Ten on Tuesday

1. I can hardly believe it, but the boys are done with AWANAs for the year and had their awards program last week. I was feeling a bit under the weather (i.e. I could barely talk), so we sat in the balcony. That's a long way of me saying, the pictures aren't the best. BUT, the boys worked hard this year and I was super proud of them!

Jarron

Bryce

Jackson

2. I was especially proud of this guy. My nephew Blaze earned his first book award. What makes this such a big deal? He did it in half the time of everyone else! He didn't start regularly coming to Sparks until January-ish, so the fact that he got through the book so quickly is pretty awesome.

3. I won this adorable custom shirt for Moosey. Being the 4th of four boys, he's on the receiving end of a lot of hand me downs. Kind of fun to have something personalized just for him. (If you are interested I won the shirt from Magical Memories, Jessica is awesome to work with!)

4. Speaking of the Moose, is it just me or is he looking more like Chuck every day?

Of course, no one can say that this guy isn't my little man. Cracks me up how one son can be a blue eyed blonde and the other a brown eyed brunette.

5. Jackson and Moosey are best buddies and this weekend at Kings Island, Moosey got to ride his first rides with Jackson. He calls him Jack-Jack, which is very,very cute to hear. Anytime, Jackson rode without him, Moosey would desperately yell out "Jack-Jack! Jack-Jack!"

 (Nope, can't tell this kid was excited to finally get to ride big boy rides, can you?)

6. I swear that I try to take pictures of all of my boys, not just the two little guys but this is what I usually get from my efforts to get a decent shot of the twins. Nine year olds are a joy.

7. The twins have an overnight field trip to the zoo this week. Chuck is a chaperone. They are ridiculously excited about it. So it will be just me and the littles for one night.

To clarify-it is just me and the boys-Linus will NOT be joining us! :)

8. My way of helping with the field trip was to offer to wash all of the shirts Jarron and his classmates (and a few of Bryce's) tie-dyed for the trip. Clearly, a rookie parenting mistake. You see, you have to wash the shirts twice, once with rubber bands on and once with rubber bands off. And they are soaking wet when you get them, so you can't just throw them all in one load. We ended up with 3 loads (times two=6 loads of laundry, just for the shirts). Which wasn't a big deal. The hard part were those stinking rubber bands. I have no idea how long I spent in the laundry room taking off rubber bands but it felt like HOURS. If I never see another rubber band again, it will be too soon. (Side note-Mrs D & Miss D: Jarron and Bryce did help with this task; for about 5 minutes and then got distracted making rubber band balls. I think they should have to clean chalkboards or something to make up for it. Do you guys even have chalkboards anymore? :>)

9. Because I don't have enough hobbies and things to do, I decided to refinish an antique desk. This desk has been in my mom's family for years and was my desk as a teenager. I have so many memories of sitting at that desk writing stories and doing homework. I'm excited to have it in my scrapbook room. But it needs a lot of work. A lot. It has probably 6 coats of stain/varnish that needs to come off before you get to the wood. But the wood, once you get there, is stunning. It's going to be amazing when I am done with it. I will definitely share pictures of the finished product. In the meantime, here are the before shots.

10. The garden that Chuck and the kiddos planted is already starting to sprout-I'm pretty surprised that seeds grow that fast. Clearly, I am a city girl. I'll post some pics of the garden next week. I plan on planting some tomatoes and possibly some strawberries this weekend.