Squash Bug Centerpiece

The garden has been a lot of fun for me this year, and what was especially was getting to watch some bugs on our zucchini plant, too. We'd stand at the window to watch them crawl around, mate, and lay eggs on the leaves. The boys and I were pretty entertained.

Then I looked up what the bugs were and found out they were going to kill my Zucchini plant. Sad! So, I've been vigilantly killing the eggs before they hatch in hopes I can beat them....not sure if that is possible.  In any event, we have a new centerpiece at our table....squash bug eggs and some newly hatched babies.  Calvin keeps asking what we are going to do with them now. I told him we'll "get rid" of them. He is not satisfied with that answer. I just don't have the heart to tell him I am going to kill them all!



Our garden has not been defeated yet! We've gotten some vegetables already, and it has been fun to watch it grow!

Here is Calvin's documentation of the food we've gotten so far.  I think it is fair to say that Calvin alone has eaten at least 15 of the 20 tomatoes we've harvested since he's counting/graphing them first (and Jack enjoys carrying them around "for Daddy" more than eating them himself.

We've had some classic summer days recently. We watched our friends move out of their house the other day. There is nothing better for our boys than a good moving truck with front row seats to watch the movers!

Calvin has been going to Kids Week (our church's vacation Bible school).  He had a love/hate relationship with the loud music/# of people/etc last year, though he thinks it is his school...when people ask where he goes to school, he says "Kids Week."  

This year he is LOVING it and participating!  I nearly cried the first night when I picked him up and he was standing on his own feet, singing the music with the people on stage while imitating their body motions.  We've been praying that God would help him not to fear because God is always with him. I think that God is showing himself to be real to Calvin in this area. He's been asking me to pray about it during meal and bedtimes, and he's always so excited to share that he enjoyed participating!

It has also been fun to have some time with just Jack and Luke. Last night we stopped by a local softball game on our way from dropping Calvin off. Then after I put Luke to bed, Jack and I have been reading book after book together. Calvin and I do this a lot while the other 2 are sleeping, but Jack is not as interested in it when there is other stuff going on. I love that time we have right now!

And, of course, we've been going to the pool. This look reminded me of when Jack was just a little guy and his hair was permanently like this. =)

And Luke has not been sleeping in the morning, so we've been more free to come and go. I love seeing this on the monitor!

Durham Bulls with Russ and Johanna

We went to see the Durham Bulls on Thursday night....with Russ and Johanna. I realized pretty quickly that there was no need to pair these two big events. One is plenty! In fact, nobody looked much at the baseball field when there was so much fun to be found with Russ and Johanna (as Jack says, Russ and a-Jwanna).  These pictures make the fun look pretty mild, but don't be fooled.  As much as it is possible to wrestle in baseball stadium seating, it was happening! We are thankful for friends who love our boys so well.

The game was lots of fun, still! Wool E. Bull, dollar hot dogs and fries, and Dan claims he almost caught a foul ball. I don't think I saw more than 3 pitches. Really. At one point I saw that the score was 1-0 bulls. Hmmm. That great! I wonder how we scored? Apparently I missed even the roar of the crowd when the home team scored!  I remember the days of coming to a baseball game and following every pitch (not to mention staying past the 4th inning!). That was pretty nice, but I'll take what we've got now instead.

Driveway baseball

Calvin has been asking for sugar snap peas and carrots to eat at mealtimes. Dan says he feels a little bad about it. He told Calvin that those veggies would make him strong enough to hit Rob's garage across the street. Calvin has taken that goal and method pretty seriously. Sweet buddy.

We have spent a lot of time playing in the driveway pitching to Jack and Calvin. Only in the last few days have we put the garage door down to act as a backstop. What took us so long??

Jack loves to swing the bat, but he doesn't quite understand keeping his eye on the ball yet. The game is more about the pitcher throwing it into Jack's established swing. When he connects, it is quite a hit since he swings so hard! He starts dancing around saying, "I did save the day!" That is some sort of paraphrase from a show he's loving called Super Why.

Luke gets in on the action, but mostly by causing interference for the batter. Here was a sweet interaction that Dan caught the other day.

Here's are a few more....Luke playing peek-a-boo and Calvin and Jack riding the train together at Pullen Park. Apparently Jack thought it was too loud. 

Our Daddy

Calvin and Jack usually refer to Dan as "our daddy" when talking about him to me. Likewise, they call Luke "our baby." I love that!  I am so thankful that both are "ours." I'm especially thankful for Dan as a daddy right now.

We celebrated Fathers Day by going to get some ice cream and taking it to a park nearby and giving Dan a new golf shirt. The celebration never seems extravagant enough to communicate how much I/we love him. I think he knows, though. =)

The boys also watched a little US Open with him...this scene lasted all of 5 minutes when they all got up from their naps.

Calvin was really watching the tournament, asking, "Where is the Duck?" He's not playing today, Buddy. "Why does he (Phil Mickelson) keep putting his hands up in the air (putting his own hands up)? They are just showing the same shot over and over. 

Jack enjoyed some finer dimensions of the game. "Oh! The ball is in the water!" Yes, his ball fell in the water. "Can his ball go in the water again?" We'll see, Buddy. "Oh! There's a orange guy!"

Luke just enjoyed being with Dan and reaching for Calvin's "quares" cereal.

These 5 days that Dan has been home with us have been such a treat!  I think this is the longest we've had together as a family since we moved to North Carolina.  The last couple days we've packed in lots of driveway baseball, a picnic dinner at the pool, Duke Gardens (and CookOut), of course, and lots of Downton Abbey in the evenings. We are all pretty tired, in a good way.

This morning we headed up to the Eno River with our traditional lunch burritos. We threw lots of (too big for my liking) rocks, and got really wet. We all love it there!

Mountain Bike Date

Calvin and I had a little date this afternoon. He's been wanting to go mountain biking, so we packed up some chocolate milk and headed over to Solite Park.

We first sat on a bench and chocolate milk. This drinking form reminded me of Calvin drinking his milk as a little guy....always one little eye peering out =).

Then we headed to the mountain biking track. I'm so proud watching Calvin ride his bike, and I love that he loves it!

Then we finished by playing on the park a bit. It was great to be able to give my undivided attention to Calvin's play. I think he loved it, too.

He showed me this trick about 10 times =).

And, the chocolate milk damage after I caved and let him have the rest in the car.

Ready, Set, Stay-cation

Dan has 5 days off of work, so we've been trying to live it up. Packing in all of our favorite things to do together seems like a race sometimes, but we all love it! I'm so thankful for this time!

Here are a few highlights from the last 36 hours.

Tattoos with Daddy:

Watching a storm with the power out:

And the museum: It was 95 degrees, so this misty area was just perfect!