Swim lessons

The boys continue to take swim lessons, and continue to enjoy them. Yesterday was their last one of this session, they will start again mid-January. They have now had two sessions with what looks like will be their regular swim teacher, it's just the two of them in their lesson and they have really bonded with their teacher and have come to trust her.

They received spiderman swim goggles as a present last spring and they love these goggles for swim class, here they are, in their best spiderman pose:

They, especially Miles, have made excellent progress these past several weeks. Here is a clip of Miles and Quincy from the end of October (sorry about the noise, sometimes it gets loud in the pool area, you will want to turn your volume way down for this first clip) they are doing good:



And Quincy yesterday (you can turn your volume back to normal again):


Miles yesterday (doing great!):

My boys are stylin'

Recently Miles and Quincy have wanted to wear ties and dressy clothes, they call them 'fancy' clothes. So I obliged and got them each a tie/shirt/vest set and matching pants. I obliged again and got them each a second tie. This morning they wanted to wear their fancy clothes to school. Well, one of Miles button down shirts is in the laundry and the other one I got him was way too big. It didn't stop him. Quincy had a clean button down shirt, not the one that came with the set, but he didn't care, it was button down and he wanted to wear it with his tie.

Here they are, my boys dressed in their 'fancy' outfits that they picked out all by themselves this morning:
I'd like to take this time to point out a few things. First, the cheesiest, happiest smiles ever! Next, Miles matching his crew neck shirt with a zipper-style tie and Quincy's matching of a striped tie with his plaid shirt. Now, that being said, Quincy got quite a few compliments upon arrival at school this morning, so I am willing to admit that perhaps he has better fashion sense than me. I am waiting to hear from Miles how his outfit was received at school.

Thanksgiving visit

Mike's Mom, Sister and all the kids came from New York to spend Thanksgiving with us this year. We had a wonderful visit! It was great to spend several days with everyone. Kerry and I had some good sister-in-law bonding time while black friday shopping together, we got some great deals and had lots of laughs. The kids played together nonstop. All the cousins slept in Miles and Quincy's room, and the first night resulted in lots of giggles, laughter and a very late night. They were so tired the rest of the time they fell asleep pretty quickly. Mike tried a new sweet potato gnocchi recipe and he and his Mom made gnocchis together. We all visited, played games and ate, we ate a lot. Oh, and the chocolate wine, we went through two bottles of it - it was yummy!

Apparently there were a few boring times:
Quincy was attached to his cousin Ally the entire time, I barely had him in my lap at all, whatever Ally did, Quincy was there, and if she was sitting he was either in her lap or snuggled up beside her:
A bit of craft time:
All the kids together, and just as happy and getting along as they were most of the time:
We were all sad to see them leave, Quincy cried as they drove away. We are looking forward to our next visit!

Raking leaves

Our front yard was covered with leaves, to the point that you could not see any grass at all in one corner. So time to rake 'em up. The boys wanted to help. So while Mike tackled some other projects around the house I kept the boys out from under his feet and the three of us raked. Quincy loved it. Miles took lots of breaks, but liked to tell Quincy what he was doing wrong and how he was supposed to be raking.

They wanted to combine the different piles into one big one for jumping in. They found many different ways to carry the leaves. They started out fairly traditional, rakes and wheelbarrow:
Then Quincy tried just carrying a bunch in his hands:
Then a shovel:
Then Miles tried just his hands:
Eventually they both went back to rakes, to varying success levels, here is a video clip of them moving leaves:


Now was leaf throwing and pile jumping time!
And a short clip of leaf jumping:


After that we lost Miles. (we didn't really lose him, he just was done raking and went inside.) So Quincy and I moved on to filling up leaf bags. Which meant that the leaf bags had to be unfolded and opened. Quincy wasn't ready for a break so got right to opening the bags while Mike and I chatted with a friend. Us grown ups had quite a bit of fun watching this part:
And done with the day.

Miles's new hair style

This past weekend the boys got their hair cut. We've told Miles for a while now that he can tell the hairdresser how he wants his hair cut or styled, before this weekend he never said anything or seemed to care. Before we left the house, he put his hands up over his head with his fingertips touching and said he wants 'spikey' hair. We took this to mean a mohawk. We did ask the hairdresser to do it in a way that allows for him to have regular hair when he decides he doesn't want the mohawk. Apparently that to has a name. And so now, Miles has a fauxhawk.

Here he is at the hair salon right after getting his hair done - he is just a little excited:
The first day he asked me to give him a mohawk to wear to school, he told me to pick out his clothes for him and he wanted me to pick out fancy clothes. Apparently a polo style shirt and cords are fancy for him (since he prefers athletic pants and screen print Ts, I guess this was fancy).

He spent quite a bit of time looking at himself in the mirror that first morning:

Again, excited:
And this morning with his hair done again. This time no fancy clothes required. But I only got a little hug goodbye, he didn't want to crush his hair.

New trombone

About a month or so ago Mike got a new trombone, this one instead of just being for him is for the whole family. It is a new type of horn that is full size, fully functioning trombone, but is made of plastic and comes in fun colors. It's called the p-bone. He got it mostly for the boys since they are always wanting to play his trombones. This one is light enough that they can hold it all by themselves and play it themselves. It is fairly sturdy, but since it still is a real instrument they only get to use it with adult supervision!

Here are some video clips of the boys and Mike playing it:
Miles:



Quincy:



And Mike:

Halloween fun

The kids had lots of halloween celebrations this year. First, a few weeks ago, was Halloween at the Zoo, Miles was Darth Vader and Quincy was an astronaut:
Then Miles and I went to a local middle school that was having a halloween event as a fundraiser, I didn't get any pictures, but he went as an astronaut and had lots of fun. Then was a halloween party at a friend of mine's house, again no pictures, but Miles went as an army soldier and Quincy as a cuddly bear.

Then, of course, last night trick-or-treating around our neighborhood. Miles was a knight and Quincy (who at first was also a knight) decided to be a cuddly bear again. Their friends came over to TOT with them, unfortunately I'm having trouble loading some pictures on here, so I'm not able to put some of the cute pictures I have. Here is Quincy on his way to some houses:

And when they were tired, they came back home and all wanted to help hand out candy. Well three of them handed out candy and one was a scary decoration! I think they had more fun handing out candy and scaring people than the actual TOTing.

Luckily I we have a large stock of costumes from post-halloween shopping and past presents, otherwise either I would be broke or these kids would have (gasp) wear the same costume for each halloween event!

Making jack-o-lanterns

A few weeks ago we had our annual family trip to a local pumpkin patch so the boys could play in the various mazes and pick out their pumpkins for this year. This weekend was the weekend to make them in to jack-o-lanterns. Miles and Mike did Miles's pumpkin yesterday, and we figured he was old enough to help clean the pumpkin out.

He started out pretty excited to be helping:
Which quickly turned into disgust at what he had to grab onto and pull out of the pumpkin:

Then this morning was Quincy's turn, he got the pleasure of just watching Mike do all the work to make the face he picked out.

The pictures of the completed jack-o-lanterns didn't come out too well, hopefully I can get some decent pictures on Halloween night.

Quincy starts preschool!

Quincy started preschool this week. He has been super excited to be in school for several months. He practically ran into the school:
Once inside, he clung to me. This is the same preschool that Miles went to for the last two years, so Quincy knows it quite well. He happily hung up his jacket, found his cubby hole and got his name tag.
Instead of playing with toys, he wanted to help the teacher clean the water out of the tub.

Then it was time for me to say goodbye. He did not like that at all. The lower lip came out and tears started rolling. It took a few tries, but we finally got him interested in something enough for me to sneak out, and he didn't cry anymore. He was pretty quiet and to himself the first day. Day two he told me he didn't want me to go, but he said goodbye and went happily with the teacher. He was more comfortable and talkative. He still says he would rather be with me, but he likes school. Each day he seems to do better, so I'm sure by the end of next week he will be running away from me to the toys while saying goodbye.

Miles's 6th Birthday

Miles turned 6 years old yesterday. Such a big boy, in school now, rides the bus, eats lunch at school, the whole shabang. He had such a great day. he got to open a few presents in the morning that arrived in the mail on Thursday, then off to school. Quincy and I brought cupcakes to Miles class and was able to visit with the class and join them for snack time, story time and some of their 'center time'. Here is Miles at his seat in his classroom:

This year Miles asked to have a birthday party at Chuck E. Cheese. I tried my best to gently encourage other places, but he was set and not budging. So after school yesterday we headed to Chuck E. Cheese, he invited a few friends that joined us there for games, pizza, cake and dancing with Chuck E. Some pre-party fun, Quincy playing guitar hero:
Some kids dancing with Chuck:
A special visit from Chuck himself:
As the birthday boy he got to go in the ticket blaster to catch as many tickets as he could in 30 seconds. After staring around in confusion for a few seconds he found the pile of tickets on the bottom that were in the 'blind spot' of the blower and scooped up an enormous handful, then proceeded to just stand there with a big grin plastered on his face for the rest of the time. I wish I could have gotten a picture of the grin, but the flash reflected too much. here he is when the tickets first started flying:
Scooping them up:
And getting out with his handful:
He got a birthday boy crown from Chuck, and insisted on putting it on himself:
Blowing out the candles on his He-Man cake:
He seemed to love every minute of his party and his day. He had his giant smile on his face every time I saw him. Luckily it wasn't too busy while we where there, and all the kids seem to have a good time. I loved seeing him so utterly happy.

First Day of Kindergarten!

Miles started kindergarten this morning. He has gone between being apprehensive, scared and excited about starting school all summer, about two weeks ago he started really being excited about it, and has continued being excited all the way through to this morning. He had about 5 minutes of nerves, he laid on the couch then went in the guest room and closed the door, not willing to talk to me or Quincy. A few minutes later he came out, excited again. Yesterday we packed his backpack and he picked out his outfit for today. He went to bed last night and didn't make a peep, he wanted to get his rest and be ready for this morning!

Here he is, backpack on, heading to the bus stop:
We got out early, not knowing exactly when the bus would arrive, apparently he got tired of standing:
The bus is coming!!
I had to call out to him to tell him to stop and give me a hug and kiss goodbye. He was so excited he barely had time for me, he just wanted to get on the bus! The bus driver told him to stop and look at me for a picture:
And he sat right in the front row, just waiting for the bus to get going:
He had a giant smile on his face this morning. I am now anxiously waiting for him to come home this afternoon and hear all about his first day of school. I really hope he has a great day. Now I need to start finding something to do with my time...