First day(s) of school

Evan had his first day of his last year of school (Sept 7th) - And I still managed a few quick snapshots before he left for the day!
And the twins had their first day of their 2nd year of school (Sept 21)! Even though the twins are still on California time, I woke them up early Monday morning, tried to sneak cute outfits on them before they truly woke up, but alas, I lost the battle again. And the end result, my very grown up 3 and almost 1/2 year old big boys, Austin and Logan on their first day of preschool:


And on their pick-up with their new teacher, Miss Beth!

The Boys of Summer...

I LOVE this picture! These are the boys of summer! I'm not sure they ever all sat down like this at one time, not doing all the "love" hitting, shoving, laughing, squirming thing that boys do so well.

Our neighborhood is inundated with boys! The way these guys play, reminds me so much of my childhood - everybody playing together, outside, all different sorts of games (basketball, baseball, tag, hide and go seek, water fights, etc) going on at the same time, all summer long.

The days dragged by when one household was on vacation. The rejoicing, extra sweet when the family returned, had barely pulled into the driveway and those left behind attacked and pulled out the long lost playmates.

We even started sharing meals together. It just made sense. Synchronized dining. Instead of the chaos created by staggered dinner times going on in separate households. Door bells ringing during your 15 minutes of table time. And at least in my house, dining to "Are we done? Can we go out now? But, Mommmmm, they're playing basketball! I wanna play basketball! We're gonna miss them. Are they inside now? Puh-leeeze, can we go outtttttttttt?"

Dining together - everybody prayed. Everybody ate (for the most part), they all talked and shared jokes, they cleaned up, then, together, they went back out into the great outdoors!

Sadly, school has interrupted our daily backyard camp (okay, fine, yes, truthfully, more like the frontyard), the days are shorter, nighttime comes so quickly, but we're currently still managing to hang on to those glorious 45 minutes or so when all boys are home, outside, fully energized and ready to play! Parents have adjusted, once again, synchronizing homework and meal times to allow for optimal playtime!

It's fun. It's sweet. I'm very blessed and very thankful to have such wonderful neighbors!

Goofing off...

While doing some "spring" cleaning, we came across Austin and Logan's baby carriers that we used extensively in Guatemala and then when they first came home.

I bought the material off of E-bay and had it shipped to another woman on E-bay who made them just for us. They were so comfortable and used to keep Austin and Logan so close, right up to my chest - right near my heart and under my chin.

I remembered they were advertised as holding up to 40 or 50 lbs...so...I just had to try...
Believe it or not, it was pretty comfortable carrying them. Or rather, at least not painful. ;-)

Nonnie got in on the fun, too and Logan even had a little snack going on in his!

I can't bring myself to sell them, so up they'll go with the other "valuable" and precious (too few) items from Austin and Logan's babyhood.

Of course, now that they've seen them and been carried in them, guess who asked to be "carried like Mama's babies" for a week!?

Momma's helpers...

And the winner is.......

Make an on-line slide show at www.OneTrueMedia.com

Guatmama! Guatmama, shoot me an e-mail at "donnataylor4 at verizon dot net" with your shipping address!

And in case I don't hear from Guatmama, I've got my back-up winner ready!

Thanks to all the entries and thanks to the sweet ladies over at Multiples and More for hosting an awesome party!

And many, many special thanks to Ink and Paper for the fantastic prize!

(Now, I'm of to work on my next Give-a-way!!