Father's Day Silliness...

We showed up to wish Pop a happy Father's Day and found this cool new pool to play in:

It's only fair that the guest of honor take a dip although he surprised us all by jumping in!

Will thought Pop was funny:

We all think Pop is funny too, and a pretty great dad and grandfather too!

Father's Day...

Ashton helped Wesley paint a card for Daddy. He was really proud of it:

I thought Ashton's card was very beautiful and it was trees which went along with the theme of our gift (leave it to my little gift giver love language to think to do that!):

Will hadn't participated in the painting the day before so sweet Ashton brought him downstairs early and gave him a crayon and paper so he could make his own card:

Jon mentioned a month ago that he always wanted a book to tell the different types of trees so that's just what he got:

There aren't enough gifts in the world to thank him for being the awesome husband and father he is, but this was a nice start :)

My Little Art Teacher...

I'm not sure any child's gifting has been as clear as my sweet girl's is. She has been given the gift of teaching. I can't tell you how many times I find her teaching her brothers. She reads to them, sounds out letters for them and often makes them tot school games and activities. While Jackson is good at playing with them it is usually loud and always potentially dangerous :) Yet, when Ashton is in charge I can actually get a little peace because she is so great about involving them in her play. Since we've started our new tutorial on Fridays complete with new lunch boxes and backpacks, the game of the day is going to school. These days I find the boys with their Lightning McQueen backpacks traipsing along after her. I also frequently find one of them tied to a "leash" being her puppy.

On this day of yard work, I came to the garage to find an art lesson going on:

She's so patient and sweet with them:

She even prepared the materials and made sure he made Father's Day cards for everyone!

I love seeing her sweet spirit. She often stresses out and asks me if it's possible for her to be a kindergarten teacher, nurse, art teacher and Sunday School teacher. I tell her I'm sure she can be. I should just tell her she can be all that and many more- it's called being a mom :)

Why Do These Amuse Me So...

Why do I find spaghetti pictures so funny? I have several scrapbook pages devoted to them and even more blog posts, but here's one more:

Looking at these the question should probably be: why do I ever cook spaghetti???

Crazy Day...

For crazy day at VBS I gelled the boys hair. It was too cute. I also had them wear each other's shirts with names on them backwards- pretty crazy huh??? I'm sure their teachers were thrilled!

Wouldn't you love to be their teacher when you were just thinking you knew who was who?

Will was not happy with the craziness, but I spiked his hair and it was darling. I'm so sad he wouldn't let me take his picture. I need to do it again.

This is the best shot I could get. Doesn't he look thrilled?

What totally freaked Will out was him wearing a sock on one foot and Wesley wearing the other one. He was not happy. We had shoe troubles at VBS period because having two identical shoes in two different sizes yet each boy will only wear a certain kind gets very confusing and frustrating. Add to that fact that we have lost 1 shoe from 3 different pairs (and by we I think we all know who I mean!) and my boys ended up at church one day with Will barefoot and Wesley in two left shoes. Incidentally, I won the 'mom of the year' award on that day- yeah, probably not! I'm going to channel a little Kate Gosslin and just say, "It might be a crazy life, but it's our life."

My Little Acrobat...

Will learned how to climb out of his crib much earlier than I was ready! He thinks he's so clever, see:

Wesley's climbed out a time or two but isn't quite as brave, thank goodness! He does like to do acrobatics by using his feet to climb up the rails:

The bad part of a child climbing out of their crib is that when you think they are napping and you go up to check on them you start to panic when you can't find them! Then you notice Ashton's door is closed and locked. You break in to find little Mr. Mischief:

In this boys' life sheer meanness = sheer happiness:

That's what I get for naming him after another man who was just as bad!

TWO Cute...

I always take pictures of the kids the night before their birthday a.k.a. their last night of being that age. Here are my sweet two on their last night of being 2:

It was a lot trickier than I imagined getting boys to hold up just two fingers:

Wesley always closes his eyes when I take a picture. Then he realizes how annoyed that makes me and he begins doing it on purpose like here:

Little stinkers, love em'.