Forsooth, a tooth!

Jake lost his first tooth today at camp. As you can see, the permanent tooth is already on its way!














To celebrate - and also to mark the end of a great week at camp - we all went out for ice cream after we picked Jake up. Everybody loves ice cream, even Drew - who got his very own cone.



Jake has been so excited about the tooth fairy. All day at camp people told him how lucky he was - that the tooth fairy would bring him money. Tonight before bed we read some stories about teeth, and then Jake put his tooth into his pillow and set it next to his bed. Good luck, kid! Hope she's generous!

Edited to add this video: Sorry - just had to add this one. I just noticed that Drew licks the air above his cone SIX TIMES without ever getting any ice cream. Still he's happy as a clam. Too funny!

Hurry up and wait

Well, it seems that teeth take longer to come out than I anticipated. It's still tenaciously holding on in there, despite our best efforts to dislodge it! He's at camp this week during the day, so I'm actually just hoping that if he does lose it he doesn't lose it. You know?

The little ones and I have had a pretty boring two days of errand-running. The highlight of the morning was pushing the red-faced screaming infant in a cart through Walmart trying to do school supply shopping while preventing Zane from touching everything in the store (seemed to be his goal). I guess it was better than having TWO people trying to touch everything. Ugh, but at least we're done with THAT.

Yesterday Zane showed me some of his rodeo stunts. I asked him a silly question and he actually rolled his eyes at me!!! Already! He's three! Sheesh. Anyway - hopefully I can get him to nap some this week (to lose both the 'tude and the undereye circles). We'll hit some storytimes and free movies later in the week to make sure we have some fun.

Monsoon and an Imminent Visit

It's pouring rain here! Yay! Hopefully this will do a little to assuage the drought. We need it! It's been storming here in the afternoons and evenings all week. Crazy severe scary lightning! Other than that, it's been nice to listen to it coming down. We've spent several storms out on the porch - I love the mist coming off the pounding rain and the thunder that vibrates through your whole body. Reminds me again of the power and wonder of nature.


The boys LOVE the rain. Here they are enjoying a non-booming drenching. On Tuesday Zane left the lid off the sandbox - it's filled up and now has a couple of inches of standing water! Jake thinks it's like being back at the beach! So this is what they mean by Redneck Riviera!





In other exciting news, an imminent visit from the Tooth Fairy! The wiggly tooth has finally become a flopper and I fear it's only days - maybe hours - from jumping ship entirely. I'm racing against the clock to finish the pillow in time. I am trying to be crafty and embroidered a drawing Jake made of the Tooth Fairy and now need to stitch it into a pillow. We'll keep you updated on any exciting developments in this story. :)

Help!

Hey someone's got hold of me finger!

For those of you not in the know, the minivan is actually a stage on wheels for the world's hottest air-rock band. We rarely drive anywhere without a virtual concert from the back seat. Unfortunately the band broke up today on our way home.

Fisticuffs erupted when Jake decided that he would be Paul and Zane would be John. Zane was already Ringo and took great offense at this. Did Jake/Paul NOT SEE the crayola ring on Zane/Ringo's finger!?! Jake/Paul took great offense at Zane/Ringo's great offense. It ended with Macca slugging Ringo, stealing the ring and then Ringo chasing Macca down on the front porch. Crying by all. It was like our favorite bad sixties musical farce all over again.

She took the words right out of my mouth...

Too tired and lazy to post. Tricia has already done all of the work (yay!). See here for our activities this weekend: http://gatorsfamily.blogspot.com/

Thanks for coming down Trish, Jon, Ella, Jack and Gator. We had a great time and we love you very much!

Brotherly Love

I pass by the room where Jake and Zane are playing on their laptop. Zane is lying despondently on the ground as Jake plays. I ask Jake to please make sure that Z gets a chance to play too. They need to take turns.

From the next room I overhear this:

"Zane, you'll get a turn......

someday.

When you turn six."





**Edit: I added one of Ken's triathalon pics to the post below.

Cue Handel's Chorus...

He finally said mama!

...about dang time...


Today it was beautiful and cool here. We played outside for most of the day and drew a labyrinth on the driveway. The boys had a great time running around in it, then Jake decided that we should make it look like our solar system, because the star in the middle was like the sun (and, coincidentally, it had 8 rings around it!). He drew - and knew - all of the planets himself! Don't worry - poor, sad, disenfranchised Pluto was added along with its moon. Jake even knew about the offset orbit and drew it in. I was impressed! Later we added a launch pad with a countdown and rocketship to help the boys blast off. It felt like a successful summer day: we exercised our bodies and minds all while having fun!