What a GREAT weekend!

Memorial Day weekend and it was truly the start of summer.  After spending far too much time working over the past few weeks, it was really nice to have the long weekend off.  We were outside doing stuff all weekend long, and for the first time in a while, I didn't feel like the kids were watching too much television.

On Saturday, we took the boys to a "Touch a Truck" event in Littleton.  Both Mudgie and Aaron were really into it.  Mudgie loved the fire truck, but I think he was so excited about it, he didn't know how to control his emotions, and he ended up whining and almost having a meltdown about it.  Once we got to the construction trucks, things improved for him.  Aaron, who was in a happy go lucky mood, was content to tag along after Mudgie and visit whatever trucks his big brother wanted to...that is, after we went in the bus.  Much like Mudgie at his age, Aaron loves busses.  He was so excited to go inside and sit in the seat, but he was in heaven when he got to "drive" the bus.  They both played happily in the construction trucks until some of the other kids figured out how to beep the horns on the big trucks.  And that was the end of "Touch a Truck."  

On Sunday, we did a little 2-3 mile hike around a pond in our town.  Mudgie did the whole thing by himself, while Aaron rode on my back.  They both loved stopping to throw rocks into the pond.  We saw horses on the trials with us, ducks in the pond, and hundreds of tadpoles in a big mud puddle.  We had a picnic lunch, and finished off the outing with a stop at Kimballs.  It's amazing how these kids always have room in their bellies for a giant ice cream cone!

Monday was another beautiful day, and we headed down the road to Forge Pond beach to play in the sand and water and to have a picnic lunch.  The kids had such a great time in the water.  Mudgie kept asking if he could go in deeper and deeper.  Dave and I just kept asking each other, who is this kid???  At the ocean, he wouldn't even put his toe in the water, but now he was going in up to his chest!  I'm convinced that all these boys need to be happy are rocks, sticks, dirt, and water.  They really could have spent all day at the beach, but we had to go home for nap.  After nap, we headed back outside to play in the yard with the baby pool.  Mudgie had the great idea of putting it at the bottom of the slide and sliding into it.  Aaron thought it was a great idea, too, and the two of them spent about an hour sliding into the water.

It feels like has been so long since we had such great family time.  Between all the house stuff, work stuff, and other things that keep us busy, family time was feeling pinched.  This weekend we all got to enjoy each other.  Aaron and Mudgie are starting to play more together, which is nice to see, and hopefully a trend that will continue.  Aaron loves Mudgie and looks up to him so much.  He tries to copy everything Mudgie does, often to the annoyance of his big brother, but I guess that is the joy of siblings.

Mudgie has such an interesting little mind.  This week he came up with some interesting play scenarios.  He's been really into his wooden blocks lately, and has a clear preference for the painted ones over the plain wood ones.  In fact, he calls the plain ones "rusties," and says that if he builds with them, the tower will fall down.  One morning, he was building something and Aaron wanted to play with him too.  He told us, "Aaron is stressing my tension lines."  He is going to be an engineer!

Aaron's vocabulary has exploded recently, and he is pretty clear about what he wants.  This weekend he even started to say, "Mudgie," which is starting to replace what he used to call his big brother, "Dija (like deja vu, but with an "i")."  I really do love the fact that he is getting so much better at expressing himself, but I do mourn the loss of those "baby" words.  Soon "Dija" will be a thing of the past, and "Mudgie" will be a permanent fixture.  It's just another reminder of how quickly they grow up.