Summer Favorites

I barely wrote on here at all this summer. Which means I haven't gone through any of my thousands of pictures from summer. But I'm going to take that as a good sign that we had a really fun summer. Which is true. :-) So I decided to just post a few random favorites here. Eventually I will get to fall and where we are now in real life. :-) It's hard to just skip over summer though!

I only posted this because it was only a few months ago and she looks so different already! It's crazy.

This was our first 5K! We did the Stop the Trafficking Walk/Run for Justice. It was so fun to do together. Tyler was so excited to be a part of a race. He had fun running ahead with one of us for short bursts before getting tired and rejoining the walkers. :-) They can't wait to do it again and we hope that we can do it next summer too! It was such a fun way to support an important cause.

Bug catching was a favorite past time this summer. They liked making bug or ant "attracters" to lead them into their cages. :-) I drew the line when they made a line of things leading into the house and called it their ant attracters. 

I only had a couple pictures of this but we had a fun day at the zoo with Matt and Janelle!

They love craft time with Daddy. Snow monsters in June? Sure!

Happy Father's Day!

I don't know why I expect to actually get pictures of them all smiling. I can barely even get one to look in the right direction most of the time.

We went out to eat in one of our favorite spots - it's a favorite mostly because of how much the kids love this fountain and the archways that look like a tunnel. Carl and I were sitting on the patio right next to the fountain while Aria finished eating and the boys played by it. Carl asked how often I thought kids fell into fountains.  I said it has to happen sometimes but I've never seen it. Right at that second the boys jumped up and started chasing each other around the edge and I said, "Today. It's going to happen today." And moments later I was taking this picture.

He had a lot of fun dramatically posing for these pictures.

We didn't have extra clothes and he didn't want to go home in just his underwear, so this happened. Tyler, I promise I had nothing to do with this. It was all you and your dad's creation! But seriously, best use of a Menards bag ever?

The next night we went to a lake near our house for a picnic. And it's possible that they all jumped into the water and got soaking wet with their clothes on.

Aria screamed through this whole picture because the boys wouldn't let her run back into the water.

This just says a lot about our summer. Lots of time playing in the sunshine followed by worn out kids and great naps!

One of the best parts of summer!

And this. Because who doesn't wish they could wear their underwear like this, right?

It was definitely the most creative way I've seen it worn.

This one happens more often. And their sidekick can't keep herself out of a picture. If she sees them standing for one she sprints across the room yelling, "Cheese!" and jumps right in.

A couple of sweet dates with my boys!

And we played at lots and lots of parks.

This park was a hidden gem we found right at the end of the summer. It is far and away the best park we have been to! We only got to go twice this year. But next year? We're going to live there.

 

If I was writing this post in winter I might be getting a little depressed looking at all these summer pictures! I really, really love fall and it's still making me a little sad - summer is the best!

Quote Day!

These are just a few quotes I've written down over the last few months. A couple of them are pretty old now, but they are still cute. :-)

Tyler to Carsten: You are just pretending to cough. That means you like coughing. Do you like coughing?! That's incredible! Because I thought no one likes coughing!

Tyler: Counting in the car, up to 160.
Carsten: Repeating every single number.  "Aargh! I'm tired of saying numbers!"
Tyler: Pauses for a second and 180.
Carsten: Good job Tyler!! You stopped!!!
Tyler: My mouth needs a little rest.
Carsten: Good job! You stopped!!

Carsten asked for more bread. When I gave him some - "I am so pleased to have this!"

Tyler: Mom, I'm a really old man. And I want to have kids really bad but I'm just so old. And I want to have 90 kids but my house barely even fits 10. I'm just so old and I'm so sad.

Me: On Monday you have your three year old doctor appointment.
Carsten: Yeah, because I am so big. And I will not cry if they shotted me.
Me: If they give you a shot?
Carsten: Yeah. Because they shot me last time. So I will not be sad about that.

Carsten: Can I have a piece of candy like she had?
Me: Well you already had a piece of candy. That would be a lot of sugar.
Carsten: So it would make my brain cells die?
Me: Do you think too much sugar would make your brain cells die?
Carsten: No, the snow made my brain cells die. Sugar will make my brain cells come back.

Carsten "reading" a fortune cookie: So mine says, if you want to go play get back in your chair and ask to be excused.

Carsten: Mine fortune cookie says go to jail. Get some money. Give it to Carsten. Go to jail.

Sometimes Carsten is extra cuddly. Other times he is not. Lately when he is not, he tells me, "No kisses today Sir!"

Tyler: When can I be a grown up so I can watch those little fellows? Because I really want to watch the Smurfs.

Tyler: I told Carsten he can't watch The Smurfs when he's an 18th grader.

Tyler: Why do you get to be the parent? I want to be the parent so I can tell myself it's ok to climb over my bunk bed edge.

Tyler when we were camping and he wanted all the kids to sleep in one bed: We can all be on one cot. Because we have enough skin and bones to make one grown up.

My tabs on my car expired on a Sunday and I had forgotten about them until that weekend. Oops! And on Monday the kids weren't feeling well and we stayed home. So Tuesday we went to renew them. On the way out we walked by a police officer and Tyler said to him, "Our registration was expired for two days. But we just paid for new ones. So it's ok now."

Carsten: When I am in high school and I'm a hero I'm going to be a hero that saves kids and saves people under water.

We were going to meet some friends at a park and when we got there I realized I had left my wallet in a different purse at home. When I said it Tyler said, "Mommy, can we go find a police man and tell him we forgot our driver's license but it was an accident and ask him if it's ok if we just drive home to get it?" Then he started telling every random person we walked by on the way to the beach that we forgot our driver's license today.

Two of my current favorite mispronunciations:
Tyler - Guacamole = Squawkamole
Carsten - Pick-up Trucks = Hick-up Trucks

 

I don't think there could be two cuter little boys than these. :-)

The Best of T-Ball

This first picture has absolutely nothing to do with T-ball. And it was from February. But I just saw it and don't think I ever posted it. And I love it. This was from crazy hair day at Awana. Way too cute. :-)

I'm just going to pretend for a few minutes that it's not October and like it's still summer. And I'm totally on time for a few posts about summer things.

This summer both boys played T-ball and they loved it! Tyler was on his first real team with games. And Carsten was on a parent-child team with Carl. They had so much fun. They would both say that their favorite part was batting and running. But they really worked hard and had fun with all of it. It was so fun to watch them each time.

Carsten's first day as a Lil' Slugger!

And Tyler's first day with the Giants! He insisted that he didn't care how big his shirt was because he really wanted to be number 8.

It was fun watching T-ball. And it was also fun watching them watch T-ball. :-)

Future T-ball player?

Tyler's biggest fans.

A little practice before his game.

I didn't actually take all that many pictures of either of their games because they loved watching videos. So I was usually recording instead of snapping pictures.

They were both excited about their ribbons on their last days. And they can't wait to do it again next summer!