I really wanted to make this summer a good one before Little Lambert entered our lives and shook things up a bit.  We really had such a great summer and did so many fun things.  In fact, the first two weeks with Baby at home, Samuel asked every day, "What's today, a pool day?  A friend day?  A park day?  A field trip day?"  The boys didn't really know what to do with themselves hanging out at home all day every day!

August 6, 2011

So the Saturday before D-Day, I wanted to make sure we had one last family hurrah before we became a Party of Five!  We kept it low key, just playing at the park and splash pad all afternoon then finishing up the evening at Cafe Rio.  But it was still a lot of fun to have the special time together.

August 8, 2011

I figured we better fit in a last hurrah with the friends, too.  So the Monday before D-Day, we headed up to the children's museum in Salt Lake.  We've been there so many times, but it never gets old.  And it's always good for a day-long outing with our friends!

Throw all the cushions onto the floor.  This time it was a Hobbit hole.  Play in the tunnel.  Put underwear on our heads.

You know.  Respectively.

A few evenings ago, the boys were playing nicely upstairs while Erik and I were down here.  After a while, I heard them laughing.  Both of them.  Hysterically.  Seriously, one of the best sounds ever.  But still worth some investigating.  This is how I found them . . . both boys playing dress up in their Daddy’s clothes.

Last night, pretty much the same story.  But this time when I came up to see what the giggling was about, Sam hid his face from me.  He knew this one wasn’t quite as harmless as Dad’s clothes.  So I saw Owen’s makeover first.  Sam confessed to being the makeup artist for both himself and little brother.

They think they’re so funny.

I think I’ve blogged about gymnastics a few times.  It runs in sessions, 2 each year.  Sam has been doing it since he was two.  This session, Owen was old enough to go to his own class!!  I had wanted to do Owen’s class during Sam’s school, and then O could just hang out during Sam’s Wednesday class.  Timing didn’t quite work out for that, so I ended up signing the boys up for back to back classes.  We will not do that again.  It is full on exhausting for me (and being sick this entire session was pretty dang rough) and it pushed up right against lunch and naptime.  So after almost 2 hours, O was usually done and I think we only made it to the end of his class twice.  Which is ok, because the first time he got a stamp on his hand, he FREAKED out and spent the next hour scraping at his hand trying to rub it off.

Regardless, the boys still LOVED it.  Samuel’s class is nice because I just to sit back and watch.  Owen is usually great about hanging out with me, and the teacher is great about O checking out the equipment when he gets restless, even if it isn’t his class yet.  Then during O’s class, Sam always packed some toys and a snack.  There were two other boys with younger sibs, so the three of them always had fun in the back during the “baby” class.

This time around, Samuel finally got really good at things that require arm strength, not his best area before.  This was this first session he was able to swing on the parallel bars with straight arms.  It was also the first time he did a handstand with his arms straight, and the first time I saw him do this . . .

{Which will be a video when I finally get it off my phone.}

On the very first day of class, when the moms and kids all sat on the mats and started stretching and doing the other activities, Owen just laughed and laughed.  He loved it.  I think this was the first time he and I did something so involved together, just the two of us, and it was great.  Owen likes to jump.  And jump and jump and jump.  Everyone was pretty taken back by the heights this little guy would jump off of all on his own.  And even when there were things that weren’t really for jumping, he’d still jump off.  He’s just our crazy jumper!  Owen was also super good at the balance beams.  He would full on run down the wider one.

{Again, more video on my phone.  One day.}

So the spring session always ends with a program.  Owen was not so excited about that part.  He prefered to watch Sam and then show Dad his tricks afterwards.  And at the very end, he did go with all the other kids to line up, take a bow, and get their medals.  It was a really cute little performance, and I felt like such a proud mama.  Seriously, I know, I’m such a cheeseball.  It’s also always really fun to let Erik see what we are to up during the day without him.

November 12, 2010

Samuel totally lucked out with two full days of birthday celebrations.  We knew we would be traveling on the 13th, so we planned Friday as the big day.  Samuel woke up to decorations and a new dinosaur.  We spent the morning getting ready for his party, and playing with Auntie C who was such a doll to be there for the party and help me out.  At 11:00 the kids came a’knocking for Sam’s first official friend party.  He told me months ago he wanted a dinosaur birthday party, so I had a few prehistoric tricks up my sleeve.

As Sam’s friends arrived, they got to do cave paintings and play with dinosaurs.  Then we made some dino feet so we could go on our dinosaur adventure.  The kids had to go through an obstacle course, but stay on the “stones” so they wouldn’t fall into the “hot lava” and become “extinct.”  After that we played “Chomp Chomp, Gotcha!” which was our version of Duck Duck Goose, with a triceratops hand puppet to do the chomping.  We had a yummy lunch of dinosaur nuggets for the carnivores, veggies and ranch for the herbivores, and chex mix and goldfish for the omnivores.  We read some dino books, did some dino puzzles, colored some dino pictures.  And then it was time for a dino dig!  I tried to do it two at a time while the other kids kept reading, puzzling, or coloring, but that lasted maybe 37 seconds.  It got a little crazy, but oh so fun!  There were lots of baby dinosaurs hiding in the sand, but there was also a dinosaur skeleton for each kid to find.

By that point, I could no longer put off the presents!  Samuel was so so excited, but it was adorable to see that his little friends were just as excited as him.  After Samuel opened all the generous gifts, he handed out the thank you/goodie bags and dug into the dino cupcakes.  By 12:30, we said goodbye, put Owen down for a nap, and opened all the new boxes and bags of toys and games.  Smart Mommy that I am, I let Sam open one present from Mommy and Daddy . . . How to Train Your Dragon!  So we popped the movie in, Sam watched and played quietly and happily, and I crashed on the sofa.  It had been a ton of work, but so much fun and I enjoyed every single second of it.  So did the Samosaurus Rex.

Have I mentioned that Sam thinks he’s funny?

And have I mentioned that these two boys adore each other?

Samuel and his best buddy Gavin had a little sleepover the other week while Gav’s Mom and Daddy got to celebrate their anniversary. These boys play so well and have so much fun together. They just feed off of each other’s silliness. The night went like this . . . boys jumped and played, boys got mysteriously quiet and were found reading and talking in make-shift bed, boys jumped and played with bigger boy, boys watched George and unsuccessfully tried to wind down.

At 8:00 we put the boys to bed, and at 8:10 they were both snoring. We will have to do this more often!