The White White House: A Week Off

Last week was wonderful! We got to spend six days together as a family without any plans without any scheduled baseball practices or tutoring sessions. I missed our annual 4th of July beach trip this year but the boys helped me out at home by entertaining Sawyer so I was able to catch up on cleaning and organizing, you know, the stuff that's never really done.

Jackson and Granddaddy rode their bikes to McDonald's for breakfast twice since last week. Jackson is a bundle of energy so it's been a good outlet for him since he wasn't practicing baseball last week. Today, I took Jackson, Colby, and Sawyer to Marbles Museum in downtown Raleigh. That place is amazing! It had been over a year since my last visit to Marbles. I really didn't want to take Sawyer until he could partake in many of the activities. Since the temperature reached 100 degrees today, I thought that Marbles would be the best place to play; apparently, so did the hundreds of other people that were there today. It was crowded but the boys had fun.

Sawyer played mostly in the "shoeless" section for babies and toddlers up to 18 months. After getting knocked over by big kids on two separate occasions, I thought that this would be the best place for us to stay while Jackson and Colby explored the rest of the museum. There's a nice fish tank in the baby section along with climbing mats. Sawyer's favorite part was the bendy balls. I think he was the only child in there that was kicking a ball around. He was well entertained which made the trip (and dealing with the crowds) worthwhile!

Apparently both of my boys love science and nature. They'd live outside if they could. Inside the house, I'm constantly finding things that look like science experiments. On numerous occassions I walk into Jackson's bathroom only to discover a sink full of water with soaps and things mixed into it. Just this week, I found pieces of paper with writing wrapped in plastic in our refrigerator. I've yet to ask Jackson what that was for but I heard him say that he was trying something. As I was typing a few minutes ago, Webb went to check on Jackson in the shower. Apparently, he was in there mixing concoctions of tea tree oil. He's always been full of curiosity. He at least has moved past the tasting everything stage and we don't have to worry about him putting everything in his mouth, unlike little Sawyer. And speaking of Sawyer, he has become a birdwatcher like his mother. He loves to stand by the kitchen window and watch the birds bathing in our bird bath. When we ask him what the bird says he replies, "quack, quack, quack, quack".

It's hot here but life is good at the White house. The boys keep me busy playing and cleaning but I have so much to be thankful these days.