Avery, playing in the rain while waiting for Corbin's bus. A friend offered to let us sit in her car to wait for the bus, but Avery wouldn't have any of that. She loved walking around with her umbrella in the "wain"

Reading in bed

I caught this cute moment the other day. Avery is starting to show interest in moving into a big kid bed. She likes to climb up on Corbin's bed and she'll say, "Sleep. Night-night." But, I don't think we'll move her out of the crib for a while. I'm not ready for that.

mow-hawk

Corbin is going through a mow-hawk phase. He insists on having a mow-hawk (usually pronounced mow-fog) every day. Except that he does not get to have one on Sunday. After lots of tears, we had to compromise and he gets to pick his hairdo every day but Sunday. Sunday is Daddy's day to fix Corbin's hair. I don't really blame him for loving his mow-hawk, when I was a kid I begged my mom to give me a moo-hawk. I just couldn't understand why she would be so mean and not cut my hair that way. 

Last night Corbin and I were going over the parts of a book:
Me: "What's this" (pointing at front cover)
Corbin: "The front cover"
Me: "What's this" (pointing at back cover)
Corbin: "The back cover"
Me: "What's this" (pointing at the spine)
Corbin: "The shin!"

And on August 24 Corbin said, "You know what my favorite foods are? Salt, and cauliflower!" Mmmmm...salt

Kindergarten

Today was Corbin's first day of Kindergarten! I can't believe that he is old enough for school! He was a little nervous once we got to the school this morning, but he lined up and went right on in with the other kids. And after school he didn't stop talking about everything that he got to do in school. Of course, the first thing he told me was about recess and snack time. He also told me  "but I didn't learn how to read yet." Corbin loved his first day of school!

Corbin just finished his first season of baseball. His league was coach pitch, but if you missed after 3 pitches, then they would pull out the tee. Corbin only had to hit off the tee about 4 times total for the whole season! He is a great little hitter! Clark got Corbin to slide into home every time he went around the bases. It was pretty awesome. Go Corbin!

Too much laughter

We know that when kids are too quiet, it often spells trouble. Well, too much laughter can also mean trouble.

I was making dinner for the missionaries from our church, and the kids were laughing and laughing together (and silly me, I was thinking, how nice that they aren't fighting for once). The kids were supposed to be coloring in coloring books. However, Corbin found that Avery much more fun to color. Judging by her laughter, Avery also thought it was pretty awesome.  And while the markers they used were not permanent, they were not so washable either. Avery's face was still fairly black after a good scrubbing, and when the missionaries came over a few hours later, we all had a good laugh (except for Corbin, who was slightly embarrassed to have his handiwork discussed and laughed about).

5 year photo shoot

I got lots of these looks while I was trying to take his picture

This is the picture that I ended up ordering an 8x10 of to hang on the wall.

Corbin can make it across the monkey bars now! We had to take a break from the picture taking to play for a few minutes.

Love this one. It's one of my favorites

5!

Corbin is 5! I took Corbin and one of his friends to McDonalds for lunch on his birthday, and Corbin told his friend's mom, "I'm 5 now, so I can do almost anything!" Corbin's big gift this year was a motorcycle bike. He  absolutely loves it! The only problem is that the bike is seriously heavy (we're talking 32 lbs heavy). And so the poor kid can't pedal for very long before he tires out. It breaks my heart because he loves the bike so much, but it just is hard for him to use. So, I took him to the bike store the day after his birthday, and let him pick out a used bike there. That way he can ride his motobike around the neighborhood and still enjoy it, but when we want to go on longer 4-5 mile bike rides he can ride the other bike and not die from exhaustion.

Corbin and his motobike. We also gave Corbin a new helmet and a bell for his bike. The bell was a huge hit.

You can't see it from here, but Corbin picked out a candle shaped like a question mark. He saw the "mystery candle" at the grocery store a few months ago, and he couldn't wait to get it for his birthday cake.

The morning of his birthday, we let Corbin open one present. Avery gave him this dentist play doh set, and Corbin has had so much fun playing with it!

Finished! We did it!

About 3 years ago, my family gave us the kitchen table that I grew up with. It's about 25 years old. The week of the 4th of July we finally got around to re-finishing it! It was quite the project, and we are pretty happy with how it turned out. Clark was in charge of all the sanding, and I did all the staining.  And, after all that hard work, I am going to freak out when it gets it's first scratch. And let's face it, with two young kids, scratches are inevitable. Sigh.  Good thing my little rascals are cute! We're hoping that the table will last another 25 years, and who knows, maybe we will pass it down to one of my kiddos one day.

The before pictures:

Clark,  the master sander

Working on the stain the in garage

This is how we ate for 2 weeks.

And here is the finished product!! We did it!

rocket pinewood derby

Last week was our church's annual rocket pinewood derby. This year our family entered two cars. We raced last year's champion, Night Rider; and our new car No. 2 (a.k.a pencil).

This is just a sampling of some of the cars that races. You can obviously tell which one is "Pencil" and "Night Rider"  is the black car with  #4 on it, right next to Pencil.

Night Rider defended his title and won the championship again! Here is a video of one of Night Rider's races. Pencil, on the other hand, didn't do so well. It came in last in it's bracket, but it sure is a cute car!! We sure love the rocket pinewood derby, and we can't wait for next year's race!