Welcome Sherilyn!

Sherilyn, Boyd's little sister moved in with us for the summer ! She is babysitting for us and for a another family friend and also has picked up some other babysitting jobs. The boys sure love her! -

One thing that has been very nice about having some extra help is that now, when I come home, I am often the hero. Let me explain. Boyd comes home from work and gets a hero's welcome every time! Normally, I elicit no response when I return from somewhere without the boys. I came home one day after running errands and when I walked in the door the kids were playing games with Sherilyn (they were having a great time) and they stopped everything they were doing and ran to me and screamed "MOMMY!" They jumped all over me and hugged me. It was a hero's welcome. I loved it. Now, I don't tell this story because they don't like being with Sherilyn, because they love it and have so much fun. I just think that they have spent a little more time away from me to realize that they miss me! On this particular occasion they asked where I was and I said, "picking up vegetables." They screamed "VEGETABLES!" They insisted on eating something, so I gave them a piece of swiss chard (see picture below) I thought it was quite funny.

PreK Graduation

I am so proud of our little graduate.  He made it through preK!  They had a sweet little ceremony for the kids and both Boyd and I could attend.

We have had an interesting experience in PReK to say the least.  There have been many times that I questioned my decision to do the public PREK.  I almost pulled him on several occasions. But, I do think Gavin grew up quite a bit from  the experience.  I realized more of how to be a parent of a child attending school and that I need to be a more assertive parent.

Here is the graduate with his medal and diploma!  Ms. Mota is behind him and she was his assistant teacher.





Ms. Santiago was his teacher.

Gavin met a lot of great friends and so did I.  Many times after school we would go to park and play at the Cave Park.  Several of his classmates also went.  I am grateful for the friendships formed. 

You have to check out this video.  I love watching Gavin dance and the little boy in his class is hilarious!

On to June

June was a busy month...

Father and Son's campout  2010.  It was extremely hot!






Strawberry picking!  I even made homemade strawberry Jam.

May catch up

I know.. May was 2 months ago, but I am behind.  I wanted to post a few pictures..

 Gavin took a gardening class at the New York Botanical Gardens again and he loved it.  He was lucky his friend Lilly was able to take the class too!






For Memorial Day we went to Jone's Beach for their air show.  It was so amazing.  It was great to be able to play on the beach as well  as enjoy and air show.  The boys loved it, although Eli did get a little scared of the fighter jets! 

Happy Father's Day

I was blessed with an amazing father. I always hoped that my own children would have a father just as loving, patient, and fun. I feel so lucky that they do. I am so glad he makes those 2 boys a priority and that he realizes how important it is for them to know that they are loved. To top it all off, he is a lot of fun. He knows how to make them laugh, he dances with them, he throws them in the air, he makes up songs with them, and just keeps thems smiling.
Boyd is gifted at many things, but being an amaizng father is the one I treaure the most. We love you!

A few snips

A few months ago we cut off Eli's signature hair cut.  It was a hard thing for us to do since we loved that hair on Eli and we knew that once we cut it, he would look so much older.  We still wanted to stay "true to the nature of Eli's hair" as Boyd put it.  So, we just snipped a bit.

Somehow Eli changed with that haircut.  He not only physically looked older, but he acted older.  He has grown up so much in the last few months.  Mainly he started talking much more.  He started by echoing everything Gavin said.  Now, he is finally forming more of his own sentences and communicating so much more. He loves puzzles, airplanes, sandboxes, and games.  It has also been fun to see the relationship between Gavin and Eli develop.  They still fight quite a bit, but they play, laugh, joke, and compete together and I love to watch it. 

School Bus

Gavin went on his first school field trip and he rode his first school bus.  It was a very exciting day for all of us.  His class went and saw Seussical Musical and they had a great time.

Seeing his little face in the window of the school bus made me a little sad.  He is growing up so fast.