Last hurrahs of summer

By August, I was feeling a little guilty for doing absolutely nothing with the boys all summer except let their aunts take them to swim lessons.  So I went Pinterest crazy and we had a week-long camp mom.  We all had a blast!  Here are a few of our favorite activities: 

baking soda - vinegar balloons

                            

 playdough BRAAAAAAINS

 shaving cream paint mural with cousin Henry

 Sumo wrestling

 baking soda - vinegar fizzy painting

 spontaneous GQ photo shoot

 James' "tough guy" pose

 and dino claws

This was all during babies' naps, which they were kindly taking twice a day.

Two things I never want to forget about the babes...  Sammy did this to ALL of his jammies!  Every last pair.  Even before they were too small -- somehow he'd just work his toes out the end.

And Ruthie-lou, every single time we plopped her in the stroller, would immediately fling her legs up over the stroller bar, lounge-style.  

Labor Day weekend we had the super duper experience of going to my freshman year roommate Jodi's wedding.  It was lovely!  And quite romantic -- Jeremy and my anniversary month, attending a the sealing of an amazing couple in "our" temple, Salt Lake.  Congrats again, Jodi and Tom!

Later that day we tried some family photos.  Ha!  Not a single one turned out, but I have to giggle when I see the attempts.  (Yes, these were the best we got!)

Individual shots were more successful.  I do have to give credit for most of these to Jer.  Can't you tell his princess is looking at him?  I wonder sometimes if the kids are so excited to get some individual attention they can't help but perform:

 eyebrows higher!

 puppy Ruthie

puppy Sam

 chubby finger point, elbow dimple

fuzzy shot together, par for the course now that they're mobile:

"I'm pretty hot stuff, you know"

 and goofy

 and proud of my first tooth gap

I'm just plain silly

And finally, the official end to summer.  Scotty started 1st grade!  His face says it all -- he loves it!  It's December already and I still feel like the school day without him is too long, but really school was made for this boy.  I don't know if I ever wrote about this or not, but last year (Kindergarten), he got a stomach bug in the middle of the night one night.  The very first thing he said post-barf, in a sob: "I don't want to miss schoooooool!" So Scotty.