First tea party

 After living in the world of boys for the past 7 years its facinating to me to watch my little girl be a little girl.  The other day she wanted to sit at our little table and eat her pretzles.  She then plopped her dog in the seat next to her and wanted a bowl of pretzles for her dog.  I got out the camera when she started to pretend feed the pretzles to her dog complete with pretend eating sounds from the dog.

 Her first tea party.  We've never played this before - she came up with it all herself.  And she's not imitating the boys. Their tea parties would included light sabers, nerf guns and some type of villan.

 The differences between girls and boys are ingrained in them.  People ask me all the time if its different having a girl and besides the fun part of dressing a little girl it hasn't been too different from the boys. Until now. When the pretend play starts to become different and we get to experience a whole new way of playing that we haven't had yet. 

I can't wait. 

Redskins Training Camp

 I dont think anyone is surprised that Brent took the boys this past week to Richmond to see a Redskins Training Practice.  When they announced they were moving to Richmond Brent has been counting down.  Add the fact that my sister was personally taken by Redskins officials to tour the training camp when it was being built and you've got one excited husband.  Plus one excited 7 year old. Colin loves watching football and his favorite player is RG3.

 Brent took the boys and left Norah and I at home. 

 Norah cried when she realized that her car seat wasn't being put into Brents car.  And cried for a while after they left but she and I had a great girls day at home.  As I'm typing this Brent has taught Norah to say football.  Still doesnt say dada but he doesnt care since his little girl is saying football :) 
They had a kids section where Colin ran some drills over and over. Sarah and our friend Sam stayed with Colin in the kids section while Brent and Joel sat and watched the practice.  I know Brent is very glad they were there so he could sit and watch.

 This is one of my favorite ones Brent took.  He came home with a ton of photos which I'm not allowed to ever delete. 

 The players praying at the end

 After practice the players signed autographs.  This was just the crowd around DeAngelo Hall.  Colin was able to get his autograph and then went around and got Santana Moss and RG3 (who he really wanted) Colin crawled his way in to get all their autographs.  He crawled under people's legs.  The crowd around RG3 was a lot more but somehow he got close and just shoved out his football.

 We told him that football is worth money now.  He's debating selling it for video game money or to keep it. ha!  I dont think his dad will let him sell it anytime soon.

Wonder which brother was going to be the recipient of that bucket of water? 

Playing together

 

 Can you spot Joel?

Teething

She walks around with her hand stuffed in her mouth most days. All four canines are coming in - but this is the last of the teeth until her two year molars. Yesterday she woke up from her nap with a corner of her blanket soaked with drool and blood as apparently one of the teeth popped through. Poor girl. 

The Emperor

He loves her.

 

I didnt even tell him to kiss her.  I love catching moments like this. He loves to kiss her all the time.

She also kisses him all the time.  But thats after we tell her to. She in return loves to hit Joel. So we're trying "no hit - kiss him"  We will see how that goes.  She has gotten extremely jealous of Joel - which is surprising since we just got Joel to get over being jealous of Norah.  Norah will get so upset when Joel sits in my lap or snuggles with me.  So she goes up and hits him.  Or if she's across the room will clap her hands together yelling while looking at him with death stares.  Today she went to hit him and she stopped herself, shook her head no and leaned in for a kiss.  So progress maybe?   My princess - a bigger bully than the boys ever were.  But at least its not stopping Joel from loving his sister. Although now that I am typing all this out maybe Joel is kissing her so much because he really wants to hit her?  ha!  who knows but he is really sweet to her and kisses are always better than hits. 

Basketball Camp

  Colin just finished up basketball camp.  Five days of basketball camp from 8:30-4.  He loved it. Which made his father very happy.

We went and watched one of his tournament games on Friday. This morning Colin was doing pushups, sit ups and jumping jacks and told me he was going to work hard to become a point guard.

Joel rubs our ears not only when he's tired or at night. But also in new situations, around people he doesnt know and also when he's nervous about something.  He wasn't sure about this whole tournament thing until it started and he saw Colin playing. I told Brent he will miss it one day and love to look back at this picture.

Pool Nights

 I finally brought the camera at night when Brent was there so we could tag team with Norah. But I thought it would be good to get some videos of Norah and Joel swimming since we have a lot of Colin swimming already :)

 

 One of the best things about our house is the fact that the pool is less than a 5 minute walk down the street. 

 

Pool time

we tried to go to the pool the other day and walked over and saw a sign on the gate saying the pool was closed due to throw up.  So we came home and Brent got into the little blow up pool with Norah.

 She loved it

And gave him this look every time he would stop and get out of the pool. He always got back in.  Wrapped around her finger he is :) 

Reading

dental hygiene

 

Summer...please dont leave

 

This past weekend Colin picked out a new backpack. That will probably be the only back to school shopping I do until back to school night. But it made me sad. And last night we slept with the windows open. I love fall weather but I'd rather keep summer around a little longer to keep the pool water warmer :)  Summer is going by way too fast. And I'm not really sure where the days have gone! The kids are having so much fun together playing. Norah keeps up with the boys in just about everything and Joel and Colin have had a great summer playing together. When Colin isn't pretending to be a tiger. Joel hates it. Colin loves that Joel hates it and now Colin just has to "roar" like a tiger and Joel starts screaming for me. So they have their moments but its been such a peaceful summer. Its going to be hard to get back into the school routine for us.  I haven't once heard "i'm bored" and not because we've been busy doing stuff. We've spent a lot of time just being home. They do a great job finding ways to entertain themsevles.  The other day they came up with a game where they throw stuffed animals at norah and she loves it.  She laughs even harder when the stuffed animals hit her so the boys now have a challenge. Now she will go into their room and climb up on Colin's bed and wait for them to go on Joels bed with their stuffed "friends"  So strange but they are all happy so it works for me. 

 

I have heard "im hungry" about 100 times a day.  Keeping these boys fed is getting hard.  I'm going to the grocery store at least twice a week just to keep them fed. I really wish I had their metabolism. Eggs and pancakes at 8;30 and by 10 they are wanting a whole other meal.  I've spent a lot of time in the kitchen making/cleaning up meals. 

 

Colin is in basketball camp all week so we're getting back in the school mode since he's gone from 8:30-4.  He loved it yesterday and couldnt stop talking about it.  Brent couldnt have been happier.  Which means I need to go wake up Norah and get her up.  Favorite child ever! She sleeps from 8-8 pretty much guaranteed. Colin was up at 5/6am every day at this age plus a few times in the middle of the night and Joel was even worse.  Joel still is up all night several times a night and he will only sleep if he is RIGHT NEXT TO YOU - every time you try to push him away he will come even closer.  And no matter how many times we put him back in his bed he will always end up in ours. But Norah loves to sleep and loves her bed and its absolutely amazing to us.  I'm kinda glad we had the boys first because if we had had Norah first and then the boys we wouldnt know what to do. 

 

But we do have a few more weeks of summer left so we will try to soak it all up while we can.