August 2011

WOW! August has come and almost gone, as school has started here in Texas just this past week, which means that one of my favorite time of year is here! Football games, balloon festival, Texas State Fair, yea! We actually had a very busy month filled with all kinds of adventures. At the beginning of the month we went back home to Iowa for one of our nieces weddings. Zachery was the ring bearer and absolutely adorable! During pictures the photographer thought it would be cute to have Zachery put his arm around the flower girl and so he so cautiously "slid" his arm around her shoulders in order to take the next picture. It was quite humorous! He did a GREAT job holding her hand as they walked down the aisle before the beautiful bride walked down the aisle. The wedding was absolutely gorgeous and we had a blast being back home with family! My brother Cal was able to come back with us, as he has been spending the Wieland Christmas' with us for the past couple of years. It was so good to see him!!

Zachery finished his summer school work last week, so we are taking a break for the next couple of weeks before we start kindergarten! I have a feeling that I am more nervous than he is! I have to be honest, I haven't had much time to sit down and get our schedule established yet. But that is one of my goals over the next couple of days to complete. We are in AWANA's again this year, but with a different church. During Zachery's swim lessons this summer he met a new friend, Ben. Seriously, they are like two peas in a pod! Ben even has a younger brother about Zayne's age. Needless to say I am excited about our new friends. We told them that we were looking to find a different AWANA's program and they suggested their church's program. It is Thursday nights, which works so much better with my schedule! Last year Sunday was our busiest day of the week.

Zachery is signed up again for soccer this fall. So I am super excited to see how he improves this year. Everything seemed to just click during swimming lessons this year and I guess I am sort-of hoping the same is true with soccer, but as long as he is having fun that is all that matters!! Zayne is still doing well! He still follows his brother every where and whatever Zachery does is hilarious! Whenever we get out of the car and are walking into a store or where ever Zayne insists on holding Zachery's hand. As long as he is holding Zach's hand he will let us hold his other hand ... it has been a battle of who is stronger with him. He is very independent and does not like to be told no. But he is a love bug!

There are a few video's below, one is of Zachery and his new superhero outfit, Cowboy Stadium. He had a cape, gun holster, sunglasses, a cowboy hat, and rain boots and he started dancing ... which of course I got on video. The others are of our trip to the Cliff's. Our good friend Tim suggested we go a couple of weeks ago and since it is still EXTREMELY HOT here we went. So we packed up the car for the 2 hour car ride to spend the day at this naturally fed limestone quarry. The actual approach into this area was not impressive and to be honest was a little dirty. But we were able to hang out in the water, jump off the cliffs (the one below is approximately 40 feet), and get a sun tan :) The kids had a blast and were exhausted by the time we got home.

July 2011

I hope everyone liked the one long "post" last month. It seemed to work better and I was able to publish a lot faster! So once again, the pictures are out of order, but I know that you will know which activities belong together.

Zayne has sprung to life with "talking", well his one way of talking. Oh yes, he talks up a storm, not sure what he is saying but he thinks he is communicating very well! As you can imagine it is like monkey see monkey do in this house hold right now. When Zachery takes out a book to read (as seen in the first photo) Zayne quickly follows suit. The only difference is that Zachery can sit there for hours (or rather minutes) just staring at pictures, asking questions, and staring at pictures. Zayne gets bored rather quickly. You will see later in the photos of them sitting in bowls, yes bowls. I was taking a shower and getting ready for the day, when I heard singing in the kitchen and a lot of clashing/banging. Zachery was singing Happy Birthday to Zayne while holding a mixing bowl of his head. Later I heard complete laughter then "Mom, come look at us". To be honest I was a little nervous to look into the kitchen, but there they were sitting in bowls in complete hysterics. Zayne has learned to say "cheese", can you tell by some of his photos?

As everyone knows as of today, August 01, 2011 I think we have had 30 days of the temperature here in the north Texas area over 100 degrees, so one morning we were outside before 8am playing in the water. Charlie was water our flowers and Zach thought it would be funny to spray Dad with his water gun. As you can see Charlie had the garden hose and was able to get him pretty good. This went on for a while until Zachery finally gave up! Zayne was not interested, but rather enjoyed the pool and playing with chalk.

We continue to enjoy our visits to the Children Museum, as you can probably see. Charlie went with us for this trip, yeah!! Zayne enjoyed trying to catch balls in a wind tunnel, Charlie put Zach in a "bubble", we played with sand and stamped paper!!

We have been taking a break from school this summer with the exception of some workbook sheets, but occasionally Zachery will ask to look through his microscope, which he is doing below. He also got a solar system puzzle from Nana ad Papa and had to put it together right away. He continues to enjoy building objects out of his Trio's, he made this spaceship/rocket ship and we thought it was pretty impressive.

Our big activity this month was going to Fossil Rim. Fossil Rim is an outdoor park where we are able to see animals in their "native" habitat and feed them. It is about a 30 mile car ride around the park, which we get to do in the comfort of our own vehicle. So while Charlie and a friend of his were re-insulating our houses the boys and I ventured out to Fossil Rim. We were actually able to feed a giraffe from the sunroof. We still talk about it and laugh at how hairy it's lip was and "scratchy" its tongue was ... but "It was so COOL!!". After having lunch at the park, we drove half way home and stopped at another state park and went swimming. All in all it was a very fun day! The boys and Mom were tired!!

Our garden has done well! We are starting to get ready for the fall, so I definitely think we are going to plant pumpkins. Any suggestions on any other good fall veggie??

So the video below was taken on a day I was cooking all afternoon. The boys were entertaining themselves by playing with their Aquadoodle. Of course painting with water on the actual mat got boring so they decided to "paint" each other. Do not worry it is only water ... but I think what brings so much joy is their laughter!! It is truly contagious!!