Bows and Arrows and Blue Jays

The boys played outside a few days ago for quit sometime and they all made their own bow and arrows from the tree that the neighbors took down. Pretty crafty. It's amazing what boys will do when you send them outside and take away video games.

Yesterday, Stephen called and said they found a baby Blue Jay in the back yard and were letting it perch on their hands.

We CAN NOT handle another "pet" in or around or near our house. I told them it was a lovely little bird, now let it go.

Far away from the house.

Or close to the new kitty......

Summer is BUSY

Lots has been going on. Sort of. Well, not as bad as when school is in, but it seems we've been busy for a few weeks now.

I came home to this last week:



This is our new Kitty. Griffendorf. After Harry Potter.
Walt (retired Marine) across the street made the boys run
around the block and then clean his kitten's litter box
and then....let them pick their own kitten.




Jack is confused. Very confused.

I'm a little confused too. I got bamboozled into cat owning. I fought it. A lot.

But....I kind of like the little guy now. He's very curious. He likes to hide under things and tries to climb into the refrigerator.....

Friday the boys managed to go swimming at the Waterford. We didn't get a memebership this year and are totally bummed, but when you know the right people, you can sometimes get in. Stephen, fortunately, knows the right people.




I can't believe it's already been a year!

Stephen got involved with this:



Our big fabulous tree came down this weekend.
Someone bought the house next to me and had to
take it down. It was up-rooting everything. The tree removers
said it was in their top 10 of all time biggest trees to remove.
We watched them almost all day. Stephen of course jumped
in to help. I came home to one worn out, beat up and
sun burnt husband.

 Grant and I went and saw this:

It was great!

Aidan went and saw this with his Mom:
 It was also great, according to Aidan.



Father's Day

We spent Sunday taking it easy. We enjoyed our usual brunch at VZD's and the boys did the usual Xbox and Kindle's and then running around the house like crazy people. Pretty sure it had something to do with all the donuts I got for them. Sundays are known at our house as Dunkin Donut day. If we don't go to church, I have to get up and go get the boys their donuts or we hear about it ALL DAY LONG....

                                                            

                                                 

Aidan can literally eat half a dozen by himself.

Camp Dakani

The boys had their Grand Council Fire on Friday. It brought back so many memories for me. Everything was just the same as when I was there 25 years ago.... (yikes, I'm totally old).

The consensus from the boys was while camp was fun, they would NOT be back next year.

It was very hot.

Too hot.

There were lots of bugs and dirt. Grant came home covered in some sort of bug bite.




His back looked like he had Chicken Pox!

 I thought we made it through camp with no ticks on either boy, but Grant surprised me at the grocery store this weekend with one in his head. Yuck. I took him straight home (after we got the beloved Drum Sticks ice cream cones) and Stephen took it out.





The entrance to Grant's Camp.
Noticed he signed his name in block letters...
I used to do the same thing.

 


Grant insisted on wearing snow boots.
???????

 Stephen toured Aidan's camp while I toured Grant's, hence no pictures of Aidan's counselors. By the time Grant and I headed towards his camp, they were already on their way back. Everyone had a mission to get hot dogs and get home!




The camp assistant (forgot his name), G and Mr. Wizard (Bryan).




Here's Aidan, one of the last groups to go in
the 3000 degree temperature. I don't blame him
for not paying attention.




There's Aidan and Jaxon is farther down
the line. He's the tallest one.



On the way home....Grant loves to stick his head
out of the back window of Stephen's truck.



My Little Catcher

Last night was eventful, to say the least. Grant had his first game of the season and was drafted to play catcher.

He's never played catcher.

It was 95 degrees.

He had to wear all this stuff.

I was worried. (What else is new, I know).




Quick lesson on catching from Stephen.




How great is this? I had so much fun last night.
Stephen played first base coach and burnt up, but
I think he had fun too.




Grant making his first catch.


Stephen knew exactly what to do and gave him a very quick intro on how to be a catcher.

He did great! He stopped a lot of balls with his face mask (glad they make those). He kind of walked like a transformer, but had a good time.

And....he had TWO RBI's. I was so excited.  The YMCA doesn't keep score, but G does. We won 4-0.




Grant first practice outfit. He wanted to wear the hat
Grandpa Dod got him from Arizona. He also requested
to listen to Grandpa Dod's song before the first game.
I love that he remembers my Dad and keeps him close
to his heart. I know Dad would be proud.


I stopped by and got Jersey Mike's for him and half way through his sandwich he comes into the kitchen and asks me to just pull his wiggly tooth. He had had enough of it. I told him it might hurt and he said just do it.

It took me three tries, bless his heart, but he didn't even flinch. And, went right back to eating his sandwich. He never ceases to surprise me. Tough little guy!




The tooth fairy visited




She was kind of enough to email a picture of him sleeping
before she took his tooth.



SMORES

Last night, as usual, the kids were all over at our house playing. Towards the end of the evening, the infamous SMORE was brought up, so off we went to the fire pit.


Pre Smore: Aidan has learned to climb the
doorways. Grant and Beckett tried, but
were unsuccesful.



The Tornado that came too close

Oklahoma weather the last several weeks has been terrible. Storms, flooding, hail, wind, and tornadoes have been the main focus of our lives. This past week, though, came too close to home for me. We had to get tornado ready, change our clothes, pack what we felt we couldn't live without and head to the neighbor's basement. Thank goodness they were all so generous!



Chesapeake, along with many other businesses
let people go home early. I've never seen so many cars
on the highway at once. It took me 45 minutes to get home.
Normally it takes 10....




Within a few hours of arriving home, this is
what the sky looked like. I stayed in constant
contact with Uncle Jimmy who watched
the radar from New Jersey and told us when to take shelter.
The weathermen here are a bit over dramatic, so I needed an honest opinion.




Here are the boys in Whitney and Wes's basement across the
street. Whitney had a snack basket ready, an IPAD charged and plenty
of bottled water. Even the dogs came with us.
Tanner, Grant, Aidan and Thomas.




Stephen sent this picture to me the same day, hours earlier.
One crazy way to start the summer with a tornado, but the
boys grilled burnt their very own Bratwursts.

"NWS upgrades El Reno tornado to EF-5. It is the widest tornado ever recorded in the United States."

We were fortunate we had no damage and we even had power, which over 100,000 lost power in OKC Downtown was terribly flooded and the tornado lifted over us and landed back down to the South of us. God was loooking over our family that day.

Art, Hamsters and Baseball

Grant brought home a back pack full of his artwork from the school year. I took some pictures of them before hanging them in my office.



Jack and the Bean Stalk Reoprt...his favorite part
was Jack stealing...great.




This is just sweet. And, there are no weapons, so this
is a rarity, espeically with the heart thrown in.




This is a protrait of Alex, a friend of his in class.




I just liked this one. No idea what it means.




This is my FAVORITE. I framed it.

Grant started baseball last week. He's doing really, really well. I've been appointed bench coach, so looks like bewtween Stephen coaching Aidan's team and me on Grant's, we will have a very busy summer.



Grant pitching the ball to his coach.



Getting a little review from the coach on hitting.




G up for bat. He only swung twice and had  a good hit.
The other kids weren't so lucky....It was exhasuting watching the
coach pitch ball after ball until each child made contact.

 


Here's Jack Jack checking out the hamsters.
He's very confused by them.




And here's my husband, equally confused as to
how I talked him into hamsters. At least he has a smile
on his face. What a sweet guy. He even put the cage together when
I failed after an hour.