August 2019

This past August we had our annual un-birthday party for Jefferson and Carter's first birthday as well. We went to the splash pad and had an airplane cake with a special firework candle from Mexico. And the boys both got airplanes. We attempted our first geocache treasure hunt and found the treasure. We met Josh and Mary and Connor at a hot air balloon festival and got to get in one of the baskets while the fire was pulled (candle lighting). We made a decoration with lots of the seashells that Great Grandma Jefferson had gathered in Florida and now have a special way to remember her and the ocean. Jefferson had his face painted for the first time (usually he doesn't want it done) and became Spiderman for the night. We resumed game night and our favorites have been backyard blowup Yatzee and base ball.  Brad has been working a ton on our backyard project- a flagstone patio with a fire pit surrounded by built up gardens. And we welcomed our new baby cousin/nephew Alec. Jefferson is finding Carter more and more fun to play with these days, and realizing that he is getting mobile enough to get into his HQ and other toys which can cause some frustration. But generally they play pretty well. Carter is interested in everything that Jefferson does. Jefferson has started preschool which he calls his work and is learning more and more every day/ Jefferson's new favorite show is Octonauts and he is saying things like "Ay Ay" when we ask him to do something. And "our mission is..." One of the funniest moments this month was Jefferson trying to open our garage -it is not working so well with the remote and we have done just about everything to get it to open but every time Jefferson yells "Open Sesame" it works. And when we ask how did you do that he says smugly "I'm magic."  Carter's new nickname is "the destroyer" these days because he has discovered it's much faster to get around crawling with his tummy up. And he has discovered the joy of unrolling toilet paper, destroying piano music, and playing with the blinds. He likes to perch himself in high spots to play like Jefferson's bed and the fire place hearth and carries his toys in his mouth because his hands are busy climbing. He is starting to walk around the couches and while someone is holding his hand in the pool because he doesn't want to get his head wet. We are looking forward to some cooler weather and some backyard smores.