baby lucas is (summer) school bound

my little man is off to pre-k summer school tomorrow.  this will be his first time in a classroom and...

i do not feel ready for it.

i will be able to sleep tonight because:

it's only for 4 hours.
it's only 3 days a week.
it's only for a month.
and, most importantly, it's with one of our most favorite people, miss mandy.

updates to follow...

boys of summer

yesterday, auntie tia took us for our ride in her jeep, felix.  we couldn't fit lucas, so he stayed behind with oma.

the sun beat down.  the wind whipped our hair.  jacob asked to push the "close button" over and over again...

we got icees and drove back through loomis.

and i wanted summer to last forever.

you spin me round

isaac commandeered jacob's neon glasses

as summer started to settle in today, we found ourselves:

listening to dead or alive.

eating root beer floats.

making a gigantic mess in every room.

and having a water bottle fight with one squirt bottle filled with water, and one filled with method antibacterial bathroom cleaner...

essentially, a water fight for germaphobes.

also worth noting, jacob is breaking in his "sleep boots" as i type this.

he was fitted for night splints a little over a month ago in the hopes that we can reduce his toe-walking.  although, i'll miss his tippy-toe-prance, i know that this is the right thing for him.  and i'm crossing my fingers that he will have sweet, sweet dreams while his rainbow-foam and car-printed splints work their stretching magic.

welcome, summer

ok.  technically, it is not summer.

but school is out.

the sun finally showed up.

and, although we've never felt more scholarly...

we're going to go ahead and call it.

it's summer.

today, to mark our first day of vacation, i made the "big, pink cake" that i promised jacob.

dear summer, make a wish

admittedly, it's lacking in aesthetics.  but it made up for its homeliness with handfuls of chocolate goodness (handfuls is accurate because lucas and i ignored our forks).  

jacob sang a modified birthday song and cut the cake when i wasn't looking.  isaac ate his entire piece within seconds.  and lucas basically re-enacted his first birthday, including getting cake in his nose.  

cubs

isaac, wishing i would take the picture already

lucas, ditto isaac

cake + kids + sun + free(ish) time = welcome, summer.  

summer delight

the end of summer makes me feel sad. and kind of forlorn.

(when i write the word "forlorn", i think of an incredibly regrettable poem that attempts to make it rhyme with the word "unicorn". write me such a poem, and i will frame it. and love it. every single day. do it.)

a quick review of this summer's bounty:

i came back into the world of shorts. good for me. lame for onlookers.

i found and made (3 times!) the best cake for strawberry shortcake.

the boys all gained some freckles, and i wanted to name each of them. frederick, pip, vince, zeus, etc.

we tried out the drive-in movies and LOVED it. nobody even noticed that i held the bag of kettle corn the entire time...

we gained a big-boy bed and lost a couch.

the boys swam like fish. ate like horses. grew like weeds. and swore like sailors. (one of those was false)

i stayed up late, chatting with friends and doing my nails.

i didn't blow dry my hair unless i had to.

lucas and i were best friends.

isaac kissed me every day and made me laugh even when i shouldn't.

jacob built some amazing lego stuff, and made me tear up when he sang along to the radio in the car. (come on, usher really tugs on the heartstrings.)

we watched enough old reruns of SO YOU THINK YOU CAN DANCE to convince us to watch the summer 2010 season.

we've had joint family outings with friends which multiplied the fun by the hundreds.

i've considered revisiting my childhood friendship bracelet making frenzy. what do you think? would it be rad?

under the boardwalk... down by the seeeeeaaaaa

there are probably all kinds of guilt. religious guilt. done-someone-wrong guilt. ate-all-your-child's-halloween-candy guilt. and those are all pretty rocky, and maybe even, vomit-inducing... but one form of guilt that i cannot seem to fall asleep through is the your-kid-missed-out guilt.

isaac told his teachers before school let out that we were going to legoland this summer. despite isaac's power of positive thinking strategy, we had no such plans. i laughed it off, but inside i worried. is a summer break really a summer break without a momentous excursion? probably. but just in case, i wasn't going to let guilt get the last laugh.

i was beginning to weigh various day trips when i was talking to k one afternoon. she suggested santa cruz beach boardwalk. her kids love it. top three selling points: beach, crazy rides, and garlic fries.

** i hadn't been to the boardwalk since i was about 15. and my family went one summer during a weeklong camping trip. yep. i said weeklong camping. on that trip i ended up with 19 mosquito bites ON MY FACE. 19. it was like vacation leprosy. it cannot be overstated that i do not like camping.**

k was planning to take her boys this past friday, and we decided to make it a two-car caravan.

the ride down, including 3 pit stops, went very smoothly. the boys like car travel. ragain likes listening to the radio. and i like eating chips and buttery pretzels. (crunch, crunch, crunch)

when we finally arrived at the boardwalk parking lot, jacob didn't want to get out. he said he wanted to stay in the car and take a nap. the trip took an abrupt nosedive. we convinced him to get out after a few minutes, but i was a little concerned. i hoped he would get into it once we started riding the rides...

first, family photo to prove we made it to our destination and were all still claiming to be related. in reviewing the photos, i realized i looked like a man. image omitted.

ride #1: ghost blasters. lucas and i ride together. he screams for the entire ride. i tell myself that the 19 mosquito bites were still infinitely worse.

next, the twins ride their first roller coaster. isaac buries his head in one of k's son's shoulders during the scary bits. but still, when he and jacob get off the ride, they look completely exhilarated. lucas looks jealous.

rides, rides, rides.

lucas and i foray into the world of dippin' dots. we're converted and have blue-stained mouths.

rides, rides, rides.

i almost have heart-failure as isaac and jacob soar over my head in the "superman" ride.

log ride. we get SOAKED!!! lucas looks like he wants his money back.

i scream like a maniac during the tilt-a-whirl ride. worse, i try to regain my composure over and over again by pointing out the ocean to the kids. then, the screams bubble out of my mouth again and the kids spend the rest of the ride imitating me saying, "look, the ocean. mmmmmm- aaaaaaaaahhhhhhhh!!!!!"

while putting lucas on a helicopter ride, the band, flock of seagulls, begins a beachside performance. no, seriously.

we dash out to the beach for a quick slosh in the waves, but by this time it's after 8 and freezing out in the sand. we run back to the boardwalk for several helpings of fries, and ok, maybe one corndog.

mmm fries...don't mind if i do...

lava-hot fries!

yikes!

we trudge reluctantly back to the parking lot with a warm bag of cinnamon glazed almonds jacob wants to be carried. he cries as he looks back at all the winking lights. then, kisses ragain's face, strokes his arm, and says, "thanks for bringing me."

isn't summer so good?