July Adventures

Both kids have started a big new adventure - music lessons!  Alex is taking piano and doing great so far.  He loves learning new songs each week and is catching on so quickly.

 

 Ben is tackling a much harder instrument, the guitar.  I didn't realize how much more complicated it would be to learn to read music and translate it into finger positions on the strings but he's doing great.  He's working so hard and already doing so much better in just a few short weeks.  He's working on a song that Alex just learned so maybe we'll get a duet in the house pretty soon!  (And yes, the kids like to wear robes at home, even when it's 90 degrees at 10am.  I don't get it)

 

They've been doing some science experiments.  In this case, they made their own carbonated drinks.  Alex was surprised that he hated it.  I was not, seeing as how he's never like a bubbly drink in his life.

 

Ben, on the other hand, really liked it and tried several different flavors.

We had a busy month in our monarch farm!  I kept finding huge caterpillars on our milkweed and bringing them inside, until we had 23 chrysalises and I had to force myself to stop.

It's just hard not to have a chance to greet this beautiful faces!  We all love watching them fly off for the first time.

 

 We always love a chance to hang out with the cousins and Aunt Stacey and Uncle Jason.  Dinnertime is always quite the experience with four boys.

These guys really had a lot of fun together.

Every. Time. (but he finally admitted that maybe he's gotten too big)

We all went to the Perot Museum in Dallas and loved it!  The views weren't too bad, either.

The boys all went crazy for the engineering exhibits but we finally managed to drag them away to see some other cool exhibits.

Back home, Ben and Alex went to a computer programming camp with lego robots.  It seemed like a really cool experience and I was so impressed with what they showed me on the last morning.

Ben showed me a program where the robot could navigate a maze and another where it would touch the walls and turn 90 degrees before knocking the wall over.

Alex was among the youngest of the 8-10 year olds but he and his partner scored in the middle of the groups.  Great work for 8-year olds!

Ben and his partner.  These guys won first place in the weekly points competition!

What would summer be without plenty of Blue Bell?  This new flavor combined cookie and cream with cookie dough...looks like I'll have to make extra trips to the gym this summer.

It also wouldn't be summer without some baseball!  We happened to go on Star Wars night so we met some new friends.

 

Working hard for the Flex Cam, but sadly the camera never found them...

Alex lost a tooth in the parking lot on the way in (literally - it fell in the pebbled lot and we never found it!) and was on cloud nine the entire game!

How I love summer!  This is the best time, when everyone sleeps a little later, the kids have remembered how to relax and use their imaginations again, and school is still too far away to worry about.  We plan to enjoy the next month to the fullest!

Alex's Birthday Celebration(s)

Alex's dream came true this year - we celebrated his birthday for weeks!  Summer birthday parties are hard to coordinate and this year was no exception.  Due to Matt's travel schedule and friends' availability, Alex got to have his birthday party a few weeks early.  He wanted another big waterslide party in the backyard, so most of the fun happened out there, but we did have a cool candy bar for the kids to enjoy...sugar 'em up and send 'em home!

Cookie cake #1!  (It disappeared so quickly I never got a second piece...therefore I had no qualms about ordering cookie cake #2)

 Our almost 8-year old!

The water slide was a huge hit, of course.  The kids never quit going over and over and over!  Drew caught some major air in this picture.  But thankfully my prayers were answered and no one got hurt, other than a few bumps and bruises. I always worry about boys and heights and fearlessness.

 

Several hours later, just a few die-hard kids...still going!

This boy was SO happy!  And after 7 hours of sliding non-stop (including some family fun after all the kids left!), he crashed that night.

He woke up pretty excited the next day, though, because he got to enjoy his gifts!  Minecraft legos were assembled before 7am.

 
Next up was a family celebration on the 4th...lucky kid gets a national holiday just before his birthday every year!  (I won't say how long it took to get a picture of everyone together.  Maybe it's time to get a selfie stick.)

 

Cake #2!  This time with plenty of leftovers for Mama :)

 

More gifts for this lucky guy!  

He was super excited to get his own (hand-me-down, out of service) phone loaded with his favorite Muse songs.

 Alex made a good effort at polishing off the 8 from his cake, but wisely took a break before he hurled.

He couldn't wait to get started on his biggest lego set ever - a marble maze with over 700 pieces.  I helped him get organized and get the base started and then he was off to work.

 
 Later that evening, we went to our favorite spot to watch fireworks and celebrate the 4th of July.

 

Ben and Ryan were taking selfies while they waited for the fireworks...they crack me up!

 

On his actual birthday, we went to Typhoon Texas and Denny's, his two favorite places.  Then just one day later, he finished his masterpiece!  We were so proud of all his hard work.

I think that 8 looks pretty good on our little guy and I'm so proud of how Alex has grown and matured.  I hope and pray he has a wonderful year ahead of him!

Trip Down South

 We met Grammy and Grumpy in Tuleta, Texas, where Grammy grew up and we used to spend time in the summer helping Papa in his little grocery store.  The store is still there although it's no longer open to the public, but it sure brought back a lot of memories!

 

 Stacey and I spent so much time climbing this tree!

We found Lindy's name in the concrete from over 50 years ago.

The inside of the store still had some of the original shelves and the old Tuleta Grocery sign.  Such wonderful memories in here.

We made our way to North Padre Island and hit the beach again.  I tell ya, these boys never get tired of sun and sand!

The highlight of our trip was going aboard the USS Lexington aircraft carrier with Grumpy, who made many landings on it and trained other pilots on it during his Marine days.

They've converted it into a really amazing museum and we spent hours going all over the ship.

The boys nervously walked the plank out front.

 Alex's favorite spot was the engine room, with countless dials and buttons.

Ben's favorite place was the top deck when he got to ask Grumpy the hundreds of questions I couldn't answer at the museum in Pensacola.  It was very cool hearing Grumpy tell the boys about his old plane, the A6.

Thanks for a fun getaway, Grammy and Grumpy!