Another week of summer

I finished my first semester of graduate school this week!  I was so happy to be finished.  We celebrated with an at-home ice cream party.  Unfortunately things at work got really crazy at the same time (but, bonus! promotion and pay raise!).  So I've still been cramming too much into my day at the sacrifice of taking care of myself, but I'm hopeful this week will provide a bit more sleep and exercise and time to cook some healthy food.

The kids have been adorable.  Hank just peed his pants and asked us to change his clothes.  Then, he looked at me and said "You didn't say 'go pee pee.'"  Oh, my bad, I didn't know that was our current arrangement. :)

Jack was eating cereal and said to Matt, "Honey Nut is yummier than eating a person, right Dad?"

Hank said to me the other day, very sweetly, "I yuve you. You not dumb."

Pete found a ruler and then walked right over to where we measure the kids sometimes.  He even put the ruler above his head.  Such a cutie.

This week we started a special bead jar that gets filled with a few beads as we catch the kids being kind and helpful.  When the jar is full we will go on a fun family day to somewhere.  So, one night I asked for help picking up the Mr. Potato head toys and Jack started helping right away.  I said to him, "That's a fiver," referring to how I would put five beads into the jar.  Hank heard that, came right over, put a potato head arm in the bucket and said, "That's a threever!"  So funny.  I don't think he knew I was even talking about beads, but he is obsessed with threes.

Jack and Hank split their money and bought a 2-pack of superheroes.  Jack got Cyborg and Hank got Red Tornado.  But Hank pronounces it, "red tomato".  Love it.

We went out with friends to one of our favorite parks--Highland Glen Park.  A couple years ago when we first started going there was a little stream and a waterfall, but it is now empty.  Jane looked at the empty water bed and said, "Maybe if people believed in global warming there would be water."  We had a picnic dinner and then went to walk around the pond.  Our friends' girl, one year younger than Jack, asked Jack if he wanted to hold her hand.  I was SO HAPPY I was there to witness Jack's reaction.  His face beamed with a mixture of pride and nervousness.  He didn't respond for awhile, but just stood there, not knowing how to proceed.  I said, "Do you want to hold Olive's hand?"  He said, "Let me think."  Then he kind of glanced at me with a look that said, "I don't know, what should I do?"  I gave him a look that conveyed, "Sure, yeah, go ahead."  Then he turned to Olive and said, "Ok" and then very stiffly held out his hand and walked for a good ways with no bend in his arm at all.  He eventually loosened up but shortly after the hand-holding had a tragic ending when they tried to run and Jack fell and skinned his palms. 

After the walk around the pond the kids wanted to swim.  Our friends had brought their kids in swimsuits but we hadn't.  Jane's friend had an extra for her and then Jack was offered the one year old's extra pair of swim shorts sized 12-18 months.  We gave it a shot, and sure enough, they fit Jack like a glove.  

So, Pete has a new hilarious obsession.  After seeing Jane walk out of my room wearing a scarf, he insisted, in his own pointing/screaming way, that he wanted the scarf.  Jane took it a step further and dressed him up in the scarf and some necklaces.  The next day Pete took Jane to the scarf to have her put it on him.  Then he took her to my jewelry bag to have her put on two specific necklaces.  He does this every day now.  Sometimes more than once a day if we manage to ever get it off of him in the first place.  Matt even had to run to store with him wearing this entire get-up which has now started to include a headband with a bow.  The following pics are from the pre-bow era and on a day he also insisted on carrying around an empty milk jug.