it was a pretty good summer.....

So for the last 8 months or so, life just got much busier than I expected.  I was working full time, going to school and trying to meet the needs of the kids as best as I could.  Something just had to give and unfortunately, it was pretty much all of our free time. 

I missed blogging. 
I missed playing with paper. 
I missed being creative. 

Luckily, things have changed over the last month and I am finding that I am no longer flying by the seat of my pants.  We are pretty much moved into our new place and unpacked.  Charlie has started school and Cannon is getting used to his new schedule.  Eric is busy job hunting.  I am almost finished with school and will start my externship in a few weeks.  Things are good.  And we are good.

We did have some fun this summer. 

Charlie kicked it all off with his kindergarten graduation.

I was so proud of him.  I wasn't expecting to be emotional at all, but I did tear up a bit as they did their little march in.

Then it pretty much went downhill from there.  I could not believe how pushy and rude all the other parents were.  We couldn't see anything because everybody kept standing up. From what little we could see of Charlie, he seemed nervous and was not into the program at all.  What is up with the singing of 37 songs in a row?  It just never stopped.
 

Charlie had the best teacher this year.  Mrs. Gerten was so good for him.  She really understood his special needs and encouraged him in the perfect way.   

In June we went to the Como Zoo.  It is a smaller, free zoo that also has an amusement park.  Cannon is a big-time animal lover and was completely in his element.

Charlie was more interested in his new spy watch from GG.

We saw the Sparky the Sea Lion show.

Cannon could have stayed by the monkeys all day long.

Then we headed over to the rides.  I love this picture.  It is such a true representation of their relationship right now.

Charlie decided all of a sudden that he is now scared of rides even though he rode all the huge roller coasters at Legoland just a few short months ago.

He was freaking out by the end of this ride, you can tell below that he was not doing too good.  I think the girl stopped the ride early because he was screaming so much.

Charlie did decide that he wanted to try the teacups after this.  Things went from bad to worse on the teacups and Charlie and Cannon got in a knock-down drag out fight.  It was one of those times where the other parents are all giving you that look filled with judgment and disapproval.  We took a video but I am not going to share that because it is downright brutal.  We headed home with two boys who pouted and cried the entire car ride and naptime just couldn't come soon enough.

For the 4th of July, we headed to a local event that had some games and rides for the kids. It was really small which ended up being good for the boys. We got there early so we didn't really have to wait for any of the rides. 

This carnival was pretty ghetto and they didn't have any height restrictions on any of the rides.  While I was slightly concerned for the kids' safety, it was kind of nice that Cannon could ride all of the rides with Charlie.  Their lives may have been in danger, but at least there were no tears.

 We took a break for some mini donuts and cheese curds.

Then we headed home to get out of the heat. We talked about taking the boys to see some fireworks but Charlie just isn't that interested and Cannon won't sleep in no matter how late he goes to bed, so we decided to skip it this this year. They were stoked with just a box of pop-its, especially this little guy: 

Sometimes it is the simple things that make us the most happy.