happy birthday jonah

Our buddy Jonah turned 4 the end of July! We couldn't have been more excited that he got to come play shortly after his big day.  I decided to make a little birthday party out of it and we made a yummy cake to decorate and eat while he was over.  Can you believe how big all 6 of these kids are? And look at sweet Jayda with all the boys! I wish Silas was looking in the group picture, but his mom and I can't believe how much Silas and Levi look alike!  At a quick glance they can easily be mistaken for each other! 

I wish we saw more of these Carlson kids! 

kindergarten park

At the parents meeting for kids entering kindergarten it was suggested that we make several trips to the kindergarten park at the school so our student would feel comfortable and familiar with the park before school started.  I thought that was a great idea so we walked up to the school park several times this summer.  Isaiah LOVED that it was his kindergarten park and thought it was a super fun place to be.  It made him that much more excited for kindergarten to start!  

fun baby

Like most babies Titus is such a happy baby as long as mommy is around :) He loves to be talked to, played with and included.  As the crawling has begun, he's gotten to help in so many more  ways like filling up the laundry basket, dumping out the puff corn bag and scattering the toys!  7 months is such a fun stage! 

petting zoo

We have such a fun petting zoo not far from our house.  There are so many animals in the little zoo - goats, donkeys, ducks, chickens, turkeys, bunnies, llamas, pigs, ponies, cows, birds, kittens and many more!  I think I've said this every year for the last 4 years, but we never make it there as much as we should!  One July afternoon when we happened to have Caiden with us, we made our first trip of the summer.  The boys had a blast and thought the animals were hilarious.  The llama would chase them up and down the fence playing a game with them which was funny.

 Levi loved being in with the ducks and chickens.  I've got to keep my eye on that boy as if I turned away he'd either be in the pond or chasing the poor little animals around :)  He also loved the kittens.  I think he would have held them for hours if we had the time.  Isaiah especially loved the donkeys and llamas.  

What a fun place to spend the afternoon!

staying cool

It was such a hot summer this year that we were looking for ways to stay cool!  Several days we froze  matchbox cars or other small toys in cake pans and then had fun digging them out!  The boys used all kinds of methods to get to the toys inside!  With such hot weather, it didn't take long for all of the ice to melt!

It's pretty obvious by many of the pictures that I post that we have a hard time keeping Levi's shirt on - and shoes and socks on either boy!  :)  It just isn't one of the battles that I choose to fight!  Gotta love my tough boys!

Summer Reading Program

All 3 boys participated in the Summer Reading Program at the library this summer.  We made sure to visit the library once a week for the first 7 weeks of summer!  Our library is such a nice place for kids my boys' ages - plenty to play with and in it's own separate section of the library so I don't have to worry if they aren't super quiet!  We checked out lots of books and spent lots of time reading at home this summer too.  I found several beginner chapter books that had short chapters and a pictures every few pages that really held Isaiah's attention.  He never wanted the books to end and was always planning out which days we could read which chapters!  When he knew there was just one chapter left, he was insistent that we'd save it for the next day!  I sure hope that my boys develop my love for reading!  

We also made sure we fit it in our schedule to go see Dan Wardell (the Iowa PBS Kid's guy) when he was at our library.  The kids were amazed to see the guy from TV in person!  He put on a cute show that kept their attention for the entire hour.  

The boys are getting excited for the monthly puppet shows to start back up at the library.  What a great place to go!  We love the library!

standing! and daddy's boat.

By mid-July Titus wasn't going to sit out of the action, he wanted to be right in it with his big brothers.  He will stand up as part of the gang!  Here they are playing with our new outdoor car table (that I happened to get FREE from someone in the midst of a move!).  Aren't those little legs standing up the cutest!?

He also found a new favorite outside toy - his daddy's old boat.  We don't have a whole lot of pictures and toys from Mark's childhood, so this boat is especially precious to me.  Titus is at the perfect age for it - he loves to sit and steer in it, or stand up and steer, or stand up and watch out the back at what's going on. (It's also nice for me to have a fun place to put him outside while I entertain the big brothers playing baseball and other bigger boy stuff!)

(you can really tell that the boy got his daddy's ears in this picture! love it.)