Being brothers

Here are a few pics of the boys just being brothers.

Sitting together for a spin on the office chair:

The pink hat, again. Miles wearing it (and looking stylish!), but Quincy sees it on Miles:

Miles hears Quincy coming:

Quincy got it!

And playing together again, this time at the park:

The cowboy dragon

Lately Miles has been digging out his past halloween costumes and having fun with them. The dragon costume has been a big favorite. One day he decided to mix it up a little. And here we have it, the cowboy dragon. Or is it the dragon cowboy? Needless to say, the hat does not stay on the dragon's head very well, and this combination does not happen very often.

The knight and the princess

Miles got a dragon castle for his birthday, and he loves playing with it, every day. The castle came with a knight and a dragon slayer, but no princess. Among all of his toys, there was only one girl figure, he found her and made her the princess of the castle so the knight would have someone to save. So this princess now lays in the bed in the highest room in the highest tower waiting for the knight to save her. And here they are after she has been saved. He even had them holding hands. Awww, here they are, the happy couple outside the castle gate:

A trip to the park

The boys and I went over to a local park this morning. Nothing to new and exciting by itself. It is just about 5 minutes from our house, not Miles's favorite park, so we only end up going every so often. But it is nice and never has any other kids there. It has some trails through the woods as well as some playground equipment and Miles was asking to go there yesterday. Today is a beautiful day, so off we went. Miles decided he wanted to go down the big slide, this is quite a big deal for Miles. Up he went, choose which big slide he wanted to go down and down he went, with no hesitation. Unfortunately, there was a big dirt ditch at the bottom of the slide, looks like a giant tire track. And yep, Miles went face first and fell (splat) right into the dirt. He had dirt everywhere, all over his hands, in and on his shirt, in his mouth, hair, everywhere.
Hopefully we can get him on a big slide again. Quincy on the other hand went down the big spiral slide with me several times, loved it, tried to go down by himself, and kept trying to climb up the slide from the bottom so he could slide more.

There was a special event held at this park over the weekend, and today was clean up day. There were workers, trucks, trailers and tractors all over the park doing various clean-up. One of the guys near the playground equipment was nice enough to offer the boys a chance to sit in this tractor. Here is Miles in the tractor:
Quincy waiting his turn:

Quincy in the tractor:

Quincy checking out all the parts of the tractor:

After slides, swings and tractors we went for a walk through the woods. There was another surprise waiting for us as we were leaving the trail - a little green snake. Just slithering along right in our path. The boys watched it with excitement as it made its way across our path.

Beach camp dinner

Some friends of ours are out camping at a campground that is at a nearby beach this weekend. We went out to join them all for dinner and a visit yesterday. As soon as Miles heard we were going to a campground, he immediately thought we were going to his Grandma & Grandpas campground. We then had to tell him that this campground was at a beach, but not his favorite beach. Of course, he loved it once we were there and cried when it was time to go.

One highlight of the campsite was the kids pulling each other around on this boogie board, and down this sand dune.

Here is a couple of video clips of B pulling Miles down the sand dune. The first time this happened, Miles was quite surprised at how fast he went. He seemed to like it, but this next time he was a bit more cautious. These two clips are from the second time down.

1st football game

Marching band season has begun. Last night was Mike's first football game, so the boys and I headed over to see the game and watch the band. The band did great. I wouldn't know how the football team did though, I was too busy running around after the boys. They were interested in the game and cheerleaders for the first few minutes. Then they realized the bleachers were really just a giant jungle gym. I didn't get too many pictures, I was a bit busy.

But they both had fun. Football game nights end up meaning late bedtimes. Quincy was ready to leave once bedtime hit, he was still having fun, but started waving and saying bye-bye. Miles on the other hand, got to wear band hats, play with band instruments, got lots of attention from band kids, ran non-stop most of the time we were there, and had a friend to play with for a while. He just did not want to leave. He cried, hsyterically, the entire way from the bleachers to the van, and much of the way home. The entire time saying "I don't want to leave." He even suggested that we stay and sleep on the football field, then drive home in the morning. Excuse, me, he suggested that HE stay and sleep on the football field, and then HE would drive home in the morning.

More playhouse pics

Here are a few pics of the boys playing in the playhouse. So far, this has been played in everyday that we have been home. Miles like to play act in and with the house. It has been a house, a fire station, a restaurant, a doctor's office, and a few other things. Quincy just likes to play, mostly he likes to open and close the shutters and door, and go in and out of the doorway.

Here is a rare moment when they are both actually playing together, well, next to each other, nicely:

Miles likes to have the shutters closed (so he can go around the inside of the house declaring "it's a beautiful day" and open all the shutters.) He then closes them right back up. Quincy goes around behind Miles and opens the shutters. It is a constant cycle until one of them (usually Quincy) gets tired of it and gives up.

Quincy just loving the house.

Quincy getting locked in.

Miles asked if he could get on the top of the house. I told him no problem, as long as he did it all by himself, no help from Mom or Dad. This is his first attempt, he didn't get any further than you see in the pictures:

And the next day, his second and third attempts:

He keeps trying to get up there, but he hasn't thought of a new way to try, he just keeps trying to go up the door or on the wagon.

Day with Thomas

Yesterday we surprised the boys with a trip to see Thomas the Tank Engine. Miles was beside himself excited when he saw what the surprise was. In fact, we had to park a few miles away and take a school bus over to the train station where the Thomas event was being held, and there were squeals of excitement from every little boy on the bus as soon as Thomas was in sight. Those simultaneous squeals lit up every parents face on that bus. The trip was worth it right then and there. Yep, the real Thomas! Moving eyes and all. Miles was soo excited, he told me that Thomas looked right at him!

We took a ride on the Thomas train, of course it was not on Thomas himself, because he is the engine, but we rode on one of Thomas's coaches, and Thomas was attached to and pulling the coaches. Here is a mini-steam engine train. It was neat waiting in line for the train, each time the train came back for a new load of passengers, the engineer worked the engine a bit, adding coal and stoking the fire a couple of times, oiling the engine another time, adding water one time, and all in plain sight of the kids waiting to ride the train.

There were a few other train related rides that Miles was excited to ride. He rode each one twice, and would have kept going if he had been allowed.

Here is Miles doing the hand crank train car, he loved doing this. He also loves seeing video of himself on the computer, so this one is for him.

There, of course, were several food stands and Thomas gift shops. I was very proud of Miles, he went through the gift shops and wanted to see and play with many of the toys, but didn't insist on getting everything he saw.

All in all, a great day and a very happy boy. And two very tired boys.

Happy Birthday Miles!!!

Happy birthday to my wonderful, sweet son Miles. He turns 4 years old today.

He is a bit confused with birthday party being two days ago and birthday today. Yesterday he told some folks that he turned 4 at his birthday party and today he was turning 5 on his birthday. He then said he would be 6 next year on his birthday. And this morning he told us that if it is his birthday today then where are all his boxes and presents?! We tried explaining it all to him, over and over, he seems to accept it, but he has a look on his face like he is being jipped out of turning 5.

He has already asked for a James train cake for next years birthday cake. Unfortunately, Thomas has many many friends, so he could possibly have a different Thomas and friend cake for the next 20 years.

Birthday party

Miles had his birthday party today, he had a couple of friends over and was just so super excited about having a party with cake and candles and presents. The day started off with him finding a playhouse in the backyard. We got one handed down from some friends (Thank You Robin and Brian!!), and he nearly woke up the entire neighborhood with his shrieks of excitment. Him and Quincy played in the playhouse for quite a while this morning, and it took about 2 minutes before there was fighting and tears.Our good friends came over to help celebrate Miles's birthday, we had pizza, then the Percy birthday cake. Miles has been asking for a Percy cake for his birthday for about 6 months. Last year was a Thomas cake, perhaps next year will be James.


He openned his presents and by far the biggest hit was this dragon castle. Other favorites were the plane Loopy Loco for his Geotrax set, bop bag, and a Hot Wheels garage and pack of cars. All in all, he had a great day.

Back to the beach

We went out to the beach yesterday morning for a few hours. It has been a while since we've been. I'm not a huge fan of large crowds, and most of this past month has been so very hot. Which I know is when most people want to be at the beach, but we don't go in the water, the boys just like to play in the sand, so there was no way to cool off, and no shade to get away from the hot sun. This week has cooled off wonderfully, so off to the beach we went. Quincy had fun playing in the sand a bit, but played in the wagon most of the time:

And it was beautiful! Very few other people were there, it was warm, but not hot and there was a breeze. Miles wore himself out trying to catch the seagulls:

Rainy, not so rainy day

A couple of days ago it started to rain just a few minutes after we went outside to play, so Miles asked if he could get his umbrella and play in the rain. Quincy and I played on the porch while it rained, and Miles played in the backyard.

He was bound and determined to get up his slide, while protecting himself from the rain.

The rain only lasted about 5 minutes, then Quincy and I joined Miles outside. Miles didn't seem to realize that it was neither raining or sunny out.

And this is how he wore his sunglasses once he did finally realize that it was gray outside and tough to see with sunglasses on:

Backyard fun

We've been sticking around the house playing lately, so lots of wagon rides around the neighborhood and lots of playing in the backyard. Here are a few pics.

Quincy on the tricyle:

Quincy in the car, he just loves anything that moves.

The boys actually playing together, with the car:

And Miles pushing Quincy on the swing, he was actually quite careful not to push to rough, in fact too careful, he slowed the swing down and eventually stopped it from pushing to lightly, at which time Quincy got upset and wanted me to push again.

Miles has been trying to climb trees recently. His first choice for a tree to climb is one that is perfectly straight and has no branches until about 20 feet up the trunk. So I directed him to a small tree that he can climb up, but it only has one small y about 2 feet off the ground, and that was not high enough for him, so we moved to this tree, he needs to be lifted up to the first y in the tree, but then he can climb up to a couple of other branches, and feel that he is climbing the tree and that he is high enough.

A little perpective for how high he actually is:

And here is the proud guy, he is just so excited and proud to be up in a tree.