Summertime - June

Well, once again I feel like I blinked and summer is over.  Not sure why that happens, but my guess is somewhere in between the hundreds of meals prepared and nursing periods and diaper changes I get a little disoriented and time just flies.  It was a great summer though, and here are some of the highlights month-by-month...starting with June!

Backyard Camping - AKA a trial run.

As soon as the weather starts to warm up, Ryan gets tent-fever and wants to go enjoy the outdoors.  Given that I was still barely sleeping at night on a regular basis, I declined a big camp-out but gave in to his suggestion of backyard camping.  Provided I got to sleep inside with the baby, of course.  Yes, yes go ahead and start singing, "Every party has a pooper that's why we invited you..."  But why should I rain on their parade?  The big boys (all 3 of them) were super excited.

First they got the fire going...

...and then set up the tent...

...tested out the sleeping arrangements...

...and roasted some marshmallows.  Because we all know the real reason we like to go camping.  Its the S'mores.  Just being honest here.

They all had a great time sleeping in the big outdoors (aka our backyard) and were all geared up for our real camping trip later in the summer.

Soccer Class for the Newbie and the Old Pro

We signed the bigger boys up for soccer class in May & June.  This was Sam's 3rd (or maybe 4th) class, so he was an old pro and knew the drill.  It was Austin's first class, so we were a little apprehensive about how it would go.  It didn't start out great.  (Bad picture, I know, but if you squint you can see Ryan dragging Austin across the field.  That pretty much sums the first few drills up.)

It got better as the class (and weeks) went by.  He really liked the red-light, green-light drill.  (Which is hilarious because Sam HATES that drill.  In his opinion, it should be green-light all the way.)  

But, by far, his favorite drill was kicking down all the cones.  He could do that all day.  And the giant parachute at the end.  Loves that one too.

Sam's favorite drills are the warm ups.  The "running races" to be exact.  Surprised?  Nope.

And at the end of the classes, both Sam and Austin would run down the hall to the arcade room and pretend to play as the demos ran on the games.  I followed them to find that they had each dragged over chairs to reach the controls.

Both kids loved their classes by the end of the season.  It was especially fun for Sam to have Ty, one of his best buddies, in class with him.  He looked forward to getting to play soccer with Ty every Saturday.

This boy turned 3 Months Old!!!

At 3 months, Eli was still a total delight.  The boy smiled, cooed, and charmed his way through the days.  Luckily for me, he was a pretty good sleeper too.  By 3 months, he was sleeping through the night fairly consistently and I will be forever grateful for that!  Now if I could only get his big brothers to sleep through the night...ugh!

Clearly he found his hands by this point.  Seems like every picture I take, he is chewing on one or more of his fingers!  Eli also adores his big brothers.  Based on these pictures, I would say the feeling is mutual.

Shout-out to Auntie Kim for the Monsters Inc outfit!  Loved it!!!

Ryan's Birthday & Father's Day - Basically Ryan's favorite week of the year.

We tried our best to spoil Ryan for his 28th birthday and Father's Day!  They usually both fall in the same week, so it is fun to plan lots of surprises for him.  This was one of his favorite birthday presents...the Daddy Car Shirt.  The boys beg him to lay down so they can drive Hot Wheels along the roads printed on the back.

Father's Day started off right with breakfast in bed and some new baseball gloves.  Lots of games of catch are in our future.

Close Encounters of the Dino Kind

The Portland Children's Museum got a new exhibit this summer all about dinosaurs!  We had lots of fun playing and learning there this summer and have gotten good use of our season pass.  It is even more fun when we go with our friend Addy and her mom Becca!

Austin couldn't resist giving the young T-Rex a little smooch.

Sam and the Edmontosaurus (or part of it anyway.  Too big for the frame!)

And that was June!