Backyard Fun

Boys are so easily entertained.

Just give them a bag and tell them to fill it with their favorite backyard things and you've got 30 minutes of fun, at least.


Hunter's favorite was this pine cone.


Tanners? A leaf, but then again, the dude's always had a slight obsession with leaves, and their ''beins'' (veins).

And what's a play date w/ boys without something turning into a weapon (where does he learn this stuff?).

Here's my boy looking like he's 8 years old.

But still so sweet.

About 10 here.

Here he's thinking he's as big as Daddy in making the umbrella pop out-- out of sheer elbow grease.

Well, and the logic of pulling this little piece out.

"Mom, take a picture of my muscles" (no need to mention his half Grannis blood here).

Umbrella success.

Soccer star.

Another soccer star.

Who needs Wii Bowling?! Whew, I distracted them.

I still have them thinking I don't know how to work it so they only play it at night when Tim gets home.

But like my friend Allison's husband said (as well as Tim) "It's for bonding with my children".

Anybody else's husbands use that excuse? LOL.

Hunter and Tanner were actually kicking the ball back and forth.

And I love that Tanner still has the baby pot belly at thee.

BTW, do you see the lattice fence along the canal? It's made of bamboo. I had them add an extra foot to it. Just in case... even though they don't play back here unsupervised.

For this very reason-- Hunter is fetching a ball that rolled down the hill.

Tanner still is very content staying on the porch. He jumps from the highest part of the bench at school only to land on concrete (over and over, btw) but is still scared enough to not venture out the unknown. The funniest kid ever!

This was about as close to the water as he would get. And that's about as close as I'd wanna get too... let's just say it's not quite drinking water. Though it is a ton of fun to see the XL Koi gold fish. They eat bread crumbs and almost jump out of the water to get it.