Camping and S'MORES!!!

The boys have been begging to put up the tent forever so last weekend we did just that - rain and all. You can't sleep in a tent and not have s'mores so we had plenty of those too! We had so much fun. I think we'll have to do it again real soon. :-)

Here we go....
Ethan - what a goof!!!
Alex....bigger goof!


See how much help the boys were! Here's Zac in the tent bag.

I'm cracking up at this picture...just look at their faces.
Zac in the tent bag again!

SOOOOO much help!
The inside.
It's up!

A little play time before s'mores!
Five young boys and fire. Alex wanted to invite girls!! Help me!!!
Ethie
Zacy Joe
Boys and fire!
There's my guys!
Spooky story time.
Love this picture!
There we are - look at the food stuffed in Alex's mouth. Beautiful!
What can I say...that's my Ethan. :-)
Morning time! We made it through the night. :-)
See Ethan back there? He slept with his light saber so he could protect all of us.
Rain pouring off the tent ALL day and ALL night and all day and all night and all day and.....
Still, can't wait to do it again, :-)

It's Soccer Time!

It's that time - Soccer time again. This season all three boys are playing, Mark is coaching, I'm team mom and photographer! Can you tell we like soccer here?? This year they are trying co-ed teams. A lot of the parents pulled their kids from the teams when they found this out. I personally think it's great and my kids have no problem with it at all. I guess since we home-school, the boys have always played with both boys and girls and never have had that "girls on this side boys on that side" kind of view on things. The girls on the teams are TOUGH too. I actually think most of them are better than the boys. Anyway, this Sat. will be our first games. We have only had practice so far and since I was running back and forth between three fields I didn't get very many good pictures so far.

Zac and Daddy

Look at him. He's like "are you for real about this?"
Ethan and Kady

Zac - taking a break.
Look how much smaller my little guy is!!! (He's the blond in the gray shirt with the ball.) So short and just look at those tiny legs.


I'll have to post some pictures of Alex later. Zac kept me pretty busy this time.

New Driving Range

Mark just HAD to have new clubs for Father's day and just HAD to have them tonight. He can be so like a little kid. So, tonight we tried out a new driving range as well as his new clubs. It's pretty cool - they are open until midnight and on certain nights they have $1.00 beer and wing night. (Not a draw for me at all but I'm sure a lot of people love it). Mark and the boys had a good time but I like our regular range better. This one is smaller and more crowded. I like how HUGE our usual one is and the fact that there is hardly ever anyone else around. I love feeling like all that land is mine. :-) Anyway tonight was still fun and afterwards we headed to DQ! Are we an ice cream family lately or what?! We all sat outside and watched the awesome Chattanooga scenery while we split a blizzard and then headed home just as the rain really started to come down.

My very sweet Ethan helping his little brother - Just as he always does. :-)

There was this cute little but angry bird sitting on eggs right in the middle of everything at the driving range! Alex taking a swing. Eyes on the the ball, elbow fairly straight, hips look pretty good...
He looks so grown up!

Ethan
Zacy choosing just the right club.

Seriously! How cute is he!!??
Here is Ethan on a REAL course. He out drove Mark on this hole!! :-) Go Ethan!

Late Nights and Fun Times

What a fun night for us! Tonight was Wipeout night first of all. We all snuggle up on our very family sized couch and laugh hysterically over Wipeout, but tonight was even better. After Wipeout we all jumped in the truck, jammies and all, and headed to free rootbeer float night at Sonic. What a surprise!! I had told Mark about it but never expected for him to say "let's go". He's not usually like that. He's all about bedtime and no snacks after dinner. But tonight, tonight we decided to live a little. The boys had never even been to Sonic before so to see the girls all skating around on roller skates delivering food and floats was awesome enough but being out after dark too was just the coolest thing for them! We opened the back of the truck up and they sat there with their floats taking it all in. Before heading home we drove past a driving range we had just heard about that is minutes from our door. They even have wing night there on Tues. or maybe it's Thursdays anyway it looks cool and we can't wait to go. We drove home with ALL the windows down! Something else we rarely get to do. The boys mouths were going a mile a minute and I thought they would never be able to sleep. Much to my surprise, when we got home they all brushed their teeth and went to bed without one single complaint and fell right to sleep - with big smiles on their faces. This was one of the best family nights we have had in far too long. I hope it's the start of many, many more. :-)

Do You Remember???

Do you remember friendship bracelets? Oh my word! Those were such the thing when I was in school. Those and those safety pins that you would put little beads on and wore on your shoes. Remember those things?? Anyone???
Last evening the boys came in to dinner and started talking all about friendship bracelets. Seems they are back in style. The girls down the street are making them and now so are my boys! They were so excited that I could show them how to make some and begged to stay up past bedtime to make more. Today they been out delivering them. How funny!
Let's see, what else?? This weekend we did some much needed clothes shopping for the boys. We found some really great deals too on organic cotton T's, we found the cutest golf shirts with UV protection and some shorts that actually fit and do not hang to their ankles nor expose their rears. We hit Old Navy for extra style as well. ;-) I love that place. Oh, a little shopping side note....it is not always a good idea to take 3 young boys with you into Victoria's Secret.
We also went over to some new friends of ours Sat. evening. It was fun, really fun. Just sitting around talking. We never do that kind of thing so it was a real treat for us. They showed us their yard and it is just amazing. My boys would LOVE a yard like that. True mountain living with parts of Signal Mt. jutting out here and there in the yard, bridges to run across, a little pond, a place to sit around a fire, and lots and lots of trees and rocks to climb on. Just beautiful.
Other than that we got our garage to look like a garage again instead of a bike, scooter, skateboard, roller blade, soccer junk parking lot! It so nice out there right now. I actually just went out and sat in the garage today just because I could.
Well, Zacy is calling me to "build a fire" with him so that sounds like something he might need help with!

Fun Day!

I just love our mountain sunsets.
Not much to say except the boys and I had so much fun yesterday. Nothing special just good old family time. After schoolwork was finished we set up the slip-n-slide. Can you ever not have fun on a slip-n-slide??? The boys were on that thing ALL afternoon. SO not good for the water bill. I did move all my plants and potted veggies and placed them all around the slip-n-slide so they got watered too. See??? I wasn't just WASTING water for fun. ;-) That evening we all went to the driving range which is always fun with my guys. After that we came back home and the boys and I jumped on the trampoline until after the sun went down! I can't remember the last time I laughed so hard. They had me screaming like a little 10 year old girl on that trampoline. They LOVE to jump right next to me which then shoots me about 15 feet in the air. So fun and so scary! I loved it too. The boys went to bed way too late and got up much too early but sometimes you just gotta live a little! :-)
Zac turned 4 on Monday which I admit left me a little bummed but happy at the same time. Weird, huh? Alex also had his second band concert that evening and he did just great! Soccer is over (for a bit) and so it band for the summer. Now it's guitar lessons and summer soccer, vacations, visits with friends and hopefully many more "late" nights like the boys and I had last night.

Alex and his "catfro" Nibbles. She is such a sweetie! Is he silly or what!?
Can you tell sunset is my favorite time of the day?
Just beautiful.
Alex looking all cool before he had to play at his concert.

Home-school band.
Me and my favorite guys!
Mark and his boys.
Happy Birthday Zac! Look - big boy Legos.
Kid loves to read - what can I say?
Cheesin' for the camera.

My baby is 4!!!

Doing the donkey ears to his brothers.

Zac's FAVORITE present!!!
How cool is he????