July

The boys are at a really sweet age where they are starting to show a lot of affection toward one another, and Caleb has started being a bit more protective over Landon at times.  One morning recently I was trying to comfort Landon while he was crying, and I had my arms around him.  Caleb walked over to us and said "Its ok Landon, you don't have to cry.  Do you want me to love on you?  Come here... Mommy, can you let go of Landon so I can hold him please?"  I wanted to laugh at how grown up he sounded saying all that to me!  It was very sweet.

Then the other day, I was holding Caleb as he was crying about something, and Landon, who had just woken from a long nap and was in a great mood, kept walking over to Caleb and patting his back saying "K... K..." with a big smile on his face.  I'm pretty sure he was trying to tell Caleb, "Its ok."  :-)

Here are some other hi-lights from the month of July...

Caleb was having fun playing with some boys at the park.  The one on the right was 6 so he was leading the show, then asked Caleb what game he wanted to play.  Caleb doesn't really know very many games yet, so he said "Ring around the Rosie."  Of course the six year old wasn't so into that idea.  He decided they should play a dinosaur game, and Landon wanted in on the fun and roared, too.

We recently got a sandbox in the backyard. Its messy, but fun for the boys who always want to drive their tractors in things.

This year was the first time I attempted making a birthday cake for Caleb.  I realized that I think it was my first time making a cake - ever - and the design I wanted to do wasn't the simplest for a beginner, but it turned out pretty well I guess.

The theme was firetrucks and Elmo, so the cake was supposed to look like fire.  I didn't do the color blend layers because I was trying not to complicate things, but after the fact I realized it would have looked more like fire and less like a rainbow.  :P  Oh well.  Next time maybe.

We talked to a friend who pulled some strings and dropped by the house for a visit in the fire engine.  We thought Caleb would be totally into it since he and Landon LOVE fire trucks.  Turns out they were both a bit overwhelmed...  

Playing construction with his new remote control crane (gotta have our hard hat, too!)

Fun with the slip-n-slide

Hat and goggles by Caleb's request...

Landon loves to put his mouth on water anywhere and try to blow bubbles.  We even caught him once doing it in the gutter, gross!!

Peeking through the gate at the boys having fun at Nana Gigi's recently.  She made them a bean bag toss and a puppet theater.  The featured show at her theater was about manners, and when the puppets asked if he knew what 'manners' are (a word we haven't used a lot yet at home, though we are teaching them), Caleb answered "listening."  Way to go buddy, good answer!

Caleb and Landon having turns running the puppet show...

An unexpected swimming day at Lodi Lake was messy but fun!  Notice Landon laying down again, and of course trying to blow bubbles in the yucky water...

Boys vs Girls:  Full of Sand / Totally Clean

Finger and body painting.  Landon and Claire weren't so into it, but Caleb and Jake had a blast!  Guess that's why they save these things for the preschool aged kids instead of the younger ones... :)  This was still fairly early in the process... boys ended up much dirtier from the paint and then washed it all off with the slip-n-slide!

After 15 months that Jimmy has been working at his job in Lafayette, I finally got to meet his boss and all of his co-workers.  The company picnic was at a reservoir in Lafayette, wonderful catered food, lots of family-friendly activities to participate in (water balloons in a giant sling shot, baseball, rings and cones, face painting, and bingo), and it was so nice to get to put faces with all the names I have been hearing about for so long.  There are a lot of kids between everyone, as you can see below.  Caleb made friends quickly with the young girl, Ava, who is holding Landon - cute with long brown hair, just as he usually gravitates toward.  We had a lot of fun, and I'm looking forward to getting to know his co-workers more at future events. 

Video of Caleb and similarly aged kids doing a gunny sack race.  This was hilarious - Caleb hasn't done anything like this before, so all the kids hopped across the stretch of grass to the finish line, then Caleb stopped literally with his toes touching the back side of the line, and didn't move any further.  "I'm tired Daddy!", he said.  Meanwhile Jimmy (a very competitive person) is saying "Caleb, just jump over the line, cross the line!!"  It was so funny.  Caleb didn't understand, and as you can see in the video, with a little help, he eventually made it across:

Video of Caleb and kids doing the Egg on a Spoon race:

Tasting fresh Coconut water (is that what its called??)...

Daddy set up our new tent in the backyard, just for fun.  The boys thought it was the coolest space ever and had lots of fun running around inside it. 

This zucchini was found growing straight up into the center of the plant where we didn't see it.  It worked well to make some zucchini lasagna, yum!