earthquake and hurricane

so, somehow we managed to have an earthquake and a hurricane in the same week!

henry and i were playing in his room on mon, 8/22 when his room started shaking violently. i thought a helicopter was landing on our house but was also very confused - henry didn't seem to notice - i tried to call steve but our cell phones didn't work - a minute later my aunt nan sent me a text "we had an earthquake - we are ok" - then got another one from my mom that she had an earthquake in williamsburg while in a shoe store - turns out that mineral, virginia was the epicenter for a 5.6 magnitude earthquake - first one i have ever felt - very odd feeling!

then 5 days later, hurricane irene hit the outer banks, nc....we lost power for 2 full days and people in our area are STILL waiting for electricity - it damaged our corn maze and pumpkin crop but overall, we faired ok

jake's song and kindergarten

jake made up a song about a year ago...i just saw an old facebook post with his lyrics and wanted to save them:

the big, bad wolf (bing, bing)
fell out 'til morn (bing, bing)
wagonride with a cherry pie

also, we just purchased a brand, new mini van and the boys LOVE it - jake likes to move his car seat around and sit in the middle sometimes and in the back other days. they both enjoy the dvd player that is installed in the ceiling - it even has built in video games :) they fight over who gets to push the button to open the auto sliding doors on the van - and we have vowed not to eat in it or drink colored drinks in it for a looong time! we also purchased my dad's old truck and the boys like having poppy's truck to ride in - i like it too :) it still has dad's jethro tull cd in the cd player - will always leave it in....

jake also started his 1st day of KINDERGARTEN 2 days ago - his teacher is mrs. monahan and he got his first grade today, an E+ (see right) and this is our first year with homework every night :) he has 7 people in his class and likes it so far :) see photo above :) he chose a dragon/knight bookbag and lunch box theme this year :)

what's new

Henry knows most of his colors now and says his ABC's well. He doesn't like me to sing along and tells me to stop singing so he can sing solo. He also knows Twinkle Twinkle Little Star pretty well, too :)

Also, when we went to the beach again with Sassy, Bizza, and Becca, Henry had a change of heart and decided he actually DOES LIKE the ocean, sand, and the beach in general :) While there at the beach cottage, we got to swim in the inside pool alot and Henry discovered that he can "wim" all by himself with his lifejacket on. He wanted to do it all by himself and didn't want us to help him - he likes to swim to the ladder and climb up and down :) While in the pool, Jake demonstrated his ability to go underwater (he hold his nose)- He also enjoyed trying to "body surf" for the first time while at the beach and found out he likes rice while at dinner one night :) The cottage also had a foos-ball table which Jake really enjoyed and Henry called it "gutter ball" and called the cottage "Becca Boo's Beach House" -

When Jake went to the beach last week with Grandma, Pa, Missy, and Bryan, they played putt-putt and Jake got 2 HOLES IN ONE! Goooooo Jake! Also, the boys both started wearing their very first pairs of flip flops ever (Jake didn't like them up until this summer) - and Henry is different from Jake in that he LOVES to wear hats and sunglasses. Jake just started wearing this recently :)

Little Mr. Peanut AND Busch Gardens Rides for Henry

At this year's 2011 PPP Festival in Surry (Pork, Peanut, and Pine) Jake was honored with the title of Little Mr. Peanut. This title is given to a little boy ages 5-7 who lives in Surry and his part of a farming family. Jake was asked to hold the title this year, and it was alot of fun. His photo and bio were in 2 different papers, which was his favorite thing of all. He felt famous :) He got crowned on the big stage at the festival and got to ride in a convertible in the festival parade :) He got alot of attention from spectators who waved, took his photo, oooed and aaaed. One lady even asked if I would take a photo with her and Jake - she was a fan - sooooo cute! Little Miss Peanut was a sweet little girl named Amanda Barlow who was 7 :)

Jake went to the dentist this week and has 2 cavities! So we go to a pediatric dentist next week and we shall see what those visits hold for us.....cringe :( On a more cheerful note, he has learned how to play Tic Tac Toe and really enjoys it. He weighs 63 pounds now.

Henry has been talking alot and today, counted to 22 (but did skip 14, 19, and 21) - pretty good though, I thought :) We went to Busch Gardens last week and Henry got to ride several rides for the 1st time, such as the swings, airplanes, and his favorite, the bumper cars (cumper cars, as he called them)- He had soooo much fun! We watched a Pirate 3D movie that scared him to death. Had to take off the 3D glasses but that still didn't help him too much when the big spider came on the screen or the scary bats looked like they were flying at us. He especially didn't like it when the water shot at us from the back of the seats...Henry doesn't like getting squirted with water or getting dirty...he is different from Jake in that regards :)

a first for mommy

Yesterday, I got to take Jake to a movie - the first time I have gotten to go with him :) He has been to several before with his grandparents (Poppy and Sassy took him to his first movie) - But he was so cute and so excited and I loved looking over at him and watching his cute, little face. He enjoyed the popcorn (we bought waaay too much) and the soda and also played video games afterward. My Mom went too and the 3 of us sat in a photo booth and took pictures. Jake was too short so I tried to lift him higher and that made him mad. So he is not even in the last photo of the series because he had left the booth - lol. Oh, the movie we saw was Cars 2 :)

Henry tells us now when he poops and asks us to "change me" - he has started to pretend to talk on the telephone and today called JC and his conversation went like this..."Hi JC how are you good yeh...Love you byeeeeeeee" - it was so cute! At bedtime we likes me to sing what he coined "Poppy's song", which is a song my Mom use to sing to me when I was little. It goes "By a baby bumpkin, Poppy's going hunting, to get a little rabbit skin to wrap our baby Henry in" - I remember when I sang it to Jake when he was little, he got sad and cried. But Henry likes it, because it is about Poppy. And we try to talk about Poppy alot every day :)

Jake weighed 63 pounds today. And Henry is starting to drink a little plain milk out of a cup AND he decided today that he actually likes ketchup after all :)

July 4th

Jake and Henry had a good 4th of July. We watched our county's fireworks last night and went out on our boat, too :) We also did our own small fireworks in our yard, which Jake really enjoyed. Henry, on the other hand, did not like the loud noises that they made. He got very scared and wanted me to hold him and take him back inside. Today, we were going to go watch fireworks on the river from our boat, but bad storms are passing through. So we are waiting for them to pass so we can light more of our own fireworks out in the yard :)

Henry asked today if we could get a ladder and go see Poppy. He knows that Poppy is in Heaven and know that Heaven is up in the sky. I wish we could go see him, Henry! At Poppy's Shack, we found tadpoles in an old pot Dad had that he used to keep goldfish in. We caught 9 and brought them home to raise into frogs - then we will take them back to the Shack to release them :)

The boys were also excited because we have had 2 rabbits in our yard recently, which is a new thing for us. They took carrots out and left them in the yard for them :) We will go check and see if they ate them, soon :)

1st tropy

Jake's TBall All-Star team won 2nd place in their tournament and Jake received his very first TROPHY! He has wanted a trophy for a loooong time. In fact, he kept one of Steve's old baseball trophies in his room, and found one of my old science fair trophies. But now he has his very own and he loves it :)