Treetop Quest

As many times as Ethan has done Treetop Quest over the past few summers at the Heritage Center camps, I have never watched him do it. We had a birthday party this past weekend and I finally watched him go through the course.

It looked like so much fun! 

 At the end of the party, all of the boys got to make slime! 

What a great boy birthday party! 

Flag Football

Ethan had ventured into a flag football! 

He did awesome his first scrimmage!  

Here's to a great season! 

Snickerdoodles

Ben has been getting the pop-ups from the Tasty app on his phone for quite some time. He finally decided that his stomach had had enough so he headed to the store. His first recipe to try was snickerdoodles and he was determined to make them from scratch. 

 Being the perfectionist that he is, he did everything by hand and I must admit...

 I believe we have a new baker in the house!

They were delicious! 

Solar Eclipse of 2017

The Solar Eclipse of 2017 will hopefully remain a memory that the boys' will have forever! The county extended the school day for 1 hour and our school had an eclipse watching party for 2nd-5th grades. Since Caden wasn't going to be able to go outside, I checked him out early so that he could watch it at home with us. We made sure that everyone was prepared for the extra long school day with a special eclipse snack. The boys' and I sent both of their classes these snacks for all of their classmates to enjoy while watching the eclipse. 

At lunch, I went in to check Caden out and Ethan's precious teacher snuck 3 pairs of glasses to me :-) Ben was able to capture this shot through the glasses and his phone.

And he and Caden intermittently hung out on the deck to watch the changes.

Meanwhile, Ethan's precious, precious teacher was texting me these shots of him :-)

What a super cool day! 

First Day of School

Well, I'm a little behind in posting but the year is off to a GREAT start and we LOVE our teachers!

The first day started bright and early with flowers for our teachers and an official pic before we left home :-)

Ethan has Mrs. Lutz for 2nd grade. She is A-mazing AND she adores Ethan!

 Caden has Mrs. Black for Kindergarten this year, who is super sweet!

 It's been somewhat bittersweet to see Caden in "real" school but he has been a trooper and although he initially decided he didn't need to go to kindergarten and he already knew everything that he needed to know, he has since changed his mind :-)

 But, of course, his favorite part of each day is riding the bus!

Stone Mountain

We try to make a trip to Stone Mountain to see the laser show at least one time each summer. This summer, we ended up waiting until August to make that happen!

 

 And of course, the boys wanted a Dino picture!

  After walking for a bit, we settled in to our spot and the boys started to explore

 Then they all decided to walk down closer to the railroad tracks to throw the football for a bit before dark

Before the show started, we made a trip to the Candy Shoppe for a little laser show treat, then the boys decided they wanted to watch the show from their "couch rock" as opposed to the chairs and blankets that I had brought. 

 A little later in the show, Ethan wandered over to the blanket and thoroughly enjoyed watching the updated laser show. It was neat to see the drones, music, and scene changes they have made to the show!

 What an enjoyable evening to end the summer!

The End of Summer at the Beach

We had a perfect ending to our summer with a week at the beach. This year we finally made it back to Sandestin after several years of a break. I remember now why I have always loved it so much and am looking forward to next summer there as well! Our beach house had the perfect set up and came complete with a golf cart for us to travel around the resort. I'm hoping the same house is available for us next summer as well!
The golf cart was always put to good use by these guys!

Our first day began at the beach with lots of playing in the water and sand. The beach wasn't too crowded and we had a blast!

 Ethan even caught a hermit crab, which was the highlight of his day!

 That evening we drove over to the village to play and have dinner.

 Ethan and Ben even did the zip line over the lake!

 Then there were a few rides on the carousel

 The next afternoon we embarked on a Pirate Cruise! Everyone had a great time, it was just like the one we did the previous summer and the boys were just as into all of the activities :-)

 Swab the decks

 A little sword fight

 Even Daddy got involved and he was recruited for the hula hoop contest!

 No pirate ship is complete without a treasure hunt and this one did not disappoint!

 We decided to have breakfast at Another Broken Egg the next morning and went on a walk afterwards and the boys climbed a few look-outs along the way

After our walk through the preserve and along the dock to see the Mimi's boss's yacht, we settled in to watch the parrots for a bit.

 No trip is complete without the traditional Sandestin picture :-)

 That night, the boys participated in a dance party on the Village stage...

 While we waited for fireworks to begin

 The next afternoon we had an awesome time on a Dolphin and Shelling cruise! The dolphins got so close and we saw so many!

 

After seeing the dolphins, we rode over to the island to find some hermit crabs. Before heading back to the marina, we had a hermit crab race!

I forgot to take pictures of the rest of our beach time but our last beach day was another great day! The boys put their boogie boards to good use and did some more building in the sand :-)

 By this part of the week, all of the buckets had long since broken so they were left with plastic cups ;-)

Then, Ben and I took turns with the boys taking them out and "helping" them ride the waves

 And before heading back, all of the guys had some football time

 We ended the week in Seaside, another favorite spot, to have dinner and do some shopping. 

What a great beach vacation!