VBS and Father's Day

Brenner was at vacation bible school all week, and Matt helped in his class (10-12 three and four year olds - yikes)! The both had a really good time!


Brenner asks regularly now "Can I play with Nola?". His latest facination is playing "baby" where he strips down and crawls on the floor - too funny!

Look - it's John Travolta in Saturday Night Fever! Brenner danced and danced at the VBS closing ceremony. Matt had the songs stuck in his head all week! B-I-B-L-E, that's the book for me....

Nola crawls around the house like a little speed demon. Here she found the vent with the A/C blowing and she popped right down on it!

Nola's face cracks me up in this picture!

We had a special treat for Father's Day - Aunt Janet and Grandpa Bob came for a visit. Matt cooked ribs and I made the carrot cake just for Papa!

Brenner loved playing with Aunt Janet!

On Sunday, we hiked to the Devil's Icebox. This is the spot were Matt proposed - so it was fun to bring the kids here. Brenner kept saying this was a "great venture"!

Brenner and Papa in the cave. As we were going back to the car, Brenner said "We should add Mother's Day with Father's Day so it can be for both of you"....what a sweet little boy!

Out and about

Things continue to be busy for us with lots of yard work after some winds blew down some trees and trying to maintain the garden which got a late start after our wet spring. Brenner enjoys helping outside and runs around like a madman inside. We were treated to several Brennerisms this week. The first was associated with an Easter book where soldiers take Jesus to the cross. Brenner grabbed his Mickey Mouse Magic Show sword, swung it around, and announced "I have to hurry to arrest Jesus!" Struck me as a bit funny that he doesn't quite understand characters versus figures! Brenner always wants to "help" vacuum and the other day he informed me "I want to do it all by myself with your help!" Okay, buddy, good plan!
We finally got the elusive tooth picture! Nola got her second tooth last week but the teething doesn't seem to bother her too much. With Brenner we seemed to use teething tablets alot but we haven't even bothered with Nola.

Brenner has a bigger bike from Grandpa Bob which Matt got ready for him last week. You can see him sort of leaning and pedaling hard in the picture. It is still a bit too big but he did pretty good.

I had to take this picture to "match" one of my favorites of BHP (check out the blog post "Nine months already" from August 6, 2008). What I find really hilarious is that Matt's posture is the same in both pictures! Matt said this picture will be blackmail for Nola in the future. She is just so cute I couldn't help it :)

Nola enjoying the cool weather at the park.

Brenner was really excited to make smores the other night! He loved the "gooey stuff". Matt sets up the little grill for Brenner to cook his own hot dogs, which makes Brenner think he is big stuff just like his Papa!

The first rewards of our garden - some zucchini and strawberries. Yes the strawberries are tiny....I ate the big one before snapping the picture - it was super sweet. Our goal is to keep a tally of our harvest.

The video below shows Nola walking behind a push toy - hard to believe that is happening already. She also breaks into her signature crawl - sliding on her left hip and scooting along. There is also a bit of Brenner and me playing "Rocket Ship". These kids are the best!

Brenner at his best

We had some pretty funny Brennerisms this week. Brenner got Nola laughing to which he remarked "You're a genius, Nola!". Another cute one is when something goes wrong, Brenner says "Oh, coconuts!" (I think this is from Mickey Mouse Clubhouse). As I may have noted previously, Brenner bites his fingernail very badly (this began after he started to go to preschool - so suppose a nervous habit). Matt caught him the other night chewing on his toenail (eww, right! But it had been bath night at least)...but listen to his rationale that he revealed a few days later.....he wanted to have a sharp velociraptor toe to catch his prey. Ah - that is my boy - I think he can rationalize anything! Nola was good this week but she seemed a little off perhaps due to her erupting gums!
Brenner went to school one day with Papa because there was a picnic for the art club. Brenner is very popular as you can see from the picture :) One of Matt's students had said that she wasn't going and Matt noted that was too bad because Brenner was going. She immediately said "If Brenner is going, then I am too." Not sure why his tongue is hanging out.....

Matt gave Brenner this little skeleton from his classroom. When I moved the chairs to vacuum, Brenner wanted us all to play camp out, so here we are. Note the blue duct tape on the skeleton's knee. A pin came out and Brenner told Papa "I can fix it!" and ran to the junk drawer to get the duct tape. He already knows that duct tape can fix just about anything!

I was up early this morning pruning my flowers when Brenner got up and wanted to eat breakfast outside (dinosaur oatmeal pancakes and raspberries). But our turtle yard ornament was outside and Brenner insisted that he have some lettuce....so turtle got his breakfast too!

Nola hanging out with Papa in the shade. She loves her stacking cups from Aunt Theresa!

Here's a close up of that beautiful girl. Tongue still poking out but not nearly as far as before!

Grandma Val heard the Union Pacific steam engine was coming to town so Brenner, Grandma, and Nola headed into town to meet it. Thanks Grandma, he had a great time and has become re-infatuated with his trains!

Brenner with the station master who was nice enough to give Brenner his square yellow Union Pacific pin. The exposure on this picture is not great...wait...maybe that is just really Brenner's angelic aura? :)

Nola and I joined some of my friends at a local art fair at the park. We all have little boys and left them at home :) We thought Brenner would like to see the topiary of a dinosaur...although Nola does not look very impressed in this picture!

Brenner (and Emi) have a pomegranate icepop!

Followed by a drink in the sprinkler!