Awe So Peaceful

After a long weekend with only quick car naps, I'm SO thankful for this....

Merced Fair Highlights

Here are a few highlights from the fair week. 

Garrett and Gannon mixed in the bleachers listening to Dave's swine talk!

Gannon stealing popcorn for the show support team! 

Gannon's major highlight - the helicopter ride.  The way he says Garrett used to be my favorite word from him, but helicopter is now my favorite.  He says it so cute!  Gannon was too small to ride this ride so Daddy had to ride with him!

Sitting with the boys waiting to watch the mini pigs race.

Gannon's little friend Owen and his Mom joined us one night for some good ole fun!

The boys sharing popcorn at the car races - NO we are not a Nascar family now!

Gannon covering his little ears - it was too loud!

Quick visit to the petting zoo. 

Garrett waiting to see the pig races

The best part of the ENTIRE fair...the trailer races.  OMG, these were hilarious and the boys are still talking about them.  Watch the youtube clip below to see for yourself!

Trailer Races

Father's Day Swimming

After Syenna party yesterday all the boys wanted to do was SWIM!!! Garrett especially has NOT stopped talking about it, which is a first.  So it was perfect that my cousin and his wife had invited the entire family down to their place in Hanford for a Father's Day BBQ and indoor swimming! A plus to the indoor pool is the fact that you have no fear of the kids getting sunburned, but it was a little chilly.  The water was 76 degree which sounds warm, but without the hot summer sun beating on you it was a little chilly until you got going.  My Mom said you can tell I'm getting old, because as a kid I didn't care if ice was floating in the water I would still swim!  Gannon takes after me in this way, poor kid had purple lips and didn't want to get out.  Garrett on the other hand tried to warm up prior to getting in.  He eventually swam in his floaty! Even without anyone holding on to him which is a huge step from years past. 

SVF is One!!!!

Cousin Syenna turned one on the 15th and had her first birthday party!  All sassed out in her zebra and hot pink she was so adorable.  Perfect party attitude, no fussing, and as did fabulous considering the amount of people ooing and aweing over her!  Mommy did a great job decorating, too bad the weather wasn't like last week, it was a bit too hot to be outside with no shade.  So lets just say her living room was over taken and she was a little overwhelmed!  New Mommies = got let them do it once right!?! (Sorry Ash!)  The party was great.

Garrett and Gannon love little Syenna and were very excited to swim and play with her.  They did AWESOME watching her open presents.  Not one time did either of them try to open or go after ANY of her new cute things.  This of course made me very proud.  The most you heard from Gannon was "I wanna see" about the camera, but not too bad! 

Today's A Great Day!!!!

First, I must say that our kids cannot read, but must have gotten a vibe from yesterdays post!  One thing about our summer days is they are consistently inconsistent!  We do the same activities on most days, get dressed, watch a quick show, run errands, go to the gym, and about the most two consistent pieces at a consistent time is eat lunch and take a nap.  The errands and gym time move around depending on what our day looks like.  We have done both almost daily, but haven't picked a great time for either.  WOW I know I've learned to relax on our schedule.  Partly because the boys are pretty easy to run around with and with only one nap time life is great.

Today we started our day at 8:30 at the gym in order to make the 10:00 story time at the library.  The boys have come to love the gym as I mentioned before and both loves books.  After the gym we headed to story time at the library.  I have to stay the Merced Library has a great story time, complete with songs to start, end, and between books.  The songs get the kids up and moving.  After story time there is typically an arts and crafts activity or a page to color.  Today was a page to color.  The boys are coloring and I look over at our little genius child, Garrett, and he has not only written and spelled his own name on his paper he has also written is brother's name.  Maybe it's just me, but I think that is pretty amazing for a four year old!  Both boys then selected a book to borrow from the library and off to the mall we went to grab a few things.

As we were walking from one store to the next my phone rang - a number not in my contacts, but one that looked like an Atwater number.  Instant nerves hit, I interviewed for a job yesterday and the Merced Union High School District is based in Atwater.  Long conversation short, "hello, we would like to OFFER you the job at Merced High"!!!! Bringing me to today's picture....

Oh, I'm so excited to be returning to my alma mater! Merced High here I come.  A full time contract teaching math for the 2011-2012 school year! 

Okay, back to my amazing kids.  We needed to grab a few more things and once we were done I asked Garrett if he would like to eat at the mall or at home.  He picked the mall which I was also happy about.  A Sweetriver salad sounded so good.  Again, the boys did amazing all through lunch waiting for their food and eating like big boys. 

I'm enjoying summer break and will enjoy it much more knowing that it is just that - summer break!

Needless to say, for more than one reason, I am ONE HAPPY MAMA!!!

My New Wardrobe

Today's daily picture is not one of our cute little boys, any of their activities, or a daily outing.  It is yet of a simple blank and white shirt and if  you look carefully this beautiful shirt is accessorized with a whistle.  This is a perfect representation of what I feel like ALL day long...a referee!  I totally LOVE our boys and we have settled into a great random routine for the summer, but I swear I feel like a referee ALL day.  Most mornings Garrett is the first boy to wake and we enjoy anywhere from half an hour to an hour of quiet Garrett time.  Then little brother wakes up and let the fights begin.  Yesterday I was SO lucky to have them wake up at the same time and literally walking out of their room yelling at each other.  As entertaining as this is, does it ever stop? 

The buttons get pushed both ways.  Garrett remains our very type A personality.  He loves to create scenes on the coffee table from either movies or events that we have watched.  He is very careful in selecting cars, trains, or animals and placing each exactly as he saw it.  Today for instance after watching the car races at fair last night he was creating a "racing scene"  he had requested a patch of green grass (a green wash cloth!) for the center of the track just as he remembered it.  Trucks went in the middle and cars were selected from the collect to match those in the races last night.  As I mentioned he is very particular in all this set up.  Well then, Gannon goes along and grabs trains to add to the scene and boy does that just set Garrett on fire..."it doesn't go like that!"

Gannon on the other hand will be playing with something nicely that will catch Garrett's eye and all of a sudden Garrett's wants to play with that too.  I guess since he is bigger he feels like he can take what he wants, until little brother pops ya one!

I'm telling you ALL DAY LONG!

 

There are parts of the day that they play very nice together and it is SO nice that they are both at an age that I don't have to wait until nap time to get stuff done or wait until Dave is home to run errands.  They have been EXCELLENT everyday if we need to run to the store!  They have been introduced to the gym which I never wanted to do because they are in daycare all day while I'm at work, I just want to spend time with them when we get home.  They LOVE the gym and it breaks up the day for both them and me.  Them loving it makes my workout so much easier and they beg to go so that also pushes me to workout. 

All in all our summer schedule is quiet enjoyable!

Saddle Up for Fun

And the results are in...

 Garrett wheelbarrow earned a 1st place

 Gannon was SUPER excited about his 3rd place ribbon

Cauliflower sheep, another 1st place for Garrett

 Eggplant penquins for Gannon earned a 1st Place

And the beautiful potted plants...pots painted by the boys also earned two 1st place ribbons!