Wrapping Up Summer

And the whole summer break went by without me getting any pictures on here.  The good thing about uploading pictures on here is that it at least puts them in order of when they were taken.  So I can just start at the beginning of the summer and roll on through. 

As loud and crazy as the house sometimes felt this summer with two energetic boys, I am thankful that they have both reached an age when we can really go and do things together.  We can survive the day without naps and there is no need to bring a diaper bag.  Some favorite things from the summer include the Safari Park, lots of swimming (and swim lessons for Gabriel), the Claytor Lake beach, tubing with the youth group, Summer Bible Camp, camping with Daddy, another trip to Atlanta, Ninja camp, a few days visiting Uncle Aaron and Aunt Tiffany, lot of playing Star Wars, berry picking, and to top it all off Corban turned 4.

Safari Park

Feeding deer

Toy Story 4!

Camping in the back yard (and they took a trip to camp at Claytor Lake too)

This is a random thought so it might as well go here: some Sundays after breakfast Gabriel will say, with much enthusiasm, "It's dress like a disciple day!"  They will then run to get dressed and argue over who will be which disciple as they get dressed.

Duck Pond

For the 4th of July we went to the annual cookout at church.  After that we went to a local park to watch fireworks.  The boys had so much fun.  Before the fireworks started they were both running around on the grass trying to catch fireflies.  

While Taylor was at a youth camp for a week we headed back down to Atlanta for some family time.  We got a chance to visit pretty much everybody that is there and we even got to go to the zoo!

Just a couple of flamingos watching the flamingos

Cousin swimming time

I bought this inflatable pool at Aldi for $20 at the beginning of the summer.  Best purchase ever.  Our water bill may have suffered, but we got lots of use out of this.  Many afternoons after rest time they would just get in for a while.  Gabriel especially got much more comfortable this summer with the water.  He took some private swim lessons for 6 weeks and is now able to get his head underwater and swim around.  For a kid who a little over a year ago was afraid to get his ears wet this is huge.

Mom date to Jimmy Johns

Flowers that Gabriel planted from seeds and watched grow all summer

Berry picking

Gabriel making up a game while waiting for his OT appointment. 
He makes up all kinds of games and Corban is just along for the ride.

Daddy's birthday.  They put every kind of sprinkle we had in the house on that cake.

Ninja camp.  They loved being there together.

Monthly Home Depot project

Barnes and Noble storytime

Star Wars night at the Salem Red Sox game

Got his own library card and knew exactly what book he wanted to check out first

Aaron and Tiffany continue to live and travel in their Air Stream.  They were staying just a few hours away and had the great idea that we could join them at their camp site for a few days.  There were little cabins to rent and we're so glad that we got one and made the time to make this happen.  The boys loved being outside, swimming in a new pool, exploring new places to eat, and most of all kayaking.  I never would have thought to take two younger kids on a 3 hour tour down the river but they loved it.  Before we got into the kayaks Gabriel said "I have to ride with Uncle Aaron.  We're going to talk about Star Wars and Legos the whole time!"  And of course Aunt Tiffany always makes such yummy food and has the best snacks.  We could have stayed longer than we did.  It was the perfect thing to do the week before school started again.

Throwing rocks

Army surplus store

Gabriel lost his Blue Jays tee ball hat when he flipped in the rapids tubing with the
youth group a couple weeks prior.  I guess he was holding onto this one just in case.

Corban's face says it all

Shortly before Gabriel got stung by a bee : (

We came back and school started a few days later.  We prayed last year for God to send more kids (especially boys) to Gabriel's class and we are so happy that he now has 4 boys and 4 girls in his class!  Gabriel was excited that he now has his own desk and what he was most looking forward to was having STEM again.  Just today he came home and said that he got his picture taken because he tied for first in a STEM contest building with marshmallows and uncooked spaghetti.

First day of 1st grade

Corban and I went to Chick-fil-a while Gabriel got Waffle House with Daddy before his first day of school.  Corban really missed Gabriel when he went to school last year but he's done better adjusting this time around.  He kept asking when he could go back to preschool though.  He missed the kids his age.

Gabriel was happy to go back to school and be with his friends and make some new ones.  We continue to help with lunch a couple days a week and Corban enjoys going to help and then staying for recess.

Gabriel had his first spelling test last week, which marked his first actual school "test".  He didn't ever say he was nervous about it, but he kept bringing it up throughout the week.  He was very proud of himself when the test was done.

A couple other random Gabriel things.  We have enjoyed starting to read "The Green Ember" book series together.  He has also decided that kissing is gross.  The first time he said anything about it was when he went "YUCK" when Han Solo and Princess Leia kiss in Star Wars.  Today he was giving Corban a kiss before school and said "stay away from my lips.  We don't want to be gross and kiss like we're married!"

First day of school ice cream stop

Last year in kindergarten on the outside of the bathroom door they kept a graph of how many teeth each student had lost.  Every time someone lost a tooth they got to line up another tooth cut out.  Gabriel lost no teeth last year and I think it bothered him sometimes.  Well, he decided to make it worth the wait and Taylor pulled out two of his teeth one day, one in the morning and one in the evening (they were barely hanging on and needed to come out).  He was excited to get $2 and a little Lego set the next morning.  And now both top teeth are loose as well.  I asked him what we were going to do if all of his teeth fell out.  He said "it will be ok.  I'll just eat ice cream for every meal."

And then there was Corban's 4th birthday.  I asked him what he wanted to do on his birthday.  I gave him all sorts of choices, some of which involved doing a fun activity in Roanoke.  What he wanted was "a blueberry muffin and a peanut butter waffle and to pet some cats."  This turned into a doughnut and Waffle House and stopping at a friends house to pet her kittens (which really meant he took a minute to pet them and then crawled around her house "meow"ing at things).  I told him that we could eat anywhere he wanted for dinner.  He wanted his favorite string bean chicken from Panda Express.  Another thing that Corban was really looking forward to about turning 4 was that now he can have 2 gummy vitamins. Taylor joked the day after his birthday that he was 3 again and therefore only got 1 vitamin.  After this happened Corban has been telling many people that "I'm STILL 4".  Don't want to be denied that other vitamin in the morning.

Things that this 4 year old really likes:  Legos, being a cat, playing Star Wars, being a cat in Star Wars (his name is "Little Kitty" and he uses "the kitty force" on things), the color green, Rhapsody in Blue, making up songs (last week he said, "I wrote a song about things that I know. It goes like this 'Jesus loves us and he will never leave us.'"), humming a soundtrack to anything that he is playing, and being with his brother.

Random things that he has said lately:

"Mommy, what store did you buy me from?"

While talking to a PA at my work when he went to a staff meeting with me: "This is my mommy.  Sometimes I call her mom for short."

"Mommy you make me feel safe"

While playing cats with Gabriel: "Gabriel, I caught a mouse and I cut it in half.
You can have the head piece and I'll have the butt!"

We tried to have Corban's birthday party at the park last year and it got totally rained out.  The day before his party this year it looked like the same thing was going to happen, which was making me so sad since he really wanted a park birthday party.  As it turned out the weather was cool and cloudy but no rain.  He has so much fun.  He couldn't make up his mind between a Toy Story 4 theme and a Star Wars theme so we went with Toy Story 4.  Some friends brought light sabers to the park so we brought ours too so he ended up getting both.

Wheat thins, applesauce, cheese, fruit, and fruit snacks.  His favorites

"Forky" craft

Daddy decorated some awesome cupcakes

Eating our free birthday treat at Barnes and Noble a couple days later

First day of 4 year old preschool.  He's excited to be in the "big kids" class.  He really missed his teachers over the summer.  One day he randomly said "Ms Lisa and Ms Brenda must be really sad because they miss me."

Since Gabriel started sleeping in the top bunk when he was about Corban's age and since Corban brought it up we thought we'd try letting them switch.  I don't think Gabriel was thrilled about it but he went along with it (they of course fight and annoy each other plenty but they really do love each other other try to share).

About an hour after they went to bed Corban was crying.  He said "the top bunk is too scary.  I see the spider and my eyes make it bigger and bigger {a Harry Potter Lego spider that he's seen at the store}.  I'll sleep on the bottom.  Tomorrow I can sleep on the top again and if it's scary I'll sleep in the napping room.  Or maybe I'll stay down here in my cozy bed for 10 more nights with sack and Ming." (Ming is his stuffed Panda.  He loves it and sack the most)

At any rate they switched back.  No big deal to anyone really.

On to the fall :)

And the school year ends. . .

This post may bounce around a bit, but I'll at least keep the pictures in chronological order.

The month of May went by as we knew it would - quickly.  Gabriel and Corban both finished school on the same Thursday, followed by a trip to Atlanta for a week starting the Sunday three days later.  Gabriel's May included a field trip, field day, T-ball games, and the end of school.  Corban finished out his swim lessons and did an end of the year program for school.

Field Day

Mommy came to help

Using a light saber to point and tell me all
about every Lego box and character

Field trip to SEEDS

Butterfly Gabriel

Part of being a part of a church in a college town AND having your dad be the youth pastor means that you say "goodbye" to a lot of people.  Graduating high school students, grad students that come for a few years and then move on, medical school students leaving for residency.  This year means saying "goodbye" to more people that are important to our boys than most, along with the fact that Gabriel is much more aware of what people leaving means.  In addition to several favorite youth group members and babysitters starting college, we had our last Sunday yesterday with a VCOM couple who are moving for residency and Gabriel kept bringing it up.  He wanted to pray for them at bedtime and then was so sad and had a hard time saying why.  Another woman who has been in our home group for years and has also been his Sunday school teacher is moving back overseas after completing her masters degree.  Her send off reception is next Sunday and he has, again, brought this up many times.  He maybe wouldn't notice as much if there weren't parties or prayer times at church to send off these people, but it's hard to see him hurting and sad over the "goodbye"

Found a Highlights recipe for pumpkin
  pie that he wanted to try making

 On to the end of school:

                  First day of 3 year old preschool              Last day of 3 year old preschool 

About sums up his end of the year performance.  Biting his nails and
occasionally yelling the words to a song.  According to Gabriel though
 "Corban did such a good job!  He did better than I did in preschool!"

Ms. Brenda

Per Corban this is "MY Ms. Lisa"
He has already asked me more than once if she will be his teacher next year too. 
I have explained that he will be just across the hall from her and that
he will see her during music time and recess.  That is not ok with him.

               First day of kindergarten                                                  Last day of kindergarten 

I have had such mixed emotions about the school year being over for Gabriel.  Part of me is happy to have him home more and have the pace of things slow down.  Part of me isn't sure how I'm going to do with the noise of two boys playing (and fighting).  One thing I do know, is that I am so thankful for this year of school for him.  He had the most patient teacher that exists, who loved and cared about not only his academic growth, but more importantly his social, emotional, and spiritual development.  She was always so patient, consistent, calm, and disciplined.  We were at Wal-Mart the day before school ended and Gabriel saw some little plastic panda bears.  He said "Mrs. Meyer loves pandas.  Can we please buy these for her?"

Gabriel has changed so much this year and I'm not even sure how to put it into words.  He is more confident in his reading.  He loves math.  He is a considerate and compassionate friend.  He is creative and his active mind is always thinking about the next thing.  He is working so hard to understand and control his emotions and I see the struggle and the progress that he is making.  He really likes younger kids and is great at engaging anyone around him.  I could go on and on.  His strong will and talkative demeanor can be challenging and frustrating but I see a boy who is trying to figure out the world and who cares a lot about the people around him.

On the last day of school his class had a "Readers Theater" where they each read a book to the class and parents.  He did a great job reading a very long book.  He was nervous but he practiced a lot.

The day after school ended they had an awards day.  Gabriel got a reading award since he's finished most of the reading stuff for 1st grade.  He also got the "Encyclopedia Award" since he likes to share the wealth of knowledge that he has with others, some examples being about Star Wars, Theology, and Narnia.

I can't make this flip properly.  Oh well.

A couple days after school ended we headed to Atlanta for some cousin time.  I love that Gabriel and Corban are friends with their cousins.

Gabriel loves Jane.  He saw another child her ago the other day and said
 "I like them but they aren't nearly as cute as Jane."

This is what happens when two cousins who are great friends and can never
stop talking find a way to block each other out for a while

And a final thing to start the summer, T-ball officially ended last week.  Unfortunately the first game and last game of the season got rained out, but Gabriel still had lots of fun playing and was proud of the couple of "outs" that he got!

Corban playing under the bleachers

Last game

The boys have been wanting this dragon for about 4 months.  They finally had enough money to pool together and buy it.  When they showed it to someone at church Gabriel exclaimed "We saved $23 and mommy bought this off of Amazon!"  They build it a fortress at church.

Reading at the library with Daddy