This past week Erik wanted to get out the croquet set. He couldn’t remember what it was called so he described it…”you know mom, the thing with the balls that you hit through the things?”… until I figured out what he was talking about.

So, I got it out and both kids had fun.

Adam didn’t really do much hitting the balls with the mallet. He mostly used the mallet as a horsey and hopped around the yard with it in between his legs.

This is our little scientist learning about gravity and fluid dynamics with the croquet balls.

Our sand box doesn’t actually have any sand in it right now, but that doesn’t stop the boys from digging in the dirt! (Our neighbor’s cats used it as a litter box so now we have to replace the sand.)

Erik likes to make “rain” by squirting water straight up.

Adam really loves to swing. Erik does too, but Adam is really into it at the moment.

He will randomly get it into his head that he wants to swing during the day…and pitch a really big fit when we don’t got outside and do it right that minute. That’s Adam for you :)

Our Tomato Jungle

Alex is growing lots of lovely things in our backyard! Here is our “tomato jungle” - the little grape tomatoes are so tasty, I love them. Alex doesn't really eat them, he just grows them for me. He's the bestest!

Here are Alex’s grapes…Yup, those are mine. (says Alex) These are some of the concords. He also has some Thompson seedless that are very tasty.

and some oranges…really. These are oranges. No, really. Trust me they are oranges. Ok they look like limes but they are really ORANGES! Really about December they will start to resemble the color orange and then there will be no doubt what they truly are. Sort of like coming out of the closet. (As you may have guessed Alex has taken over this post.)

and melons! This is one of at least 14 so far. Gonna be tasty in August and September when the relatives show up.

Playing like a “big kid”

Lately Adam has been playing with toys more like a “big kid” and less like a baby. What I mean by that is that he uses things more for their intended purpose…such as building with Legos…and not just destroying what his brother built. Or making a track for the trains and then having the trains go on it…and not constantly taking track pieces apart and running off with them.

Of course, it’s still hard for Adam and Erik to share and work out their different desires and motives when using toys, but sometimes they play really nicely with no one getting upset for a whole 5 minutes or so! It’s very fun to watch when that happens :)