Summer Snow Day

Abe left early Monday morning which sent us into our last 5 days with an extra little person. I hadn't had time to put anything away, so the boys enjoyed ripping boxes open for me to see what kinds of fun things they'd find to play with inside. Monday morning a box of snow clothes kept them thoroughly entertained until they thought it was a good idea to play outside in their snow clothes, which was a very short-lived idea. 

Instead of snow gear, we went with something a little more compatible with summer and had a swim day. 

When I encouraged the boys to all do a great, big hug, this is how Carson interpreted my request while the other two outright ignored me. 

They spent the majority of their swim time running allllllllllllllllllllll the way down the lawn to jump into the pool. Anything to exhaust some of the energy of these little boys, I was a supporter of. 

Is there such a thing as cousin rivalry? Carson and Newland had a love/hate relationship. They were constantly one-upping each other. They would sit down for meals, stare each other in the eyes until one of them would say, "No." so that the other one could say, "Yes." and then the other could argue "No." again. On and on. Not even arguing for any reason other than to rival each other. 

So when Carson had the chance to seek his revenge with the little sprayer attached to the pool, he took it. Carson and Newland spitefully took turns spraying each other in the face. They made it seem like an innocent game, but the vengeance in each of their eyes as they got the chance to spray each other was pungent. 

Thankfully Grandma and Grandpa Thomas were around the first half of the week for backup. 

And when tensions between cousins ran high, a show was an instant way to diffuse any quarrel. 

The boys took interest in the trees in the backyard and spent one afternoon going on a bear hunt. 

Then the Golden kids joined us for an afternoon so Becky could go to lunch with her friend, and then Becky watched the kids while I ran off to sign the closing documents on our house!

I hadn't been grocery shopping in approximately 3 weeks which led to us eating out every night. All it took was a 3 minute drive to a restaurant to get Newland fast asleep.

Lincoln enjoys his dinners with an appetizer of Chick-Fil-A sauce. 

My dad took us to Golden Corral one evening.

Gum balls to end any Golden Corral trip wth Grandpa Thomas are mandatory.

Another dinner was enjoyed at Costa Vida.

I don't know if it was all the eating out or the thought of my parents leaving me for 3 years, but I got dreadfully sick the day my parents left, and my last day watching Newland. I waved my parents goodbye from the couch with a pale face and a bucket next to me. Jeff took them to the airport and then I kindly requested he stay home the rest of the day so me and all 4 boys could make it through the day alive.

The boys managed to keep busy all day. I couldn't figure out why they were getting along so well and staying so busy without incident. After I mustered up enough energy to slug down the basement to see what they were up to, I found they had discovered all the toys I had packed away over 6 months ago when we first found out we were moving. They had 3 bins of "new" toys they had found and although it was a disaster, they couldn't have found them on a better day!

Abe flew in that afternoon to relieve me of my auntly duties.