Happy 5th Birthday BB! (almost a full year later)

Well, BB will be six at the end of this month, but these photos are all uploaded already, so why not hit publish? 

It was so special to have so many aunts and uncles from near and far  here to celebrate BB's 5th birthday! So fun to see these a year later! 

Is that not the cutest photo of all time?

Good ole' ISR. It's almost that time of year again!

Me and my bro.

Love these sister shots.

My uncle has since moved away from Tucson, and these pics remind me of just how much I miss him.

Big Boys' Room

Six-ish months ago I began the boys shared room makeover. Before that, SS's clothes were all still in his nursery even though he'd been sleeping in BB's room for months (since last May!). I vowed not to start another house project until I completed this one. Lo and behold, the day has finally come!

These are IPhone snapshots, but HEY LOOK I'M BLOGGING!!!!!

From the entryway. The boy's favorite colors WERE blue (BB) and yellow (SS), and since I wanted to redo this room in a way that would establish both boys ownership of the room, and after interviewing the boys, we decided on this as a color scheme. Of course, immediately after I spray painted the shelving blue and made blue felt bunting and bought blue sheets, BB changed his favorite color for the first time in his whole little life, to green. He then expected a yellow and GREEN room and repeatedly asked for it. So I hail-maryed some green frames, green puff balls in the pom-pom trim, and made a green-backdropped art piece for the gallery wall. It worked out.

I didn't want to get overly theme-y or color scheme-y with the room, so my "theme" was just my boys - they love dragons and dinosaurs and robots and legos and pirates and elephants.

These embroidery pieces were made by J's aunt - so special. And the other items are from the boys' nurseries, handprints in clay, a wooden name sign BB's cousin made for him before he was born, and the invitation to SS's first birthday party. This is our little nursery tribute.

Gallery wall, edited and designed by Auntie SL. That shelf in the top left is a display area for Lego creations. And the big blue framed print is a Lego man blueprint, very cool. The other painting is an SS original.

This is my favorite part of the gallery wall - Auntie SL brainstormed some fun ideas, and this came together easily. That's an outline of Arizona and a (toy) dinosaur skeleton. All the pieces come apart and rebuild and it glows in the dark - super cool. But the stand broke and we lost a couple pieces, so this was a perfect way to use it.

Those tin robots and flying saucer are the coolest tin toys.

Hope  you enjoyed a peek into their newly finished bedroom! (Okay okay, I still need to print a couple of photos or find art work, and I would love a couple of vintage arrows...but otherwise, I'm done!)

SS Mustache If You Like Green Beans

Of course when SS got big laughs for cleverly making a green bean mustache, BB followed suite.

SS has been making simple jokes since he could talk, and we treasure his goofy, joyful spirit.

BB used his green beans to turn himself into a walrus! 

ISR with SS

Just some quick pics from the end of SS's ISR refresher this summer!

Happy boy in the water with his Mama. 

(All lessons were not this smiley, but he likes when I get in the water with him on Fun Fridays.)

Since then he has been fairly fearful in the water and needs lots of firm encouragement to do his swim-float-swim to practice. Once he starts swimming back and forth from J to me though, he almost always remembers that he likes it and gets smiley. He loves to just play on pool steps and splash.

BB Built a Boat

One of BB's birthday gifts from Nacky and Papa was a toolbox, tools, and some building kits. A few days after his birthday, BB and Daddy spent an afternoon in the garage doing manly things.

This is basically my favorite picture ever. I love the unrestrained glee on his face, and the mad-scientist-with-a-hammer vibe.

The kit

 

SS's First Haircut

I like my little boys' hair long, especially when they're toddlers. My brother had long, blonde curls when he was a toddler, and there is something so baby-sweet about a little boy with long hair to me. I waited until BB was over two to cut his hair for the first time. But SS is nearing THREE and I still hadn't cut his hair. Those long ringlets were so perfect and lovely that I just couldn't bring myself to do it. And c'mon, this kid is cute: 

See, perfect and lovely. And pretty. So pretty, in fact, that people started commenting on our little "girl". Which totally used to happen to my little brother too.

 Which understandably started to drive J crazy (and me too a little, but thanks to my little bro's long blonde locks, I was already a well-seasoned traveler on the correct-the-toddler-gender road.)

And then my sister came to visit and encouraged and guided me on how to cut his hair (using her Devacurl experience), and after a few tears at the realization that SS is no longer a baby and needs a big boy haircut, I finally girded up my loins and decided to go for it.

I had a little hipster haircut pinned on Pinterest, but when it came down to it, J wasn't ready to see all of the curls go yet either, so we settled on a short, curly, clearly-boy style.

Before:

During:

After:

After sitting still for 20 minutes, SS wasn't interested in sitting still for "after" pictures, but you get the idea. His hair is so much easier and quicker to style now, which we ALL appreciate. These pics are of his hair right after I wet it so the curls would re-activate, but one of the unexpected surprises of his haircut is that it's really cute when the curls are more brushed and dry and less ringlet-y - his hair looks very surfer cool, which I love - still need a pic of that look! 

The First Last Day of (Pre)School

Three weeks ago, BB attended his last day of preschool. We had such a great experience at his preschool and I am looking forward to the day when SS attends and we are part of the St. A's family again.

A week before school was out for summer, there was a Family Night. BB performed some songs with his class.

Posing with classroom art posted in the hallway for Family Night

While the focus of preschool is probably for the kids to make friends, I ended up making a dear friend as well. Here we are on the last day of preschool! What, you think I should be taking pics of BB with his friends on the last day of school???

Our boys aren't even in the same class, so it's a little mysterious how exactly we became friends, but one day we started talking and well, we haven't really stopped. We've logged a lot of time chatting in the preschool courtyard while our kiddos played on the grass.

Okay, okay, BB pics:

Leaving his classroom on the last day of preschool

Our kiddos playing in the courtyard

SS and his little friend L - this pic cracks me up!

SS & L again...the hug looks so sweet...

Except next thing you know, it's a full on tackle and she's down. Boys.

No longer a preschooler!

BB's loving and wise teachers

Thank you for an incredible first year of school Mrs. Koenig and Mrs. Champie! I have been spoiled by this wonderful preschool.