A house full of readers

Love having three boys who love to read!!!
Well...David's trying to keep up anyway!

David & Beau

Here's David happily showing off his very ordered line of trucks. (A daily occurrence!)

Beau has been begging me to buy hair spray. I did, and here's the do he created today!

Lewis

Here's Lewis with his hair all brushed out after an FHE activity. Funny!

And, a clown outfit he put together just for fun!

Oompa Loompa

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1yysLnDDibw
Cute video of David singing his song!

Happy 3 and Happy Diwali!

Happy 3 year old!

And Happy Diwali! The boys were stars at my YW Diwali activity! They showed off their clothes, acted out the Ramayana, and drummed for our classical Indian and Bollywood dancing. Plus did some amazing henna.

David is 3 now!

A birthday is complete!

We began the morning with balloons in the crib and a breakfast tray with a pancake, muffin with candle, and a "gummy" and "tummy medicine" - vitamins!

Followed by pancake breakfast at the table and handmade presents from the boys.

Beau presented a shoe that Lewis actually created and gave to Beau to gift. Lewis made David a Thomas coloring mat- 6 pages taped together with pictures of Thomas characters to color, and a set of colored pencils. He also created a train for him from two blocks of wood he had found and then designed. So, so thoughtful! Seeing the way these two show love to their little brother is a total joy!

Then the birthday boy was off to school!

Dinner was chicken fingers, by request.

And a couple pictures of David's very cute expressions as he opened a couple more little store bought gifts he got.

We love this three year old!

Oh, and he also let us know by later in the day that we needed to stop saying happy birthday - he already did that!

Family happenings

We went canoeing last weekend on the canal in Princeton. So pretty! We joined the YM/YW for their activity.

Then a little preview of Halloween for Lewis, aka Mr. Willy Wonka!
(David is going to be an Oompa Loompa...I'm ridiculously excited about that! Haven't tried the costume on him yet!)

And finally Beau pulling David around the house with his lasso!

Apple Picking

Heaven is apple picking!

I love having Terhune Orchards 5 minutes from our house!

The boys picked two gigantic bags of apples last Saturday.

I predict we'll have finished them by the end of the weekend and will need to pick some more!

I ❤️ the Farm

Days like this are just heavenly!

Lederhosen

It's the most wonderful time of the year!

Lederhosen time!!!

I'm not sure there's anything that makes me happier than my boys in lederhosen!

David's first day!

And here was David on his first day yesterday!

He went by scooter...always his preferred mode of transportation! He had a great first day because he played with little trains and ate pretzels!

First day of school!

First day back here!

After so much eager anticipation, there was plenty of anxiety this morning in our house. It's a lot to gear up for, going to new teachers with new kids all over again. Proud of these sweet boys!

David was pretty sad about saying giving up time with brothers today. He told me he misses Lewis and Beau. But, David also went to meet his pre-school teacher today. So, exciting things for him too!

Wow bow for Lewis - Beauty and the Beast

Lewis the shepherd boy in the village. 

Lewis finished his Beaty and the Beast production last week. He had tons and tons of fun! Here he is doing their "wow bows"! 

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vld3OwAr55M

David singing to me

This one is so cute!!!

David "reading" through the cd jacket to the primary song book. "Dumpy" is Humpty Dumpty, and "Peter" is inspired by Peter Peter pumpkin eater. Pretty darn cute!

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CMewvkIBlmY

Happy 40th to Michael!!!

We whisked this incredible 40 year old away to Mohonk, somewhere we've always dreamed of going!

The boys have had a blast hiking, racing each other in boats on the lake, playing on the putting range, exploring the gardens, and playing in the kids' club. Mike and Norah snuck in a Chinese yoga class and some exploring time by the lake. Then we watched the sunset on the porch and had a family dance party rocking out to a live band in the evening.

We love our Michael, and we love celebrating!!!

Lewis Michael Jackson

Lewis just had his 8.5 birthday party.

The first half was a reading party.

The second half was Michael Jackson, and Lewis performed, adorned with his new "Beat It" jacket he got for his birthday. It was pretty awesome!!!

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=q-XpKFlU4Jw

Lost teeth!

Beau lost his first tooth!!!

It was almost falling out over the weekend, and he managed to save it to have it fall out in school. He loves the little treasure chests the kids get from the nurse when they lose a tooth in school. So, he yanked it out in the cafeteria and then happily skipped off to get his treasure chest!

He was precious because when he woke up the next morning, instead of being excited to get his money from the tooth fairy, he cried and cried because he wanted his tooth back. He's so sentimental!

So, we wrote a note, returned the money, and the tooth fairy returned the tooth the next night. (Luckily she still had it!!!)

Just tonight, a couple weeks later, Beau lost his second tooth. He took a lot of time to consider, but he's decided to still keep his first lost tooth (to show his children someday!!!) and give this second one to the tooth fairy tonight. Hopefully he won't miss this one too much!

Exit school - Enter summer

Here's David showing off his belly button to his friend, Mabel!

Lewis and Beau riding to school for their last day!

And some blueberry picking at the orchard!

Plus my crazy crew excited to be home for lunch together!

Critter time!

A few weeks back, we caught a raccoon!

We told our friends about how a raccoon was tipping over our trash cans every night, and it was so frustrating. Turns out, they had a raccoon trap and said they'd bring it by!

We were all set to trap our villain the next night when, lo and behold, Beau came home from school with his class "pet", Cookie the raccoon!!!!! So awesome!

We were able to create the best class journal entry for him ever when Cookie met his long lost uncle!

Then Michael, our mostly fearless raccoon catcher, released him across the river on his way to work!

Beau's FHE lesson

I have to record this so we don't forget!

Beau taught the FHE lesson tonight.
He taught on why we have noses.
It was amazing!!!

It involved lots of grand gestures and wise words of wisdom about noses.(They are, after all, a celebration on a face!)

At the end of the well thought out and enthusiastically executed lesson, we had a multiple choice quiz. It included some of the following:

A. Girls are bad
B. Girls are awesome

B! Girls are awesome! Now mom gets to wear the sequin headband that had previously adorned Beau's head and do a dab!

A. Satan is awesome
B. Jesus is good, but cupcakes are better
C. The Lord is awesome

C! The Lord is awesome! Now everyone dabs!

And a final question with three ridiculous choices followed by
D. Noses are awesome!

Our evening was basically AWESOME!!!
And this boy is totally awesome!!!