Reflection

This quote from C.S. Lewis has been on my heart today:

"It would seem that Our Lord finds our desires not too strong but too weak.  We are half-hearted creatures, fooling about with drink and sex and ambition when infinite joy is offered to us, like an ignorant child who wants to go on making mud pies in a slum because he cannot imagine what is mean by the offer of a holiday at the sea.  We are far to easily pleased."

Where am I settling?

Labor Day 2013

We made a long overdue trip down to Georgia to visit Ben's parents over Labor Day.  We always have the best time every time we go down there.  There is never a shortage of fun things to do.

The drive itself wasn't exactly a pleasure.  6 hours in the car with 3 kiddos is never really fun, and even with a DVD player, iPad and audio books, the drive was bearable at best.  I instituted the "Prize Bell" incentive system, where both Jackson & Weston each got 2 clothespins with their pictures on them clipped to the visor.  They lose a clothespin if they yelled, kicked, argued, touched the DVD player, etc.  The Prize Bell would 'go off' {as in me saying "ding-ding-ding"} every 45 minutes or so and if they had at least 1 clothespin still up, they'd get a prize.  This little trick worked wonders and really gave them something to anticipate.  

Once we made it to Brunswick, we stayed pretty busy!  After watching the Wolfpack win their season opener on Saturday, we went on in the boat and both big boys had a blast tubing.  We were so proud of Weston for wanting to give it a try.

The high-light of the entire day, though, was riding in the back of the Ben's truck from the dock back to the house.  Pure joy!

The next day, we headed to Jekyll Island to squeeze in some beach time.  Both Jackson and Weston LOVED playing in the ocean.  Colton got his feet in the sand for the first time and was his usual chill self!

Weston was clearly worn out!

On Monday, we spent the morning hanging out on St. Simons.  It was beautiful weather and just enough of a breeze.  

Monday night, we hit up the best little hole-in-the-wall seafood place nearby Brunswick.  We have eaten there once and this time it did not disappoint.  And these 3 were big fans too!

We had a fantastic trip to Georgia and always leave saying "We should go down there more often!"  

First Day of School (2013-2014)

While the boys started back preschool several weeks ago, my reluctant-to-blog self never posted.  So here's the overdue run-down.

Jackson started 4K and was over the moon excited to finally be the "big kids" at school.  He was eager to be in Mrs. Kim's class and could hardly wait.  He came home from school on day 1 explaining to me that "R-E-D spells red, Mom.  Say R...E....D....that's how you spell red." I was thrilled about his enthusiasm since it has been like pulling teeth the get him to tell me what he learned at school in the past.

Weston's first day of school went pretty much like every other day of the past year has gone.  He cried when he realized that I was leaving him at school, but within 30 seconds, the tears were dry and he was having a ball.  Due to his extremely late birthday, we opted to keep him back so that he'd be one of the older ones in his grade rather than the youngest.  {The grade-level cutoff is September 1 and having a mid-August birthday made him one of the youngest}  So this year, Weston's in 1K, and has the same teachers & classroom, just new classmates :)  Despite his initial clinginess, he had a great first day and was very puzzled during circle time when the counting stopped at 5 (instead of 20) and the songs were shortened for the newbies.

And sweet little Colton is looking forward to having his Mommy all to himself a few days a week.  

August Randoms

A little snippit of our August fun...

Colton's first ear infection...love our pediatrician and so thankful for the super-fast same day appointments they offer.

A poster at the pedi's office....so true!

One of our many trips to Costco.  Bravely rolling three deep :)

Colton's 2nd doctor's appointment within 2 weeks...this time: thrush (thank you amoxicillian)

A text I received from Weston's teacher last week.  Guilty as charged.

Poor Colton...he falls victim to Jackson's costume obsession.  But is such a good sport.

And here is Jackson's mullet.  He is in dire need of a haircut but we just keep putting it off.  At least we can laugh about it for the time being :)

Guess who has ditched his training wheels??  We are so proud of our big boy!  Still a little apprehensive but doing great!

Sweet friends at the pool.  Jackson is thisclose to swimming independently (he swims underwater for about 8 feet).  He loves the diving board and can do a front flip off of it.  Weston has improved 200% in the water and jumps off the diving board in his puddle jumper and is much more confident and comfortable than he was a month ago.

Weston is slightly obsessed with "Mickey Mousey".  He let me push him around Costco with his buddy since Jackson was at school and there was an empty seat beside him.  Surprisingly, no meltdown when we left Mickey at the register!