I am not a morning person, so as much fun as a church pancake breakfast should be, it’s not much fun for me. Oh the daily sacrifices we make for these cute kiddos.

We decorated the bikes for the 4th of July bike parade. Only 1 wheel each got decorated because, like I said earlier, I’m not morning person. {{sigh}}

This little cutie is in the church class I teach (sunbeams). Isn’t she adorable!! Her mom attached the red, white, and blue, paper strands to hair bows and the handle bars. Then she taped on the hair bows to the top of her helmet. Too cute!!

I thought this wagon was adorable all decorated with balloons.

Tatiana & Brent, Greg & Rebecca

Rebecca and her fam met us up at the park and then we headed off to the lake to jet ski.

My boys enjoy playing in the sand more than playing in the water.

Another trip to the beach, and another tube to try out. We are seriously hard to please when it comes to water toys. We took back the banana and tried out this tube. The boys liked it much better.

As usual, Drake wanted Jason and to ride the Jet Ski as much as possible.

Rebecca brought some plaster to make hand prints out of the sand. What a cool idea!!

Here’s how they turned out. I love them!! I think I just might have to frame them in a shadow box and hang them in my beach themed laundry room. Thanks Rebecca for the laughs and the memories!

Since Jason’s family reunion where the boys went fishing with Gramma Betty, the boys have been obsessed with fishing. Jason recently came back from fishing in Alaska and fishing mania has erupted in our home.

A quick trip to Cabella’s for some gear and thanks to an invite for fishing and fireworks with a friend from work – the boys are officially fishermen.

Dylan caught 6 fish. Holy cow, great job!!

Davis caught 2 fish. He caught the only bass with one of his new fishing leers. He was ecstatic!

Drake even caught a fish. Which he thought was pretty exciting until it touched his leg and then he pretty much just freaked out!

Several of the fish didn’t make it back to the lake safely. Drake had to point each one of them out. He loved the excitement of all the movement in the water.

After a little while fishing got old for Drake and he was OFF – the constant escape artist that he is. Here, he’s contemplating my firm directions to “come back”.

Of course, he decided against it.

The boys loved the fireworks.

They also enjoyed the cupcakes too. Can you guess who had the red, the white, and the blue cupcake? {{giggle}}

Happy 4th of July!!

I think I’ve mentioned that we’ve been at the pool every weekday evening for Davis’ swim team and Dylan’s swim lessons. Well, Monday was Davis’ first meet and we were all so excited for him.
Luckily {{for me}} there are several friends on the swim team which has made our 2 hour evenings and 3 hour swim meet at the pool bearable for dear ol’ mom. Um, yep you got that right, I’m talking about my friends. {{evil laugh}}

Drake usually insists on being in the big pool with all the swim meet participants and throws his lovely tantrums, but on Monday he wasn’t to upset. Thanks to some of the older girls who played with him in the baby pool.

Here’s Davis right before his first race, the backstroke.

“GO, Davis, GO!”

He also swam the breast stroke and in the freestyle. I was so proud of him because he didn’t stop at all during the race.

On his last race he did dive down and pick up some green goggles that were on the bottom and carried them in his mouth. Silly kid. His coach said that if he ever races against Davis, he’s going to throw a bunch of toys in the lane for Davis to pick up. HA! I’m still laughing about it. That’s just so Davis.

Monday night, Dylan and Drake were playing together which resulted in a frantic trip to Urgent Care. (Nothing surprises me at this point.)

It doesn’t look that bad 2 days later, but Monday evening blood was spewing and I was trying not to freak out as I packed up the boys in the car, made sure I had my insurance card, called for my neighbor to get my food that was being delivered, and bandaged Drakie’s head so I wouldn’t have to scrub blood out of my car.

Apparently Dylan was holding Drake and spinning him around. Dylan dropped him and his head hit the bottom of the coffee table. It looked more like a puncture wound to me but what do I know. It was deep and bleeding pretty badly – so off we went to Urgent Care. Dylan felt terrible and I was trying my hardest to keep calm and happy and assure everyone that Drake will be OK and no one is at fault. These things just happen.

(what’s left of my goodies from Katri from the car ride home)

I called several friends because in my panic state I couldn’t remember the name of the road I turn on to get to Urgent Care. Luckily, I got ahold of Katri and she was my angel for the evening and met me up there to take the older two boys so I could focus on Drake. It was such an unexpected act of service that meant the world to me. {{teary – a.k.a. blubbering mess}}

Drake was such a trooper and didn’t make a noise when he got his 3 staples. I think it helped that the nurse who held his head was a man. 😉 He’s such a tough guy – at 2. Afterwards, did give the doctor his signature “go to hell” look. Classic! She quite enjoyed it and gave him a popsicle.

1 1/2 hours later when I went to pick up the boys, Katri met me at the car with Diet Cokes and water. She’s one of those friends who just knows what you need when you need it. When I told her that I was looking forward to my California Rolls at home because I hadn’t eaten any solid foods since Saturday night (when I got sick), she sent me home with yummy chocolate cake and pretzels with peanut butter inside!!

I needed that comfort food and that friendship at that very moment. Thank heaven for good friends and good food.

Which brings me to our “guilty pleasure” game – I’ll post the “guilty pleasure” snacks a little later today – so keep sumbitting your ideas!

Summer is officially here. Wendy, Laurie M., Megan, and I packed up the kids and spent the last day of school (early dismissal) at the lake. When I took this picture, I felt overwhelmed with the impression that I just took a snapshot they’ll remember their entire life. Like one they’ll look back on to commemorate their childhood and remember their good friends.

The kids worked so well together, not building a castle, but a city with a river through it. Drake and Emily had a blast swimming in it and using the first “city” as their own little jacuzzi.

It was a fun way to start out the summer and I’m so glad Laurie M. planned it. Cheers to good friends and blue skies!

Davis has officially passed 3rd grade. It was a doosy! Thank goodness for his amazing teacher and ALL that she did for not only Davis but also for Dylan. We wouldn’t have made it without her.

Drake was a stinker during the awards ceremony and felt like he needed to run around and entertain all the kids.

Davis’ teacher really made the class feel like a special group of kids and they became a tight knit group. For their awards ceremony, all the kids voted each other fun awards. Since Davis “stems” by humming and singing, they gave him the American Idol Award.

This meant so much to me because Davis’ teacher turned something that could be very embarrassing and annoying into something fun and unique to Davis. He was so excited to get the award. I joked around with him and told him it was his “white ticket to Hollywood”. He loved it.

Thank you to all the special teachers out there who make a difference in our kiddos lives. Bless you and I hope you have an amazing summer. You deserve it!

Well we did it! Davis got his Math TAKS test results and he only missed 2. Whew! Honestly, I’m just relieved he passed. So on to 4th grade we go. For Davis’ reward he choose to go to Chuck E. Cheese. Bring on the playtime.

Last time we went, the boys spent their tokens in 20 minutes flat! So this time I made sure I had coupons in hand to maximize on our evening. I didn’t see them for 40 minutes and had to track them down for dinner. {{evil laugh}}

Drake remembered the last time we went and knew exactly what to do. Thus the outstretched hand for more tokens every time the ride stopped moving.

Whoever came up with that Toddler spot was brilliant. Drake usually spends the entire evening in there. It’s the only time he’ll stay in one place.

These next pictures, I call “getting out their aggressions”.

Don’t forget the party favor.

It’s a place that I quite enjoy playing with my kids. It’s contained, air conditioned, and makes my kids very happy. Throw in a pretty good salad bar and I’m good to go!

“Mommy, poop.”

Question: Why is it that when you want to make a larger purchase, you and your spouse have to really think about it and make sure that’s the right place to put your cash. But when you see something fun for the kids, almost the same price, you purchase it with out hesitation.

Does anyone else see something wrong with this? {{pout}}

Anyway, yes can you believe it – we bought this big yellow banana to give the kids a summer they’ll never forget. I can just imagine when the boys are grown and married reminiscing about that crazy banana ride we had the summer of 2008.

School is out next week and we got a sneak peek of summer over the weekend. The weather was great and we spent the weekend at the lake with friends.

Here’s Drake and Emily taking a snack break. Emily has told her mom that she’s going to kiss Drake and marry him. In my book that’s a done deal, sweetie. You better not let me down! {{kidding – sort of}}

I don’t know who first came up with the concept of national holidays but I’m so grateful. It was so nice to have Jason home not only from work but from school too. YAY for reinforcements. 😉

Greg & Rebecca, Jason and Me, Mike & Julie

Saturday night we meet some friends at Brio for dinner club. The food was yummy but the company was better! I can’t tell you how much I’ve been appreciating adult time lately. Especially with summer right around the corner, I’ve been relishing in the conversations, food, and laughter.