3rd grade, here we come

Jay's first day of 3rd grade. He looks so old and grown up to me but I know next year when I post his picture on the first day of 4th grade that I'll say the same thing.

Brothers. Next year, Nick will enter Kindergarten and will be starting school on the exact same day as Jay. But Nick doesn't have too long to wait. He starts Prek on Monday, Aug. 23.

I had a small preview into the life of a junior high boy today. I had to pick up 2 junior high boys as a favor to a friend. When both boys got in the car I immediately said to them in my bright, sun-shiny voice, "Hey Guys, how was your day?" In unison and without hesitation both of them replied, "BORING!" Ha. I just had to laugh.

I am nervous about 3rd grade for Jay but then I'm always nervous at the beginning of the school year. School is really hard for him and September and October are always brutal months. I'm hoping football will help with some of the school frustrations. Thankfully Jay has an excellent teacher again this year. I'm sure he'll do just fine!

Fun at the zoo

My boys, actually getting along!

Kim and Lauren feeding the birds. Kim and I often joke that we don't know how Lauren can be related to us as she is afraid of everything. She did enjoy feeding the birds as long as mom stayed close.

Jay feeding the birds!

Nick attracting a family of birds!

The three ya-hoos as Kim and I affectionately call them! Lauren, age 2 1/2, Nick, age 4 and Jay, age 8. Wow, they are all growing fast. And next year we'll have a fourth to add to the clan as Kim is expecting in March.

All smiles holding the centipede.

Jay's turn!

Mom, Kim and I decided to take the kids to the zoo as our last summer hoorah! Kim and Mom both head back to work next week. Jay starts third grade on Wednesday and Nick starts Pre-k on Monday, Aug. 23 so it's back to reality for all of us. The kids really enjoyed themselves and minus the unbearable heat we all had a good time!

Consequences

Lately I've felt like my blogs have been kind of lame. Usually my boys give me something funny to blog about. Tonight they provided me with some content that isn't so funny but perhaps will be entertaining to the reader, especially if you're a parent.
Jay and Nick's behavior in the car is beyond RIDICULOUS! I put a lot of the blame on myself as I have let their behavior get out of hand. Jay can't keep his hands to himself and Nick has learned to fight back and the volume between the two of them has reached an all time high. It's the same song and dance everytime we get in the car - I threaten, the boys lose things like their new bikes or Jay's DS, etc..., etc....And I might note, Mike doesn't have a problem with them in his truck and they sit even closer together! But as usual he corrected any problem before it reached the point of insanity, which is usually the case with mom, a.k.a ME! Are you figuring out who the softer parent is? Years of parenting has taught me it doesn't pay to the "softie" parent. But I disgress. Jay did not have football practice tonight so we were going to Kim's to swim. I told the boys as soon as we got in the van that if there was any fighting we would head home. We didn't even make it halfway to Kim's when I heard slapping going on between them and then crying. I simply stopped the van, turned around and headed home. By the time we got home, Jay was in tears. I certainly wasn't going to let the boys go home and ride their bikes (in other words have fun) so their consequence was they both had to clean my van. Nick cleaned the tires and Jay scrubbed the side mirrors and washed all the windows. Better luck next time, hopefully the boys realized it would have been much more fun to swim in Aunt Mimi's pool verses cleaning their mother's van.

New bikes

The boys recently got new bike's. Well, Nick's isn't so new but he doesn't care, he likes it just the same. Mike's parents bought Nick's bike at a garage sale and Mike put a bell on it. Grandma and Grandpa kept the bike at their house until Mike bought the bell. Apparently, Nick rang the bell so much over the weekend (when he spent the night with Grandma and Grandpa) that my mother in law had had her fill of bell ringing and sent the bike home!

Jay has had a bike for quite some time but last spring we would find his bike laying around the yard, in the timber, etc...., in other words Jay would just drop it wherever he felt like. We told Jay that in order to get a new bike he had to treat the one he had with some respect. Mike and I watched all summer as he started putting his bike away in the garage and treating it better. Mike went out last week and got the new bike. Jay is one happy 8 year old boy!

Chicago, here we come!

Sorry it's been so long since I blogged. It's been a crazy week. Yesterday Mike and I went to visit our good friend, Mary and her boyfriend, John, in Chicago. First off, we really liked John! Mary has been dating him about 8 months and we think we might be hearing some wedding bells in the distance! Any-who, during our visit I was able to make a quick trip to Trader Joe's to purchase my favorite wine, go to Crate & Barrell (which Mike refers to as Crap & Barrell) and we hit the Garmin store for Mike. We ended the evening at Wildfire Grill and it was excellent food.

Summertime Memories

I work for a company that provides their employees with an awesome water park!! It is a HUGE benefit. The boys and I don't use it quite as often as we would like because we live out of town but we have used it more this summer than last summer. We really enjoy it. This water park has a vantastic dining area where you can order hot food at very reasonable prices. We tend to always eat our meals right at the park. Last night I took the boys and we ordered our dinner. As we waited there was a Disney movie playing in the dining area. The boys were hooked and I was relieved not to have to corral them while we waited for our food. However, something did occur to me. My boys were watching T.V. at a pool in an air conditioned dining area while we waited for our hot dinner. What the??? I remember when I was a kid my friend, Melissa, and I would ride our bikes to the pool. We'd listen to the 80's music and swim until our hearts were content (taking the 15 minute breaks every hour, of course). Sometimes, if we were lucky we would get a snack. We would wait in the small, hot concession area in a long line and get crappy cotton candy but we didn't know the difference. Perhaps my summertime pool memories might difference from Jay and Nick's someday, one thing is certain, all of us LOVE spending time at the pool! The boys will just remember their hot fudge sundae's from the water park and I remember the crappy cotton candy.

Conclusion of summer

As the weekend comes to an end I can't believe it's Aug. 1! I realize that my mom and sister, who are both teachers, are not looking forward to the start of school but I am!! Usually this time of year Jay prowls the house like a caged animal, the first sign that he's ready to go back to school. Today, the boys headed outside with Mike and during a 30 minute time span both boys came in and out of the house 7 times. It's like neither of them can settle. And I am also utterly exhausted. As fun as this summer was and continues to be, I'm beat! Even I am ready to get back to our regular routine.

The picture above is of Nick on Saturday morning. Every Saturday morning his first request is always for pancakes. Then Jay devised a make shift carrier for his gerbils. As you can see Mickey and Minnie are still doing well, but that hasn't stopped Jay from asking about what his next pet will be. Ha!