the boys to do.

I picked up this blow-up pool and we had a great time setting it up and playing in it over the weekend...

Ahhh, serenity now!  (Well, as close to "serenity" as one might get with a 2 year old talking non-stop in your ear.)

We attended James's last awards ceremony for 2nd grade.  We are so proud of how well he's done again this year.  Most recently he was the first kid in his class to finish his AR (Advanced Reading) testing goals, weeks ahead of time!

Most of the gang on a rainy day, playing Monopoly.  (Gabby and Pete were watching tv.)

The boys continue to be obsessed over Slash (which now makes it 100% longer than they were obsessed over Charlie, our warm-blooded puppy!).   Here Henry has tucked Slash under the blanket with kale leaves as a pillow.  

But mostly, we've just been going to the gym in the mornings (where Henry loves making a new craft every day.  I'm so grateful that he enjoys going so much!) and hanging out in the afternoons doing this...

And this... Peter now loves building Lego "creations" and has finally found something he can do alongside the big boys that they think is cool.  Diaper and pants and shirt optional apparently.

Okay, so maybe sometimes there are princess crowns involved... 

but mostly just silly boy time!  :)  We are excited for summer!!