Busy Labor Day weekend

This may be one of my very favorite pictures, ever.

This Labor Day weekend was a really fun, although exhausting, one. We started our journey Saturday afternoon by stopping at the mall to buy a new washing machine. Ours kicked the bucket the weekend before and we've been taking loads to our parents' all week long. Then Bennett, one of our two friends from the neighborhood Moms group, had his 4th birthday party at The Little Gym. We had never been there, and it was a great place for kids to romp around and have a great time! Bennett has his back turned in this picture, and sitting right next to Gabriel is our other neighborhood friend, Harper. She spent two days with us a couple of weeks ago when her mom had to start back to college before her Mommy's Day Out started back. I'm going to invite both of them to Gabriel's party, whenever we decide when and where we're going to have it!

Our little climber especially seemed to like the fact that he could go anywhere and we wouldn't be fussing at him to stay on the ground! The kid has no fear, whereas his older brother always errs on the cautious side. On a side note, I just walked in from doing some things outside to find Joel DANCING with both feet in the cats' water bowl. Water sloshing everywhere and his big brother belly laughing so hard he had tears running down his face. Which will inspire a repeat performance, I'm sure. Sigh.

Sweet picture of Bennett, his mommy Allyssa, and little brother Lachlan. We really like them, along with Harper's family, and hope they decide to stay in the neighborhood ever after the kids start grade school. It's so sad that we get great families that are just starting out, then they start to realize that the public schools are out of the question. Then realize that private school is too expensive. So even though they love this neighborhood with all of its mixes of people and beautiful houses and trees, they move. Something we are also going to probably wrestle with one day.

4:30 is a bit of a weird time for a birthday party, because both boys filled up on snacks and cupcakes, but Mommy and Daddy were really hungry by the end of it. We decided to take advantage of the boys being tired and went to Mercado Juarez for dinner. Good decision! The whole family slept until almost 8 the next morning.

Our fun Sunday activity was to try out Legoland for the first time. Our friends at church, Sonya and Matthew, have Aidan, who is about to turn four, and Seth, who is three months younger than Joel. We have always wanted to do something with them outside of Mass, and we finally got it pulled together. We didn't realize they were bringing Seth so Jav and Joel stayed at home. But I'm glad because Legoland is a ZOO. I just don't know if a 21-month-old needs to be there. There are many older kids running around and parents not really watching them. It was a cool place for my almost 5-year-old, though. I caught him a couple of times just staring everywhere, not sure where to go next. A little overwhelming! But he and Aidan had a good time. I was very proud of Gabriel for taking the "older kid" role and sticking with Aidan, even when Aidan seemed to be a little afraid to do something. He was very sweet. I tried to get some good pictures of the lego miniatures, but they don't really do them justice.

Dirk Nowitzki must be proud to know he has a Lego statue.

The Ballpark in Arlington.

Cowboy Stadium. I like it much better smaller, rather than bigger. I wish Jerry Jones' ego could shrink to this size!

Monday was our first really cool day after this brutal, awful summer heat. I opened up all the windows. The boys went out after breakfast and didn't come inside until lunchtime. I washed all the outside windows, something I've been needing to do for about a year. I'm not sure if surviving through this heat/drought makes us stronger or takes years off of our lives. Maybe both? But it was so nice to finally be outside and not be just drenched with sweat within two minutes. As soon as the boys came inside Joel started laying on the floor with his head down. This should have been a sign, but I just thought he was tired. But then he couldn't sleep and I noticed his cheeks were flushed. He had a fever. Of course. We've been all summer with nothing, but get him around a passel of germy kids and whammo.

Gabriel started back to school the next day. I can't say it's been a great summer. The weather and our loss of Molly made it one that has been pretty tough. It had its fun moments, but for the most part I'm glad to see it go.