Sophie's 5th Birthday

On Friday the kids and I went down to Indy to celebrate Sophie's birthday (I am in total denial that this means Dave is going to turn 5 in a couple of months!).  We met at a park and had pizza and cupcakes with ice cream and the kids had a blast hanging out with their cousins.

Getting ready to blow out her candle.  No idea what is going on with Dave.













Ike really enjoyed his ice cream.  Kept him occupied for about 10 minutes!

Sophie had lots of (unwanted) help opening up her presents.  :)








Besides the party, we have been pretty much just hanging out around campus.  The weather has been really cool in the mornings this past week, so we have spent a lot of time inside until it warms up.

Playing on Dave's bed.









I had to wash Dave's sheets because he fell asleep on top of a granola bar he insisted on eating around 3 a.m. the other night.  The boys thought it was so fun to be on Dave's bed without the sheets on.  They are super strange!

Ike and Bennett watching the turtles eat.  

Dave doing his homework for preschool.













He has homework to do about once a week, which is really nice to get him in the habit of doing it.  He always insists on doing it right away!

After looking at old videos on youtube I realized how I have been slacking taking videos of Ike!  So I took one today while big brother was not around to try to steal the spotlight  :)  Here is Ike talking about a bunch of random stuff.

Ike Turns 23 Months and Dave's 1st Day of Pre-K

Since I was slacking on writing both of these posts, I figured I may as well stick them together.  I am in total denial that Ike is going to be 2 in a month and Dave is one short year away from kindergarten.  I can't take all this growing up!








Ike's 23 month picture...only about a week late.

Dave before his first morning.  He looks so old!

Ike wanted to get his picture taken with Dave-pretty sure he thought he was going to school too!











A little about each boy.  Ike continues to dislike hearing "no" and now tattles on whoever did so.  Imagine him crying to the point of blubbering and then telling me, "Daddy said no!!!".  Not a fan.  He has started saying ummm whenever he can't think of an answer.  "Ike, what color is the tractor?"  "ummmmm, blue?"  Still gotta work on those colors  :)  He insists that I sing Muscle in the Arm every night before bed but only really wants to hear the line about the horse.  His favorite books right now are any Curious George and he still loves lawnmowers above all other things.

In the last week Dave has insisted that he will be the following professions:  firefighter, soldier (because they get to carry guns, of course), work at White's like dad, and a basketball player.  So we'll see if any of those turn out.  His teacher this year is Miss Stephanie who he absolutely loves and he seems to be having a ton of fun so far in his class.  He loves to watch youtube videos of kids talking about random things like video games and opening up blind bags.  His favorite TV show is probably Power Rangers right now.  And he is obsessed with anything to do with Legos (especially mini figures).

Ike having a blast playing with noodles.

Dave making a pouty face.

But look at that grin!

Ike keeping our yard looking the best in the neighborhood :)

Bennett, Dave, and Ike playing superheroes upstairs.








Finally, here's a video of Ike singing the Batman and Spider-man songs (sort of) and then attempting to jump.  He really did jump this morning, but has had trouble repeating the skill  :)

A Week in Southern Indiana

We just spent a fantastic week relaxing with the family down in Evansville.  Josh had some extra vacation time, so we headed down to see everybody and enjoy the tail-end of summer.  Tony took off the whole week, but everybody else had to work which gave us lots of time to do some random activities that we have been wanting to do!





Dave with Uncle Justin.  He was so excited that my stepbrother Justin came to visit over Labor Day weekend!  They had lots of nerf fights!

Ike with Uncle Tony.  Adorable.

We went to Sky Zone!  So. Much. Fun.










One summer in college I worked at the plant where my dad works in Kentucky.  Every day Tony and I drove past Audubon State Park in Henderson and I always wanted to see what it was...finally made it there, and it was so nice!

Dave and Josh on a grapevine.

The long hike to the "scenic" overlook.

It wasn't super scenic, but we had a lot of fun getting there.








We ventured over to Kentucky again to go to Smothers Park in Owensboro.  Seriously the nicest park/play area I have ever seen.  Highly recommended if you are in the area!

Dave and Ike in the splash area.

I think they thought it was funny because it looked like they were peeing?  Boys...

Dave climbed this big rock wall all by himself.

Just watching a barge go by.

Big time bubbles in Gamma's awesome tub.

Riding some rides at Gatti Town.  Dave even got to go on the bumper cars.

I just loved Dave's expression here.

Ike and Papa Charlie on one of several lawn mower rides.  He always made sure to tell me that it was "on" afterwards.







So that was pretty much our visit.  I didn't get any pictures of the kids playing in the pool, but we spent many afternoons lounging in the sunshine!  Dave, Josh, and Tony also played golf one afternoon, but I received no pictures of the event.  Lots of good food and fun times being with family!

Fun with Water (and corn)

This week we haven't done much other than pick corn and play outside (when the weather was cooperating!).  Not the most exciting week, but we sure had fun  :)

Ike "helping" pick some corn.  Stacey and I (with help from Divana) picked over 300 ears!

Shucked and ready for us to put up!











I know that I am sure sick of seeing corn!  We decided that we would not make very good pioneer women, but it will be nice to have in the cold winter months.  And it was free, so that always works for me!

We had a huge thunderstorm Thursday night, which of course kept Dave up most of the night.  The upside was it created an awesome puddle in our front yard that the kids had a blast playing in.

Dave looking a little crazy with the hose.












Ike up close and personal-he kept wanting to sit on my lap after he was soaked!

Dave spraying down Bennett's feet.

Jumping in from the road.











Ike and Dave have loved watching everyone's ice bucket videos!  We have even gotten to see some of them live in action.  Ike is especially pumped about them, and he recreates them whenever I let him play with the hose.

Ready to dump.

His after.













He always says, "Ikey wet" when he dumps the bucket.

Dave after he dumped water on his head.  Here's a video of the two of them doing the bucket challenge.

Pizza and a Snake!

Our family went with two others from our neighborhood to Fridays on the Farm Pizza at Hawkins farm up in North Manchester.  It was so much fun!  You sit outside, order delicious brick oven pizza, and the kids get to check out the farm and all the animals.





Sam, Ike, and Lewis enjoying the beautiful weather (or something like that).











Josh and Dave-both sporting fresh haircuts  :)

Just checking out some chickens.

Ike and I.  He has the goofiest smiles lately.









In other news, we had a snake in our garage a couple days ago!  Talk about exciting, especially for Ike and Dave.  I don't think Josh was too pumped about it, but he did manage to scoot it out with a golf club.  Don't worry, it wasn't injured!







Our new friend.

Dave looking a little freaked out, but kind of excited.











 

Cousins

Josh's parents had Sophie and Caleb this past weekend, so we got in lots of quality cousin time!  My mom was also in town (it was Josh's duty weekend), so we had lots of grandparents around too.




Gamma bought the kids a self-inflating whoopee cushion.  And it was the best toy ever.











Dave and Sophie playing dress up-you can't see that they are both wearing a pair of Auntie Em's winter boots  :)










They had some pretty intense foot races (I am pretty sure Sophie won every single one)












Ike cooking up some delicious soup for us.












Caleb rocking Sophie's heart sunglasses.













Story time with Grandma D.  I think this one was about a boy picking his nose?











Seriously, these two are so cute.









And on Saturday, we headed to the beach!

Digging up some sand.

Who needs buckets when you have plastic cups?!

Ike was really enjoying his watermelon snack.