Summer Nights (or at least a few)

First, I would just like to take a moment to celebrate how photogenic my children are......

That's right. Be jealous :) But, these pictures truly capture the real moments of Tommy and Tessa. A little dorky and goofy, but hilarious! At least they come by it honestly........

Anyway, although they've been few and far between, we have LOVED having a few summer nights. Nick thrives on summer time. He becomes this fast moving, dinner grilling, super productive guy that builds things and organizes things and makes me wish he wasn't so motivated because I really like coming home and doing nothing but I feel guilty if he's not joining me!

I think Tommy is going to be a looooot like Nick in that aspect. He LOVES to be outside. We have to turn it into a fight every time it's time to head inside for the night. I got out my bike and Tommy pulled out his trike. He's finally figured out if he uses the pedals to move, it's much faster than pushing his trike with his feet.

He also likes to play "baketBALL" as he calls it. We started playing it  over the winter and I have to say, he's gotten pretty good at it. I mean, look at that form! He makes most of his baskets and is pretty consistent. Bless his heart, he still hasn't quite figured out dribbling. I think it'll be awhile before that happens!

He cracks me up because he also likes to play hockey but he uses his broom instead of a hockey stick. We have wood floors and a rug in the living room and he wants everybody but him on the rug. We're not allowed to walk on the wooden part because that's his hockey rink. He gets SO mad at Tessa and tries to push her back to the rug. Yeaaahhh.........we're working on that.

While the boys are playing, I try to keep Tess corraled in a pack n play, but she doesn't last long. After about 5 minutes, I start to get this face........

........accompanied by several high pitched squeals. I just hate letting her out since she can't walk yet. I know it can't feel good on her knees, but she persists, so eventually, I give in. She has found a way to get across the cement without scraping herself up though.

Ha! Clever girl! She looks like a little monkey running around out there! I can sometimes get her to hang out with me on the blanket that I spread out, but that too, never lasts long.

But Tommy's favorite activity by far is to MOW! He loooooves mowing with Daddy! It takes around 1 1/2 hours for Nick to do the whole yard and Tommy does a decent job of staying on the mower for most of the time. He never sits still that long, but he doesn't seem to get tired of riding around with Daddy.

I hope these summer nights start to become more consistant because they are amazingly refreshing and lovely. And it feels like we actually have TIME to accomplish stuff outside of work since it stays light until 8:30pm. Now if only we can get the weather to cooperate........

And just because they do occasionally take some GOOD pictures....