THE BASTINGS BUZZ: August 2012

One Less Tooth to Brush

Last year in pre-K, Austin would always talk about when someone at school lost a tooth and ask when would it be his turn. Well he has had this loose tooth for several weeks and last thursday night (Aug 23rd), that little tooth finally came out!! Austin was excited!! He put it in his treasure box for the tooth-fairy to find that night. He was thrilled the next morning when he discovered his tooth gone and money left inside the treasure box. He had a great time that day telling everyone at school. He told me that his teacher had everyone sit in a circle and he went around and showed everyone his missing front tooth.

First Day of School

The kids and I had a great summer hanging out together but I think we were all ready to get back to school and into a schedule again. Austin is in kindergarten this year and doing well. He has a couple kids in his class from last year, has already made some new friends, and likes his teacher.

I still have a hard time figuring out what he does all day and have to pry info out of him. Mostly I hear about recess and who he played with. But I had such a good experience with him in school last year that I am confident he is in good hands again this year.

Kayla also went back to "Teka's school" (mother's day out) on mondays. Even though I got her a new girly tinkerbell lunch box she wanted to take her brother's Anger Bird lunch box. She was excited to go back and didn't cling to me as much this time went I dropped her off.....she is growing up!

My sister Jessica left town to started her Freshman year at OU. I love that living here has allowed my kids to develop a close relationship with their aunts. It was nice having Jessica come and babysit because I knew she loved these kids and they loved her too.

Summer Swimming

It can get pretty hot and humid in Oklahoma during the summer and this year was no exception.

So we spent a lot of time in the water.

At first Kayla would never go into the pool without being held. Then finally after a couple weeks of swimming she discovered the POWER of her floaties and never wanted to be held again (which was wonderful!!).

Austin was also a little fish this summer and improved greatly on his skills. He mastered getting toys at the bottom of the pool.

Every monday for the summer we would meet my sister-in-law & kids at Frontier pool and the kids would play there for hours!!

Kambria and Kayla being naughty and climbing up the slide

So much fun!!

Sometimes I wish she could stay little forever (sometimes)

This year Austin and Klayton were tall enough to go around the whirlpool section by themselves. At first Austin wasn't a fan of the whirlpool because he always got stuck going around and around and couldn't get himself out. But once I showed him how to get out he decided that he liked it.

I had trouble getting pictures of Austin because that little swimmer was always under water.

On fridays we went over to the Splash pad for playgroup and had lots of fun.

There was some complaining by Austin that the splash pad was boring....but my sister-in-law Andrea had the genius idea of bringing buckets.

And that was all it took...who knew how much fun could be found with filling up buckets with water.

Kayla and Kambria

Poor Kambria broke her arm in July but that didn't stop her one bit from having fun.

Klayton and Austin doing their own thing

On this particular day Kayla and Kambria were taking turns running over to Austin and giggling as he dumped water over their heads.

One day we drove down to Stillwater to visit a friend and she set this up for the kids to play.

A "homemade" water slide....the kids loved it.

Austin had an equal amount of fun catching the grasshoppers in their yard that day.

We also did lots of swimming at Papa Dave & Grandma Deb's pool this summer.

There was lots of jumping in from the deck.

Nice pose Conner.

Kayla got pretty good at jumping in too.

We also spent lots of time at my mom's house swimming both in the little pool.....

and in the big pool.

(Rachel, Tyler, Kayla and Austin)

Slip-N-Slide

Kayla and her friend Katelyn

Taking a swimming break

Apple smiles!!

Getting in one last swim before school started.

Even though Austin wouldn't give me anything but a pouty face in this picture, we had a super fantastic time this summer in the water!!

Summer Vacation Part 4--Estes Park

From Friday afternoon through Sunday morning we camped out at Estes Park, Colorado.

It was absolutely beautiful being in the mountains and enjoying these views.

And one of the best things was watching these kids enjoy nature....without electricity (AKA no TV, no nintendo, no computer) the kids found other ways to entertain themselves.

These boys spend so much time at this table using their imaginations. I know at one point their goal was building a tent but then it changed to building a garden for the grasshoppers they found.

These big boys also found ways to entertain themselves as well.....playing a friendly game of bocce ball.

These girls enjoyed the pretty wildflowers in our campsite.

LOVE this picture......Kayla loves her cousin Kambria so much.

The kids had lots of time to hang out as cousins.

And the adults had fun hanging out and playing games.

Craig with his brother Brian (and wearing the shirt Brian made for him)

(On a side note, the day after we arrived in colorado, Craig spent the day hanging out with his brother. These two are so alike in lots of ways. The enjoyed a game of frisbee golf, eating out for lunch, and then spending the afternoon playing computer games and old school nintendo games)

Mel, Linda, Julie, Dave, Tom, Vicki, Dennis

Vicki was happy to have her sisters and their husbands join us at the campground. She knew that Mel and Linda was going to be there but Julie and Tom suprised her by being there.

How many people can you fit into one tent?

We we weren't quite prepared for was the spurts of rain that came a couple times a day in the mountaints. Here we are gathered in our tent--the adults attempting to play some Rook while the kids play with some toys.

Another time while it was raining we met up at the lodge and played games there.

But the rain did give us this spectacular view of a double rainbow in the mountains.

Luckily, the rain usually didn't last long and we were back out to work/play.

Austin gathered firewood in hopes that we would be able to get a fire going.

Derek and Connor working together.

Jeff starting the fire

Uncle Tom made delicious peach cobbler in the dutch oven

And we made SMORES of course!!

And here come the tents:

Everyone slept so good in their tents (HA!). We didn't even get a picture of Kristi and Kelsey's tent because after the first night they decided to sleep in the car. All the kids seemed to have slept fine and maybe some of the adults on air matresses. But otherwise the ground was pretty rocky and the first night it was raining and super windy. At times I thought our tent was going to collapse. We also had some trouble with water getting into the tent and getting our sleeping bags and pillows wet.

So even though the kids were dead asleep, we got up and moved into the car to spend the night. Luckily the next night the weather was calm so we all slept in the tent.