August Happenings

We kept pretty busy in August - finishing up our Summer activities and starting our Fall ones despite it still being ridiculously hot in the Central Valley!!! To start the month Jon and I hosted our annual Fun Day party. This year we decided to dis-invite the kids. Nothing against the munchkins but this party was originally intended to be a break from the grueling work schedules a lot of us have in the Summer. We decided we needed to go back to our roots and give some Moms and Dads a much needed night off. It was a huge hit and I don't think the kids will be invited back any time soon!!! The theme this year was "White Trash" and everyone did a stellar job with their outfits.

While we were busy acting like kids with our friends the boys spent a fun weekend up at the cabin with Grandma and Grandpa.

Reed and Kieran both attended the Summer program at their day care/preschool. The last week of school they had a bunch of different dress up days. The two favorites in our house were dress like your pet and wacky Wednesday.

After a canceled play date a few weeks prior we were able to meet up with the Nenadovs  for an afternoon of playing and catching-up. Both Drake and Reed were starting Kindergarten the following week and it was fun to reminisce about them playing together as babies and toddlers not very long ago.

Kieran is the most entertaining sleeper I've ever seen. I regularly sneak into his room to see how/where he's fallen asleep. In August I found him sleeping with slippers on, lots of times he was on his bedroom floor, and of course he always seems to find some odd toys to setup somewhere on/around his bed.

One of the boys' favorite people in the world is Morgan so they were so excited that she was able to give them swim lessons again this year. I was so impressed by how much they learned and what good swimmers they became over a few weeks of lessons. As has become our tradition, Morgan brought popsicles to celebrate their last day of lessons and the boys made her a card and gave her a gift.

The newest addition to the Gillette side of the family arrived in the middle of the month. I was sick and had to wait over a week to meet baby Travis which was torture!!! We ended up meeting up at Aunt Penny's house and Grandma came over too. The boys loved playing together and Travis is just adorable, good job Auntie M and Hunky Kevin!!!

Kieran is playing soccer this year and he's pretty pumped about it. He has only had one practice because of the heat and air quality but he is all about his "soccer costume" and can't wait to play in his first game. It definitely helps that Clara is on his team and I think it will be so fun for us to cheer for both of them.

Unless you've been living under a rock you probably know there was a solar eclipse at the end of the month viewable from California. It happened during work hours so this was my view for most of the morning.

We finished up the month by inviting our Kingsburg friends over for a potluck to watch the Mayweather vs. McGregor fight. The kids had a blast swimming, having lots of dessert, and playing outside. We even got to meet baby Elise who's birth is a crazy story (Laurie and Russell ended up delivering her on the bathroom floor). I failed to snap a picture of her that night so I'm adding one from a different night, because she's just too cute not to share!

Beach Time

Last weekend Jon and I decided to take the boys on a one night getaway to one of our favorite places, Avila Beach. It's been a crazy summer and we wanted to take a quickie family vacation before Reed started Kindergarten. We had a great time, playing on the beach, having a nice dinner out, and just unplugging for a bit. I happened to post a picture of Reed in a coffee shop on Instagram and Erin and Mikael spotted it and got in touch because unbeknownst to us they were in Avila too. It worked out perfectly because we all got to hang out together on the beach for a few hours before heading home.

July Happenings

I realized I haven't posted a July recap yet so I went through my pictures and picked out some of our favorite moments from last month. I've been walking Dodger solo before Jon goes to work most mornings and while it is so much faster and less drama filled I definitely miss the boys accompanying us so on the mornings they join me for the walk we usually take some extra time to enjoy the outing.

Reed lost tooth #2!!!

We rewarded the boys with another slumber party last month. This one lasted four or five days and the boys even made their beds together each morning as a ploy to keep letting the slumber party continue.

Reed and Kieran both attended the summer program at our local preschool. On top of time on the playground, craft projects, and playing with friends the school organized lots of fun events like water play days, field trips to local businesses, a magician, and a reptile show. The boys both love their days at school, their teachers, and their friends.

When I found out Auntie M was pregnant I told myself I had to make a quilt for Baby #2. I finally found time to do it and the boys even got involved by going to the fabric store with me to pick out space/solar system/rocket ship fabric and Reed selected the pattern he wanted for the quilt. A few days after I finished it we met up with Melissa and Ben for a play date at the children's museum where we had a great time playing and catching up with them and were able to give Auntie M our gift.

To end the month we attended Emmett's Dinosaur themed 2nd Birthday. The boys had a blast adopting dinosaurs, swimming. playing with the water table, and celebrating with Emmett. Shannon was so sweet and even made cupcakes Reed and a few other kids with food allergies could eat. Reed was so impressed with this he kept talking about how nice that was and how good the cupcakes were.