Pool Time!

Dinner with the Hensons

Monday night, we went to dinner with Tanner's aunt, uncle, and cousins who were down on vacation from TN. (Technically, cousin Ben just drove over from his home in Mobile, but we're sure it was like a mini-vacation!) We went to one of our favorite gulf-front restaurants the Crab Trap, where you sit outside on picnic tables and there's a great playground for the little ones. We had a great time catching up with them, and Hampton did his best to entertain us all.

 

After dinner, we all walked down to the beach, where Hampton just HAD to get in the water! We'd actually planned for this & packed a swimsuit for him, but he was just too quick for us. Oh, well...sand & sea-soaked clothes are just part of living at the beach!

 

Splish! Splash!

 Hampton is turning into a little fish. He wants to be in the water non-stop. So when we were at Bob & Randi's house the other day, they blew up the kiddie pool & straight in the boys went! Harrison eventually abandoned it for playing at the water table, but Hampton worked on perfecting the perfect dive bomb. As you can tell below, he was definitely enjoying it!

Fountain Fun!

Weekend Update

This weekend we:

Celebrated Bo coming home from his trip

Tanner had a much needed "Girls Night Out" with friends

We headed to the zoo

We played outside 

We spent time at Urgent Care with Harrison, who has an ugly tummy virus

What A Week!

This week was one we hadn't been looking forward to....Bo's business trip. Bo was gone from Monday morning & gets home today from Boston. Neither of us knew what to expect, but the week mostly turned out better than we thought. Bo learned a lot & had fun touring New England, and Tanner managed to wrangle 2 boys alone, and one was sick! Except for H2 having a mean stomach bug, the boys had a great time. We swam, played outside, watched movies, colored, and pretty much ate whatever Hamp wanted for meals. We couldn't have made it without both sets of Grands helping out, though! It definitely takes a village, especially when one parent is a time zone away! 

Here are a couple of pics from 2 very different weeks....

Country Grammar

Hampton is our non-stop talker, telling everyone who will listen about everything in his very southern accent. He also asks a million questions a day, which we mostly don't mind. What we think is too cute, though, is how he messes up some words. He calls crayons "crowns", he says "crashdid" instead of crashed, and he messes up his verb tenses. We hear lots of "he do" and "I does", and it's adorable! Soon enough we'll be correcting his grammar, but right now, we just love hearing what his little mind comes up with! 

The Potty Train

After lots of train stickers, prizes, patience, and reading of "The Potty Train" book, we are proud to say that Hampton is now out of diapers! He stopped wearing them last month, but we wanted to give it a couple of weeks to  stick before we jinxed ourselves! It was a learning lesson for us all, including how positive reinforcement definitely works, that every child is different, and that the child has to decide they want to, or it's never going to work. Mostly, we learned that it wasn't as bad as we thought it would be, and that we're happy it's over (at least for now)!

Wet & Wild

Paul & Jan have this tall spinning sprinkler that shoots water everywhere. Combine it with a tarp, and the boys have been keeping cool & entertained while visiting them. It doesn't take much for cool fun on hot summer days!

Father's Day Fun

This weekend was a full one! Friday night, we worked the VBS cookout at church, where we got to catch up with some friends. 

Saturday, we ran errands, picked up the boys from P&J, and got to see the balloons landing at the annual Gulf Coast Hot Air Balloon festival. 

Sunday, we headed to church, where Hampton got to sing & dance to the VBS songs during praise time & we got to witness our dear friends' daughter be baptized. Afterwards, we headed to lunch with both sets of parents before playing at the water fountains for a bit. 

For Father's Day, Hamp made Bo a cute drawing & answered some questions about his daddy. The answers were so cute....apparently, he thinks Bo is 24 & hammers for a living.

As you can tell, it was a packed & great weekend! 

VBS Success!

We did it! Except for our picnic tonight, we've survived another year of Vacation Bible School. We had a great turnout, and the whole thing couldn't have gone smoother. The children all learned the Lord's Prayer, which is awesome....especially since lots of adults can't remember it! 

Both Hampton & Harrison are still too small for a class, but they had a blast in the nursery. Hamp had a couple of little friends his age to play with, and they both LOVED the music. Our nursery workers are so awesome that they took the littles to both the opening & closing assembly each day just so they could dance. H1 took full advantage, and by the 2nd day, he was up on the stage with Mr. Cody, our music leader! 

We're already working on our theme for next year, and with the plans in the works, it's sure to be a hit as well!

Summer Lovin'

We're having fun in the heat! We've been swimming, Hamp has gone to storytime with Granddaddy, and we've played, played played! Here's a pic of H2 playing on the phone while H1 plays in the play place at Chick-Fil-A.

Say Click! Take a Pic!

Hampton sees us using our camera and our camera phones all the time to take photos, so he's started to show interest in it, too. This day, he told us he was on a "camera safari", and snapped pictures of all the pretend giraffes, lions, and tigers that were on savannah. He has a great imagination and apparently a good photographic eye!

VBS has arrived!

Well, today's the day! VBS at church starts this morning. Tanner & the Childrens' Committee have been working on it since the week VBS ended last year, so hopefully things will run smoothly all week. The boys are going to be having fun in the nursery with lots of Hamp's buddies, as well as some of our favorite adults. Here's a look at our theme (we don't use store-bought curriculum, we pretty much make it up ourselves), as well as a pic from last year of Tanner, Hampton, and one of Hampton's besties. We're praying for as much fun this year, if not more!

Let's Go Ride A Trike

To this point, Hampton hasn't had much interest in learning to ride a tricycle. He has one at our house & at both grandparents' house, but he hasn't cared. Until Grandi got hold of him, that is! After her lessons, he's pedaling up a storm & proudly shows off his skill to anyone who will watch. He even raced Bob & Randi's neighbor, who is in a motorized scooter!

Camping Fun

This weekend was our camping trip to Niceville, FL, just a little north of Destin. It's a great park, with a fabulous water view. As you can see, the boys were most interested in playing on the playgrounds, both at the park and in Destin. You know what they say...play time is fun time!

 

 

Slide, Slide, Slippity Slide

Now that the weather is hot, we're pulling out all the summertime toys. The boys experienced their first slip n' slide and had a blast. Bo had to show them how to do it (and we have a hilarious photo of that, but we've promised not to share). Once they realized they could roll around in the little sprinklers, they were all about it!