A quite, beautiful afternoon at the park with the boys. {A week ago, before I broke my foot.} We do lots of play dates with our friends where the kids play for hours and just check in with me for the occasional drink of water or a snack. But sometimes, I like to do park days with just us, where I can soak up all of their goodness and not share them with anyone. We played “you stay back there” on the swings, one of their favorite games.  Hearing them both laugh hysterically at the same time is just about the best thing ever. Samson asked me to push him as high as Papa does. I asked him how high that was. He said “just past the clouds”. I love that he was serious. We threw rocks. We checked out tree bark. We ate animal crackers. We had the best time.

Weekend recap:  awesome auntie visit, butterfly emergence, living room dance party, Julian learning to salsa, family wedding, backyard baseball, waffles, ice cream, and lots of getting tossed in the air.

Samson said it perfectly on the way home, “Farm tours are the best, it was really fun there”.

The strawberry farm. An excellent tractor ride,  Samson picking, Julian eating, Samson going barefoot, Julian dumping out the basket, the boys fighting over their hats, the flag, the baskets, strawberry smoothies, Samson picking out corn and Julian picking out broccoli from the farm stand, a perfect little afternoon adventure.

I took the boys to go catch tadpoles on Friday afternoon. I was able to catch one for them pretty quickly, but Samson was determined to catch one himself. He kept at it for more than an hour, trying different net techniques, eventually taking his shoes off and wading right into the water.


We he caught one, he was so happy. He yelled “I got one, I FINALLY got one, I did it!”. I was so happy for him, so proud of him. So glad that his patience and persistence paid off. He didnt hesitate to pick the tadpoles up out of the bucket and check them out. Some had legs and some didnt, we inspected 4 of them.  We both thought they were pretty cool.
 
Julian refused to touch them. He clenched his hands in tiny fists and screamed no when I tried to help him touch one. He liked swishing the net around in the water though. Then he’d pull it up and say “Look mommy, got one. Look mommy, got one.” Pronouncing each word so sharply and perfectly. I so love hanging out with these two, my boys.

Our favorite stream. We spend lots of time throwing rocks and exploring this little area. Tried to capture a bit of that magic today.

 

Just snapping some quite shots of my favorite flower *ever*. When we toured this house I couldn’t help but notice all of the peony bushes. To say that they didn’t influence my purchase decision at least a little bit wouldn’t be completely accurate :) There are at least 7 bushes on the property and they are UH-mazing!

One season of tball officially under his belt. He had some nice hits, mostly straight to the pitchers mound, two solid hits past the pitchers mound. A few times missing the ball and swinging himself completely around. He swings like he means it.

 
He runs the bases like someone is chasing him, mostly looking backwards the whole time.

Lots of goofing around with the other boys. Flipping each others hats off, tackling each other for the ball, playing in the dirt, and climbing the fence in the dugout. 

Not to be forgotten are all of his conversations with us from the out field. “Hi daddy”, “Hi nana”, “Hi grandma”, “Is papa here yet?” “Can I go to papas after this?” “The sun is in my eyes” “When is this game gonna be over?” and my favorite, “Am I doing a good job mama?" as the ball rolled between his legs.

And this little guy was there at every game to cheer his brother on.  Yelling “safe!”, and calling to him through the fence “bubba, bubbaaaaa”. Then promptly taking Samons hat and glove when the game was over and wearing them both the whole way home.

This was yesterday morning. Them playing together, quietly. I saw them working together, helping each other, building together. That’s big.  Activities like this can be challenging for them, with one usually working on construction, and the other usually working on destruction (by nature of age of course). Such a cool little moment that made me so happy.

Memorial Day. We opened “the pool”. We walked to a nice little parade in our neighborhood. We relaxed ALL day. We ate ice cream.  We went for a walk and Samson told us all about his goals. To learn how to swim in the deep end, to be able to do the monkey bars, to ride his bike really far. So sweet.
Julian started saying “dee chu mommy”. He says it all the time and it totally melts my heart. He also follows it up with “welcome”, if I dont reply quickly enough. Today at the playground he squeezed past another boy on the slide and said “moo me guy” and I also heard him say “moo me dog” at a cook out this weekend. I love his brand new polite little attitude. And could he be sitting any more perfectly in that picture? Such a lucky moment where he sat still and posed for a second. Feeling so lucky and grateful in all kinds of ways these days.
Translations: Dee chu mommy = Thank you mommy. Moo me guy = excuse me guy.

 
Samson wants a tank top. Julian and I happened to be wearing sleeveless tops to the park this morning, and Samson asked if we all “had to wear those shirts today”. I told him we didn’t and that I didn’t think he had a shirt like that. He asked if I could buy him one at the store. Funny how observant he can be. Feeling slightly left out because Julian and I “matched” and he didn’t. We had the best morning at the park today. We went to a park that we hadnt been to since last summer. Julian was particularly elated. He seemed to really love this particular playground. It was the perfect size for him and I could let him play freely with out having to hover over him (like I normally do on jungle gyms that are way to big for him). After a few times down the slide, he ran over to me and gave me a hug. I’m pretty sure he meant “Thank you for bringing me here! This is the coolest!”.
Tonight the boys loved watching daddy cut the grass for the first time this year. When I came outside Julian looked at me and said “Daddy – Cut – Grass!”. Im pretty sure this is his first 3 word sentence and he said it perfectly. I was extra amazed that he came up with it on his own, it wasn’t something I said to him that he repeated back to me.  They both watched but Julian waved and waved, each time Daddy passed by, and clapped enthusiastically when he was finished. I think to date, this is this the coolest most super hero like thing Julian has seen him do.