ARGHn't You Glad To Be Home

 My tough little pirate! He might look tough but don't let him fool you, he's a real sweetie! This morning, after being gone for 6 days- he runs in my room, crawls into my bed and says "I'm so happy you're back in our house mommy, you're my best".... MELTED ME!!!

Toothless!

While I was away in AZ- Ben lost his second tooth (on the bottom) and I got to see it via FaceTime along with all my players! It was super cute and I love to hear the little words he says differently now that he is missing those teeth. . . so fun!

Volleyball Festival 2014

My last week consisted of . . . 

• 6 days in AZ
• 110 degree weather
• 9 girls (ranging in age from 12-14yrs old)
• 436 volleyball teams (from all over USA and some Int'l)
• 2 tons of Gatorade
• and too many volleyballs and giggles to count

. . . needless to say, I am one exhausted coach today, but I am proud of my girls and it was a great week!


Here is the link if you want to check out some of our pics from the past week:
https://www.dropbox.com/sh/91hma98imcblos2/AAAmg7dg_E0Eionug4c3VcYea

Oh the Joys of Raising Boys

Random Tuesday silliness....

Fella's first backpack- almost as big as him

"Mom, I dance WAY better with my eyes closed"
--- Nathan

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Ben while eating cherries...)
Ben: Mom do you want the good news or the bad news first?
Me: um bad?
Ben: K, the bad news is I swallowed the seed
Me: ok, what's the good news?
Ben: it'll come out when I go potty so don't worry 

Beach Bums

Saturday Mr. Chris was gone in SLO at a work training, Olivia was away on a school trip in Ireland and Ben was with his Dad. So that just left Fella, Selena and me. So after vball practice and running errands before we leave for Vball Festival, we decided that we should head to the beach. It was a super fun afternoon filled with lots of giggles and laughter. I love hanging out with these 2!

Me, Fella & Selena

making sand globs

building ponds

Fella lost his body and was claiming he was a mermaid LOL 

And when Mr. Chris is away.. the mice will play. Fella found his bomb helmet and insisted in walking around the house with it on even though it weighs a ton. What a goof!

Also worked as a good chair!

BMX Camp

This past week Ben spent the mornings at BMX camp. He loved spending time with his friend Shane and learned lots of new tricks!

Happy Father's Day

The spent Father's Day with their dad. Here are some pics from their fun adventure that day! 

Volleyball Buddy

This morning Nathan came to hang out with me at vball practice while Ben and Daddy were busy but he had no complaints- he was surrounded by girls swooning over him and they all snuggled together and had snacks and watched a movie. I thought it was going to be hard to get Fella to stay on the couch so he didn't get hit by balls but it was actually harder getting my girls off the couches and on the court. LOL!

Nature Walk

Friday afternoon, Fella and I went on a nature walk looking for bugs. We didn't find bugs but we found lots of flowers and rocks. Nonetheless I love time with my boys alone to just walk and hear what their little minds are thinking about- too sweet!

Boys First Dodger Game

Tonight Chris and I took the boys to their first baseball game: Dodgers vs. Rockies. The Dodgers won 6-1! There were some times the boys needed to get up and stretch their legs, getting their wiggles out but it was a fun night filled with Dodger dogs, giggles, cuddles, and silliness. 

lovin that Dodger game

snuggles

cuddles

Movie Date

This morning the movie: How To Train Your Dragon 2, opened up in theaters and the boys could barely contain their excitement! So we spent the morning working together to clean the house and then packed up snacks before heading out. With snacks, drinks, and Puppy Elephant in hand (haha) the boys sat still, glued to the screen the whole time. The movie was very cute complete with emotional parts and lots of funny parts! I love these little dates with my boys and am proud of their great behavior in the theater.

Mommy, Fella, and puppy elephant

glued to the screen

I love this little smile

Pure Silliness with Fella

I don't know where this kid gets these silly ideas from but this morning while I was cleaning up the breakfast dishes I hear the cutest giggling followed by the pitter patter of little feet running around. 

So I turn to see what is going on and this is what I find....

The glasses just make it 100x better!!! This boy is just pure joy!

When Girls See Me...

Nathan's newest funny saying is this: "When girls see me they say, WHOA". 

Last night, the boys and I went and had dinner with Mr. Chris and the girls and this is the newest little gem of humor that Mr. Chris and Fella came up with. These two are hilarious together... two peas in a pod!

Beginnings of Summer

Summer break from school has officially started but that doesn't mean that we are taking a break from learning. In addition to some great (educational) trips planned for the summer, we are also going to be keep spending time each day working on various skills. 

So using my teaching skills (haha sorry boys, you got stuck with a teacher for a mom) I have spent hours the past couple weeks putting together "workbooks" for the boys. Nathan's are the little yellow ones and Ben's are the larger multi-colored ones. Each boy has a different workbook for each week and they are each geared at what is skill appropriate for each boy. I say skills appropriate instead of age appropriate because for example, Ben's math is first grade level but his reading and phonetics are still at pre-school level. Ben loves to be read to for hours, but has no desire to learn to read by himself. However, he will sit and do math until I force him to stop haha!

-Nathan's books are focused on letter recognition, tracing and pencil control, and numbers 1-10

-Ben's books are focused on phonetics, sound recognition, following directions, sight words, and math (adding, subtracting, money, time, counting by 5s and 10s)

Each week I will give the boys their new book and they can work on it at breakfast and any other time they want throughout the day. If, at the end of the week, their book for that week is completed, they will get 2 tickets for their jar (previous post). So far the boys are very excited about their books- fingers their excitement continues haha!

weekly workbooks for both boys

Another thing that we are starting now that summer is here, is a journal for Ben in which he can write down his favorite part of each day and draw a picture to go along with it. This may seem silly but we did it last year for a little while and I loved it for several reasons:

-it works on his writing skills

-it allows for creativity/drawing

-it provides time for him to stop at the end of the day and remember what made him happy and what he is thankful for

-it is great for me as his mom to watch his printing and drawing to progress over time, super cute

summer journal

inside of journal: not the best sentence I know
but it is hard to make a sentence using only sight words haha!