A birthday whirlwind

A lot happens the month of August.  The boy and husband have birthdays within a week of each other, and the boy goes back to school.  Our baby is no longer a baby, but a 4 year old.  Yikes!

Hiding out on top of the flour bags at the Costco.

With his cookie from the Mexican bakery he got on his actual birthday.

Husband wanted some ice cream, and since it was a birthday whirlwind, we got some.  The boy wanted some "blue".

Robot themed cake for the birthday party with friends.

In the shirt I made him.  I thought it turned out really well.

We had the kids paint on large boxes to look like robots.  Husband I thought it was an amazing idea.  After all, the boy had fun painting the one we made together in the spring and still enjoys playing with it.  But the kids painting took about 5 minutes and mostly around the neck of the boxes, so you can't see in the picture.  But from what the parents said the day after, the boxes were a big hit.

Our big boy, returning books to the library, all by himself.

A walk in the woods

I needed to get out of town.  There was a conference going on downtown, lead by a particularly contentious group of people.  While we live a good distance away, I could feel the bad vibes all the way in the suburbs.  So, we went for a hike.  A little wilderness was very refreshing.

And the boy got new goggles.

And a new suit of armor.

And two new Bumblebees.  One for his birthday, one he got for Christmas, and the big one he earned by going potty.  He had a blank picture of Bumblebee and got to fill in a small section every time he produced something.  It look longer than I had thought it should, but we still made it!

Would you rather hike or dance? Both!

Boy's first sparkler.

We had a few people over for a cookout and we set off some fireworks.

And over the weekend, I decided to take the boys on a hike.  I like my nature in small discreet packages, and an hour or so in a easy-ish hike sounded fun.  The boy was having fun, sure, but stopping for a dance break was even funner.

Sleeping and eating

So last week, the boy and I went to boy scout day camp.  While I spent time with the pre-teen boys, the boy got to play at the mini camp.  It was too hot and too bright, and i hated almost every minute of it.  This little video is from the last day.  I'd promised him ice cream, and i needed a diet cola.  He was falling asleep in the drive through, but he was just awake enough to demand his treat.

The first day of camp, I helped out with the archery station.  All day in the direct sun was murderous.

And then just for fun: look at those long legs!

Another gold medal sport

The boy and I took lunch to Daddy, then played at the park for a while.  After artlessly into an iron bar and bloodying my nose, we found a sand volleyball court.  He's already a star long jumper.

The summer begins

The boy and his "boppycop", plus the one he stole from me.

Helping clean up some popcorn. He refused to help anything by hand, but was more than willing once the vacuum came out.

He got a scooter for Christmas, and hasn't been super into it.  Then last week, a trio of brothers came over for the afternoon with their scooters. He suddenly didn't mind practicing.

Success!!

Last day of pre-school

School is over and of course, it snowed because Denver is weird.

Today was a beautiful day.  We were going to do a bunch of stuff in the yard.  I was going to finally finish planting the last of the seedlings.   Husband and the boy built a set of stairs to make getting up the third level where the vegetable garden is to make hauling water (and hopefully vegetables) that much easier.

And then after lunch, hail came and just about destroyed all that I'd been working on since February.

I ran outside to cover as much as I could with pots, boxes, and scrap items from around the yard.  Once again, being a bit lazy comes in handy.  The hail got as big as a nickel or maybe larger.  It hurts when it hits.

Here's a pic of husband's back.  You can see all the red welts on his back.  I made him lay on the floor so the lighting would be better.  All of those hail stones chopped the leaves off any uncovered plants and smashed up any covered with a blanket.