Up Up and Away

 Here's a #throwback to our week in Captiva Island with my family in August. I still need to blog about our trip but for now these pics will have to do!

 

Grayson is a wild man in the pool - he loves to be thrown. Between my two brothers, Kevin and Papu he had quite a few launchers to rotate through. 

 

And my favorite frame-by-frame of the day...

 

And he came up asking if I caught that on video. 

#allboy

Hayden's 1st Haircut

I took the boys to get their hair cut after school and ended up getting Hayden's 1st cut too! I hadn't planned on it but as the boys were getting cut the lady somewhat hinted that maybe it was time for a little chop chop. I hadn't really thought much about it but then as I looked at her....

 

it was fairly obvious.  

So we walked in with this hot mess

 

(two suckers in...)

 and a little magic...

 

She didn't want her picture taken

My sweet little lady!

Hayden's First Birthday - Let's Flamingle

Goodness, little lady has been ONE for a month already!

We celebrated her first birthday with a handful of friends and family and a few flamingos :)

 

Let's get this party started!

 

Little Liam playing in the water

 

Jack and Andy came too!

 

For dinner we had Sissy's Fried Chicken with their mac n' cheese, mashed potatoes, fried okra, & biscuits.  Besides it being incredibly healthy is WAS incredibly delicious!

 

The mommy's got to have a little time together too! 

 

It's not a party unless there is beer. lol. 

And then we sang Happy Birthday....

...and this was her response. 

Very confused. 

 

I was so surprised that she wasn't all about that cake...and all about the attention she was getting! She loves to be the center of attention.

 

Apparently she was incredibly thirsty - my dad got her some milk and she chugged it then dug into her cupcake

 

Bob was released from his cage...and scared Liam. I am pretty sure Liam had no idea Bob was a dog. 

 

Opening and playing with all of her new presents!

 

So happy for some girl toys!

 

Happy birthday little girl! 

Grayson's 1st Day

 This little pork chop had his first day of Preschool yesterday. What a cutie!

 As you can tell we didn't make it to get back to school haircuts...not did I get their new backpacks and lunchboxes in time to get them monogrammed...but I'm pretty sure they didn't notice.

 

Before pics - a little rainy. Boys don't care!

 

Little guy found his cubby in the hallway and was excited to put his stuff in it before heading into his new classroom!

 

I have heard wonderful things about Ms Laurie and we are so excited to be in her class. It's more like a little fraternity - all boys! The class next door is all girls so they do their specials and play on the playground together as well. Major props to Ms Laurie for the desire to wrangle seven boys all year long! 

Ryan's 1st Day

This cool cat started Pre K this past Wednesday. Both of us were pretty darn excited!

  

He will go Monday - Friday, with Friday's being half days. Kinda a BIG ol' change and I can already tell he is pretty exhausted.  He slept in until about 8:40 today...then we had to go in and drag him out of bed (a glimpse into our teenage years?) up so we could make it to school by 9!

 

He practically skipped to his class. So proud of his new backpack and that Iron Man hangy thing. 

 

His teacher this year is Ms Kim and she is awesome! He actually already knows her because she was the teacher for Astronaut camp and Art camp that he attended this summer. 

 

When they get to school, a part of their check-in process is selecting their current "emotion". Ryan flipped through all of the different emotions and decided to go with PROUD.  How cute is he? 

I am so excited for this year of preschool. Ms Kim's Varsity program is actually pretty darn cool - Ryan will be learning a lot of new things this year! In addition to the core subjects of language arts, math and science, they will also begin their "WORLD TRAVEL" studies. This includes an in depth geography/social studies curriculum. They will "visit" a different country, city, or significant place of interest for every letter of the alphabet and explore each of the destinations in a fun, creative, and kid-friendly way. Not to mention that each week they will actually cook or prepare something delicious that coincides with their region of focus. (This obviously ties in nicely with math and science as it will entail a great deal of measuring, counting, time investigation, hypothesizing and variables.) They will also discover topics regarding geographical location, art/artists, music, food and other culturally interesting aspects of our featured locations. Can you tell I kinda want to join his class too? Or be in charge of a craft each week? lol

Big things for my big boy!

Happy 3rd Birthday Grayson!

 

This little pork chop turned three on September 3rd! 

 

It was a busy day so we did our little "family" celebration for breakfast...the only issue was the guest of honor was in no hurry to wake up. A little past eight Kevin went to wake him up so we could get the show on the road...and he could get to work.  As you can see, it took him a little bit to wake up. Sweet boy!

We celebrated with bacon and birthday pancakes. And he opened gifts from us...Ryan helped of course. 

 

Hayden concentrated mostly on the food. She was a fan. 

Happy birthday little man!

Grayson's Shark Party

Grayson and his friends had a blast celebrating his 3rd birthday party at the pool!

I know this smile looks a little forced...

We celebrated on his actual birthday, which was the Thursday before Labor Day weekend. I wasn't sure if the pool would be empty...or crazy full. Lucky for us it was pretty empty! 

I set this up pretty quickly and then we lost the shade....

The shark hats were so cute on all the little kiddos!

My attempt at decorative cookies. I just don't quite have the patience. lol

This is what happens when your cake sits in the sun. No worries - it was just for signing happy birthday. We had cupcakes for all the kids. 

Plus, they all thought it was pretty cool. It was like blue lava...

Blue tongues...

My big THREE year old!