Monday, May 16, 2016

Beginning of May

One night as I was trying to get James to go to sleep, he picked up his toy phone and asked me, "Uhhh, what is the number for the police again?" I told him, "911", so he very seriously started dialing. Then he started talking into the phone, "Uhh, police? Daddy said my bell was the baddest and it is not, so you need to come get him and take him to jail. Ok? Ok.". At this point I was laughing so hard that it was interrupting his phone call and he had his hand over his other ear, glaring at me. So he decided to call the police back and tell them to take me to jail for interrupting him. This kid cracks us up!

For teacher appreciation week, James made his teachers cards all by himself. He actually got the paper, scissors, and markers out, cut out the squares and wrote the letters all by himself! (I told him which letters to write but I didn't demonstrate them). Then he answered some questions for a things-I-love-about-my teacher paper to give to them with some cookies that we made. They both really loved it!

At the end of the week, James came home with a bag full of crafts for me for Mother's day. I am loving not having to coordinate him making my own gifts now that he has teachers to do it!

James decided to put the bag over his head and march around the house. Of course.

I had this idea of painting a birdhouse to be a replica of James' preschool for an end of the year present for the director of his school. I finally found some time one afternoon to do it, so I set James up with his own birdhouse to work on while I did this one. I am pretty happy with how it turned out! I hope she likes it :)

James had his last soccer game of the season, yay!! We are so glad soccer is over :) This summer we are going to see how James does in martial arts and he might be doing that instead of soccer in the fall. Immediately after the last game, his team had the end of the year party with pizza, cupcakes, and awards. 

His coach gave him the "enthusiastic spirit award" and he kept his nickname "the wanderer" that he has had since his first season when he would wander off the field all the time!

As soon as awards were over, we rushed home because that night was the father/son campout and Anthony took of work so they could go and spend the night! James was beyond excited about sleeping in a tent for the first time. Anthony told him that he needed to wear long sleeves and pants, so he decided to wear his Incredibles costume.

The back of the truck, all loaded up and ready to go!
James is making a sad face because he said he was going to miss me. He kept asking, "when are they going to have a mother/son campout?"

Back to happy!

Got the tent set up, now off to the campfire.

The next morning they got up and did a little fishing.

While the big boys were off having fun, I wanted to do something for just me and Rett. I thought he would like a local festival that had chalk painting, games, and local booths. This little homebody wasn't a fan!! The entire drive he kept saying, "we go home now?" and he cried if I tried to get him to check out any of the activities. He found the swing set and all he wanted to do was swing until we went home. Oh well! I tried!

Checking out the ants instead of the actual entertainment.

Tuesday, May 10, 2016

End of April

James has finally learned how to swing all by himself!! He was so proud of himself for doing it, and I was so happy that I don't have to push him on the swings for hours at a time any more. So exciting!


Now every time we go to the park, it has to be a park with good swings. James insists :)

My mom was cleaning out her closets and found a stack of old clothes that belonged to one of my brothers in the 80's. We tried them on Rett and he is so stinkin' adorable in them! I just love how he looks in these clothes.

He was so cute, I couldn't say no when he asked for a popsicle.

Then he offered to share with Grandma. Such a sweet boy!

I had some shopping to do at Michaels, so James came a long to help me push the cart. This is what he wore the entire time he was there: safety goggles and a citronella bug bracelet as a headband. I'm not sure why he decided it was necessary, but it was.

The boys had been having so much fun with the snake they caught in the backyard, that it got Anthony thinking about buying a pet snake for "James" (*cough* Anthony). Anthony had always wanted this cool variety of a ball python called a killer bee ball python (because of it's markings), so we bought this one. Then a friend of Anthony's offered to give him his male ball python, so now we have two snakes that will eventually breed with each other. Only Anthony would start out getting a pet for a 5 year old and end up doing specialty snake breeding.


James loves to hold the snakes, and he is getting really good at being quiet and gentle with them. The baby snake is really shy and timid, so we have to be extra careful with her so that she doesn't get stressed and stop eating.

This is the big guy that was gifted to us. He was used for breeding and not as a pet, so he isn't very used to being held. Anthony has started spending time with him every day holding him and getting him used to it.

The missionaries came over for dinner, so of course we had to let them watch Anthony feed the snake. James was mesmerized!

James and Anthony caught a lizard for the kingsnake (which now belongs to cousin Dallas!) and he actually ate it right in front of them. So crazy to watch!

While Anthony was at work I was trying to find something to do with the boys, so we went to the park. They wandered off and found this large dirt patch and had the best time playing in it! They both found big cement rocks and were running around trying to crush the mud wasps that fly low to the ground. I thought for awhile that maybe I should stop them, but they were having so much fun and actually being nice to each other that I just let them do it. Plus I was tired :)

Showing me his wasp-killing rocks.

Throwing the rocks down: