Random pictures since school began

I have been absolutely terrible about keeping up with the blog. No free time. Potty training (STILL). Work. Kids. House. Produce. Working out. Blah, blah, blah!

Daddy and Summer being silly and "napping" in the hall.
Garrett with one of his many creations
And a robot he wants to enter in the Lego Club Jr. Contest this month.
Being silly with the cute hat they made at school for Patriot's Day.
Dress up one day shortly before school started.

Other random bits:
So ready for the fall TV season lineup to start. We booted netflix for their price hike. On our lineup for the fall--Castle, Bones, Psych, Survivor.

I finished reading Harry Potter series. Brad's started the books too. Garrett's last book was Goblet of Fire, I want him to wait a while to read the last three because are so much darker and take on more grown-up stuff than the earlier books. We're watching them.

The new trailer for Breaking Dawn is out and I'm so excited in the worst nerdy way. Only 2 months left to wait! I think I'll be re-reading the books again.

I FINALLY entered my first half marathon. Will be running the Miami Beach 13.1 in April. So stoked, but have a long way to go since I haven't been running much because of the heat.

Garrett is entered in flag football, which starts on Saturday. It should be fun. Brad is coaching his team. It may be interesting--its 5 players for team and the age range is from 5-7 years. Garrett is by far the youngest on his team and the oldest player will be 8 (!!) in November.

Summer is THREE on Sunday, which I can't believe. Grandma and Grandpa Compton are coming this afternoon, so we're looking forward to that.

I'm going to start prepping for the GRE so that I can test sometime either this fall or in the spring. We have a great tuition remission program through school, so once both kids are in school I'm going to work on a Masters degree--something I've wanted to do for a long time but have had to put off for obvious reasons.

First Day of Kindergarten (Better late than never!)

I have been meaning to post about Garrett's first day of Kindergarten for a while. I haven't for two reasons . . . One is time (I never seem to have any). The other is I am still just not sure how *I* feel about Kindergarten. I like his school, overall, and I like his teacher, but I'm not as in love with it all as I thought I would be. Things are going very slow, they are still reviewing letters, and I feel like Garrett is a little bored and definitely not picking up anything new. But whatever, review is necessary. We're just hanging in and hoping it will improve. He still misses his pre-K teacher. He loves his new teacher, though, and she really is great. Its just a little disheartening to me, I wanted him to LOVE school, but I guess its just the way it goes in the public school system. Suffice to say the jury is still out.

Even though this picture isn't that great, I had to include it because Garrett was super proud of the cute fishie he made for his teacher:

Best friends. They aren't in the same class, which is probably a good thing since they are together pretty much the rest of the time.My two favorite Kindergarteners.
Garrett at his desk.
And, like his father, he has limited patience for photographs. How did he learn to role his eyes so effectively at such an early age??? :-)




They did the most darling project associated with "The Kissing Hand". I received the most concise, complete summary ever given by a five year old of the book from Garrett, it was fabulous.



The diorama we did for "Library Lion"
And of course, Summer, who refused to be in the morning pictures, insisted "Take a picture of ME!"

How we've spent our summer vacation - Part 2

Seriously, I can not believe August is here. It seems like it was just 4th of July weekend. Insanity. With a scant 3 weeks until school starts, it seems like summer is already over. We'll be spending the next few weeks getting on schedule and (gasp) prepping for Kindergarten. Insanity, I say!

A quick fly-by of the things we've been up to since last update.

We went to see Cars 2. It was cute, but not nearly as good as the original. Summer did amazingly well at it.

We've had sleepovers and hung out with friends.


We made homemade ice cream for the 4th of July

and made homemade ice cream sandwich pops.



Summer has been acting like such a big girl! We're STILL potty training, and while she was in a big girl bed for a while, we moved her back to a crib because she wasn't getting enough sleep, but she's doing so well in expressing her emotions and absolutely has a crazy fun imagination.

We went to see Bob the Builder at the Childrens Museum. It was the first time we've been in a while, and BOTH kids really enjoyed it all.





Grandma and Grandpa came for a visit




and took Garrett home with them for a week, where he did awesome things like drive a 4-wheeler. (Thanks Aunt Stephie for the picture!)

Summer and I enjoyed some girl time while he was gone, but we were glad to have him (and Grandma) back.

The best thing we did while they were gone, though, was go to the Seaquarium. I don't generally like that place, but we both got in for free and Summer was absolutely over the moon about the dolphins. I wish I had taken the camera on that trip to document how in awe she was of them.

Brad and I enjoyed a night at the Hard Rock in Hollywood while Grandma was here and THAT was fabulous. Its been almost a year since we had a night to ourselves, so it was long overdue. We stayed up until midnight listening to live music and just generally enjoying each other's company, then spent the morning soaking up sun by the pool. Absolutely priceless!

And we've crafted, created, and made stuff . . .
A cement stone for Grandma

Awesome butterflies from milk cartons, inspired by Filth Wizardry. Garrett's is on the right, Summer's is on the left.

And of course a model or two.


I've read a couple of books, the most notable of which was Water For Elephants. I wasn't really expecting much, but it was so good that I am really not sure I want to see the movie.

Brad and I have been watching Psych, after Brad's parents and sister told us how much they liked it. Love it!

And we had a really stinky life lesson when Garrett's turtle, Crusher, died while he was at Grandma's house. That one is going to get its own post though (hopefully)--too lengthy to write about on this already lengthy post.

Why Aspen is the Awesomest Dog Ever

I always have a hard time explaining what Aspen means to us as a family. He's not only not-just-a-dog, he's such an integral part of this family it isn't even funny. His patience with the kids never ceases to amaze me . . .

He not only puts up with photo sessions


he puts up with fights that ensue over him


and STILL manages to give Garrett smooches, which makes Garrett smile bigger than anything else.
He is always in the thick of it, even when "it" is campout sleepovers with four kids.

And even though Summer tortures him in many ways, he never makes a single complaint.


This past week we had a house guest for a week. We fostered Lilo for This is The Dog while her usual foster mom was out of town, and he loved having someone big to play with. (Someone who wasn't 1/4 his size and always grumpy, anyway). He's just about the best, craziest, sweetest grey pup we could ask for, and I can't believe he's 7 this year.

Happy 4th!

We had a wonderfully busy 4th of July weekend. We made ice cream and festive 4th of July ice cream pops, had a sleep over with our friends, and more. Here's a few pictures to tide everyone over until I get a chance for a real update. In the mean time, pictures from the entire weekend are on facebook.

Five

I never did my nostalgic "I can't believe he's five" post for Garrett's birthday. I CAN'T believe he's five, but as previously mentioned, we've been too busy doing stuff to really sit back and reminisce. But for some reason, the birthdays of friends always make me more weepy than the birthdays of my own kids. Today is Garrett's best bud Xander's birthday. Its pretty awesome that these two boys have been friends since they were six months old. At first, it was the mommy friendship more than the boys, but now, its all of us.

This past year, the Shumans and the Compton families have boated, bar-b-qued, attended school events, and just generally hung out more than we have any year in the past. And that's saying something, since most of our major holidays have been spent with our "Florida family"

We have had a LOT of great friends come and go in the past few years. We've been so blessed to have such excellent friends. I grew up as an only child, so I love that not only will Garrett have his sister to play with, he also has his wonderful neighborhood friends to call on. Its pretty awesome to say you've been friends with someone your whole life.

And Jess and I were talking that even if they have their little falling outs as life goes on, they will have to make up because even if they don't want to hang out with each other, the families still will.
They've had so many "firsts" together in the past five years . . .
And goodness knows there will be plenty more.
Part of the reason I've been putting of the "five" post is because I haven't been too sure what to say. Garrett is amazing, he's reading and busy and incredibly adventurous. He can be mean to his sister, then incredibly sweet to her in the next breath. He loves his dogs. He loves to play. He's always busy. Its hard to summarize all the changes and amazing things in a few paragraphs. But if I ask him what he wants to do on any given day, his first responses is almost ALWAYS "Can Xander come play?" He declares to me on a daily basis "Xander and I are best friends!" He even asked if he could take Xander with him on the much anticipated trip to Grandma's house in a few weeks. So, I can't believe they are BOTH five. I'm really looking forward to watching them share the next five years of this wild, crazy ride together.

And, since I haven't given you any new pictures in this post, just a recap of the old ones, enjoy this one of Garrett going off the diving board at Xander's 5th birthday party!