What Caden did on his summer vacation

Matt has Monday's off. He took Caden and Isaac to the water slide while I was at work one day. I got a call shortly after lunch that they were coming up to visit me. At first I was excited until I
realized it wasn't a friendly visit. Caden had come down off one of the slides, hit his chin, was knocked out and was lying face down in the pool. Thank goodness Matt was coming down right behind him with Isaac and ran to grab him. He was out for about a minute. Matt had someone grab a towel for the blood and rushed to the hospital because he knew he could get there faster than the time it would take to call an ambulance to get there. He had to get 7 stitches but it could have been so much worse. I'm so grateful for my awesome husband. And now Caden understands why he cannot go swimming with just his friends and no parents. I can only imagine if he was not with an adult this day. This was the before picture and I'm not sure where the after one is.

Forgery at Five

Isaac has these skill books he brings home from school each week. Once your child has passed off a a skill, you are supposed to sign your name at the top. This lets the teacher know that they are ready to be tested on this concept. We took a break from homework one night so I could finish making dinner. Isaac comes walking over to the stove so proud and says "Look Mom, I wrote your name for you." He had attempted to sign my name in the top corner! I tried so hard not to laugh. I just told him what a great job he did. The sad thing is that it doesn't look to bad for a five year old. Check out how good those L's are for someone who's just learning to write in print!

We're bored...

I can't for the life of me figure out why the kids are always bored in the summer. Times are so different than when we were young. We used to play outside for hours and only come in when we were hungry or had to pee. We have a large swing set with a climbing wall, a tramp with a cage around it, a basketball hoop/court area, and yet they're still bored. We were so happy this day when they came up with this clever idea to tow each other around. They had so much fun and we just sat outside and watched them. It was a great lazy summer day.

What is it about our bed?

Caden and Isaac are always asking if they can lay on my bed and watch TV. We hardly ever let them in our room. We feel like they are big enough that there's really no reason they should be in there anymore. Also, that is our room, our space. I'm weird I guess but I don't really like anyone in there except me or Matt. I let them come in and fold clothes with me or come tell me if they wake up but that's about it. One particular night after baths I decided to let them watch TV on my bed. You can't tell from the pictures but they were SO excited. Life's simple pleasures huh?

Suicide prevention walk

In September I had the chance to participate in a suicide prevention walk. Matt had to work but I went and took the boys with me. We walked to honor our friend Mike King who committed suicide two years ago. Isaac didn't really know what it was other than it was a long walk and we were there to remember Mike. I did tell Caden a little bit about the walk without putting too much information in his head. There were a lot of people there to support the King family and I'm grateful we were able to participate in this.

Fishing Fun

Most of our family activities are spur of the moment. That's what this day was. We decided to go to the pond and take the kids fishing. We spent about three hours there just enjoying this beautiful afternoon. Didn't catch anything but had a great time anyway. I just sat in my little camp chair and loved every minute. Isaac had more fun feeding the ducks than he did fishing but that's ok. He doesn't quite have the patience yet to sit there and do nothing but wait.

Backyard camp out

During the summer Matt decided to do a spur of the moment backyard camp out. He told the boys we were going to set up the tent to see if it was ok to use this summer. After it was all set up and ready to go, he asked them if they wanted to sleep outside that night. The kids were SO excited and ran in to get their sleeping bags and stuffed animals and the dog. They wanted her to sleep outside with them. I was less than excited about the idea of sleeping out that night so I took my bag of cinnamon bears and headed to my room. I laid in bed and watched one of my cheesy Hallmark movies all by myself with no interruptions from anyone. It was a great night.

Snug as a bug in a rug

So Saturday morning I was doing my regular weekly cleaning. As I was cleaning off Isaac's window seat I looked over at his bed that needed to be made. It got me thinking that I wanted new sheets for both of the boys beds. I called Matt at work and told him I wanted to go shopping when he got home. He started looking at some bedding with new comforters. They were both in need of new bedding so when he got home from work we took the kids to the store with us. We showed them all the ones they could pick from and they both wanted the exact same one. Ironically it was the same one Matt was looking at online. We came home and washed it all that night and made their beds just in time for bed. There's nothing better than climbing into bed at night with freshly washed brand new bedding. We took these "pretend like your asleep" pictures but as you can see Isaac didn't quite get the point!