"How to make apple pizza" by Josiah

Avery singing songs he learned in school

Here's Avery singing some of his kindergarten songs!!

The other morning, the boys were looking at me out the kitchen window as I was pulling out for work. We sometimes blow kisses to each other and the receiver is supposed to pretend to catch the kisses. It's very sweet. Well, Avery started putting his hands over his chest and then flinging out his arms again and again. I asked him what he was doing.

"I'm throwing my heart to you, mom." 

Could you just die at how tender and sweet my Avery is?!

Josiah starts preschool!

Here's our little man!! All ready for his first day of preschool! He loved going to school. He told me at least 6 times that they sang songs. There are only 5 kids in his class - and all boys. It should be a really fun year!!

It rained on his first day. Aren't their new little umbrellas adorable?

Avery's first soccer experience

Here are some pictures from Avery's first soccer practice. He had SO much fun!!!! It has been a great first team experience so far.

Look at that face!!!!

Sadly I have really no photos from his first game, which was a few days after that - because Mark was asked to help out and coach the second of the two games going on simultaneously and I couldn't (wo)man both the video camera and digital camera.

But we were so proud of Avery's first game!! He did great!! He was aggressive just enough - stayed right on the ball without being pushy. Got a goal his very first time in the game!! And he also had a great defensive move, kicking the other team's ball out of the way just as it was going into the goal! It was a great day.

Avery's first day of school

Here he is!! Our first kindergartener!! He was so excited about going! And happily, I did better than I thought I would. Tears the week before for me but none on the big day!

He was slightly more nervous about the whole thing when it actually came time to go in!

Josiah's so proud of his big brother! Not too many more days from now and we'll be packing up Josiah for his own first school experience - preschool!!! 

August events - boys in the backyard

I spent some time one afternoon playing with my camera to start learning more about what it can do. Here are some of those photos.

August - a second afternoon at the zoo

For Mark's birthday, we bought a membership at the Brookfield Zoo so that we wouldn't feel pressure about trying to see all of the giant zoo in one trip. So I took the boys back again a few weeks ago and that time we went in the butterfly exhibit. Over 300 butterflies loose in net-enclosed room. It was really fun and one landed on Avery's head for a little while!

Look how close Josiah got to the butterflies! They were beautiful.

Josiah checking out the dolphins from the windows near the bottom of their tank.

 Checking out their height compared to the dolphins.

Added in August...but happened in July

As part of my attempt to upload all these photos from the last month or so, I'm adding these, too. They were taken in late July, I think.

August events - playing in the yard

These are just some really fun photos from one Sunday afternoon.

I love how satisfied Avery looks right here. He had just finished sliding all the way to the end of the slip-n-slide.

So thoughtful. I think he was checking out a bug.

August events - dad's birthday

Man I am so behind right now. Sorry, folks! 

I am going to take this in bite size pieces to get caught up. First, back in the beginning of August, we took a family trip to the Brookfield Zoo to celebrate Mark's birthday. It was awesome! 

We got to pet stingrays and see sharks up close at the Stingray exhibit. That was very, very cool. 

This second picture is the boys in the monkey house.