Like, totally the best!

Finally!  It looks like I am able to load pictures again...

Valentine's Day brought a brief moment of brotherly love that has become less frequent at our house over the years.  It made me nostalgic....

Jack Huggy Face

Harry Huggy Face

The first notice

Sweet smooches

While missing Daddy who was working

Jack would launch himself at Harry when they were about two

Harry was not a fan at first

At some point Harry decided he didn't mind it too much

Harry Huggy Face, circa 2006

Precious moments, because they became more rare....circa 2010

Hug Song by Zia Mohajerjasbi

...in this carnival world

It's fall festival season around here, and we had the chance to visit one of our favorites recently. The boys participated in a summer reading program that led to treats....

....and certificates

silly faces with their friend Darius

They make the big trek on their own these days....

and even give me an occasional pose

I caught them on the Dragon Wagon

And setting up for darts

water gun races.....

....led to some loot!

If you feel like a trip down Memory Lane, check out last year's trip, ending with comparisons from years past

Jimmy Buffett's Carnival World

won't take nothing but a memory

My beloved gramma called them precious memories, and I never really got it until I watched our own babes moving through life at warp speed.

2007 - age 3
2011 - age 7

Miranda Lambert's The House That Built Me

And old home scenes of my childhood

Jack had chosen a whole lotta his favorite pix for his week as Star Student. He only took a few in, but I was playing around with them and made this collage....

Randy Travis's Precious Memories

Santa, please, will you help me

We are in full-on Christmas mode, and I found two of the biggest little helpers today

Jack was ready to demonstrate their new aprons....Dean will be happy to see the remote control pocket...sort of mans up the apron, right??

Jack's all over the helping right now - cards will be arriving with various Jack-isms...writing, stamping, address labeling. Please know that he spent as much time choosing the exact-right label as I did writing ;-)

Harry also pitched in, but mostly just modeled his gappy smile and sang carols to us as we worked .... he noticed the second top tooth is loose, so guess what he's been humming all day. He thinks it's great that he won't have to change the lyrics if he loses both teeth before Christmas.

He was the first to notice the snow this morning and immediately said "We must stop SCHOOL from coming...but how?" They've both memorized the Grinch and apply him whenever possible.

This last picture reminded me of one of when they first started using the computer way back when

Toni Braxton's Santa Please

And sat on the elephant’s trunk

The boys' school does a Trunk-or-Treat event every year, and Harry's teachers have been nice enough to pose with him every year....

The lovely Mrs. W won the teacher costume contest this year

and last year's teacher brought her sweet baby boy to pose with our sweet Harry this year....

and last, when B was still baking.

My three favorite treats!

Jack and Harry both loved the table Erin's family made, complete with all sorts of fun and spooky experiments

The boys and I enjoyed the Hay Ride around the track

Laurie Berkner's Animal Fair

All In A Day's Work

Here's what work looked like for the boys in the last few days:

Guess who they are studying?

Jack's clues (the colored one): discovered electricity, first fire department, first library, one hundred dollar
Harry's clues (pix and abbreviations): Poor RA= Poor Richard's Almanac, le = lightning experiment, sftl = started first (t?) library, he started ffd = he started first fire department

Harry brought home several 'for a grade' activities and seems to have had a stellar week...now, if he can just remember to put his name on the papers, he'll be sailing!

Here's what work looked like for me today:

I about died of embarrassment when a friend visited Sunday and I realized how overgrown the yard has become. We never go in the front door and it's a mess, but I'm hoping to let people think we spookified it as part of Boo Day decorations ;-) The rose bushes are dangerous, so I suited up and only got one scratch this time.

The trees are in desperate need of attention, so I attacted them with some borrowed tools (thanx for the long lops, C&B). I still have a few days' work, but it's a good start

Styx

And the zookeeper is very fond of THEM

Jack's always had a thing for arranging his stuffed animals, and with the recent additions from fairs, he has spent the last two nites grouping and classifying and finding just the right spot for everyone. He assured me tonite that there was still room for him to sleep ;-)
Simon and Garfunkel's At The Zoo

After 5 weeks of great school behavior for Harry and steadily improving days for Jack, we took a little trip to the KK yesterday. I obviously need to have a label for Krispy Kreme since I spent hours looking for a good comparison picture and couldn't find one. Add organizing blog to the ToDo list.....

So this is the closest I could find - bonus, Aunt Jackie's happy smile a couple of Christmases ago :-) Can you tell that they used to just barely reach that rail but now it hits their ELBOWS? :sniff: They are getting so big, but these days are among my favorite. Yeah, I've said it before and I'll say it again! These are the best days so far :-)

The children of the summer's end

We took our annual trip to an old-time county fair today, and the day was wonderful - we were able to leave just about the time that everyone was headed toward overload, and I even got to go to a friend's afternoon party (thanx, Crystal, and all your fun friends). I included links for comparisons from the last two years -
Something magical about a ferris wheel....this really is a sweet event, and we started the day with a birds-eye view

Those are our big boys carrying up their own mats, Jack a few steps ahead of Harry

Jack wanted to ride solo again this year, but Harry wanted his favorite co-pilot along....

there was a lot of debate about who hit who the most

Harry got to ride in a pseudo-vw, his previous favorite ride!

Then he got his biker on!

There are some comparison shots from two years ago where the handlebars are about at their shoulders....wow, they really are growing!

They got to do some planting, and we'll see how well we can keep the pansies alive and get the dandelions planted in time for spring

Boys love firetrucks!

This is Harry's favorite car of late, forget the original love for VW's and the later love for Hummers....the boys loves him American muscle cars at the moment!

They won a few prizes, and Jack was even generous enough to let Harry pick a prize after Jack won the water race twice. Thanx, big brother!

And there's the Jack with his Daddy after all the fun was had!

Here is the post from last year's festival, and the one from two years ago

David Bowie's Memories of a Free Festival