Devine Diaries

Swim lessons

2011-12-18T09:23:00.007-05:00

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'

2011-12-06T14:14:00.002-05:00

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

2011-11-27T15:43:00.004-05:00

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

2011-11-21T19:07:00.014-05:00

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

2011-11-10T14:49:00.003-05:00

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

2011-11-04T13:37:00.005-04:00

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

2011-11-01T11:54:00.007-04:00

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

2011-10-30T14:11:00.006-04:00

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!

2011-10-28T15:40:00.003-04:00

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

2011-09-10T13:20:00.005-04:00

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!

2011-08-29T12:44:00.004-04:00

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...

Dinner at the Beach

2011-08-14T17:33:00.006-04:00

Some friends invited us to join them and a group of friends for dinner on the beach last night. At this beach we can build a campfire, so that was their plan, build a fire and cook dinner right on the beach. It was great. Their were lots of kids, of all ages, and they all got along great. The kids love going to the beach at any time, but something about being there at night seems extra special. We got there as most people were leaving, so the kids had much more freedom to run and play.

Quincy wanted to spend most of the time playing in the water:When he wasn't in the water he was eating fruit, his dinner consisted of melons and grapes.

Miles spent all of his time playing with other kids, he especially loved playing with the bigger kids:He ate potato chips almost exclusively for dinner. With a few cucumber slices to make Mom happy. This was a night for fun, not healthy eating. Us adults ate well. Seafood, guacamole, and two tables full of lots of great food.

The lifeguards were no longer on duty, and the lifeguard tower became entertainment for quite some time:

And one of the kids favorite parts of going to the beach at night, chasing and catching ghost crabs:
We had cranky kids for much of today, but it was well worth the fun night we all had.

Potty Training

2011-08-11T13:09:00.002-04:00

We are in the midst of potty training. The thing that seemed to work for Quincy to get him to go on the potty was being naked. Yep, just running around the house naked all day, with a potty seat in the middle of the living room floor. Of course Miles thought that meant he could also run around naked. That did not last long. After almost a week of nakedness, Quincy was doing great going peepee in the potty while naked. But couldn't seem to tell the difference between wearing a diaper and underwear, so diapers became for sleeping only. Thus started a few days of many accidents. Luckily it only took a few days for him to realize he was wearing underwear and peepee and underwear do not mix well!

He seems to have mastered potty training for peepee, even most naptimes and bedtimes he will wake up dry, and now even wears underwear for naptime. The other potty training is not moving along so well. The latest was this morning at Walmart, after a mad dash race to the bathroom, I had some fun clean-up to do inside the stall. Not fun. So hopefully he can figure this part out before too long, I'm really tired of all the clean up, although I have to admit I am getting more of a routine going and getting much better. I'm quite proud at how well he is doing so far, and just keep hoping he will things moving forward and not get stopped up with #2!

Happy Birthday Quincy!

2011-08-08T12:46:00.004-04:00

My baby is 3 years old today. And quickly becoming a big boy. He is in the middle of potty training, and the last few days he has been doing great. He is so very proud of going on the potty and wearing big boy underwear. he is talking up a storm and constantly on the go. He loves to role play driving around town, going to the hairdresser, getting gas and going to the store. He loves playing with anything Miles has and is always getting in trouble for trying to take things away from Miles. He has a sweet smile and a big heart.

We had his birthday party yesterday. He requested a Yo Gabba Gabba cake, specifically asking for Brobee. And as usual, Mike complied:

He blew out all his candles, by himself:
He was just so excited!
Eating the frosting, one fingerful at a time:
He got a cash register, store set and shopping cart as presents, he loved them, here are some of the kids playing store:
Apparently Quincy had a lot of shopping to do, since he is shopping with both a cart and hand basket!

Hubby did Good!

2011-08-04T13:06:00.003-04:00

While the kids and I went to NH to play and camp, Mike decided he needed to stay home to get things done. Primarily he is working on his master's degree and needed to put some good, uninterrupted time into a paper. Well, our list of things to do around the house has just sat on the fridge all summer, he did finally tell me that he was planning on doing some of the things while we were in NH. And boy he wasn't lying! Not only did he get more than half the things on the list done, he was planning a surprise for me. He cleaned and reorganized the basement - including building shelves!
He did a great job. He even made sure he had leftover supples and room for any shelves I might want to add. I wish I had a before picture, it was slightly organized piles of everything on the floor. It was such a wonderful surprise - I told him I would happily leave him home again! (I'm not sure that was the response he was hoping for!)

A new hairdresser

2011-08-01T12:19:00.002-04:00

It seems we have a new hairdresser in our family. Earlier last week we caught Miles with a pair of kid scissors, sitting behind Quincy - his happy accomplice, posed with the scissors in one hand and a handful of Quincy's hair in the other hand. He told us he thought Quincy's hair was too long and he needed a haircut. We thought we caught him in time, until we had a closer look at Quincy's head and saw a clump of hair sitting loosely on top. At least we think it was only one or two cuts, and it is not noticeable at all.

Then we picked up Miles from school on Friday and the teacher handed me a sandwich bag with a lock of Miles's hair in it. He sat by himself at the craft table and randomly cut hair from the top of his head. His is only a bit noticeable, if you look closely. I think I may save the baggy with the hair in it along with his other kindergarten crafts. Ahh. The fun begins.

Camping in NH

2011-07-27T18:24:00.006-04:00

The kids and I spent all of last week and some of this week in New Hampshire camping with my parents in their camper. We spent most of that time at the campground lake/beach swimming.

Miles wanted to swim out to the dock as soon as we got the lake each morning:
And then come back to play with the water squirters:
Some days we spent more time at the beach than others. The boys played and swam hard, and got tired:
Quincy and Grandpa, napping on the beach together:

It was super hot for a few of the days, one of those days we decided to find an inside activity, and found the See Science Center, an interactive science museum that the kids loved. Here is Quincy playing with a machine that shows air thrust:
And here is Miles on his favorite exhibit, pulley chairs, the boys could pull themselves up with the rope that is attached to the chair via a series of pulleys.

And the boys digging for fossils:
My brother and his family were vacationing the same week, one day they were kind enough to invite us to join them at the lake house where they were vacationing. Miles couldn't seem to get enough time swimming in the lake:
He loved swimming with his aunt and cousin:

And Maddie reading to Miles & Quincy, they loved her funny voices!

One of the most favorite parts of camping is the campfire. The boys were thrilled that they got to not only help pick out and carry the wood over to the fire pit, but they got to help put the wood in as well:Most of the week was loads of fun. There were a few meltdowns and testing of boundaries. A few times when my prenting skills were, um, tired and not at their best. And the afternoon at my brothers house, most was fun, except when the dog discovered an inground bees nest, right next to where the kids were playing. Luckily no kids got stung, but the dog was swarmed by the bees, got covered with stings and an emergency trip to the animal er was required. Thankfully they got there in time and the dog was fine. We are now recovered from the trip and drive and completely unpacked, laundered and just about ready for band camp to start on Monday.

Blackberry picking

2011-07-23T14:57:00.000-04:00

While you are reading this post, the kids and I will already be in NH visiting my parents and staying with them at their campground. I set up this and the last few posts to publish while we are gone, and this will be the last one until after we return.

Last Saturday morning we all went picking blackberries for the first time. We've done lots of strawberry, blueberry & apple picking before, but this is the first year that I tuned into there being a local u-pick blackberry place. There were loads of them, so it didn't take long at all.
Yummy! Blackerry crisp, blackberry chicken, and just munching on blackberries! I don't think I have ever eaten so many blackberries in my life, and I plan on doing it again.

2011-07-21T13:19:00.001-04:00

Alright, in yesterday's post we covered our first two days of camping and lots of sightseeing. We spent the next day just relaxing at the campground, swimming in the pool, exploring trails, just playing. The following day brought us another relaxing day, but we went out and hiked a bit of the Appalachian trail (about 5-10 minutes worth!)

Then went playing in the mountain creek. This is something I did quite a bit growing up on family camping trips, and was thrilled to be able to introduce it to Miles and Quincy. Dipping our feet in:
Quincy and Mike mostly stayed on a big rock and played with the water from there,
Miles and I went into the water. Going in carefully at first:
Enjoying the water:

Drinking the water:
And our final night camping, roasting hot dogs for dinner:
We had a great trip. The boys did not want to leave and end camping. We were tired, dirty, relaxed and had lots of memories (and pictures)!

Camping in VA

2011-07-20T12:15:00.003-04:00

For our family vacation this year we chose to camp for a week in the mountains of Virginia. (Warning, this post is very long and picture heavy!) Specifically, about 10 miles from the Natural Bridge. We drove on Skyline drive through the Shenandoah Mountains:

Our campground was smack dab in the mountains. It was in Jefferson National Forest, about 1 mile off the Appalachian Trail. We had to drive down a long winding road that followed a creek into the campground. And because we went midweek, there was hardly anyone else there. It was quiet, secluded and wonderful.
While there we pretty much had our entire section of camp sites to ourselves. A couple of nights there were some Appalachian Trail backpackers that stayed in our area. It was great to talk to them and hear their different stories. One guy was hiking for just two days, some for a month and three months. A few were doing the entire trail from Georgia to Maine. And one person Mike talked to was doing much more than the trail - he started hiking in January in Key West and was planning on finishing in October in Canada. Wow.

Anyhow, our first day we went to the Natural Bridge:

Also there they had a replica of an indian village, a butterfly walk-through habitat, a toy museum. Nearby was an interesting place with a dinosaur kingdom, in the woods was a whole bunch of dinosaurs attacking civil war soldiers. The boys loved seeing the dinosaurs:
Also there was a giant slug that the kids could crawl through, this was Miles favorite part of the entire week. As he put it, being digested and thrown up by a slug.

And the main reason we went there was for a haunted house. Miles begged us to go, was all he could think about, talk about and ask about. We did know they did no-scare tours with the lights on, so we let him go. In fact all four of us went. Miles was beaming with pride that he went through a real haunted house and didn't get scared.

Day 2 was another busy day of sightseeing. First order of the day, Mike got to see what was on the top of his sightseeing list for our trip. Foamhenge. Yep, you read it right, a complete replica of Stonehenge made out of foam:Our life is now complete, really, what else do you need to see after this?!

Then we proceeded to a wonderful safari type zoo. It was a drive through park where most of the animals roamed around and you could feed and pet them. It was amazing. They had a wagon ride available as well, so we chose to do that for feeding the animals. We did drive through first on our own, and many of the animals were clearly upset that we did not have food for them.

Here is a momma Emu with a bunch of babies:
On the wagon ride, feeding camels:
And elk, close enough to pet and feel their antlers:

Another highlight was the bison (buffalo), which happens to be Miles favorite animal. They eat a lot.

A highlight for me was the lorakeet cage. We got to go in and feed them. The boys chose not to hold the food. So Mike and I got the fun:
Next up for the day was seeing a cavern:
And then it rained. hard. So we went out for dinner.

And this has become very long, so I will continue this post tomorrow...

Summer fun

2011-07-18T08:59:00.000-04:00

As I mentioned in my post yesterday, we have been very busy so far this summer. I will go into it a bit more in these next couple of posts, along with, of course, some pictures.

The month started with a weekend camping trip in the woods with some good family time:

Playing with bugs - on the playground:And in the great nature center:
We spent a morning having fun with a friend at a funhouse full of bouncy houses and slides:
(yep, that is Quincy climbing up the giant slide)

Lots of things I didn't take pictures of - our 4th of July beach trip, blueberry picking, trip to NY to visit family, and our trip to the big zoo in the city. The trip to the zoo was eventful, first of all it was nearly a hundred degrees - not something we will ever do again in the middle of summer. Second, Quincy and I had a bit of a crash when he stepped in front of me suddenly and stopped. This in itself wouldn't be too bad, but I was wearing sandals and the crash involved a toenail that I had already injured a couple of weeks ago. The result was the toenail on my big toe sticking up in a rather unnatural angle, a great deal of pain, and the loss of that toenail. Oh, and this was at the beginning of our day. It was a memorable trip.

On to more fun stuff, some random fun pictures from this past month (0r so):

Apparently one pair of sunglasses was not enough for Miles:
A very patient and cooperative Batdog:

Long overdue post

2011-07-16T08:17:00.004-04:00

It has been a busy summer so far, and I have been neglectful of this little blog, it seems to come last on my list of things to do these days. I will try to do a few posts over the next few days to fill you in a bit on what we have been doing this summer.

Let's see, Quincy is still not wanting to potty train, he no longer even wants to wear underwear. Occasionally, he will play on a potty seat, so we now have one in the living room for him to play with. He often will tell me when he is going, but never wants to go in the potty. I'm being patient and letting him set the pace, trying very hard not to push him. We'll see.

We've been using a new responsibility chart/reward system with Miles that has been working quite well. He has a chart with seven different responsibilities that we can change weekly, ranging from making his bed, feeding the pets, to showing respect, no whining, etc. He can earn a smiley face for each responsibility each day, and if he earns an entire row of smiley faces, he earns a gold coin (plastic) that he can save in his treasure chest. He can also earn or lose gold coins for super good/bad behavior. Once a week he can shop at the 'Mom & Dad store' to redeem his coins for candy, toys, coupons for late bedtime, extra screen time, all sorts of stuff, but some of the stuff is quite expensive (in gold coins) so he he has to chose to save or spend. He has really responded great to this system and works very hard to earn gold coins. He is learning to do chores, the type of behavior we expect from him and how to save.

Some of the things we have done so far, we have been blueberry picking, a trip to NY to visit family, a couple of camping trips - a weekend and a week, a trip to the city to the 'big' zoo (as Miles calls it.) A couple of community band concerts, July 4th on the beach with a campfire, and good friends watching fireworks while the kids caught ghost crabs, a tour of Miles kindergarten and starting to get him ready for school.

Miles is very apprehensive of kindergarten. Last weekend we took him out bookbag and lunch box shopping, he picked out the coolest Ironman bookbag and a Ben 10 lunch box. He was excited about them, and got excited to show off his Ben 10 lunch box at lunchtime, but still fearful of school. Yesterday morning Mike took Miles to visit his elementary school, met the principal and got a tour of the school. He came home and didn't want to tell me much, except that there were 2 playgrounds and a closet full of sports balls in the gym. Last night there was a school readiness fair for the entire school district, he got to see his principal again, she remembered him and although he hid from her at first, later on he talked with her one on one. We got to ride a school bus, a first time thing for Quincy, he was so excited he could barely talk! Miles was super excited and I do believe he is looking forward to riding the bus to school. So at least we may get him there.

Wow, this has turned out to be a long post, and totally not at all going in the direction I planned when I logged on. I do feel that this blog has not ended up being what I originally thought I would do. I feel that instead of just being a let you all know what we are up to and what is going on in our life, it has become a highlight reel of our best of times. Almost a brag blog, look at us doing fun things type of blog. And that isn't really what I like to do. I am excited when we do fun things or the kids do cute/funny stuff, but I don't really like to feel like I am bragging. I also don't like to share bad stuff and feel like I am looking for sympathy. So I am going to try to be more well rounded here, still share fun stuff, but include more day-to-day and not-so-great stuff as well.

Backyard summer fun

2011-05-31T14:06:00.007-04:00

It has been sunny and hot here this past week. The boys have wanted to go in the backyard to play in their kiddie pool everyday. Recently I picked up a slip-n-slide as well. So here are some various pictures from our backyard playtime. The boys wore the same swim trunks every day, so the pictures from various days all run into each other.

Their version of a water slide:

Trying to slide together:

The slip-n-slide, this is how far Miles got his first try:

Then they preferred to turn the sprinkler portion off and just walk-n-slide:

Miles has a new-found love of watermelon, he ate nearly half a watermelon in about 3 days:
And we brought out the lawn sprinkler one day - Miles didn't want the water to spray in his eyes, so this was his solution:

Last two weeks

2011-05-22T07:48:00.010-04:00

We had some computer problems recently, so our computer was down for a bit and I wasn't able to post some things I had planned to share. Looking back at the last two weeks in the camera, it seems we had kind of a busy time. So I'll try to do a marathon coverage of the last two weeks here.

We have gone strawberry picking:
Miles had his end of the year celebration (otherwise known as graduation) for preschool:They were all stars, and they were each recognized for their 'star quality', Miles's star quality was "clear thinker":

Here is Miles with his friend Sienna:
Miles also had a field day at school, this is what he did for much of it - hitch rides on the back of the riding toys and made his classmates drive him around:

At Mike's spring band concert, the boys hanging out during during intermission:
My parents came to visit, we spent the morning at a local park doing some nature walks and watching branches and leaves float under the bridge:
And of course we have been to the beach:

My Mothers Day camping trip

2011-05-09T08:51:00.015-04:00

I asked for, and got, a weekend of camping at the beach for Mothers Day. And it was wonderful.

Some of you may remember we tried to camp at the beach for a weekend a year ago, with gale force winds, a collapsed tent at 2am, and generally a complete fail of a camping weekend. So we watched the forecast very closely for this weekend. The forecast was generally good, calling for light wind and possible scattered showers.

Well, we got there and apparently the weather decided not to go along with the forecast. There were some decent wind, strong enough to make putting up the tent a challenge. We finally got it up and secure, shortly before the kids bedtime. The winds weren't nearly as bad as last year, but still strong enough to bring back memories. This tent was much stronger than the last one and held solid through the night. We woke up to blue skies, light breezes and warm sun that lasted all day.

First order of business, (after a morning walk on the beach) building a fire and cooking breakfast. And we wait for the fire to get hot enough to cook:
Mike got creative and tried something new with the last bit of pancake mix: scrambled pancakes, like the egg version, you fill the griddle with pancake mix and stir until done.

The end result:(Just as a note to those who may want to try this, although it tasted like pancakes, we won't be doing this again, it wasn't great.)

Next up, some kite flying, Miles did this a lot, any chance he got:Even Quincy got into it:
And this is one of my favorite pictures, Mike flying the kite in front of the water, the boys, hand in hand heading to Mike:

Quincy, ready to go to the beach:

It's camping, so we have to have a campfire picture in here:
Another beautiful sunrise on Mothers Day:
Another of my favorite pictures from this weekend, the boys just laughing with each other:

Quincy peeking out of the tent:
Quincy sitting in Mike's chair, watching Mike pack up:Ooh, Mom's Nook:It turned out to be a wonderful weekend. Laying in the tent falling asleep to & waking up to the sound of waves crashing on the beach was incredible. Being able to walk to the beach to catch sunrise, watch the stars at night and just enjoy the beach and water was also pretty incredible. We were fortunate enough to see dolphins swimming on Sunday morning - they were a little ways out, so we could see them, but too far for a decent picture. And the beach was only for use of the campers, and the campground was stretched along a long portion of beach, each camp loop having their own beach access, so we pretty much had the beach to ourselves, only a few other fellow camp neighbors were out there at any given time. It was ideal. Now that we have had a successful camp trip to the beach I am ready to go again!

Wordless Wednesday

2011-05-04T07:31:00.000-04:00

Backyard camping

2011-05-02T14:31:00.004-04:00

This weekend we pulled out the tent and set it up to make sure everything was in order for camping season! Which to the boys meant a backyard campout.

Miles tried to switch beds with me, it didn't last long:
Quincy in his bed/sleeping bag:

Quincy wearing the headlamp:

Miles and Quincy the next morning, they woke up like this:

Miles was not too happy when we didn't jump out of bed along with them at first light:

The good news is that the tent is still in great shape, I got the seam sealer on and we are ready to go camping. Now I can't wait to get started camping!

Wordless Wednesday

2011-04-20T09:48:00.000-04:00

Getting ready for Easter

2011-04-18T14:30:00.004-04:00

The last few days we have started getting ready for Easter. Well, we have been making Easter treats.

First, the boys received some Easter themed candy molds from their Grandma, along with a couple of bags of melting chocolate, so we made some chocolate candies & lollipops. They had fun dripping the chocolate into the molds. Quincy overfilled each and every mold he did; Miles underfilled each one.But the one thing they did have in common was licking and eating the drips. The chocolate set fast, so they were working hard to scrap it off the table, at one point Miles got creative and tried licking it off the table.
Next up was making Easter cookies. They had a friend over who made the cookies with them, and just me for adult help. Two 2 1/2 year olds and one 5 year old meant lots of hands on supervision and no pictures of the cookie dough rolling and cutout process. One kept trying to eat the cookie dough, another kept trying to eat the cookie cutters and the third didn't ever think we had enough flour on the table surface. I sounded a bit like a recording: "don't eat the dough, get that out of your mouth, no we don't need anymore flour!"

I was able to snap a few pictures of them decorating the cookies, only during the first cookie, so you can see how clean the table still is. As you can imagine, it got worse.

We still have eggs to dye, but that will happen just a day or two before Easter Sunday. For now, we'll enjoy our treats.

Little trombone player

2011-04-15T09:55:00.000-04:00

Here is Quincy finally getting to play Mike's trombone. He was so excited.

And here is a short video clip of him playing, although the lighting was, well, non-existent, so it is rather dark, so think of this more as an audio clip:

Wordless Wednesday

2011-04-13T09:00:00.000-04:00

Fun day

2011-04-10T12:32:00.004-04:00

Yesterday there was quite a lot going on around our community. We, of course, weren't able to get to everything, but the boys had fun at the two places we went to.

First, the fire station across the street from Miles's preschool had an open house, the boys got to explore the inside of the fire station, go through a demonstration of what to do in a fire - Miles even got to crawl under smoke (Quincy chose to walk through the smoke.) A bouncy house and lots of fun give-aways were highlights for the boys. And, the ever popular chance to explore fire trucks:
Next up, Mike's band was hosting a car show as a band fundraiser, so we headed over there after lunch at the fire station. I wasn't sure how much the boys would enjoy looking at old-time cars, but they really enjoyed seeing all the engines. And then they found a giant bush that was very alluring to play in and around:

Well, that didn't work.

2011-04-07T14:21:00.002-04:00

On Sunday Quincy asked to wear underwear and agreed to use the potty. I was very happy about this, as he has not had any interest in the potty before now. So, he got out his very own, brand new underwear that he had picked out, and wore them proudly. He was so excited to be a big boy. Well, I did a lot of laundry this week, and a lot of rug cleaning. Four full days in underwear, he sat on and stood at the potty 'trying' to go, but not once did he do anything in the toilet. No amount of awards or rewards seem to do the trick. He liked the idea, but couldn't seem to make it happen. This morning he asked to wear diapers again, said he wanted to be a baby, not a big boy. Not sure if it was the right move, but by now I felt defeated and told him it was his choice. So, we are back in diapers. Four days doesn't seem too long now, while I'm typing it out, but boy the last four days felt very long with every single accident and every unsuccessful try on the potty.

Wordless Wednesday

2011-04-06T09:54:00.003-04:00

Quincy's swim class

2011-03-31T14:03:00.004-04:00

Quincy just finished his first swim class and he loved it. A parent had to be in the pool with him, so not many pictures until the last class when both Mike and I could go together.

Blowing bubbles:
Swimming around:
And a video clip of Quincy swimming:

Ahhh, beach season starts again!

2011-03-18T14:48:00.004-04:00

Today was forecast to be clear, sunny and in the upper 60s, so the boys and packed a lunch and headed to the beach. It only got better from there. There was an ever so slight breeze and the temps were in the 60s when we got there and upper 70s by the time we left after lunch. We pretty much had the beach to ourselves, it was just a wonderful morning.
The boys did lots of digging in the sand:

Exploring the beach:
And both of them even got brave enough to dip their toes in the water:

Although Quincy didn't understand to pull up his pants and ran quickly away from the water after getting more wet than he wanted, the upside is he stayed well away from the water after that, so I didn't have to worry. Miles on the other hand, made sure his pants were up high well before he got close to the water:

House of sick

2011-03-05T08:39:00.002-05:00

Our house has been full of sickies this week. All four of us, but it seems the boys got something different than Mike and I, which is good, since ours is still going on and theirs was short-lived. But they did get all the perks of being sick: cuddle time with Mom, days off from school, and extra tv and couch time.

As they started feeling a bit better and were back to eating a little, they even got to use some trays and eat while watching tv:
Apparently feeling a bit better than I realized, as they are truly enjoying the tv show:

And hamming it up for the camera:

Horsing around

2011-02-23T10:38:00.000-05:00

Having a houseful of boys means there is always a lot of horsing around, but this time, at least, the horsing around is all in the family.

And when I say all in the family, Daddy is the horse:

Quincy is holding on by holding the back of Miles's shirt, see how Miles is starting to get choked?!:

Ahh, Quincy is finally holding onto Miles the right way:
And here goes Quincy, but he's got a good grip on Miles and he is taking him down with him:

Some riding

2011-02-21T12:54:00.000-05:00

The other day the boys decided to go for a ride around the block. Quincy on the biggest scooter we have, and Miles on the tricycle.
Quincy did end up needing quite a bit of help, he kept giving up and trying again, and finally gave up long before the end of the ride. But bless him for trying.

A new park

2011-02-19T12:23:00.007-05:00

Yesterday was another warm, spring-like day. The boys and I went to a park in town that was new to us. There is no playground there, but an historical house and outbuildings, as well as several miles of well laid out trails through woods and marshes. The boys were very excited to go hiking and exploring.

There were lots of wooden bridges over water and marshes/wetlands. Here we are heading out over a very long bridge that took us over some marshland. The boys loved going over the bridges and were fascinated by the marshes. By the end of the day I finally convinced Miles that they were called marshes and not martians.

Miles did quite a bit of running through the trails:

Not Quincy:

Here we are on a dock that juts out over wetlands that are part of the local river:

We came upon these benches and the boys felt they needed to rest:

Finally time to break for a picnic lunch:

On a little island:
All in all a great morning. I didn't look at the trail maps until we came back for lunch, and it turns out we hiked about 2 miles total. No wonder they were so worn out! But they loved and can't wait to go back.

Miles's book of feelings

2011-02-17T10:35:00.000-05:00

Miles did this at school the other day. He did all the writing and drawing on his own, he was especially proud of the last page.

A taste of spring

2011-02-15T10:21:00.005-05:00

Yesterday the weather was beautiful! In the 60s, sunny and dry. And we are supposed to have weather like this off and on all week, yay! I just know I'm going to get spoiled and be rather unhappy when colder weather returns. So yesterday the kids and I took advantage of the warm day and went to the playground and zoo. We were there for several hours, and they still cried when it was time to leave.

A little rock climbing:
Quincy climbing the rope ladder:

Watching the otters play in the zoo:

Back to the playground:

A couple of worn out boys taking a rest in the middle of the playground:

Ahh, I love warm weather!

Christmas tree

2010-12-23T13:20:00.000-05:00

The boys love their Christmas tree, and often have trouble remembering not to touch and play with the ornaments.

My boys and their laptops

2010-12-20T13:11:00.004-05:00

My Dad recently gave the boys an old laptop of his. There is no internet, but the boys are excited to have their very own real computer. Miles likes to get on and practice typing.

Earlier in the week Miles was on the computer, Quincy asked to see, so a chair was pulled up next to Miles's chair. I left the room for a few minutes and when I came back, this is what I saw:
My two boys, working on their computers side by side.

Two nights ago Miles decided he wanted to be just like Dad:

First snow day of the season!

2010-12-17T13:26:00.005-05:00

We had our first real snowfall of the season yesterday - the first snow that stuck to the ground. So, of course, the schools let out early yesterday and closed today. The kids were impatient to get out and play in the snow, here is Miles looking longingly at the snow outside:

So a bit after 8am this morning we were digging out the snow pants and boots and gearing up for snow. I do believe it took us more than 20 minutes to get everyone ready to got out, but once we were out, we all had loads of fun. Miles started making snowballs as soon as his feet hit the snow:

And Quincy was his first victim:

Here Miles is getting ready to hit an unsuspecting Mike from behind:
Miles making a snow angel:Miles very proud of his snow angel:
Quincy practicing driving in the snow (not much of anything keeps him out of that car if we are in the backyard.):

And a little sled pulling in the backyard:

Trip to NH

2010-12-13T13:33:00.007-05:00

We went to NH to visit and join family for Thanksgiving. I know, it has been several weeks since Thanksgiving and this post is fairly late, but hey, better late than never, right?! Anyway, we had a great visit with everyone and a wonderful Thanksgiving day with lots of my Aunts, Uncles & cousins.

Our first stop on our visit was at my parents house, where the boys had fun raking leaves into a big pile to play in. Well, Quincy worked hard raking while Miles played:
But Quincy did most of the playing in the leaves once they were in a big pile:
Then it was on to my brother's house, where the kids got to visit with their cousins, here's Quincy just hanging with Tyler watching him play video games:
And later on in the weekend more family and cousins came to visit, here is Quincy & Maddie riding Jordan:
One highlight of the visit was the afternoon that we went to a secret Santa party. It was on a farm, we took a horse drawn hayride into the middle of the woods where the party was. Here we are on the hayride, a (rare) family pic:

And across from us here is Maddie and Dawn having fun together:
At the Santa party the kids got to meet Santa (in his farm clothes):
And they got to meet several other holiday characters, such as Rudolph, Frosty the snowman, the Gingerbread boy, and the Grinch:
My two boys were a bit apprehensive of just about everyone at the party, they didn't talk to any of them, but eventually they did let them get close and play a bit:(Miles hid behind that cup the entire time the Grinch was touching him!)

And to top it all off, they a pony ride:

We had a wonderful visit with everyone. the boys (and us) were very sad to leave and are still asking when we are going to NH again.

A fun day with family

2010-11-23T14:00:00.006-05:00

I live about 2 hours from where my Dad grew up. Now, only one of his sisters and her grown children and families still live there. It is nice that I am close enough to be able to go up and visit occasionally, but sad that everyone lives so far apart that we don't get together as a big family very often anymore. Yesterday, was a rare treat that one of my aunts, my two cousins and kids from Alabama, as well as an aunt and uncle from Michigan all came to visit my aunt and uncle and family that live just 2 hours from me. So the kids and I spent the day visiting with family that we haven't seen in a long time, and got to visit with much of the family together at the same time.

Both sides of my family are outdoorsy, but in very different ways. On my Mom's side, it is more camping, hiking & kayaking. On my Dad's side, it's more hunting, fishing & 4-wheeling. With so many relatives together, along with a beautiful day, there was lots of 4-wheeling. I was close to having a small heart attack when my two boys went for rides, but we all quickly got over that and before long I was taking them out for rides also.

Quincy's first 4-wheeler ride, with my cousin, Kim:Miles's first 4-wheeler ride (with Kim and her son Jonathon):
They both loved the 4-wheeler and begged to go faster and go again.

Quincy hanging out with my uncle:

The three sisters, my Aunts:

Sleepy heads

2010-11-20T08:32:00.006-05:00

Here are just a couple of pics of my guys being sleepy heads. Quincy, at the dinner table one night:
And Miles with Mike this morning (watching the painting guy on PBS - they enjoy watching that show together):

Museum trip

2010-11-03T15:07:00.007-04:00

Yesterday the schools were closed for voting, so we took advantage of the time off as a family and took a trip to the city to visit some museums. Miles has been asking for several months to go to the dinosaur museum, so when we told him we were going, he nearly jumped out of his skin with excitement.

As usual, one of the favorite parts of the day is the train ride in and out of the city.

Being in the tunnels is especially exciting:

Our first stop was the dinosaur museum, we saw the dinosaurs, then a whole lot of other animals. This museum has a butterfly exhibit where you can go into the butterfly habitat. We did this yesterday, and it was great. There are hundreds of butterflies flying all around you, landing next to you and sometimes on you. The boys were totally entranced.
One landed on Quincy's forehead, but flew away too quick for a picture. Here is one that landed on Mike's pantleg:
And Miles kept putting his hand very still right next to the butterflies, hoping they would sit on his hand:

And a quick video clip that shows a few of the butterflies flying around. If you look at the young boys head you can see a butterfly sitting on his head.

Next up was the insect room, Miles got to hold a big green caterpillar:

After that was the 'train museum' where the boys got to see some pretty big trains, old cars, model ships and got a chance to try their hand at some kid level science experiments:
We finished in the 'train museum' much sooner than we planned, so we then onto what Miles and Quincy call the 'rocketship museum'. Among other things, they both got to sit in a real plane and work the controls:
After a full day of dinosaurs, butterflies, bugs, trains, airplanes and rocketships, Quincy was worn out.

It was a great day and the boys are already asking to go back to the museums.

Halloween

2010-11-01T07:12:00.007-04:00

The day started with the boys picking out what kind of face they wanted their jack-o-lanterns to have, and Mike carving the pumpkins:
Quincy checking out Miles's pumpkin:

Miles's pumpkin:

Quincy's pumpkin:

And then finally it was time to go trick-or-treating. Here are the boys in their Halloween costumes, getting ready to go out in our neighborhood. Quincy as the cuddly bear, and Miles, as a dragon. Yes, a dragon. After many times changing his mind, Miles decided to wear his dragon costume, some of you may remember this is the same costume he wore 3 years ago. He loves it and he had fun.

Here they are heading out:
Having fun with their halloween lanterns in the dark:

Here is Miles, sitting with their pumpkins, and like last year, he was excited to hand out candy:

And their take:

These pictures were taken this morning, so after some candy has been eaten and filtered out. Both bags were full, Quincy's bag was overflowing, literally, candy was falling out as we were walking to the last few houses. Some of the more unusual items this year: a juice pouch, full size candy bars, and playdough. The best part, Miles loves all the scary decorations and we spent quite a bit of time at a few of the more elaborately decorated houses. When asked which he liked better, seeing the decorations or getting the candy, there was no hesitation - seeing the decorations was best!

First day of school

2010-10-26T16:31:00.004-04:00

Today was Miles's first day of school for this school year. He has been very anxious for school to start this year, and was beyond excited this morning. Yesterday he picked out the shirt that he wanted to wear this morning, and made sure all of us knew which shirt he wanted to wear. All morning he kept saying (in a very excited voice) "I'm going to school today! A real school day!" The school program had an open house last week, at which he was disappointed because they didn't do all the normal school day stuff, hence the excitement over today being a real school day. As expected, his day went great, he was happy to see old friends, and I think he is happy to meet some new friends, at least he keeps talking about a boy with a black batman t-shirt, although I don't think he has spoken to the boy yet. By the time we got to the van he had already forgotten most of what had happened, except snack time - he had goldfish and apple juice for snack. Quincy was also excited, he loves playing with the toys at Miles's school.

Super Quincy vs. Evil Skeleton

2010-10-21T14:52:00.007-04:00

In this episode of Devine super heroes, our hero is none other than Super Quincy, a toddler that can fight off the bad guys, even in his diaper. And his nemesis, the oft fought with big brother that today is playing the role of Evil Skeleton.

Our fight starts off with Evil Skeleton trying to scare Super Quincy by pretending to have a real skull for a face, as you can see, Super Quincy is bored with the obvious ruse.

Then Evil Skeleton uses his strong muscles to lift a giant pumpkin up, threatening to crush an ambulance.

Super Quincy is off to save the day:

Super Quincy is trying to turn the skull face trick around on Evil Skeleton, but did he succeed in scaring him?

At last Super Quincy is successful, grinning while Evil Skeleton plots his revenge...

Halloween at the Zoo

2010-10-16T10:03:00.005-04:00

Last night we went to our Zoo's annual Halloween at the zoo. The kids look forward to this every year, and as usual had loads of fun.

My guys, Batman (of course), and my very own cuddly bear:

Miles excited about getting the good stuff:

Quincy just looking cute:

The kids in line for a trick-or-treat stop:

Miles and Sienna, as usual, holding hands:

Quincy with a great view watching a dance performance:

The kids getting to sample their haul:

Firetruck visit

2010-10-14T13:55:00.006-04:00

One of the local fire stations is hosting a "Firefest" in our downtown area today and tomorrow. I happened to see a banner about it yesterday and we stopped by this morning. They had a couple of rooms with pictures and fire safety information, but the big thing was right in the middle of the downtown main street was a firetruck, with firemen on hand to give tours and let us look at it. We were there shortly after it arrived, and had the good fortune of being the only ones there for nearly an hour. The boys had a blast getting to sit in the seats and have plenty of time having a close up look at all the different parts of the firetruck. The firefighters were very kind and patient, gave the boys the full tour, plus a few extras, and answered many questions.

Miles fully checked out and sat in every seat in the truck, Quincy didn't want to get in at all. Here is Miles checking out some of the seats:

Miles looking at his reflection:

I tried to get a nice picture of the boys sitting on the back of the truck, I got two pictures with them both in it, neither of them would look at me at the same time, so here are the pics. The first one with Miles looking at me:

And now Quincy, facing my general direction, and believe it or not, he is saying cheese and smiling for me, clearly he was being a bit silly:

Afterward, playing on the street, Miles hiding from me behind the post:

Quincy trying to hide like Miles:

Pumpkin farm

2010-10-11T09:35:00.014-04:00

Yesterday we had a great morning at a local pumpkin farm, full of all sorts of mazes and fun activities for the kids. (Warning, this is very pic heavy)

There were lots of different kinds of mazes, which was a big hit with Miles, he loves mazes. The favorite maze here for Miles is a spooky spider maze, but it is fairly dark inside, so although we went through the maze at least a dozen times, I have no pics. Here are the boys in the next maze, a no left turn maze, it was fun and somewhat tricky to figure out, the boys gave up and went on to something else while Mike and I kept at it until we finished:

A climbing tower, early in the day both boys climbed up using the stairs, later on Miles got much braver:

Farmer Miles:

Farmer Quincy:

Another maze, this time just a regular hay maze, here's Miles figuring it out:

And he hit a dead-end:

And Quincy making his way through:

There was a small corn maze, and a big corn maze, here we are in the big corn maze, Miles posing:

Quincy posing:

Quincy and his posse:

Miles got pretty brave at the farm and decided to try climbing all of the climbing activities, first was the hay bale pyramid:

Then big hay bales:

Here is the the rock wall and rope ladder on the climbing tower:

He got to the top of the hay pyramid, and he got at least half way up on all the others!

Quincy loved riding a tractor:

Through the giant scarecrow's legs to the pumpkin patch:

Quincy , very happy with the pumpkin he picked out:

The boys, the end of a fun day:

All about Quincy

2010-09-24T12:51:00.006-04:00

We've had a busy week of playing, but we haven't done anything too exciting or out of the ordinary, a few trips to some parks/playgrounds, the zoo, running errands, haircuts, playdates, etc. I figure since I did a post mostly about Miles/batman, Quincy deserved a post all to himself as well. Here are some random pictures of Quincy around the house, neighborhood and town these last couple of weeks.

One day after eating some chocolate ice cream. Well, not sure how much ice cream he actually ate, but he sure enjoyed himself:

Quincy was riding this toy happily until Miles decided to join him, as you can see, Quincy was not thrilled about Miles getting on and taking control:

This is the very next picture I took - Quincy is great at looking good for the camera when he wants to:

And a little dress up time as a skeleton (he's trying to be scary by covering his face so we don't know it is him):

Pretending to be Mom:

On a walk/wagon ride through the neighborhood, walking with Mike:

Walking with Mike and Batman(yes, Batman protects our entire neighborhood):

Quincy loves helping to push the wagon:

At a playground doing some balancing:

At another playground, swinging & giving me a silly face:

Smiling for me:

Quiet day at the beach

2010-09-20T07:31:00.000-04:00

Ah, the busy summer season is done, the scorching hot days are over, and we're back to having quieter days at the beach, which is what I love. Last week Mike had the day off in the middle of a super busy week, so we packed up and spent the morning playing and relaxing at the beach.

Miles chased a large flock of seagulls, and got very excited to get close to one:

Quincy had his first go at trying to catch some seagulls:

Miles playing with Mike through the window of the pirate ship:

Quincy boarding the ship:

Some digging in the sand:

There were quite a few tire tracks across the beach, which the boys spent much time following and exploring, here they are about to pass each other:

And just a few shots of the boys that I like:

Rainy Day

2010-09-18T08:59:00.003-04:00

Last weekend we had a rainy day, with lots of puddles. Which means I had two very excited boys that wanted to go out and play in the rain.

Quincy loves splashing in the puddles, not just walking through, but running and stomping and splashing the water as big as possible:

Miles, enjoys being out in the rain, having the chance to use his raincoat and umbrella, he likes being able to walk through the puddles, but he's not so keen on actually getting wet:

They found a fairly large puddle at the end of the street, Quincy was beyond thrilled, by the time I finally pulled him away from it his entire lower body was soaked and he was crying because I was making him get out of the puddle:

And the next thrill for Quincy, Miles let him use his umbrella:

Butterflies

2010-09-14T12:51:00.000-04:00

Miles got a butterfly habitat for Christmas last year. We finally had the chance to order the caterpillars last month. For the past few weeks we have watched the caterpillars go from crawling around to hanging upside down and making themselves into chrysallids. Miles was faithful about checking his caterpillars several times a day to see if they were chrysallids yet. Then the watch began to see when the butterflies would hatch. He was faithful in checking for the butterflies for about a week, it took just over a week for the first one to come out, and then he got right back into checking his butterflies several times a day.

The day finally came to release the butterflies into the wild. This was a much anticipated event in the house. We brought the habitat into the backyard, Miles unzipped the top:

and we waited:

It really seemed like a longer wait then it was, only about 5-10 minutes for the first one to find it's way out:

The second one followed pretty quick, then we played for awhile, checking back occassionally. It was easily an hour or two before the fourth butterfly figured out the top was open. The fifth one may very well still be in there. It still was when we came in for lunch, and didn't seem like it had any intention of ever leaving.

We went for a walk around the neighborhood, and it seemed that one or two of the butterflies kept coming and circling around the boys. A couple seemed to be hanging around the backyard. All in all, Miles loved this whole experience. Thank you Uncle Paul and Aunt Jennifer for a wonderful present!

Da-na na-na na-na na-naa. . . Batman!

2010-09-11T15:30:00.008-04:00

There have been rumors of Batman sightings around our town this week. And I am here to report that we have actual proof - pictures of the rumored dark knight himself. He first made his appearance in our backyard, flying through the air:

His first act of heroism was to save a toddler!

He can leap from tall buildings (or rather small slides):

He climbs trees to rescue those in need:

He's not alone though, he has a team to help him, Sheriff Quincy:

And SuperDog:

His appearances have not been just in our backyard, he has been spotted patrolling the streets in the downtown area (and, yes, picking a flower for his mother, even superheroes know to bring something nice home for mom):

Another time he was seen scaling the fence to help the high school football team:

His next mission - protect the band:

More specifically, help the drum section:

Alas, the rumors are true, Batman is out and about in our town. But who is this masked man? Will he stay? Or be replaced by another superhero? Or, gasp, a villain?!

Happy Birthday to Miles!

2010-09-09T09:24:00.002-04:00

Happy birthday to my big 5 year old boy. Wow, it's a bit hard for me to believe that he is 5 years old already. And he feels the same way. He has been hoping and wishing to be 5 for the last 3 years. The other night after his birthday party, he said: "I can't believe I'm really 5 years old today. Well, not really today, today was just my party, but I'm really gonna be 5!" He is just growing up so fast. He is not a little boy anymore, but a growing, smart, funny, considerate, polite, helpful boy. Everyday he amazes me with how well he speaks and thinks. I really wish I could see inside his brain to see how comes up with the stuff he comes up with, and find out how he already knows so much. He is always saying and doing something that makes me laugh. He is just a great kid all around. He just makes me so proud to be his Mom.

We had a small birthday party for him the other day. After changing his mind many times, he asked for a Buzz Lightyear birthday cake. (For those without young boys in the house, this is a character from the Toy Story movies.)

He was just a bit excited waiting for his cake:

Blowing out his candles:

He is very big into super heroes right now, and one of his many requested presents was super hero costumes. He got a plain red cape with decorations to make his own superhero, and he also got Batman:

And Spiderman:

Here's Quincy trying to be Batman:

Miles got lots of other great toys, a car kit that the kids worked for a bit to put together:

Notice here Miles is on to something else, but Quincy is trying to help:

Another fun toy was his own working blender, here are the kids making fruit smoothies, apparently the blender is a bit too loud for their liking:

He also got a model of the solar system which he loves learning about all the planets, and a fun magnet kit that he has spent hours experimenting with all of the magnets in the kit, and some superhero books. He has been excited about every present this year, and even more excited about turning 5 years old.

Family fun

2010-09-06T12:30:00.003-04:00

Friday night was Mike's first football game, so the boys and I were there as well:

Hanging with Dad watching the football game(sorry for the sun glare):

Hanging with Dad watching (entertaining) the band:

Just hanging out on the instrument case cart:

And Saturday we all had some family time playing outside:
We've been doing a lot of superhero play lately, this is Quincy "flying" as "Super Baby":

The boys attacking Mike:

Mike getting 'em (usually they both love this, apparently something didn't go right for Miles this time):

Fun week

2010-09-04T12:08:00.009-04:00

It's back to just me and the kids, Mike has been back in the regular school year for two weeks now. So the kids and I spent the week going out and about finding some fun stuff to do.

One day we went to the beach:

Another day we went to a local playground/park:

Yesterday, while it was raining, we spent some time playing at the mall playarea:

Quincy's computer

2010-08-29T10:21:00.002-04:00

Quincy got his own laptop computer for his birthday, and he loves it. Here he is looking very focused on his computer, looking like a little businessman:

His brother also likes the computer, and, being the big brother, is always trying to help Quincy and show him how to do things on the computer. Quincy doesn't really like the help so much, so he found a place to play on the computer, without assistance:

Last swim class

2010-08-25T14:14:00.011-04:00

This morning Miles had his last swim class. He had two classes a week for the last four weeks and he loved it. He got much more comfortable swimming and being in the water, and he is now a better swimmer. Here are some pictures and videos from his last two classes.

Here he is on Monday, he is so proud that he is swimming all by himself:

Just for comparison, here are a couple of pictures of him swimming in his first class, a month ago:

This picture is from today, he has a floatie on his back that you can't see in this picture, but that is it for help:

The last thing they do in class is jump from the edge to the teacher, then swim to the stairs. In the beginning Miles feet barely got any air between the edge and the water. Look at him now:

And now for some videos, these were all taken at Monday's class. In the first one, he had to throw the rubber ducky out in the water, then swim to it, pick it up, throw it, swim to it, and so on and so forth.

In this video clip, Miles is swimming with the kickboard, but look, he is doing it all by himself, the teacher isn't holding him at all:

And this final video clip is of Miles jumping off the edge to the teacher, then swimming back to the stairs. The teacher is holding him a little, but he has no floaties at all and is swimming great - such a huge improvement from the first couple of classes!

Miles loved swim class! We were so happy that he loved going every time and always tried so hard to do everything that the teacher asked. He has already asked when his next swim lessons will be.

Happy Birthday to my sweet baby.

2010-08-08T09:11:00.007-04:00

My baby, Quincy, turned 2 years old today. He's no longer a baby. He is quickly growing up into a wonderful little boy. He says several new words everyday, he tries to help with just about everything I do around the house. He even tries to help his big brother, too. He wants to sleep in a bed, he wants to dress himself, he has an opinion about what clothes he wears. Actually, he seems to have an opinion about most everything these days.

We celebrated his birthday yesterday with some friends. The day started with Mike making and decorating Quincy's birthday cake. It was a guitar cake, and Quincy loves guitars. Quincy watched Mike decorated nearly the whole time, all the while very excitedly pointing at the cake saying "guitar, mine."

Waiting for the cake to be served:

He blew the candle out all by himself:

He loved every present he got, and played with them all. Here is one of the presents, being played with by all of the kids:

A little later I was called by one of the older kids, when I arrived I saw this: (look at the tray where crayons go)

And here is the rest of him:

This morning we have had a marching band parade through the house several times using Quincy's new marching band drum set. And the boys have been trying to clean the floor. Quincy goes around with his new broom and dustpan saying "clean, clean."

Swim lessons

2010-08-03T13:45:00.004-04:00

Yesterday was the first day of swim lessons for Miles. We were a bit apprehensive that he would get there and then not want to participate, but he did great. He tried to do everything the teacher asked them to do, and whenever he wasn't concentrating, he had a big giant smile on his face.

Trip to NY

2010-07-23T14:25:00.012-04:00

What a whirlwind. We left camping with my parents and headed straight to Mike's parents' house to have a visit with his side of the family. Again, the kids enjoyed seeing their grandparents and other family, and had fun playing with their cousins.

Playing in the backyard:

Quincy put two swings together, and I think he was much happier than with just one swing:

We brought our tent up and all the kids had a backyard camp-out with Mike and his Dad. The kids had fun, Mike and Grandpa were both a bit tired the next day.

Before I met Mike, he played in the horn section of a rock band, and has often shared memories of his good times playing with this band. This band decided to have a 24 year reunion and bring back as many old bandmates as possible to play together again - that reunion was last week and part of the reason for the timing of our visit to his family. Mike had a great time playing with and seeing old friends, and the kids and I had a chance to hear and see a bit of Mike's past:

And the kids had more time to hang out with each other:

A few days later we took a walk to a nearby park:

Miles and Ally watching a teeny tiny spider:

And of course the pool was always in high demand for the kids:

Nearly two weeks of visiting family and playing hard finally caught up to Miles:

Camping in NH

2010-07-16T12:36:00.017-04:00

This is turning out to be a summer full of camping. This past week we joined my parents, and camped with them in their camper. Again, the boys loved it.

At the campground is a lake with a small beachfront, swimming area, and boat launch. My parents have some kayaks, which was the favorite activity for Quincy. Here are the boys, working together to bring the kayak paddle down to the beach:

Miles out with Grandma:

Quincy out with Grandma:

Swimming was also a favorite activity, especially for Miles:

Quincy liked swimming too: (if you click on the picture to make it bigger, you will see that Quincy is actually laughing, not crying here)

Miles swam out to the raft (many times):

We went on a few day trips, and the boys spent lots of time visiting with their cousins. Here are Miles and Maddie at a kids activity museum:

Quincy and Maddie making some music together:

And playing a bit rougher with Tyler:

And you just can't go camping without having a campfire and roasting marshmallows:

Random

2010-07-10T08:12:00.001-04:00

Here are just a few random pictures from around the house.

Miles found a checkerboard, asked us to teach him, and now he wants to play checkers with us all the time:

This has happened a few times, Miles and Quincy playing nicely together on the sit-n-spin:

Miles and I went out to watch the fireworks on the 4th of July. We had a great spot and were able to watch from the back of the van (which Miles thought was very cool):

Miles found a tree that he thought was super tall, and made me take a picture of him next to it - see the giant smile, he is so happy to have a picture of himself next to "the tallest tree in the whole world.":

He loved the fireworks, too:

Dutch Wonderland

2010-07-06T08:49:00.020-04:00

While camping, we took the kids to Dutch Wonderland. This is an amusement park, but geared entirely towards children. There were several rides that we could go on with the kids, but only a few rides that were really geared towards older children/adults. There were probably about a half dozen rides that Miles was not big enough to go on. The kids loved it. Miles has completely and totally gotten over his fear of rides, and went on all of the rides, many of them two and three times.

One of Miles's favorite rides was the rocketship because it had a gun and he could shoot his brother!?!?!

Another favorite was the bulldozer (the slowest kids ride ever) because he could lift and lower the shovel.

One of Quincy's favorite rides was the hand choo-choo train (even though he had to mush his face against the wheel well to reach the hand holds, and even then he went painfully slow, so we gave him a little help):

And the old time cars, the bumper cars, the pony rides, the roller coaster, the log flume, the twister, the tilt a whirl . . . let's just say they enjoyed all the rides...

Here is a nice clip of Miles in action on the frog hopper ride:
And Quincy loved it too, in fact he laughed the whole time his first time on it:

Miles has definitely overcome his fear of rides. Here is his first roller coaster ride.

Along with the rides we also got to see some cool shows. We saw a Thomas the Tank Engine show, and two diving shows "The Frog Prince" and "A Dragon's Tale". Here is the big finale from "The Frog Prince." 70ft in the air into 9ft of water. Notice the green frog through the hole in the ceiling.

Showing a rare moment of brotherly love:

Playing with their souvenirs, Quincy is so excited to have his very own mug now:
When all was said and done the family had a great time. Now we need some rest from our vacation.

Camping II: Fireflies and Seesaws

2010-07-04T15:21:00.009-04:00

Miles had fun trying to catch fireflies, then of course, Quincy had to try as well. Here are a few video clips of the boys trying to catch the fireflies.

We call this one Kung Fu Miles:

Here is Quincy, although we only get to see his back:

And another one of Miles, in this very short clip, Miles has caught a firefly, and yes, he is giving it a kiss:

The campground had some seesaws at the playground that Miles just loved. He liked doing them best with Quincy, and although (as you will see in these clips) Quincy seemed to love the seesaw, after the first day on the them, he never (despite Miles asking him a million times a day) wanted to go on them again. Here they are, seesawing:

And a clip of giggling Quincy:

Camping in PA

2010-06-30T09:14:00.012-04:00

We returned yesterday from our first family camping trip. The kids were so excited leading up to leaving, they fell asleep on the drive out. (Note the fully loaded van in the background - I don't think we could have fit in one more thing.):

The tent is set up and the kids immediately took our bed.

We arrived Monday afternoon, went exploring the area and the kids quickly found a playground. Then a petting zoo where the kids got to pet and feed chickens, goats and small ponies.

The next morning we explored our campground, a fun wooden train, we spent a lot of time at this train, it was their favorite part of camping:

And the pool. Miles ready to go swimming:

In the pool:

Quincy done with swimming, just lounging:

And, of course, we ended several evenings roasting marshmallows and sitting around the campfire:
While camping we visited a pretzel factory, where Miles learned how to make pretzels. Quincy only cared about eating them. We also played mini-golf:
We also spent a full, long day at the kid-oriented amusement park, Dutch Wonderland. And much more around the campground. I'll do more posts over the next few days with those pictures.

The kids absolutely loved camping. Quincy cried when we took the tent down, he was just so upset that we were leaving. And Miles was asking when we were going camping again. It was a great week, great family time, and great relaxing time. Here is a picture of the smile Miles had nearly the entire time we were camping:

Brothers

2010-06-24T08:27:00.005-04:00

Lately, the boys have been spending more time together, playing, reading, watching tv, and, of course, fighting. Here are a few pics of them just hanging out together.

Watching morning tv (By the end of the day, when they watch evening tv, they end up sitting across the room from each other.):
Playing:
Posing (Miles started doing this posing with Quincy as soon as he saw the camera, and of course Quincy just hammed it right up):

There's no pictures of them fighting, as you can imagine I am a bit too busy to take pictures while that is happening.

Now and then

2010-06-21T08:08:00.011-04:00

I was originally going to steal a friends idea and do a Memory Lane Monday post today. As I was looking through some old pictures, I happened upon some pictures from three years ago when we went with some friends to have a picnic on the beach. It just so happens that this past Friday evening we went with the same friends to have a picnic at the same beach. So I decided to post some pics from the trips, both then and now.

2007: Miles and Sienna playing together:
2010: Miles and Sienna (and Brandon) playing together:

2007: Miles running:
2010: Miles running:
2007: Miles sitting:
2010: Miles sitting:
And of course, a few of Quincy, since he wasn't here yet in 2007: