New in town: Orange Leaf

I happened to notice this store today as we drove by (I guess their colorful logo worked), so I took the kids back after their naps to see what it was about. It's a chain, but I'd never heard of it before. And it is Rhett's new favorite place--it was like the fun of a vending machine x 1,000! As the sign indicates, it's self-serve. There are numerous yogurt flavor choices, and the lever in the middle allows you to swirl the two flavors in that block. Then, the real excitement comes at the end of the line with the toppings station (I didn't get a picture of that), but the kids loved the wide selection. They added chocolate chips, cherries, sprinkles, gummy bears, etc.

Two negatives:

1) They didn't have high chairs for some reason, and Crosby could reach the bottom part of the yogurt machines and kept pulling parts off of them while I tried to help R & A with their orders.

2) They weigh your yogurt cups at the end of the line, and you pay by the ounce. All the toppings I mentioned weighed more than I would have thought...we spent $13 on yogurt for the four of us. Rhett has already mentioned several times that we "definitely need to go back there this summer!" It's always fun to try a new place!

Toy Story 3

This afternoon Lane and I took Rhett & Alexee to see Toy Story 3. We'd planned for one of us to stay home with Crosby while the other took R & A to the movie, but then our sweet friend Charla offered to keep C for us this afternoon so we could both go (Thanks, Charla!). It was really fun. The movie was very cute--Lane and I probably liked it as much or more than the kids! I cried at the end. The little girl wearing the tutu and rain boots reminded me of Alexee, and Andy going off to college was just too sad because that made me think of R leaving for college! R & A were both great during the show. Rhett sat super still and payed close attention. Alexee got a little bit bored about half way through, but she sat in my lap and then L's lap and did fine.
This was Alexee's first time to see a movie in the theater. She brought her doll along.
They had the popcorn, drink & candy combos. Rhett wouldn't eat any of his popcorn until the previews were over and the actual movie was going.

The movie made me think of the kids' toys, and which ones might make it into the "College" box one day. Mom made this picture of Rhett's Bunny a year ago when he visited them. I thought it was a sweet photo. Bunny is sitting on R's blue blanket that he used to chew on at night. Bunny was the first stuffed animal to sleep with him every night, but over time he has added a few more: Clifford, Scooby Doo, Monkey & Iguana. I have a picture of all of them lined up on his pillow somewhere, but I guess I take way too many pictures because I couldn't find it when I scrolled back through looking for it. It would be easier to just take another picture!

Crosby at 15 months

Crosby is now 15 months old (yesterday). He's doing so many cute things and is always happy and sweet. He's saying "Momma, Dadda, Bobo, uh-oh, ball", he's waving bye, he tries to comb his hair with his comb, he loves to brush his teeth, he opens books and looks at them, he dances to music, he loves to roll a ball back and forth and squeals and laughs when we play keep-away from him (we let him get it and take it from one person to another and we yell, "touchdown!").

I recently discovered that he loves watermelon--he stuffs it in his mouth as fast as he possibly can! He's doing great with the sippy cup, and I found out earlier this week that he can drink from a straw because I saw him pick up Rhett's cup and drink from it.

He still sleeps with his football lovie and sucks his thumb when he's tired. I hold him on my shoulder and sing "Jesus Loves Me" before every nap and nightly bedtime. It's one of my favorite things to have him rest his head on my shoulder and put his little soft arm around my neck. He's at the point where some days it's hard to get him to take two naps, but he's still tired around 9 a.m. and will usually fall right asleep then if I put him down. But then sometimes he goes to sleep again in the afternoon and sometimes he doesn't. If he doesn't take a second nap he's exhausted by 5 p.m.. I'd like for him to go to one nap, but I remember that transition being a little bit tough for both Rhett and Alexee.

He is wearing 24 month clothes and a size 6 diaper. I'm not sure how much he weighs--he goes for his 15 month check-up the week after the 4th. I think he probably weighs around 27-28 lbs.?

I guess he's more of a toddler than a baby now, but I want to just keep calling him a baby. And that will probably never change. :) Now that he can walk, he wants to try to do everything that Rhett & Alexee do. These pictures were made yesterday at R's school playground. R & A asked if we could go there to play, so I took them, but wow it was hot. Their faces were all bright red after being there 5 minutes.

We love you sweet boy!_________________________

When we first got to the playground, R said, "I miss being at this school." He saw this dirt pile and said, "Joshua and Christopher used to work on this dirt pile every single day at recess".

He just kept making comments about memories he had of the school year on this playground. He saw some big rocks stacked up and said, "Kyle and Grant stacked those rocks--they played there all the time." He says he's glad it's summer, and I think he is enjoying the time off, but I also think he will be excited to start a new school year with friends this fall.

our FIRST GRADER

Alexee carried this baby doll around all over the playground. She's recently taken an interest in dolls.

Letting her baby doll slide

She said she was in a cave, hiding from bears.

Rhett said this is where he and his friends played Rock Store. The kids decided to sell rocks yesterday, but I couldn't buy any because they were $1 million per rock. Rhett said he'd give me the family & friend discount: 4 rocks for $2 million.
Crosby was getting so hot and tired by this point. He wanted to go home (and so did I).

Alexee and Crosby were both worn out and took good naps. Rhett looked at a Highlights magazine and watched Scooby Doo. Later they went out in the back yard and turned on the sprinkler and found a turtle. R warned A several times not to let it bite her because this was the kind that wouldn't let go until it thundered if it bit you! I told him I could paint a name on his shell so that we'd know it was him if we saw it again later, and they wanted to name him Max (the same name as their cousins' little goat). So I painted "Max" on his shell with nail polish and then they let him go by the fence.

Swimming, Summer rain & Seven

Today was day 4 of swim lessons. I forgot to take the camera to R's lesson, but took it to A's a little later. Rhett has had his eye on the snack shack all week, so today he took some of his savings to the pool to purchase a treat. I thought it was so sweet that he took enough money to buy his sister something without me even asking him to. When we got back in the car to leave he said, "Now Alexee, you need to tell me 'thank you' for buying that for you." :) She thanked him and enjoyed her Skittles. Rhett likes to save his money, but vending machines (and in this case snack shacks) are his weakness.I think it's cute when she stands with her hands on her hips like this. I made a quick trip into Old Navy last night to try to get the kids each a new swimsuit, but I quickly realized that everyone else in the world bought swimsuits months ago. I think there were four remaining girls' suits to choose from, and they had this one in her size. But the advantage to shopping this late--clearance prices! I thought she might not like it because it's not pink or purple, but she was so excited about the tulle that I'm not sure she noticed the color at first. I told her she looked like a ray of sunshine--she looked pretty sweet! When we got to her lesson, her teacher (R's kindergarten teacher) told her she liked her pretty swimsuit. Alexee was at the edge of the pool but turned around and ran back over to me and whispered, "She said she likes my suit!".

No fear!

Learning to creep around the edge of the pool to find an exit ladder.

This afternoon a summer storm blew in. It was so refreshing to see and hear rain falling. It has been so terribly hot and dry. I'm glad that crepe myrtles don't mind the heat. This one in the back yard is in full bloom.

What a nice sight this time of year!

And tonight we celebrated our dog Bogart's 7th birthday with bowls of ice cream for all the kids. You can probably guess which one is Bogart's!

Dogs are such loyal and fun family friends. :)

I was pregnant with Rhett when we went to choose a puppy (Labor Day weekend 2003). I had on black sandals, and out of all the puppies in the room, Bogart came up to me and sat down on my foot. So we knew he was the one meant to go home with us!

Swim lessons, playground & peach tea

Rhett & Alexee are taking swim lessons this week, at separate times, so it's been a busy week so far. Tomorrow we're going to add a car repair and a haircut into the MDO and swim schedule. I also took R to the library today to return his books and check out a few new DVDs. I know I should have had him check out more books, too, but we didn't have a lot of time before the next swim lesson, so we'll have to do that next time! I've promised R that he can apply for his own library card the next time we're there if he has a good attitude between now and then.
Playing at the playground during A's swim lesson:

I like this picture! I hope they are always close friends!

How can he already be big enough to walk around the park by himself and climb and slide? It seems like he should still be in the infant carrier.

Alexee during her lesson

(we stayed away so we didn't distract her, and so that Crosby didn't jump into the pool).

This afternoon Rhett & I made

Sparkling Peach Tea:

1 pkg. Crystal Light peach tea mix

(last week I used Crystal Light lemonade--I think I liked it better)

3 cups cold water

1 L Ginger ale

The office-cleaning project continues. It actually looks worse now than it did a few days ago, but that's because there are piles of papers that I've pulled out of boxes to file. So I'm making progress. I'm almost finished with the last box of old papers. Then I'll have to move on to the bookshelves and the closet. I love printing new, crisp file folder labels! I actually just like office supplies in general. :)