I have seemingly neglected my camera this summer. Can't seem to remember to bring it anywhere. But despite the lack of pictures, we are really enjoying summer.

Kelley's Island: We ventured up to KI with P's family for Memorial Day weekend. It was so fun. The kids are at such a fun age. They are both so independent and played with their older cousins for most of the weekend. They required very little supervision from me, which left me with time to sit in the sun and read a book! Who knew that day would ever come again! We had the chance to get in the water (which was cold but the boys didn't seem to notice), play some baseball, go putt-putt golfing, and hang out with family. The funniest moment (only because no one got hurt) came towards the end of the trip. The boys had been playing on Grandma's golf cart all weekend, which is totally fine. I think it was Sunday, P's uncle was helping fix something at another house close by. He came back just to grab some tool they needed. Since he was going to be so quick, he left the key in the golf cart. C, having no idea that the golf cart was on, climbed in to play, stepped on the gas and drove the golf cart across the yard towards the garage. As a cousin screamed, I looked up to see C's face as he drove by, which was a mixture of joy, confusion and fear! Seconds later, he crashed into a wheelbarrow. Nothing broke. C was fine, but a little shaken up from his joy ride!

Butterflies: We ventured to the Conservatory with my mom and one of my nephews to view the butterfly exhibit. It was beautiful as always, and the kids did great. It's been so fun to watch the boys grow up with their cousin.

Swimming: We joined our neighborhood pool this summer, and I am so glad we did. The boys have had a blast, and are getting more brave every time we go. A is finally putting his whole head under and will jump off the side of the pool by himself. C started off the summer jumping in and going under all the way, but with the cooler weather recently, he's just as content sitting on the side and splashing. I'm sure as the weather warms back up, he'll go back to his old ways.

Science Camp: I taught a one-week science camp in June. It was really fun to teach again, especially to small classes of kids that really WANT to learn and are completely self-motivated. It was everything I love about teaching with none of the horrible parts! By the end of the week, I was EXHAUSTED! I was waking the kids up at 6:30/6:45, piling them into the car, dropping them off at my mom's and picking them up at 4:30. My biggest realization from the week is that I enjoy teaching, but I LOVE my current job. I missed my boys all day and felt rushed with my time with them at night. By the time we made and ate dinner, it was nearly bedtime. I ended that week with a renewed appreciation for my job as a stay-at-home mom.

Other than that, we've been keeping really busy hanging out with friends, exploring new parks around the city, and other fun, summer activities. Still on the list: Reds game, Coney Island, and golfing (A continues to beg almost daily to go golfing again). Oh, and a trip to the beach in August! Can't wait for that one!

"Disturb us, Lord, when we are too well pleased with ourselves. When our dreams come true because we dreamed too little. When we arrive safely because we have sailed too close to the shore. Disturb us, Lord."
-Sir Francis Drake

Potty Training

We are on day three of no diapers! C is doing great! We have even ventured out to friends' houses, the Butterfly show, the grocery store and several parks. He has even been diaper-free for naps. The only diapers he's worn are at night and in the pool. Pretty impressive for a boy who hasn't even reached 2 1/2 yet! Keep it up, Big Boy!!

Baby S

My sis-in-law had a birthday yesterday, so we watched her 2 month old while she and her hubby got to enjoy dinner out! It went pretty well. Of course, A lost her paci, so there was a good deal of screaming until I found an extra. Other than that, we did great. 

I love this first pic. I know it looks like a silly toddler smile, but it is PURE JOY that you see. He was shaking from excitement at getting to hold his baby cousin. It was ADORABLE! He loves babies, and it is so sweet to see him be gently and loving towards baby S.

Big cousin got a turn. About one second later, S started crying. Good thing we got the shot when we did. 

The boys wanted to show their aunt and uncle how cute they look in their pjs, but the date wasn't over before bedtime arrived. So we took this picture to show them. I think it is pretty adorable. It was cute to see A put his arm around C without prompting... and it didn't end in tackling him to the ground! If that's not considered success, I don't know what is!

The birthday girl and her hubby. Beautiful!

Preschool

This is from A's preschool Easter party. The kids are lined up waiting to be released for the Easter egg hunt! I love how they are all trying to scope out the eggs... so serious!

Class pic... minus 2.

At the end of the year, they had a Spring Program. It was cute to hear the kids sing and then they gave out "graduation" certificates. I love this shot. This says "preschool picture" so well. Notice: the boy picking his nose, A showing off his belly, all kids randomly staring in different directions. Gotta love it!

Trying to get a final class pic. This is the best I got. The rest of my attempts had kids with certificates in front of their faces. 

A few Spring activities...

The boys learned how to set the timer on the camera and then run into the picture. That kept us entertained for WAY too long. This was the cutest pic they got.... not bad!

Our neighbors were probably wondering what kind of crazy people live next door. It was a beautiful morning, so I shooed the boys outside before the rain could start. They were in their pjs. They decided to be firefighters. So, check out the awesome outfits... pjs, boots, winter jacket/vest, gardening gloves, hats (one firefighter hat and one cowboy hat) and the garden hose stretched across the lawn through the gate to put out the "fire" next door. 

A local bookstore had Froggy come to visit for storytime. He's one of the boys' favorite storybook characters. They were totally freaked out, though, and wouldn't get any closer than this. I tried to get them closer to give high-fives or hugs, and they froze. C even fell off the little stage backward to avoid getting too close. But they talked about it for days afterwards, so apparently it wasn't too traumatizing.

Dying Easter eggs!

My friends with girls get to watch their daughters dress up in beautiful princess gowns. But being them mother of boys, we see construction men around our house more days than not. Here's "Mr. Jim" our maintenance man. That tool bet weighs more than he does! Notice the irish flute in the tool belt. Not sure what that will help fix!!

Here are a few pics from my cousin's wedding in Milwaukee. I didn't get any of the actual ceremony since I was playing piano. Here's one of my three favorite boys, watching Sports Center together!

The hotel had a water park inside! So fun! The boys had a blast, and it was a great way to burn some energy before the ceremony.

I can't remember where we were driving, but this is how A fell asleep in the car. The crossed leg had me laughing so hard.

And... Monkey see, monkey do! Trying to cross his leg like his brother!

Yep... We are still here.

In case any of you were worried, we are still alive and doing well. It's been forever since I've posted. That makes me sad because I feel like 1000 funny or important things have happened since my last post, and they have been lost forever. But, life moves fast. That's how it goes. And sometimes updating the blog doesn't make it to the top of the list. Here's what we've been up to:

-Milwaukee: My cousin got married at the beginning of May, and I made my debut as a wedding pianist. It went well... even better than I had hoped. It may also have been my last wedding piano playing as it ended up being more work than I had realized it would be. BUT I am very glad I did it and feel a huge sense of accomplishment now that it's over. We trekked the whole family up...by plane. The boys did well. The highlights for them were easily 1- the chocolate fountain at the rehearsal dinner, 2 - the waterpark in the hotel and 3 - the reception... pretty much everything about it.

-A's last week of school. He had a program, which was very cute. His class sang a few songs, and his air guitar skills were shown off again. It's adorable when he's four that he plays the air guitar with fervor everytime he hears music, but I sure hope he outgrows that by the time he's in Jr. High. Then he had a picnic the following day, and C and I got to be there the entire time. There were other kids C's age, but he was the only one that was convinced he was part of the class. He sat in circle time, stood in line when we went to the gym, sang the songs (and played his air guitar, too) along with the class, and even did the craft. It was adorable. I think he'll be amazingly disappointed next year when A leaves for school and he doesn't get to go.

-Garage Sale: We held another garage sale this year to raise money for our adoptions. Despite a smaller crowd than last year, we still made more than our goal. The boys spent the night before and the day of the sale with Gramma so we had two less sets of "helping hands". They had a blast seeing Gramma's horse, eating french toast and watching movies. AND they slept through the night for her. I'll have to find out her secret! Tomorrow I take a car load of stuff to Once Upon a Child to sell, then turn in the keys to the garage we rented and be officially done with the garage sale. Phew. It really is worth it with the amount of money it brings in, but it is a LOT of work to organize.

-Kelley's Island: We are getting ready to head to KI in Lake Erie with P's family for the weekend. The boys are SO excited, as are P and I. It is always fun to see family that we don't get to see too often and relax on a very laid back island.

-P got a promotion at work! He's only been there 6 weeks and has only really been doing his route for 4. This is huge as this new route will provide a better income and will hopefully allow us to start the adoption process at the end of the summer. The hard part right now is he is currently working 3 jobs. They still have him doing his old route AND his new route, plus he's still maintaining his clients from his previous job. Needless to say, he's a little stressed. As I type, he's still working, which he's been doing pretty much straight since 6:30 this morning. Luckily this is just a transition and shouldn't be like this for more than a week or two. He is really looking forward to our upcoming trip, and he is surely earning a relaxing weekend!

So there's the update. Hard to believe all of this has happened in just three weeks. Makes me exhausted just reading about it. Though I love May, I am looking forward to the beginning of June as that will be a lot less hectic of a month for us. Now I'm off to bed. Praying the boys will sleep through the night so their tired momma and daddy can get some much needed sleep.