Well, here's the best I could do. You get the idea. They're cute (crazy, but cute) and make a blazer look good.

Now, we're off to find nachos(??!!), art, and maybe R.C. along the way.

Tonight is the first art opening of the year that the boys and I are attending. There are usually snacks which consist of: fruit, veggies, cheese, crackers, wine, beer, and ginger ale.

Russell just got his blazer out the the closet in preparation for the evening and announced, "I hope they have nachos tonight."
I love the way this kid thinks, and I will be following him to the snack table just in case he does find nachos.

Both boys have awesome blazers now, so after they get dressed for the night I will snap a picture so you can see my nacho hoping, art loving, blazer wearing boys.

Last Saturday we took a trip up the road to Lincoln Woods State Park. It was a BEAUTIFUL day for a hike and picnic. I don't know why we had not been to this park before, but we will definitely be visiting there more often.

Forging a path through the woods.

The path led us beside this rock, but Max decided to go down the rock. It really wasn't that steep, but he pretended he was repelling off the side of a cliff. After a hike, we stopped for a picnic lunch and a game of catch. R.C. and Russell had brought their baseball mitts, so as they played, Max and I took a walk down to the lake and relaxed atop a giant rock.
When everyone was refueled, we found another place to hike. This time we were climbing mainly on rocks. We had a nice break when we found a swan and Russell just happened to have a scrap of bread in his pocket (who is this kid...Hansel?) to feed it.

Earlier in the week the boys had me take this picture of themselves after they ate suckers from the bank. They wanted me to post it for Aunt Chrissy. They are blue tongue lizards. She may be the only one to get this...

And finally, due to the cooler weather we have been having, the boys were able to enjoy a tea party with hot cocoa and marshmallows. They are so polite when the tea set comes out. They pour for each other and share marshmallows. Maybe the Queen will join these gentlemen someday for cocoa tea...

As the boys and I were sitting in traffic yesterday, Russell noticed the car ahead of us had a license plate that read, RI 1. He then thought that that must be the first person to ever get a license plate in the state of RI. Maxwell then screamed "it's Roger Williams! Get him!". I'm thrilled that Max has learned that Roger Williams was the first to settle Providence, but it makes me laugh to think that Max assumes he is still around and driving a car. Russell tried to explain to Max that Roger Williams didn't drive cars, but Max was not buying it.

I FINALLY GOT ACCEPTED!!

It had been over a month since I sent in my "intent to home school" letter and I had not heard anything from the state of RI. I started teaching Russell 2 weeks ago and began to get nervous/anxious that they, for some reason, decided not to approve my lesson plans I turned in. Finally, today I received my approval and can checkout textbooks from the school district if necessary. I am so relieved! RI takes FOREVER to inform you of important information so I guess waiting a month is nothing, considering I waited an entire school year to finally be told that I didn't have to turn anything in for kindergarten. I was quite angry about this since I kept EVERY piece of work completed last year and VERY detailed notes about everything we did so I could turn it in at the end of the year. I guess I can chalk it up as practice for this year.

Here's to an amazing school year!

We belong to a gym (YMCA) and I finally convinced R.C. to go with me in the mornings. It's been fun working out together every other morning while the boys play with other kiddos in the kid area. I think we have a good workout. We start by doing a brisk mile on either the elliptical machine or the treadmill, then we pump some iron on various equipment, and R.C. does some extra weights while I finish with another run (or quick walk, depending on how my knee is feeling) on the treadmill. We spend approximately an hour to finish our workout. Some weeks we go each day, some weeks we go every other day. Some days we spend less than and hour, some days more than an hour, but the above routine is "normal".

Now that R.C. is back to being at the studio until late late late, I am enjoying quiet evenings alone doing yoga or pilates. I find this to be a good way to end the day. R.C. has a different way to end his day (or should I say his time at home. He still has quite a night ahead of him in the studio). It's called "boy on a baseball bat lifting". This is a bit too physical for me in the evening, but both the lifter and the "weight" seem to enjoy this form of exercise.

Recap of last week:

• Max mastered name writing.

• R.C. and the boys played baseball.

• R.C. "youtube-ed" a Christmas song and proceeded to hum/whistle it for half the day. He almost didn't make it to the end of the day....
• I got nailed in the nose with a baseball. I learned my lesson to never play without a hat or sunglasses when the sun it out.
• The boys had their yearly physical and Max was annoyed to have to go to the doctors office. He smiled once during the 45 minutes we spent with the doctor. This smile came about only because he was told to take his clothes off...he loves to be naked.
• Russell was very talkative last week. I know, he always is, but last week he was more than usual. I almost didn't make it through the week.
• We cleaned our section in the basement. Fun...
• It's cool here! Fall is just around the corner!! This makes me so very happy!

• We walked up to the "Hope St. Festival" (the "main" drag in our neighborhood) and decorated cookies at the bakery and listened to drummers.

We were surprised to see these big "monsters" come to dance to the music. They are from a place downtown that makes these costumes. The boys love to walk by the store, and even like to go in, but Russell was not thrilled with seeing them dance. Max thought it was pretty cool though.


This week R.C. officially starts classes. I and the boys are not looking forward to this. We go back to seeing R.C. rarely, packing lunches and suppers for him to take to the studio and longing for one day on the weekend when we can have him to ourselves. One more year of grad school and then....

The first day of school was great! The boys were up early and ready to start the day at 7:00 am, which would have been great had I been able to fall asleep before 4:30 am. But we were all excited so the tiredness has not hit me until now (which is why I drank 2 cups of coffee after supper...so now I will once again not be able to sleep!! What is wrong with me!!) They were both very eager to get to work, mainly because they wanted to use their new pencils. Much of the work I had planned for Max was to be done in crayon, which he was not too happy about. He only wanted to do work if he was able to use a pencil, so we switched gears and worked on writing numbers. Russell did great and retained much more information from last year than I thought he would. We are in for a really great year I think.

We headed to the library this afternoon to pick out some new challenging chapter books for Russell, and Max was determined to find some "preschool chapter books on colors with dogs in them" that he can read. Russell has become good friends with the librarian in the children's library. He loves to talk with her and just hang out near the desk so he can tell her random facts of his life. She is always happy to see the boys and is more than willing to do anything to get them the books they want to read. Over the years we have learned that a librarian is a good person to have on your side, especially if you are 6 and want to request massive amounts of Pokemon books through inter library loan without your mom and dad knowing, so they can't say "only one Pokemon book today". Hmmm, who would be this sneaky?

As we were finishing up our work today Russell began thinking about his preschool teacher. Yes, it has been a few years since he was in Mrs. B's class, but to Russell is was just yesterday. She really was the one who got Russell started on the right foot when it comes to school. (She also taught Russell great songs that he is hoping to help me teach Max this year! What a nice older brother.) Mrs. B is also the reason that Russell wore a blazer to preschool one day and has loved blazers ever since. He wanted to look "sharp" one day for her so he found a blazer in an old box of hand me downs we received from someone. He obviously liked the response he got from her because he wore that blazer until the buttons fell off. I guess he wanted to look extra nice today also since he pulled his newer blazer from the closet for first day of school pictures.

Ahhh...Russell and his blazer.

Max when he was not so happy about using crayons (he's too grown up for them??!), but still working hard.

Summer is over! Well, summer break is over. Tomorrow we start lessons in first grade and preschool. The boys are excited to start school in the morning and they each picked out the pencil and eraser they want to use for the first assignment. Max was talking today about how he wants to learn to read a map on the first day of school, and Russell was kind enough to inform him that you don't read maps in preschool...you sing songs and color. But, hey, if Max wants to learn to read a map then we will work on it! :)

Due to today being our last day of summer break we wanted to end it with a bang. After a quick workout at the gym, we headed out to do some mini golf and go cart driving. Just a few miles from here there is a place that has bumper cars, go carts, slick tracks and mini golf, along with other things. It was a cool morning and we had the place almost to our selves. We took a quick drive around the go cart track and then hit the mini golf holes. We quickly realized that after the first hole we were not going to keep score. Russell took 17 strokes to get his ball in the first hole...he will definitely not be following in Tiger Woods' shoes. Max thought that he had to keep hitting his ball while it was rolling so who knows how many strokes he took. It was very fun though!! We then went back to the go cart track and had a race. Russell was a great co-pilot to me and Max was co-pilot to R.C.. Russell and I tried our best to beat R.C. and Max, but I am a much more careful driver than R.C. and would slow down for each turn, but I know for next time that that is not necessary. Watch out!! We finished our time there by giving the boys each $1.00 (I know...now days that's not much, but it seemed adequate to me. Not everyone agreed...) to play some video games.

Great form...

Last week I was able to take my kitchen back after surrendering it to the heat of summer. For weeks I didn't want to cook so as not to heat the house more. The heat has let up so I celebrated by baking some bread. This might not thrill all of you out there, but let me tell you, I have never smiled so much while making the boys their beloved PB&J. You see, I had some homemade jam I whipped up at the beginning of summer, some homemade peanut butter I made a few days earlier, and homemade bread. It makes me feel great to know each and every ingredient they are eating and know that I did it in my little kitchen instead of hundreds of ingredients being dumped together in a huge factory. Too bad I couldn't have milked the cow to get their milk or picked the corn to make their corn tortilla chips. Maybe someday...