Camping

 We've been on the first "camp out" of the season. I use the term loosely as we visited campers, but we didn't spend the night. :) The Benza Grandparents camped for the whole Memorial Day weekend. We just went out on Sunday for a handful of hours.

 The boys like helping build the fire and roasting marshmallows best.

 They also roasted their hot dogs on a stick.

 Every morning since this Gus has asked me if we can go camping and roast marshmallows.

I am so not looking forward to it, but I think the need to take the boys actual camping may be upon us. Or I may be able to convince Kyle to take them for a boys night out on an overnight trip and let me stay home with indoor comforts. :)

Summer has Arrived

 FINALLY Summer has arrived and we know this not because of the balmy weather but because the drive in is open! 

The boys play on the playground before the show. You can see the screen behind them on the swings...yes that's Gus in my shadow...oops.

 They also get in some kicking and catching practice with the soccer ball and football.

 We've been showing up at about 7:30 to make sure we get a good spot...I try to park away from the smokers. That gives us plenty of time to play.

 Usually we eat some pizza in the back of the van and then get the boys' jammies on.

Then we dole out our snacks and get the boys in their sleeping bags.

So far this season we've seen the Hunger Games/The Lucky One, Men In Black 3/Ghost Rider 2, Dark Shadows/Wraith of the Titans, Snow White & the Huntsman/Battleship. We love that it's a double feature for cheaper than the regular theater for one show. While we did have a babysitter for the Hunger Games it's awesome that it's not a requirement. We can play, eat and get the boys ready for bed then watch in the front seats while listening the surround sound on the car stereo. Perfect summer fun!

Best Buddies

 With Daddy back on day shift the tv is off all day most days.  Reese was traumatized by this at first, but I need some quiet. With swing shift we wake up mostly rested and function at an easy pace, get ready for the day, have breakfast and dinner before Daddy goes to work. There's plenty of time for battles and rough housing. After Kyle is at work we putter, play, watch a movie, eat a dinner that is really like a lunch. Even if the boys stay up until 10pm I have a solid 2 hours of time ALL BY MYSELF before Kyle gets home and we watch our shows. On day shift there are literally no minutes in the day where I am alone and it's totally quiet unless I stay up later than Kyle, but I find I really enjoy a solid 8 hours of sleep. It's a good thing! SO...no tv in the day has been working super well for us. These sweet boys have been playing so well together. Yes, sometimes it is loud super hero battle type play, but lots of times I think uh-oh what is afoot in this quiet. And then I find them engrossed in something. 

This day I found them playing Scooby Doo.  Of course the nano second I got the camera out they stopped playing so quietly together. But they did get back to it. 

Which allowed me a lovely few moments to linger with my latte and William Sonoma catalog.

The Avengers

 Yes, I know there's been quite the controversy: to take your underage child to the PG-13 movie or make him wait. Since my husband has been grooming the boys to be super hero fans essentially since birth we went to the theater.  We decided to wait until Monday night so we weren't freaks with a 5 year old in the opening night crowds...mostly so i could avoid the judgmental people. But we needn't have worried. Reese, aka Iron Man, was not the youngest audience member. The weekend before Poppop came over for a hero marathon (Thor, IronMan, Hulk) and a few weeks before that they watched Captain America together so everyone was up to date on the heroes' individual stories.

Reese attended in full costume (I made him leave the noise making weapons at home though). He thoroughly enjoyed the show. He commented on quite a bit and yelled at the screen a time or two. But it didn't seem to bother anyone. One human good guy was killed which distressed me, but I'm not positive Reese even registered it since he wasn't a character that mattered to Reese. He did take a few minutes to sort out why Hawkeye, who Reese LOVES, was a bad guy for awhile, but he was able to sort out the particulars pretty quickly and "get it."  I was happy they addressed (although briefly) the various romances from the individual story lines. ;)

We all really enjoyed the movie and Reese is anxiously awaiting it's release on blu-ray. In the meantime he superhero battles with Gus and Daddy daily.

Car Wash Day

 The boys have been asking and asking to wash the car for ages. It was finally warm and sunny enough to get it done.

Gus really enjoyed the scrubbing.

 Reese preferred using the hose.

 They worked outside with Daddy for about an hour on the car scrubbing. I think Reese mostly watered the lawn and toys and side of the house.

 They were so excited to finally put our zombie family stickers on the van.

 SO we've officially joined the ranks of the parent mobile crowd with a family sticker on the mini-van. But we didn't want to cross over entirely. :)

Summer Shoes!

Get a load of these new shoes for summer.  We can't wait to wear them!

 Kyle and I found these awesome doodads for crocs at the crocs store in Waikiki. I've been saving them until I could buy the boys some new crocs for this summer.

 We finally busted them out and the boys are so excited!

 They've been wearing them with their socks since it's really too cold still for bare feet.

They are so funny about it. They've been hoisting up their foot to show everyone we see. SO on all our errands someone is craning over the counter to see and decipher the story about all the add-ons to the crocs.