Handshakes

It seems like every summer Brady comes home with a typical "camp thing" that makes me smile. This year he was excited to show me the handshake him and a counselor made up for themselves. Which led to Brady and Brett creating their own handshake. And now I have a different one with both boys too. It's fun and they love it.

Here's the one the boys' made up -

Gone Camping

It finally worked out for us to do the Mission Backyard Campout! It was a lot of fun and the best deal in KC - seriously, free swimming, hot dog/chips/drink dinner, smores, (telescope), movie, breakfast for $10 a family.

It was also fun for the boys because a lot of the people helping put it all together were their summer camp counselors. (We strolled up to get our doughnuts Saturday morning half awake and they all welcomed the boys with "Hi Brady! Hi Brett!" - pretty funny)

We camped out at the park right outside the swimming pool (our tent was right outside of the kiddie pool where the fountains ran all night long - luckily no one peed their pants :) they go to 3 times a week at camp. And Brett was thrilled because he got to go off the diving boards/slides - which he doesn't yet get to do at camp because he hasn't been able to pass the swimming test (all the way down the lap pool - a long ways for little britches). Brady was not so thrilled because he had been complaining of an ear ache so we told him he couldn't go under water that day - mysteriously that just lasted a day.

There was a guy from the Cosmosphere set up with a huge telescope right beside where everyone was making their smores. The moon was just a sliver Friday night, but we were able to see it SO CLOSE. It was really awesome.

The movie was "Furry Vengeance" with Brendan Frasier and Brooke Shields. We had never heard of it. After watching it (and considering who was in it), I figured it was 15 years old but it came out last year :) It was a great camping movie and the boys thought it was hilarious. And Ed seemed to think it was hilarious to be very cheesy while I snapped a shot during it.

Next morning - orange juice and doughnuts/bagels before we headed home. And I was super happy because I had a hair appt. to chop off my nappy hair in a couple hours. Yeah! :)

Overall, I'd say it was a success! 

Dog Days of Summer

It's officially SUMMER! Get wild and crazy (like da boyz :)

Tank

Meet Tank - Grandma and Grandpa Stockwell's new baby (8-week English Bulldog).

They came and visited us last weekend and the boys loved him. He is pretty darn cute - but I was happy to send him home. Puppies are a lot of work! But I did enjoy playing "animal photographer" :)

Sunday Morning

I woke up on the "good side" of the bed Sunday and decided we should do 2 things we hadn't done in a long time - I took them to Dunkin' Doughnuts for egg wraps and doughnuts and then we went to play at Antioch Park.

They originally only gave me 1 egg wrap, so they gave me a whole bag of Doughnut bites that Brady decided weren't nearly as good as their big doughnuts, so it worked out well that when we went to Antioch Park we had something to feed the ducks. After eating breakfast, the boys asked that we drive by their Montessori Preschool (they wanted to play there) - Brady said it looked entirely different, Brett said it looked the same (opposite of course).

This one is for my mom who loves being close to birds. HA!

After feeding the birds, they headed over to climb a tree.

Wet N' Wild

We didn't get a pool pass this year because the boys go to the pool 3X a week at summer camp and we will have access to the neighborhood pool after we move in July . . . . .but when Brady's team wasn't playing baseball last Sunday and Ed was golfing with coworkers, we were really excited that Sarah invited us to come swim at her apartment complex. It was hot and perfect timing!

We all had a great time -

For the Love of Baseball

I love baseball which is kind of a surprise to me since I don't remember watching baseball growing up (the one Royals baseball game I remember going to growing up was with a church group I think and some "old" ladies knew the players and kept stats, etc. and I thought that was so strange.)

I probably like watching the games leading up to and in the College World Series more than March Madness.

And now that the boys spend so much time playing, it's great. We have continued to stress that we just want them to try their best and have fun at every game. . . . .which is easier to do some days than others.

Here's some shots from Brett's games - he is really enjoying it too

He played against a boy he goes to school with (and Brady played winter soccer with) at the last game and they couldn't stop talking to each other.

Brady had a tourney last weekend - they came back to win Friday night's game! Grandma & Grandpa Rowley were there to quickly serve him with a congratulatory slush :)

They lost the next 2 games - it was tough, but we were happy with the boys played. Brady came so close to getting his first home run during the last game. No pressure, but that will be very exciting when it happens :)

And here's a random pic I took before the last game - think he's tired? Pretty green eyes though :)