All in the name of science

I was sitting outside this afternoon with Melissa and Jamie, just enjoying the nice day while we watched the kids play. 

Lance pokes his head out our back door, sees me and runs over with a big smile on his face. 

"Mom! I made something really disgusting!"

"Why did you do that?"

"It was a science experiement."

"Oh, okay. What did you put in it?"

"A bunch of stuff. I even cut off some of my hair and put that in, too."

Pause.

"Wait, you cut your hair?! Where?" (Me, looking all over his head)

Totally nonchalant. "In the kitchen."

Huh.

He is now sporting a suspicious-looking patch of short hair right on top of his head. I walked into the kitchen a bit later and found oil all over the counter, some kind of white stuff on a spoon, and scissors. Oh, and that disgusting something? It is currently sitting in our freezer so it will get "all slushy". 

Nice.

Good trade!

How I feel every day.

Lance's first day of 1st grade!

 I can't believe the summer is over. I feel like we haven't really had a chance to enjoy the summer as a family with George working all the time and Lance gone so much and now it's already time for school. I remember as a kid being so excited to start each new school year and wondering why my mom was so sad. Now I know.

Lance came home from San Diego late Monday night and didn't make it down to Charlottesville until Tuesday afternoon. We did some last-minute school shopping that night then put the boys to bed around 8:30. Lance was still on California time and didn't fall asleep until around 10:30. Poor guy.

Wednesday dawned bright and early and as I suspected, Lance struggled to get up. By the time we were out at the bus stop, though, he was awake and ready for the day.

Big first grader!

Killian and Kendall are going into second grade!

Getting on the bus. 

After Lance got on the bus, Jude and I ran inside, fed Cole and drove over to meet Lance at the school. He still hadn't seen his classroom yet because he was in California when the Back to School open house took place, so I wanted to be there to show him the way.

Jude and Cole waiting patiently for Lance to get off the bus.

Here comes Killian, Kendall...

...and Lance!

We walked to Lance's classroom and he found a seat. Jude jumped right up, too. He's been telling me he needs a backpack and wanted to ride the bus. Three more years, buddy!

Drawing before class starts.

Ready to start the day! He was excited, but not quite as excited as last year.  Hopefully that will change. He has a great teacher that actually worked with him last year during reading time. She has been doing ESL and reading with the kids in Kindergarten and first grade for the last five years, but this year decided to return to teaching her own classroom. I think Lance will thrive under her watch. 

Jude, Cole and I played with our friends that morning and then the boys took naps while I made chocolate chip cookies for the kids to eat as a snack when they got home from school. 

Before we knew it, they were hopping off the bus, their first day of school behind them. Lance told me it was "good".

Cookies and milk! And of course I made sweet milk, as is tradition, although Melissa and I were the only ones to drink it. 

Have you noticed Lance looking a little snaggle-toothed in the pictures? He lost a tooth while he was gone in California!

He told me the tooth fairy brought him a whole dollar! Lucky boy! 

Mmmm. The only thing better than eating chocolate chip cookies in the afternoon is eating chocolate chip cookies in the afternoon while relaxing in a hammock. Jude, you do it right!

Lance, I hope this year is a great one for you! You are so bright and creative: you will succeed at whatever you put your mind to. I can't believe you're already in first grade. Don't grow up too fast, okay? I want to enjoy you being my little boy just a little bit longer...

A mantis, Mason, and the Montgomery County Fair

Last weekend, we got to watch Mason for Laura and Tyler while they were in Kansas attending Tyler's brother's wedding. It was a lot of fun!

One day while we were there, Jude discovered a nifty bug he had never seen before. Once I convinced him it was a nice bug and wouldn't "sting him", he had a good time holding it and watching it move.

He's saying "awww..." here. I guess this little guy is "aww" worthy.

I've always thought praying mantises were cool.

I laid Jude and Cole down for a nap one day and went down stairs to do some work on the computer. Mason was already asleep in his bed in the basement. About 45 minutes later, I hear a door close, so I know Jude is awake. I walk upstairs, ready to unleash the "angry mom" and enact justice for a quiet-time spoiled when I'm greeted with this:

Apparently, Jude wasn't able to sleep, so he went into the next room where Cole was sleeping, climbed into the crib and started playing with him instead.

Look at his mischievous smirk! There is no way I could stay mad at such a cute, happy face. Oh, I love my boys!

Story time before bed! Mason and Jude actually listened to the whole book which is pretty impressive because it's long. Very long. I don't remember The Cat in the Hat being sooooo long when I was a kid. Probably because I wasn't the tired parent reading it.

Saturday afternoon we decided to be brave and take all three little boys (ages 2, almost 2, and 6 months) to the Mongomery County Fair in Maryland.

Waiting patiently for funnel cakes. Yum!

Ah, fair food. Glorious, glorious fair food.

We started our day with these lovely ladies. Kailey, Bethany, Amy and Aunt Linda.

Our first stop (after gorging on funnel cakes and lemonade so sugary you could literally chew it) was the goat barn. The 4H club had all their livestock available for people to see and this is where we spent the majority of our time.

Mason was totally content to sit in the stroller. In fact, I tried to take him out at one point so he could see some animals closer and he got upset. No problem! Stroller it is!

Jude really wanted to pet this goat, but was hesitant. Strange because he didn't have any trouble petting camels, bison and zebras when we visited the Safari Park a few months ago.

He finally warmed up with help from Aunt Linda. 

We split off from the girls after the goats so they could ride all the rides while we did more kid-friendly things.

Jude liked the horses. Lately, he's been telling me horses are his favorite animal--a child after my own heart!

Since the boys liked the horses so much, George and I took them to ride the ponies.

Mason had a great time!

So did Jude!

George got to be the muscles behind he operation and push the big stroller. Jude really wanted to walk which was fine with me, because that meant I didn't have to carry Cole around. Yay!

Jude tried to pet this cow, but she had a calf right next to her and was being protective. He actually got bumped by those big horns! He wasn't hurt, but we decided to give her some room.

Looking at the beef cattle.

Petting some sheep. Mason wasn't too interested in petting the animals, but LOVED to watch from the safety of the stroller.

We got some dinner (hot dogs, fries, and shwarma). Can I just say that feeding three little boys while trying to make sure they get enough to eat and feed yourself and maintain your sanity is a feat. I have profound respect for all you parents who raised twins. Hats off to you!

It was getting late, so we decided to go on the farris wheel before we left. While we waited in line, Jude spotted this little mouse ride, so George took him on it while the other boys and I waited and waited and waited for our turn on the farris wheel.

He was so excited to go on the ride!

Once we got on the farris wheel, the boys couldn't stop looking around.

(He was mad I was holding him because he wanted to look at the scenery. Sorry, Mason!)

And it wouldn't be a Fair day without some ice cream. I got a frozen banana and the boys each got an ice cream cone with strawberry ice cream.

They loved it!

Then it was back to the car where we changed three diapers, put all the boys in PJ's and drove an hour back to Mason's house.

Whew! We got home around 9 p.m. and threw the boys in bed. It had been a long, fun day!

Paper, pals and popsicles

Right after we got home from Florida, Lance was on his way to California with his dad for more than a week. That left the rest of us at home in Charlottesville trying to fill the time.

Jude's newest favorite thing to do is cut paper. He'll get out the scissors, grab a handful of paper and just go to town.

It often creates a rather large mess.

But it keeps him sitting in one spot for a long, long time. I'd call that a win, even if I do have a large mess to clean up afterwards.

Jude and Cole have become good buddies. Jude is always asking to hold him and whenever Cole catches a glimpse of Jude or Lance, he is all smiles. It's really sweet.

Sweet boys.

I wish I had thought to take a picture when it happened, but I guess I'll have to be content just re-telling our popsicle story.

One day we were out at the park with our friends. Jude had been asking for a popsicle but I wasn't sure if we had enough to go around, so I told him he could have one later. He wasn't too pleased, but didn't whine too much about it. After a little while of playing on the park, all the little boys decided to run inside. My house is right next to the park, so the moms all stayed out with the other kids while the boys played very quietly inside. We were all so impressed that they were getting big enough to play together without help from the moms.

About 20 minutes later Jamie needed to go home, so she went inside to get Bo Bo. She walked inside and then straight back out, calling for us to come. We run to the back door to see Jude and Cameron happily sitting on the couch sucking on dripping unfrozen popsicles. They are covered with juice, the couch is soaked through with red and blue and the carpet is littered with empty and half-empty popsicle sleeves, puddles and stickiness. We look around for Bo and finally find him sitting in the pantry with the door closed, trying to open another unfrozen popsicle. Apparently Jude took getting popsicles into his own hands and, unable to reach the ones in the freezer, grabbed the box full of them on the floor in our pantry. It was a mess of gargantuan proportions.

I guess that's what you get from a 2-year-old who tells everyone he's 6 whenever they ask and is self-sufficient to a fault. Where there is a will, there's a way and boy does he have a will!

Valuable Life Lesson #863

Never leave your 6 month old alone at the table with an open jar of food. Never. Not even to just run into the kitchen to get a bib. 

Unless, of course, you want this to happen:

Nice.

Florida--Day 8

August 10th. The day we flew back to Virginia. 

We decided we needed one last beach-fix so I got the boys together and we headed down to enjoy the sand and waves before it was time to go.

Uncle Jason came down to be with us, too.

The sun was so pretty on the water.

We had to take our "spirit" pictures, too.

Can you make out all four of us?

Here is the first one I took with Lance in 2006 when he was only 9 months old:

Yep, he was already walking by then. Crazy!

I know I've included tons of old pictures, but here is just one more:

Cole enjoying the morning beach...

And here's Lance at 9 months doing the same thing...

...only naked. Ha! Is there anything cuter than a naked baby bum?

Look how time changes things.

Thanks for being such a good big brother, Lance!

We played for about an hour, then got ready to fly back to Virginia. Amy drove us to the airport that morning where we caught our flight home. It was intense traveling with three young boys all by myself, but somehow our bag was checked and we all made it to our seats on the plane. I felt like super-mom.

The boys were great on the plane once again. Thanks, boys!

After we landed, we grabbed our bag and car seats, took a shuttle to our car that was parked and drove home. It took us 3 hours because of traffic and by the last half hour Cole was screaming because he need to eat, Lance was crying because Cole was screaming and Jude was happily yelling at Cole to "be quiet" and "you're okay!" Whew. I was ready to cry myself, but we managed to make it home in one piece. Talk about a long day!

Lance's dad pulled up about 30 minutes after we got home and Lance was on his way to Northern VA so he could fly out the following day to California for his Uncle Dan's mission farewell. We'll miss you, Lance! He comes home in about a week, just in time to start school on the 22nd.

I finally got the little boys fed and in bed and then fell into bed myself. It had been a loooong day and an even longer week. George was working that night, but I vaguely remember cuddling up to him when he finally made it home sometime in the wee hours of the morning. Florida was fun, but it was so good to be home!