Living room camping

 As part of our Memorial Day weekend, we decided to go camping- at home.  We had hot dogs for dinner and then made s'mores in our fire pit.  They were a big hit of course.  The boys all decided to sleep in a tent in the living room with Daddy of course.  We thought it was going to be Mike and D in the tent but then the littles went to get their teddy bears to join in.  They did all eventually fall asleep.  I think D was tired as I kept hearing him tell Will to go to sleep.

It was a fun campout.  We are going to do more this summer and maybe even try a real campout.

Lego man

D enjoys his legos.  Mike helped create the bottom level but the rest is D.  He later added flowers and more trees.  It is fun watching him at work.

Boys and mud

The water table has been repurposed as the mud maker.  The boys love to dig.  We let them have a small corner to make mud.  They like to dig in the mud and then jump in it.  They are dirty and very happy boys.

Hide and go seek

Will and Nate are really into hide and go seek along with D.  Here are the 3 of them hiding together.

Bathroom before and after

This was our hideous laundry room/ guest bathroom in our lower level.  It had the most hideous wallpaper with equally terrible paint underneath.  It was a disaster. The vent vented into the garage (not up to code) and the whole thing was ugly.

So we started over.  It looks great now.  There is tons of storage and everything looks planned and organized.

Swings

We had family pictures taken this weekend. I decided to take a few our boys too.  Mike took down the baby swing and hung another regular swing.  Will and Nate enjoy swinging on their tummies and can do it all themselves.  Nate is in green.

Will and Nate are talking a lot. Nate uses full sentences which cracks us up.  He also says no a ton in a sing-song way.  We all tease him.  It is hard to take him seriously.  Both Will and Nate are true adventures and climb the climbing wall and ladder to the fort.

It's Warm

The boys are very excited that it is warm outside.  We spend a lot of time outside and try to eat outside as much as possible.  The boys enjoy their small table but often want to sit at the big table too.

Mulch

We had mulch blown in this week.  The boys loved it.  It was an expensive hour of fun but it looks amazing.

First PB&J sandwich

D came home from school today and asked to make his own sandwich. Umm yea ok.  He was so proud of himself and did a great job.  He even informed me that his tastes better than Mommys.

We are so proud of our independent, sweet, and very responsible big guy.  He has been doing a lot of measuring around here with his tape measure (a favorite past time of mine as a kid).  He usually needs help and asks us to do him a huge favor and help.  Love this kid!

Mother's Day

We had a wonderful Mother's Day.  We did our normal routine in the morning: church, Starbuck, and the ducks.  D likes to feed the ducks, Will and Nate each eat some bread.  We also saw tadpoles, geese, and Ned the nutria (yup we named him).  It was lots of fun.

In the afternoon we enjoyed the 90 degree day by playing in the yard with sprinklers, water pipes, the water table, and the sand box.  Lots and lots of water!

A warm day at the coast

   

We had a great day at Cannon Beach as part of the Mother's Day weekend.  It was warm there- around 70 degrees (very unusual for May).  Will and Nate went into the water for the first time.  They thought it was all so cool. They both enjoyed throwing rocks into the water. D loved trying to find shells.  Everyone was soaked but loving it.  They all played in the sand for a long time too.  It was a great day.  WIll has the white hat on.

Photographer Will

Bunk Beds

We got a really good deal on a great set of bunk beds. No one will be allowed to sleep on the top bunk for several years. For now, we keep the ladder stowed on the top bunk. Sometimes it comes down and the boys have "ladder exercise time" as D calls it. We had so many different plans for who was going to sleep where. For a few nights, all the boys slept in D's queen bed. After several nights of no one sleeping, we stopped that experiment. Now D is back in his bed alone and Will and Nate are each on an opposite end of the lower bunk. This seems to be the best plan for now. They love the bunks!

New chairs

A co-worker of Mike's gave us some chairs for the boys. There is a single chair and a double one. They are a bit hit. I think this picture is a riot with Will and Nate each wearing one of Mike's shoes and D wearing my crocs. Silly boys.

The Sunday Outfit

Derek has the greatest quirks. One involves clothes. Starting in the fall, D decided he would only wear tan pants to school. Last Sunday night he asked me to do laundry so he had tan pants for school the next day- he only had one pair in his closet and he wanted enough pairs to last the 3 days of school. For the last 9 or so weeks he has this Sunday outfit. He dresses himself and picks out his clothes every day. I guess he decided this is it for Sunday: brown pants and a brown sweater. I guess the good news is that it matches. I did convince him to wear something else for Easter but since then this is the Sunday outfit. We will see if he changes his mind as the weather continues to get warmer. He is going to do great when it comes to wearing a uniform for kindergarten and beyond.

Derek's photos

Derek enjoys taking pictures still. He is very proud of the orange one which is a close up of a barrel. We laugh at his pics and keep encouraging him to have fun doing it.

More than a hoop

The boys were playing with the basketball hoop. They love to shoot hoops. Then they were all under the hoop and giggling. I was asked to join in too. Then silly Will and Nate puts their heads up to the skeet ball holes. Will is on the left.