Christmas in June

Grant's imagination and creativity continue to give us some serious entertainment. Today he woke up with the idea to pose as Santa Claus and gathered and wrapped presents for everyone. For the presents, he used the goodie boxes from last night's rocking 3rd birthday party for Ashlyn and Kensley as Ellory and Grant's gift, mom received a necklace and bracelet and spool of purple thread, and Rockwell received his turtle push toy and stuffed owl all wrapped up in Rockwell's blanket:) What joy Grant brings to our family!

Trouble Part 4- Rockwell rascal

Dear Rockwell,

I continue to be perplexed and amazed at how you can be so irresistibly adorable and an exhausting rascal all in the same moment. Lately, most of these seem to be due to the fact that you have managed to climb out of your crib and find such joy in doing so. You will either come quickly with a wide grin to let us know you are out or quietly go about your own business getting into something new. I have found you in the bathroom sink brushing your teeth, reading books quietly in Grant's room, looking out your window behind your drawn shades and curtains, sitting on top of your changing table while playing with your sound machine, playing dress up in Ellory's closet, sitting on the sewing table having thrown all the thread on the ground with some earrings in your mouth, and turning on the CD player listening to music. I'm not sure you will ever slow down with your need for new discoveries and your ability to charm anyone you come in contact with. Case in point, sneaking out of bed to find  babysitters Greg and Suzie Romans who let you stay up for over an hour to play with them. 

Alas! I still love you through it all! Especially when you run up and tightly throw your chubby arms around my neck for a perfect hug. 

love,

your exhausted mom

Pool party

Our wonderful neighbors gifted us their pool recently and today we decided to put it to use! Grant and Dad were gone helping Stephanie Watson move and then stopped by Walmart for Grant to spend his hard earned money on some new Pokemon cards. But the rest of us enjoyed some splashing and sunshine. Cora was able to join us for a bit too! What a blessing to have great neighbors!

Vampire lair

Today Grant thought up a game called "Vampire Lair" and took the time to carefully set up all the necessary components. In each of his games and projects, he is good at thinking through every last detail. Which can be exhausting at times to sit and listen to:) but also fascinating to see his creativity. 

He was patient at waiting for his money collector, Dad, to return home in order to begin the game and put me in charge of keeping the entrance fee of a nickel each for Ellory, Rockwell and myself safe until the game began. 

To begin, we handed a nickel to Dad who put it in the money container, knocked on the door and were granted entrance to his room.

Once inside, we found an array of different stations of games set up to play for prizes.

Ellory started with the reading station.

Grant manned the castle game station, where Dad had to throw cannon balls through the castle without touching the castle and hitting the wall. With each throw, Grant would yell out a new number of points he had earned and in the end gave Dad 9600 points! Dad was excited to be able to choose a prize from the big stuffed animals! 

Everyone was a winner today!

First Pet

It finally happened; G got a pet. He won a goldfish during Carver Fest (school carnival) and we picked it up yesterday on our date. He named it Goldie...or Golden...or Gold (it seems to be interchangeable). Welcome to the family !

Storm of June 2016

Happy Fathers Day!

Bumblebee Jamboree

Lots of fun with butterflies and Bee's.

 The Chesterfield County Society put on a lovely, free event at Maymont park. We loved trying to catch butterflies
(Ellory was successful!),  touch caterpillars, learn about pollination, watch puppet shows, enjoy the delicious array of free snacks and choosing flowers to bring home and plant. What a fun morning!

Power Outage Blessings

During the power outage, we decided to grab free smoothies at Tropical Smoothie Cafe for flip flop day, but when we arrived, we discovered it didn't start until 2:00. The kiddos must have been hungry (not even sure what we had for breakfast because we put a temporary ban on opening the fridge) because they suggested we go to Chick-fil-a. When we arrived, the drive through was around the block out to the main road so we parked and went in only to find about a dozen customers sitting at tables without food. When we asked if they were serving food, they told us their power just came back on. Then we heard the manager tell someone to stand by the door we came in and not let anyone else in. They took everyone's order and brought their food to them, but because they were still having issues with the system, they didn't charge anyone for the food. No doubt this was a tender mercy for us. I am consistently impressed with Chick-fil-a. Later, we made our way back to Tropical Smoothie Cafe 😋🍹

Mrs. Parsley's Ice Cream Social - Kindergarten 2016

We have been so grateful for Grant's Kindergarten teacher, Mrs. Parsley! To end the year, we met at the school for running around and ice cream sundaes. We also presented Mrs. Parsley with a beach bag full of wonderful, generous goodies she can use throughout the summer. Then she handed out binders to each student filled with their work and some pictures from the school year. What a treasure for the children!

Grant's Kindergarten Field Day 2016

Carver Fest 2016

Carver Fest was another success this year! Bee helped with one of the games, while joshua and the kiddos went from game to game winning all kinds of goodies and treats. What a hot afternoon though! We all left tired, hungry and hot! Hooray for air conditioning! :)

Ellory

My sweet Ellory happenings lately. She is not consistently napping each day and will often choose to play quietly in her room instead. She is so good about doing just that until I come for her and Rockwell and I can still nap, so it's great! Here she is lining up some of Grant's Octonauts toys and playing contently by herself.

We had some time before I had to get to my Dental cleaning appointment and decided to go play in the sand. She is such a fun side kick!

She sure loves her Daddy and using him as a jungle gym. He's a good sport! :)

I love the simple joys of childhood that can come with a 25 cent candy machine. She is so fun to buy little splurges for because she gets so excited and happy!

She is learning more and more about how to interact and be a good friend. We had a fun time at a backyard pool party with the Rogers, Evans and Bernals. She was too busy running around to pause for a picture, so we have Ashlyn and Olivia snacking on some popcorn.

Her love for books continues!