September 2011

The boys are growing up so fast. We had a fantastic summer this year. We visited the MN zoo, Como Zoo, the beach several times and a local water park several times. We had the big birthday bash in July, hit the St. Croix County Fair in July, and the State Fair (minus the twins) in early September. Gage and I took a long weekend trip to Canada to visit our friends the Dube's in July, and Tim and I went on a week long Mediterranean Cruise in early August. We had lots and lots of playdates, lots of bonfires, early June soccer for Gage...
and I'm sure I could go on and on. Overall, as always, summer was a BLAST, but it's always fun to get back into some sort of a routine.

We decided to wait one more year to send Gage to Kindergarten. I'm confident that this is a great decision for us, and Gage never even seemed bothered by the fact that his two friends since age 2 were moving onto Kindergarten and he was going back to 4k. He's already made a new friend in his class, and we've made new friends that live near us with a 4k son as well....

Here is Gage at his 4k preschool, Ready, Set, Go! His teachers were very excited to see him again!

Gage is a great kid. He is VERY independent, picking out his clothes everyday, and not listening to mom when she tells him something doesn't match or may not be right for the day's weather. I have given up, allowing him to live with the consequences of wearing long sleeves on an 80 degree day. It's tough for me to do sometimes, as the 4 Vikings jerseys he owns are the only things he wants to wear, but hey- Gotta let him be his own person, and you have to choose your battles!
He learned how to ride a bike without training wheels in early June, so the summer was spent on both the bike and his big wheel, which is still his favorite. He also became a very good swimmer this summer, and I hope to get him into lessons during the winter months so he can start working on some strokes. He's just really growing up.....bittersweet.



Here is Mr. Landon. I wish I had the words to describe his personality. He's definitely the "rough and tumble" one of the twins as he will hold his own pretty well when wrestling with Daddy and Gage. He can be goofy, but I have found he likes to be by other kids, although he often just sits and plays trucks by himself lately. No matter WHERE we are, he will walk up to a complete stranger, usually an older man, and say, "Hi!" really loud. He loves attention and if you give it to him, he'll just keep coming back for mom. Tends to be a little more of the Momma's Boy I've always wanted, however when Daddy IS in the picture, he usually goes back and forth between the two of us. When he's uncomfortable in a situation, or ready to leave he'll come up to me and say, "Mama, Buh-bye", Kinda sweet!

The boys are into making faces. Here is Landon making his "cute" face. (???)
My Bronson. Or, Bronny, as we all seem to call him. He is a GOOF! Seriously, this kid is an overall ham sandwich. If you just sit and watch him, you will find him swinging his arms, bouncing up and down, singing, dancing...sometimes to music that is playing, other times to music he must hear in his head! He loves to sing songs, and lately you will catch him singing "Twinkle Twinke Little Star" or E-i-o! for Old MacDonald. He likes to be where everyone else is, however he doesn't "need" to be. He is just fine playing by himself. Not as much of a cuddle fan as Landon seems to be, but he'll sit on your lap.
Here is Bronson's "mean" face. He is usually trying not to laugh...but this time I think he really was crabby about something so it turned out good!