Candids

Just some randoms:

Elliot these days talks about how he wants to be a great white shark when he grows up.  Apparently he talks about it so much that his teachers decided to draw him a big shark to hang on the wall.  Coincidently, Elliot was wearing a shark shirt the next day when I could take a photo.  By the way, Henry wants to be a whale shark which he likes to describe as not a whale at all but a fish and the biggest fish (or shark).

The boys and I have been spending time in the parks within 0.5 miles of our house.

 As soon as I download my photo of the boys dressing like twins, on their own volition, with their teenage mutant ninja turtles shirts I'll put it up on the blog.

I have thoroughly embraced Henry's latest act of independence. He now wants to make his own sandwiches as well as sandwiches for Elliot.  Sweet.  Soon enough they'll be able to get their own breakfast ready - that will be bliss.

Vermont in July

Here are some photos from our fun family trip to Vermont around July 4th:
Strawberry picking in the garden

 Hiking around

Fun around the houses

And fun around town

And there's always the July 4th bar-b-que to enjoy:

 Complete with one of Linda's creations

 And some vodka from Scott's trip to Mongolia

 And who knew frisbee golf goals could be so fun

More to come!

Sporty

Henry has had a great time trying out some sports.  Elliot has been great with finding ways to keep himself entertained while he supported Henry on the sidelines.  I'm sure Elliot will be happy once he's old enough to join in.

He practiced his front crawl at lessons at Emory

Henry talks about how excited he is to play soccer again soon.  In his second 'season' last Spring he definitely understood the game a bit more than that first season, and I'm curious to see how comfortable he'll be out there now that he's watched some of the World Cup and we continue to play in the back yard.

And he's in the midst of playing t-ball which he just loves! I think t-ball matches with this personality a bit better than soccer, at this point, because he gets a little down time and doesn't have to stick with the pack.

Extending the birthday celebration

Finally I'm posting some photos from Henry and Elliot's weeks long birthday celebration.   The birthday began with a huge pool party with all of Henry's and Elliot's friends.  Thank you to their school for organizing the end of the year party for the Friday before his birthday.  I snagged one photo of Elliot and his teachers.

On Henry's actual birthday on Saturday we had the boys' friend spend the afternoon with us.  They hunted for roll-polliess under the bricks at the fire pit and then played at the park down the street.

The Friday before Henry's (Saturday) birthday we went to Brusters ice cream.  They loved the experience so much that we took Gamps back for another birthday celebration at the ice cream shop on Sunday.

We spent a morning at a bounce house for some of our friends who turned 3 a few days after Henry turned 4.

Gamps and Charlotte came over for a shared birthday celebration complete with tons of presents

And my first attempt at a fun cake: 2 layer yellow cake with chocolate icing and strawberries (from our strawberry picking adventure) all throughout

One morning in the middle of all of this, I found Henry and Elliot singing Let it Go at the top of their lungs on their make-shift stage

 We spent an afternoon at the splash pad and rode bikes for a little while to build up a sweat before getting wet.

 And rode bikes a little in Lullwater where we were able to see our goslings (the ones we saw as sweet little one on Mother's day)

 And spent a relaxed moment blowing bubbles, as they love to do.

On Memorial weekend we hosted a birthday party complete with a slip n' slide thing

and a dinosaur piñata that took the gang of six kids 4 rounds to bust it

With all the fun that began and continued since a few days before Henry's 4th birthday, they were tuckered out by the time Elliot's 2nd birthday came around 2 weeks later.