Masterpiece Monday

This weekend, Finn found my special Magnolia Bakery cookbook and asked if he and I could make a sweet treat.  I told him to pick a recipe and write down the ingredients and then we went to the store.

 Finn got right to work on his Double Layer Chocolate Buttermilk Cake

He made the batter and the frosting completely from scratch

 When the cakes had cooled, he layered and frosted them..

and added a signature Smiley Face touch!

When it was complete, he rang the doorbells of all his friends and he and 7 buddies enjoyed his sweet creation.

Such a delicious Masterpiece!!

Sully's First Week of Kindergarten

Sully's First Week of Kindergarten was an exciting one.  Because of the staggered K entry, he had to go on Wednesday for his "practice day" and Friday was his official start.

On Monday, Sully had a special playdate with Eli.  The boys played Wii, had lunch and pretended to be Super Heroes.

On Tuesday, we went to the park with Rebecca and Drew.  

The boys played by the creek, threw rocks in the water...

 and celebrated Rebecca's birthday with cupcakes in the park.

Sully and I played LOTS of board games together and built lots of legos.

 On Tuesday night, Mom and Dad brought Sully two special Storybooks all about school

 and big brothers and I read them to Sully (again and again) before bed.

 He was super excited for his big day!

 On Wednesday morning, Sully was up and dressed before anyone.  Finnegan read his new books to him again before breakfast

 Sully showed off his new backpack to our neighbors as we posed for some pictures.

Big Brothers helped walked Sully to the kindergarten hallway

When we got to his assigned classroom for the day, Sully unpacked his backpack and made sure to show his teacher that his Batman lunchbox had a cape!

 He then found his friend, Sophie, and began to play.

 Hours later, Sully arrived at the bus stop with his big brothers.

 We celebrated his successful practice day with ice cream with friends.

 On our day off on Thursday we met up with Nathan at the playground

 and had Gabriel over in the afternoon 

Thursday night we went to Kindergarten Open House to find Sully's class assignment and meet his teacher.

Patrick and Finnegan helped Sully explore Ms. Donahue's room and find his cubby

 Friday morning was the big day.  It was official!  Sully proudly walked to Ms. Donahue's classroom.  We stopped to see his name outside her classroom.

 He and I unpacked his backpack and got him settled.

 He chose to sit next to a nice boy that also had a "super spike" 

and got right to work on is coloring project.

 Later that afternoon, Sully came off the bus wearing his new kindergarten hat and a GIANT SMILE!

I know it's going to be a great year for sweet Sully!

Hello Third Grade!

Patrick and Finnegan began 3rd Grade today!

Entering school ready for a great year!

 Patrick with Mrs. Hayes

 Finnegan is Ms. Marcotte - 

that's right, he got the same teacher (and classroom) again!!

Summer Fun Week 10

We ended our summer vacation with a bang!

After a couple years of asking, we finally took the boys to Legoland Florida.

We spent two days at the park and it was just perfect for the boys.

Half of the first day was spent at the water park.  We raced down 3 story waterslides in tubes, taking turns who raced with who, and challenging each other to see who could scream the loudest!  We swam in the wave pool and built lego rafts & floated down the lazy river.  Sully and I watched as Gill, Finn and Patrick slide down some dangerously high slides - and then we all had a blast in the water play area with the giant dumping tank.

The rest of the time at Legoland, we took our time exploring the giant lego figures and riding lots and lots of rides!!  There were absolutely no lines at the park and it gave us the opportunity to go on rides numerous times.  

Sully was tall enough to ride all the roller coasters and he was much braver than I was. Sweet boy told me not to worry, that we would be Roller Coaster Buddies and he would hold my hand and be brave for both of us.  Sully did just that.  We road the Coaster-Saurus (wooden roller coaster) & the Dragon hand-in-hand, over and over again!

All my boys road Flight School and Lego Technic without me - cause Mom is a scaredy cat!!

 We raced lego boats...

and went to driving school

The boys really enjoyed the area where they built cars and then tested and raced them on all different kinds of tracks.

 There was even a gaming room where boys could play all kinds of Lego Video Games!

 Lego Batman and Robin 

 Meeting "real life" Wild Style and Emmett.

 Though Sully was brave enough for every roller coaster, he was also excited for DuploVille.

We road the Duplo Train, explored the Duplo Farm and then the boys played in the Duplo Sprayground.  It was fun to see all the Duplo Figures from Sully's lego table and our whole family had a great time in the special area.

 The boys went wild for the Chima area.  The ride got us soaked as we battle other boats and road thru waterfalls (Mt. Kavora).  After the ride, the boys got to meet one of the characters from the show.

 We were so wet, we had to dry off in a heat booth after!

 We enjoyed the BEST treat in the park - Apple Fries with whipped cream and caramel.  Delicious!

Pizza!  Get your Lego Pizza!

We spent a ton of time exploring mini world.  Everything from the Space Shuttle, to New York City, to Star Wars was recreated entirely in Lego and we were all amazed!

It was such a fantastic family trip.  Definitely right up the boys' alley - we love LEGO!

During our trip in Florida, we were able to meet up with the Mahons, friends I haven't seen since our wedding!  We met up at the Irish Pub in Downtown Disney.  Our kids all got to meet while we caught up, enjoyed a delicious dinner and fantastic Irish Dancing.  It was a great surprise addition to our trip.

Once we got home, we had a few days left before the start of school.

The boys all finished up the summer projects

  and we had an end of summer party with all our neighborhood friends...

On Saturday, I hosted the Popsicle Playdate for all rising Kindergarteners

with over 70 new students (and their families) - it was a great opportunity to meet new friends and let the kids have a friendly face or two going into the school year.

 We ended our summer vacation with a lunch with Nannie and PopPop on Sunday.

What a week and what a summer!