Busy boys

Without even a wave goodbye, Summer left and Autumn took over. The nights and mornings are chilly and days are hot. Leaves are turning and starting to fall already, and football season is in full swing!

This fall is typically busy, with the boys going a mile-a-minute all week between school, soccer practice, homework, gymnastics, play rehearsals and of course just enough time to hang out with friends or go for a bike ride!

And despite my feelings to the contrary sometimes, we must be doing something right...

... because our weekends always seem to have a good balance of lazy and adventure, planned and spontaneous. 

This weekend provided us with enough free time to unwind so much that I heard my least favorite 2-word phrase: I'm bored.

Well, I reacted to that right away with a list of activities... ANYTHING that the boys could do!

(note that any 'screen time' - aka tv, movie, internet, video game, ad nauseum - was not included!)

And much to my delight, the boys took heed of either my suggestions or my annoyed expression and spent a day together that I cherished - they played imaginatively, without picking and whining! They rode bikes to the pool, ran errands for me, helped each other and laughed at one another. 

They set up an elaborate Playmobil city in the living room:

And when Hamp took a minute to do his weekend homework, Sam sat down and wrote a poem:

My Belly Ake (sic)

by Sam - age 8.5

I was at the lake

I had a belly ake

I needed it to brake

I ate a lot of food

but that made me in a bad mood

then I pood

(I know that sounds rude)

I jumped into the lake

and ate some giant carrot cake

and that fixed my belly ake

Really, we have been enjoying our busy fall days - hoping that they don't go by too fast. Even though Hamp has already exclaimed on more than one occasion that he is anxious for winter to arrive so he can hit the slopes (hmmmm, must take after his mother!) we are all appreciating the beautiful weather and getting outside...

Hamp is loving his soccer season and with games every Saturday he is getting better and better:

And when he's not practicing his back handsprings at the gym, Sam is practicing at the soccer field after games! He's getting stronger and better at his gymnastics... it's so fun to watch!

But like I said, we have managed some kind of balance with all of the busy - we have thoroughly enjoyed several impromptu back yard parties with friends in the past couple of weeks...

And best of all hosted my dad for a Labor Day week visit! (literally not a single photo from his visit - I can only attribute that to the fact that we were having so much fun together!)

So these busy boys keep me afloat either with their activities or with the way they love to play. I am so grateful for them and who they are.