Here Come the Butts

As I mentioned, Kendra and Tony and the gang came down for an impromptu visit this weekend! We hadn't had all of them down since about this time last year, so it was good to see them and catch up. 

The boys had fun playing in Lew's teepee (Edison is in blue, Jenson is in red).

I was 'shooting blindly' into the darkness...I knew they were all in there, but wasn't sure who was where and whether they were looking my way or not. This was the best one.

 
Jenson found Lew's bed and wanted to go night night with him. :) Thomas!? Mater!?

Saturday morning snuggles with Dexter

:) Such a sweet boy.

Sweet Norah, whipping up some treats in Lew's kitchen

It was another gorgeous fall day, so we spent the late afternoon/evening outside with a campfire. We made s'mores with the kids and then enjoyed some sittin'-around-the-fire time after the children went to bed.

 
:)

Lewis and Norah were pretty inseparable and adorable :)

They were watching the neighbors mow their yard through the fence...very exciting stuff. 

Kevin took this very sun-streaked picture of Norah with his phone.

Time for s'mores:

Lily,

Sophie,

and Norah, all happy to be sufficiently marshmallow-faced.

Kevin teaching The Art of Roasting the Mallow

Lewis wasn't quite as sure
He took one bite but then handed it off to me.

He preferred to eat the Reese's cups and Hershey bars straight up, instead. 

Great fire, Kevin!
We actually were getting COLD sitting out by the fire, which I loved. Ahhh, fall. We went inside and played a raucous game of Egyptian Ratscrew, a card game we used to play back in our days at Waycross. Either Kevin or Kendra won, I'm not sure. We kind of lost steam after awhile. :)

This morning:

Norah asked to help, so I put her on egg-cracking duty. She did a really great job!

I wasn't sure how many eggs to cook, so we did 2 dozen. That was just about right--we only threw out a couple of eggs' worth of leftovers. I was continually amazed by the process (and quantity) of feeding 5 kids vs. just Lewis. The assembly line of plates at every meal was impressive.

Such a big girl, using the mixer to beat up all of those eggs

So many children!

I think Lewis thought it was the best weekend ever. So many friends to eat with, play with, laugh with, etc. :)

It was a good weekend. Lots of fun and laughter and catching up.

Peaceful Park Day

Friday Lewis and I headed out to Creasey Mahan (nature preserve) to play at their playground. We really hadn't been out there in a while, and it's a good place to go for peace and quiet. It was a beautiful morning--one of those weather days that makes me wish I could bottle some up and have a little bit every day. No humidity, blue skies, birds chirping, and not another soul in sight.

 

 His face cracked me up. :) 

 

Later that afternoon, our weekend visitors arrived in the form of the Butts...all 7 of them and their puppy! What a difference a half a day can make! Pictures of the fun/chaos to come. :)

So Long, Garden and Lewis Gets a Race Track

I kept meaning to write a garden wrap-up post but didn't get around to it, so here is the nitty gritty:

I'll never plant tomatoes in containers again because they became too top heavy, needed more room to root, and didn't produce well or green up well at all. Green beans were amazing. 1st batch of peas was great--we'll see how 2nd batch goes. Basil is my favorite and we have a freezer full of pesto to last us through the winter.

Done. Literally, too, I guess--one night last week I decided things were looking like they were peacing out, so I pulled everything except the basil and the 2nd batch of peas. It kind of hasn't sunken in yet that it's practically mid-September already.

Sooo, with that, we now have an empty 'dirt box' that Carlton and Lewis decided to play in the other evening (Tonya, I think that must have been how the bottoms of Carlton's feet turned black):

 

 It was fine, and I really didn't mind them driving the dump trucks through it and jumping around. I drew the line, though, when they started digging up a shovelful of dirt and dumping it in the grass. I took the shovels away and they moved on to something else...the sandbox, a different kind of dirty. :)

This picture I either took this morning or yesterday morning (did I mention we've been a bit busy and I forget which day is which?):

Lew's Strawberry Train with Banana Tires

On second thought, I know it was this morning because we bought fresh strawberries at the grocery yesterday afternoon. I digress. Anyway, Lewis loves fruit, and lately he's been loving Banana Tires. I break off pieces of the banana into small tire-like discs, and we use them to add wheels to his cup, bowl, etc. to make it more fun to eat (in theory). It usually works well, though he'd probably eat the banana regardless because he loves bananas. Anyway, today he decided to make a Strawberry Train to go with his tires. He's been really into making his own train tracks (we've been working on resourcefulness and imagination), so today the tracks were straight out of a Strawberry Shortcake (the cartoon) dream. Yum!

Also this morning, I was running around getting things ready for guests and for shopping a consignment sale today with Maria. While I was clearly not paying attention to what Lewis was doing, he did this: 

So helpful!

He cleared my whole shelf of cookbooks and put them in the cart that I needed to take with us to the sale. Just one more thing to tidy up--no big deal, Lew. :) I'm also cracking up at his face in the above picture--that little tongue sticking out is exactly what Kevin does when he's thinking/problem-solving.

The sale was great, chaos, madness, etc. as usual. As I mentioned, Lewis has been very big into making his own train tracks out of whatever he has nearby (or imaginary ones). He has the standard wooden ones, but he likes to make tracks out of blocks, soft plush letters of the alphabet, his Bristle Blocks, etc. It's fun to watch him get excited as non-train track things become linear and, thus, track-like enough for his sake. 

He's also recently started asking to drive his cars on a race track. We have a small one that he lost interest in months ago, so I was happy to find this slightly more exciting one today for him for only a few dollars. He loves it--as soon as I figured out how in the world to assemble it (thanks, Google), he spent a good half hour playing with it before Maria, Clara, and Amelia came over for dinner.

 

 

 

 

One happy boy

Thanks, Grandpa Thompson for the latest batch of Hot Wheels--two of them were the perfect size for this track. An unexpected bonus was the crane that is a part of it. Cranes happen to be up there in his Top 5 Favorite Construction Trucks, I'd say, so he was excited.

And THAT brings us up to date for now.

Carter Family Reunion and Catching Up

Things seem to have gotten really busy the past few weeks! Sporadic usage of the camera, so prepare for jumbles.

First, I finally captured a picture of the hawk who likes to hang out on our fence from time to time. Every other time I've seen him, he'll drop off into the neighbors' yard before I can get my camera out. Lew and I stepped outside the other day to close the gate (to let the dogs out) when I saw him. I slowly backed us inside the house so I could grab my camera and thought he'd surely move, but he stayed there through me opening/closing a window (trying to take a picture from far away), opening/closing the door (again), closing the gate (which is kind of loud), and creeping up to within 10 feet of him for a closer picture. He finally did drop down on the other side of the fence as I got near him, but it was still neat to get my nature nerd on in the city.

 [Insert lame What's up, hawk? joke here.]

It's the best I can do. :)

The Carter Reunion was last weekend! We had a great time, great turnout, great food. (And Sharon, Kevin finally got his wish about the chocolate eclair cake--there were so many other desserts to choose from, ours barely got touched. We ate leftovers for days.)

 Lewis was saying Whee!

He insisted on Mama getting on this whirly thing with him, so Kevin was spinning both of us (I sucked it up and joined him even though I get really woozy on spinning things in my older age). :) It's fun playing on the same playground equipment we grew up on. Lewis managed to get a nice gash on his forearm (you can see it in the close-up pic above) and it was a pretty hot and humid day, but otherwise he had a great time and we were glad to see everyone.

 Dancing Lew

Some of the younger cousins were playing music on their phones, so Lewis was dancing (One Direction...they schooled us on them since we're old and just don't know what is cool and hip anymore). :)

Another day, not sure which one, we were playing outside in the sandbox and Lewis was a mess (as usual). I stripped his clothes off outside and sprayed him down with the hose and then I just put him in a clean diaper for the rest of the evening. He was playing and carrying around his towel while I started dinner, and then I heard him say Hiiiiiiii! Hi guys! and found him here, with his legs covered up by the towel:

Silly Buddy

He was sitting in the extra dining chair , smiling and waving hi. I thought it was really funny at the time--it hit me at that magical hour between 5:30 and bedtime when things get hectic and I tend to be most stressed, so it was a welcome laugh and smile.

First Day of School and Labor Day Weekend

First Day of Preschool, 2013

Cheese! He was super excited to go this morning, and I think (from what I've gathered so far) he had a good first day.

We had a homework assignment for today--we were to send in pictures, magazine clippings, etc. of things that tell 'All About Lewis,' and they're making a place mat for snack time out of them. I couldn't find a recent picture of the dogs with Lew (where they aren't looking tortured), so I took a new one. Hattie couldn't be bothered to sit up, of course. :)

  At least Lewis was smiling. :)

I sent in some pictures of him doing things he loves (riding a train, flying a plane, on an excavator at Touch-a-Truck, at the splash park, etc.) and some clippings of Thomas, Lightning McQueen, a school bus, and pancakes (his current favorite food). I guess we'll see the finished product whenever we visit his classroom.

The director said his first day went well! Lewis told me he played and worked on the police car, but that's all I've gotten out of him so far. He said that he made new friends, too, but didn't provide any further details. :) I also asked if he made an art project with pictures, but he said nothing. I'll try asking him again later to see if I can get more information. Because of the holiday he had yesterday off, but normally he'll go Mondays and Tuesdays.

Speaking of the holiday, Sunday we went to a pool party at the Runyons' house:

He was trying to talk Avery into sitting on the swing with him, but she had more important things to do (like cannonballs!). She was telling him that she'd be back in 5 minutes and might be able to swing with him then. :) He lost interest and went back to swimming and then loving on Avery.

:)

She is 4 and was so sweet with him, helping teach him how to bravely jump off the side.

And Carter Bell had a new tractor that Lewis was all over, of course:

It was pretty awesome--Lew didn't want to stop playing on it.

We had a great time, as always. Friday night we also had last-minute visitors from our camp friend, Anne, and her boyfriend, Jeff. They were stopping over on their way from Chicago to Nashville/Memphis for the long weekend, so we hung out Friday night and then had breakfast Saturday before they continued on their way. They brought with them some Old Style and Bell's Oberon for us, so we enjoyed those at the pool party on Sunday.

And Sharon, I think everyone liked your chocolate eclair cake--we didn't bring home a bit! Kevin was secretly hoping everyone would hate it so we could bring it home to eat. Haha. :) Guess I'll have to make one of the 'mini' ones sometime.

The ACTUAL Last Trip to the Zoo's Splash Park for the Year

Last Thursday Kevin had a Fantasy Football draft after work (and one Saturday...and one Sunday...), so I decided to take Lewis back to the splash park for one last go-around. The afternoon was very hot and humid, so it was a nice way to spend the rest of our day. Either the heat or the timing of our arrival (near closing time) meant that we had the zoo practically to ourselves--it was a nice break from the usual crowds!

 Lewis, trying to catch a drink

There were literally only 4 other kids there--thankfully Lewis and this boy got along well, and they played together.

I took some videos of Lewis going down the slides:

 

 Wah-wah-wah-Wipeout :)

 Hooray for cool spray on such a hot day!

We stopped by to say hi to the polar bear on our way:

:)

He was walking his 'usual' route along the side of the building (he's usually pacing when we see him, which is sad to me). He got to the corner of the building, and I yelled out 'Hey! Hi, buddy! How you doin'?' etc. To my surprise, he started walking towards us!

 

 

 And then maybe he realized we were behind a fence and not, in fact, fresh meat, so he left:

I thought it was pretty neat. We didn't see a single person between the splash park and the exit, which was kind of eerie but kind of cool. The train was shut down by the time we got up to it, so we just said hi/bye and went on our way this time.