Freeze Time

Lately I have really started to notice just how grown up boys are getting and I am not sure I like it.  I just want to freeze time and live with these two little boys just as they are.  Colton has become such an awesome kid, so independent and outgoing. He is old enough to do chores for me like taking out the garbage, feeding the dog, setting and clearing the table and helping his little brother with pretty much anything he needs. He is even learning to cut the grass but don't think we will get to take full advantage of that until next summer.  He also has friends calling him all the time (on my cellphone as we don't have a home phone) for play dates and sleepovers which is awesome as it gets him out and socializing with other kids and give me some one on one time with Mason.  Mason is at the perfect age and so much fun right now.  He can get himself ready to go (putting on shoes and getting himself in the car) which allows me free hands to carry whatever we need for our outing and saves me making several trips to the car.  He also is very helpful around the house (when he wants to be), he cleans up his toys, helps with the cooking and setting the table and loves to help with the laundry!  He has the best imagination and usually has me belly laughing with some of things he says or does.  We have sat the dinner table much longer than we should some nights just because I don't want to stop hearing the stories that my boys have to tell me and each other.

Both boys are awesome with entertaining themselves whether it is by playing with Legos together for hours while I clean or fighting zombies in the backyard while I work in the garden or cut the grass.  They also love to snuggle up on the couch together and watch cartoons.  They get along better than I could have hoped even though they are 4.5 years apart in age.  Of course they still have their fights and about half of those fights end with a wrestling match of some sort in which little brother almost always wins but at the end of the day they are best friends and never go to bed without saying their good nights to each other.  And let me tell you when a three year old says "Luv you big brother, Goodnight" it will melt your heart and make you realize you are doing alright in this adventure called parenting. 

I love that my boys are growing up and we have so many fun things ahead of us but sometimes I want to freeze time and enjoy this age for just a little longer.  I am so blessed to have these two boys in my life and I want to soak in every moment, adventure, smile, tear and snuggle that they are willing to share with me because I know life is always changing and soon enough they will have better things to do that hang out with Mommy!

First Time Campers

Last weekend the boys and I headed to my parents campground for another fun filled lake weekend.  However this time my parents weren't joining us but instead I brought some friends.  My friends Angela and Suzi joined me for the weekend.  What made it even more fun is that Suzi brought her kiddos (ages 2 and almost 4) and this was their first time camping (if you call it camping when you are in a trailer with a 40 inch plasma, flushing toilets and a fireplace)!  We loaded up the van with 3 adults, 4 kids and plenty of snacks, clothes, blankets and pillows and off we went.  The kids were so excited to get to the lake and get the fun started.  We spent the weekend playing on the beach, swimming, cooking meals over an open fire, catching more frogs than we knew what to do with, enjoying pontoon rides around the lake, eating S'mores, watching the loons, enjoying ice cream cones in the Sugar Shack, watching bedtime cartoons, catching more frogs and just hanging out!  

I didn't take as many pictures as I usually do but I did catch some very cute ones.  Although I realize now that I didn't take any pictures of Colton but that could be because he was off running with his friend all day long, only returning to eat dinner and show us all the frogs that he captured. Here are just a few of my favorite moments from our fun weekend!

Waterfalls

I decided I wanted to do something fun with the boys today, something outdoors and inexpensive and adventurous.  So a local State Park seemed like the best choice.  We packed up a lunch and hit the road for Willow River State Park in Hudson, WI.  My sister also decided to join us which ended up being a lifesaver as she was able to snap plenty of pictures of this awesome adventure as I was too busy wrangling in my boys!  We started our day at the beach and enjoyed our picnic lunch.  The boys walked in the water a little but they knew there were waterfalls nearby so they had no desire to play at the beach.  After lunch we drove to the parking lot for the falls and started our half mile hike to the Waterfalls.  The hike to the falls was down a quite steep hill which made it pretty easy however the walk out was a workout that I wasn't expecting! But I have to say, I would do the hike again any day as the falls are amazing.  We couldn't wait to get our shoes off and get into the water.  The boys of course weren't content just standing on the bridge or staying at the foot of the falls... no way, we had to climb our way up to the falls and even make a quick stop behind the falls which was AMAZING!  The rumble and view of rushing water in front of you is just breathtaking.  We had so much fun on our adventure today and look forward to many more outings like this as I would much rather be exploring with my boys than passing endless levels of video games or watching cartoons.

Summertime

One of our favorite summertime activities is running through the sprinkler!!  Sometimes it is the simple things that bring the most fun and excitement to two little boys!

Let's go Tubing!

I have been wanting to post these for a while but have been crazy busy, amazing how that seems to happen every summer!  Anyways, a couple weekends ago we went to the lake with my mother in law.  We enjoyed a very relaxing weekend filled with delicious food over a campfire, smores, time with friends, a Christmas in July celebration and the highlight of the weekend... tubing for the first time.  Our friends in the campground invited us to join them out on the boat Saturday afternoon for some tubing and swimming.  I jumped at the opportunity.  Some of my favorite summertime memories from my childhood including tubing with my cousins (and my Uncle not giving up until he flipped your tube and sent your body cartwheeling across the water like a ragdoll)!  Now, I knew this would be a little calmer tubing as we were going to pull them behind a pontoon boat but to my surprise it still moved pretty good!  Colton and his buddy Xander went first and they seemed a little unsure for a couple minutes but before we knew it they were kneeling up and putting their hands in the air.  That's my boy, not scared of anything.  Mason decided he wanted to give it a try too so I hopped in the tube with him and off we went.  Of course he loved it as well, he kept saying "Faster, Faster"!   After about an hour of tubing we decided to anchor down out on a sandbar with all the other boats and do some swimming.  Such a fun afternoon, we are thankful our friends invited us to go with them and look forward to do it again soon.

After tubing we headed back to the campground for dinner and then it was time for the Christmas in July celebration.  While we were out on the tube, Grandma was to the rescue and picked up some gifts, wrapped them and delivered them to the office.  We headed up to the office for some yummy appetizers and cookies and before long Santa and Mrs Clause arrived.  The kids were in awe, Santa in the summer isn't what most kids expect.  All the kids sat around while Santa passed out a present to each one of them.  Colton got his relatively early however Mason had to wait until the very last gift!  He waited so patiently and when Santa called his name he jumped up and ran up to get his gift and of course gift Santa a quick hug and pose for a picture for his mama ( I have him trained well)!

Another fun summer weekend filled with memories and good times!

Simplify

My sister has been challenging herself this year to give up one thing at a time for a month.  For the month of June she gave up TV (and she made it).  I knew that would never fly in our house.... sometimes the only way I get to shower alone is because I can turn on an episode of Paw Patrol or Jake and the Neverland Pirates.  For July my sister gave up junk food!  Seriously, no pop, candy, chips, ice cream, cake, brownies or S'mores... I don't even want to try that as it sounds like torture. 

So I started to think of ways I could simply my life by giving something up for a month.  I decided the one thing that consumes most of my free time and really does me no good is Facebook.  So two weeks ago I deleted the Facebook app off my phone and decided to give it up for the month of July.  Now most of you know how much I am on Facebook... I am always posting pictures or commenting on either peoples pictures and statuses, so I knew this would be difficult.  Well here I am two weeks later and I am still alive and doing just fine without Facebook!  Sometimes I think I would get so wrapped up in other peoples lives on Facebook that I didn't realize what I have right in front of me.  I see all these posts from other people about the things they are doing, what their kids are doing or the awesome things they are buying, accomplishing or planning.  Seriously, I would sometimes let it get to me and that is what pushed me the most to give it a break!  I have an amazing husband who busts his ass to provide for our family and while we may not get to spend as much time together as I would like I know that he is doing what is best for himself and for the boys and for that I am so grateful and appreciative.  I have two awesome boys who I get to do so many fun things with and I get to watch them grow and develop which is better than any material item money could ever buy.  And I have so many family members and friends that are always here to help me if needed.  Not living in the social world so much has allowed me to live in the real world a lot more and I love it.  I can't say that I even want to go back to living in a social world instead of living in the real world, never thought I would say that but happy I took on this challenge.   Also I still have my blog and Instagram so I can continue to share pictures which is all I really wanted to do anyways!!

I decided to continue to simplify a little more this month and I have turned off our central air.  That's right, no more air conditioning.  Frankie hates being hot when he sleeps and his allergies flare with the seasons as well so we usually have the air on from the first sign of 80 and it remains on well into the Fall but he is doing a lot of traveling lately so I decided when he is gone so is the central air.  The boys and I have survived 5 full days without air and it has been awesome.... having the windows open is one of my favorite things ever.  I love to hear the birds chirping, the neighbor kids playing and the rain falling on our deck.  Now of course this past weekend it got a little humid but the hottest it ever got in the house was 80 so I don't think that is too unbearable.... I grew up without central air so why does it seem so impossible to go without now?  I have to admit that we have been lucky as the temperatures drop at night cooling the house nicely for us to sleep.  Also with today being the coldest July 14th on record I actually had to close all the windows and bake some cookies to try to warm up the house a little.  The air will go back on when Frankie returns home but and when he leaves again we will be living the simpler life and going without central air.  Fresh air is good for us all and not running the air half the month will be nice on the pocket book I am sure too!   

Not sure I will continue to do challenges monthly like my crazy sister is doing however I am going to continue to find ways to simplify my life and enjoy the smaller things that are right in front of me and not worry so much about what others are doing or who might have something better than me (there is always more to a story that what appears on the outside anyways- the grass isn't always greener on the other side)!  I am grateful for everything I have, I love my simple life and my amazing family who I get to share it with!

It's Tournament Time!

Colton played in his first baseball tournament this weekend and we all had a great time!  Colton is playing Pitchball (machine pitch) this year and he really seemed to enjoy it.  He has learned so much throughout the season including what an RBI is and that you can make a double play - things that seem like common sense to us as adults but to a child just learning the game it can be a lot of information.  Well anyways, this tournament is the end of our season.  We didn't have a great season (I think we only won one game actually, we lost several by only 1 or 2 runs which just sucks).  Well Friday night we won our first game of the tournament and the boys were so excited, they ran off the field cheering which was so much fun to watch.  We played again Saturday morning and we lost by 2, however we weren't out yet.  We played again this morning at 9am, that's right I was up and had both boys fed and at the fields by 8:30am on a Sunday.  Well we won our game 7-5 which means we advanced to the final game and would play for 5th place in the tournament.  The boys were so excited to have won a second game in this tournament and were so pumped up to playing the "Championship Game" even if they were only playing for 5th place.  We only had 45 minutes between games which was enough time to get a hot dog and Gatorade and move our chairs to the next field.

The game didn't start out too good, after two innings we were losing by 4 already.  By the time we got to the bottom of the 6th inning (last inning as we only play 6 at this age) the Red Sox were losing by 6.  The boys were still determined to win and it showed as they tied up the game and we went into extra innings.  Are you kidding me, my stress was through the roof!  I just wanted the boys to get the win and end the season with a celebration. I couldn't even sit, I was pacing the fence line along with all the other parents.  The boys ending up letting the other team score a run and we just couldn't answer so the final score was 13-12 and we had to settle for 6th place (out of 11).  The boys took the loss hard but as parents we were so dang proud of how well our boys played!  They looked awesome and they had fun which is all that matters.

After 6 hours of sitting in the sun at the fields I was ready to get home and just relax on the couch for a while this afternoon however I must admit that I am kinda sad the season is over.  I really enjoyed watching Colton play this year and watching him learn and develop so much over the past 2 months.  I did of course take plenty of pictures to help us remember his first tournament (many more to come I am sure), he really seems to like the sport of Baseball!