What Augustine Has Been Up To

So so so so so excited to try skating! He's been asking for a while now, and we found some second hand. Thanks Grandma Kathleen!

Passing out little treat bags at school on his birthday. 

Eating.up.these.books. Think Magic Treehouse goes Catholic. 

Reading a book of birthday notes from his classmates. #brilliantteacher

Dinner with the grandparents on his real birthday. 


He's been wanting a lock box that really locks for a long time. G&G surprised him on his birthday with one...complete with treasures! Thanks G&G!

Making a "tipi", as they called it, with the neighbor kids. Thank God they have guardian angels, and I call upon them often. None of the adults realized they were using the pruners. 

Making everyone giggle...I'm sure by saying "bathroom" or "scuttlebut" or "Mrs. Butler". 

Birthday cookie from Grandpa Burda who couldn't come to the dinner. 

Grandpa gave him a lego dinosaur Creator set. He couldn't wait to build the first Dino. Thanks Grandpa!

Being the only brother not irritated by another brother. 

What Elias Has Been Up To

Pointing out every fly in the house. We have many. The look of no screen door on a house is very nice, but incredibly impractical. 

Getting a *little* screen time with the big brothers. 

He loved watching the construction trucks work in the video. 

Playing at G&G's. 

Arguing over Sharing his horse with a friend. 

Catching a nap in the stroller after a fun, long morning at the farmers market. The big boy shoes are new to him. He doesn't seem to mind them. 

This is his thinking face. He likes books. It's very interesting which ones he picks. 

Screen time with Daddy. He almost never watches, honest. 

He has always liked the Rescue Bots fire station. Now he's starting to play with the cars too. He's done enough observing of his big brothers playing with these toys. Now he can do it himself. 

Trash trucks are a BIG deal for this guy. We talk about them multiple times a day. 

Reading with Grandpa. 

Watching a crane. 

Still watching a crane. He kicked the soccer ball around with Augustine and I too. 

He's been wearing these a lot. They don't squish his head like the noise cancelling ones do. And he insisted on the shoe combo. 

He's not going to be up to this anymore. Turns out dot painters aren't washable. Anything made for kids to make a mess with should be washable. 

Talking to Sr. Teresa Marie about a lawn mower across the street. 

Taking a ride with Lewis. I can't believe they still fit in that car. 

What? Doesn't everyone eat breakfast with headphones plugged into nothing?

He also read the paper that morning. 

What Lewis Has Been Up To

He's been bike riding with his buddy down the street. We've taken two walks together now, and it's pretty fun to be able to keep up with a friend! (I like their shadows in that photo.)

Taking in every.last.cecada. This one was particularly cool because it had just shed its skin.

Winning over the neighbor. And dumpster diving, obviously. 

Playing the afternoon away with his buddy. They hadn't played in a looooong time. 

They played and played and played and played. 

All Augustine wants to do after school is eat a snack and PLAY. He's been choosing Legos the most, and Lewis happily joins in. They play so well that I just go find something else to do and stay out of their way. 

He's been reading to Elias because I'm SO sick of reading the same 10 board books 10x a day. Each. 

L: I'm making soup!!!

Me: Great! What's in your soup?

L: Um...water, and the seeds out of my pods, and flowers!

Me: where are the flowers from?

L: Over there. 

Me: My hostas?

L: Yep. 

Me: [cringing] Looks like delicious soup!

L: [surprised mom wasn't mad about the hostas] Yep!

Me: [face palm, then fake smile]

Trying out the skates. 

Total Eclipse 2017

(Did anyone else sing "of the heart!" after reading the title of this post?!)

I was not excited about the eclipse. It's a big responsibility to be in charge of not making a mistake while looking at it and going blind. 

Now let's add three kids into that scenario...AND the responsibility of not letting them make a mistake and go blind too. 

No big deal. Oh, and Mom...you're flying solo today. Dad is at work of course. 

So my plan was to pull Augustine from school so I could be in charge of him, pray like crazy that Lewis would actually have a half way decent listening day, and put Elias down for his nap a 1/2 hour late so he would be sure to sleep through it. 

Everything went pretty well, and I even had a chance to look a few times too. It was a bit cloudy during totality, but it was an amazing sight nonetheless. 

Elias slept right on through it, but still got up at his normal time despite pushing his nap back. 

1/4ish coverage

3/4ish coverage (see the difference in the light?!)




The darkness was so cool! The birds that come out at dusk were flying everywhere, the street lights came on, and some of the church lights too. All the children across the street at the school went silent just before totality, making it a very dramatic moment. Everyone looked at totality in silence. It was so still. 

I was amazed that the second totality was over, our eyes knew it. Even just that first speck of light after totality was too much for the naked eye. (Our neighbors on the corner let us sit with them because our house has too much tree coverage.)

Like I said, Daddy was at work...on the roof on the Newman Center...with dozens of his closest coworkers. 

Totality, 2017 eclipse, Nebraska

Soccer

Augustine has been asking to play soccer for a year, so I decided he was serious and signed him up. It's less than one hour a week for seven weeks, so I don't think it will be too much. 

He loved every minute of it, and can't wait for next week! He was good too, considering even never played, practiced, or even talked about the game. His coach seems to be really good at teaching little kids, so it will be interesting how much improvement we see. 

He scored a goal in his first game!

Surprise ending: you get a full-size Gatorade. What's not to like?!

Now, Augustine's rookie parents made a LOT of mistakes the first game. I forgot to buy shinguards. I forgot to sunscreen Augustine before the game. I forgot his water bottle. Luckily, we had sunscreen in the bag, and Grandma sent water. We had no hats for anyone. The rest of us were still in our Mass clothes. We brought no lawn chairs. 

We all learned a lot.