Costain Crew Update ~ July 31, 2011

Well it just makes sense to me that I post on the first day and the last day of this month. I promise that I filled all the days in between with many, many things. One week of bliss is pictured above- VBS. Golly was that a God-send. I relished all of those 15 hours of "me-time". Because my days are full of lots of one on one time with each of these guys! We've visited parks, friends, movie theaters, fountains, baseball games, libraries, stores, hospitals (ok, just one and with just one child), grandparents, pools and an amusepark, too!

We've been busy. But not too crazy busy. Just the perfect amount for us.

I began the summer trying eagerly to adjust the sleep times of these four monkeys, to no avail. I don't get it. Really. I give up. I would put them to bed after a day of here, there and everywhere and still--- they'd wake up between 6:30 and 7:30--- EVERY. SINGLE. DAY. goodness me. I realize I will eventually be pushing them out of bed with a crowbar because they'll be teenagers, but until that time, I just wish they'd figure out the BEAUTY of sleeping in on a summer morning.

So we'll start with Gabriel and work our way down the line.

Here he is at the blueberry patch. Every activity we do is usually met with one of his pat responses: "this is boring", "this is not going to be fun", "so lame". Seriously. I mean, when did the teenager appear in my 8 yr old? Ironically, he usually declares that whatever lame activity he just did with us was the best and he LOVED it. SO, we just ignore the initial comments. He said the same about going to VBS and then declared at the end of it that, that was "the best week ever", "can we do it next year?" Um, yes!

Gabe got to spend a three day vacation at his "aunt and uncle's" house with his bud/pseudo cousin, Travis. He stayed up really late, almost saw the Harry Potter movie (that would have been uber bad- he frightens easily and is not allowed past book 4, at the current time), learned (quite forcibly) to take showers (it was my summer goal for him) and spent LOTS of time in the pool that they go to. I'm so glad he had the chance to do that.

shortly after I snapped this, Max hopped off- came to his senses for the Free Fall.

In between this and that, he's been doing a lot of fighting with him brothers and parents (he rocks at this, if you want to look at it that way), reading a ton of books, watching movies and playing with the neighborhood kids. I really cannot believe he will be 9 soon. That's craziness. He's so photogenic and super sweet on the inside, just has this hard outer shell that takes a bit of time to crack through, you know. And he's really excited to start 3rd grade in just a few short weeks (I'm excited for him, too!)


And here is his bested buddy in the whole world you just wouldn't know it by the way he treats him....

I just love this picture of him. Doesn't he look all vintage and old school on a worn quilt reading a book?
here's another version....

ah summertime.

So anyway, I just passed out my new Summer thing (not Summer bingo), but Mom's Summer Reading Club. With books listed for them to read and each section of books assigned a point value (I got the idea on Pinterest- {love}). He's taken off with the list and this is one of the books. The older boys have gotten themselves into a reading rut of late. Too much Caption Underpants and Wimpy Kid books. Harry Potter, too. I threw some classics and some new series at them and we'll see what happens. I kept those other books on their reading lists b/c I know they love them, but sneaky Crafty Mama here assigned them very LOW point values! HA! We'll see what happens.

Max has been to one or two birthday parties and we've taken in Cars2, Mr. Popper's Penguins, and some oldies at the $1 movie theater. Max loves going to the neighbor boys house and playing Wii or jumping on the trampoline. I love that they've finally found a neighbor boy. I didn't think they existed for the first 5 years of our life in our neighborhood.
He's also been journaling everyday. Love that, too. Still a voracious reader at heart, he's also my gamer. We've been playing loads of Blokus and Bug Trails. He's also really good at my Kindle games- where you have to find as any words as you can in the mixed up letters- Every Word, it's called. He'll be super ready for 1st grade in a few weeks.

at Del Grosso's Amusement Park, just last week- with niece, Caterina

Moving onto Dominic. My sneaky little curly headed shadow. 

The twins recently got their hair cut. It was a sad day for me. I loved those curls, but really, it was unruly!

See! Crazy hair and crazy face!

So, when I got their hair cut, I just kept his a little longer and those curls are still there, just not as CRAZY!

Dominic wishes he could go to the BIG library just about everyday and get Mighty Machines or LOTS and LOTS of jets or whatever. He loves all those car/truck shows. He has spent many hours outside riding his bike (with training wheels) or driving around in his Escalade. LOL 

He knows that school is starting soon and well, we're still working on the alphabet. They know the letters, to a certain degree, well, he knows "his" letter ("D"). His favorite color, as of today, is green. And he loves CANDY- he'll ask for it anytime of day and all day.

Then there's this guy... Mr. Quirky.

As far as personalities go, his is LOUD and quite definitive about certain things. Such as attire. See him in that photo... that "Frosty" shirt is his favorite (it's nearly too small, but he doesn't care) and it's labeled one of 5 "awesome/cool" shirts that he owns. He wants to be able to get dressed just as soon as he rolls out of bed in the morning, too. That said, camo is a necessary and normal part of his everyday attire.

The kid keeps us in stitches with his facial expressions and commentary of events. Lately, he's all about his birthday party which will apparently take place on the north pole. I've been commissioned to make apple pie, his fave (news to me!) and he wants Cotton candy there, too. He'd like a freeze ray for his gift. Actually, five of them, b/c he'll be five. Incidentally, the word "actually" is a word he loves to say. He, too, adores all things candy and lives for Chocolate Cereal day in our house (only Saturdays). He'll ask every night if I will go to the store and buy him some chocolate cereal.


Needless to say, these four keep us in stitches.

And pretty darn busy.

We're in the process of readying our house for moving...
Really.
Truly.
I mean it this time.


We'll need more room for this one...

coming February 2012!