Sky High

Please excuse the photos in this post - they're all blurry!  I had my camera on the wrong setting and didn't realize it.  But, these photos represent a major event in Noah's life, so I still wanted to post them.

Noah has never liked bouncy houses.  He has avoided them for all of his almost five years.  He doesn't like the way the fan is always loud and the sound of the blowing air in the plastic.  He especially doesn't like the hoards of screaming kids that can be found inside a bouncy house.  Fortunately, bouncy houses are easy to avoid, and that's what we do.  Except for one birthday party Noah attended at Monkey Joe's which is an entire world of bouncy houses.  That was a little bit like torture for Noah while he waited for cake and pizza while all the other kids jumped.

But then, Noah was invited to a birthday party at Sky High, which is a trampoline gym.  I spent a long time singing the merits of trampolines and pointing out how they're nothing like bouncy houses.  We watched videos on You Tube of kids jumping and having fun at Sky High.  It was bouncing therapy.  I guess I became a bouncing therapist.

Then, there we were on the day of the party.  We checked in and took a look around.  Noah hesitated when he saw all the screaming kids, but I insisted that he give it a try.

And guess what?

He had a great time!  

He jumped and jumped and jumped and jumped and laughed and laughed and smiled and smiled....

Oh, I forgot to mention that Isaac went to the birthday party too.  He's the blur in the bottom of the photo, screaming with laughter as Noah's jumping bounced him around on the trampoline after he had fallen down.

The happy jumper

and the little happy jumper.

The only sad part of the day was when we had to go home.

Oh, and now Noah gets it.  He gets how fun it is to jump.  Just today, he jumped in a bouncy house at the carnival at his preschool.  It was a big, noisy bouncy house and there were lots of other screaming kids in it at the same time.  But Noah jumped and had a great time!  Yeah!

The Great Wall

After our pool was filled in and our new flat backyard emerged, we needed to make a decision about what to do about the rest of our sloping yard.  Our property slopes from left to right, and the back fence is about 8 feet above the new flat yard.  Also, there are two large old oak trees in the raised section that we want to protect.  So, we decided to put in a retaining wall.

A load of 6x6's arrived, and Matt and Billy got to work.

The boys watched with great interest in the beginning.  Then, they decided that watching Mr. Billy build a retaining wall is not nearly as fun as watching Mr. Billy fill in the pool with a bulldozer.

The end of the first day, after a very long day of digging the foundation of the wall.

At the end of the second day, the middle staircase emerges.  We decided to put a staircase in the middle of the wall so that we can easily access the top of the yard.  Aaron and Bob showed up to sweep the steps and show off the foundation of the house they're building.

The Great Wall comes into view

One of Matt's jobs was to dig out the dirt for the stairs.  What seemed like a small amount of dirt to move turned into a huge pile that needed to be removed with a pick axe.  Noah surveys the yard for roots and sticks that need to be removed.

The wall is almost complete, and the area for the future playset is boxed in for future mulch.

The stairs are done!  

The wall is done!  It's beautiful!  Great job Matt and Billy!

Salty Dog Boys

Noah and Isaac got a kick out of wearing the same shirts last week.  In case you can't imagine Isaac's happy voice when you look at the picture, just imagine him saying "ta da!"

The Most Exciting Day Ever

Thursday turned out to be the most exciting day ever, but we didn't know that when we woke up.  I usually try to plan an adventure for Thursdays since Noah doesn't have school, but we didn't have anything planned.  Matt had asked our friend Billy to come over and give some advice about how to repair our decks and how to best fill in our pool.

The guys looked at the various projects around the house and then started to demolish the pool.  As they were working, Billy said he can drive a "skid steer," so why don't they just rent one and he can get started filling in the pool right away.  Well, that sounded good to us.  We weren't planning on filling in the pool that day, but we were planning on doing it soon.

About an hour later, this little guy arrived.  We just call it a bulldozer because that's more fun to say than skid steer.

Within minutes, our pool started to get demolished!  It was awesome!

The boys were plastered to the windows all day.  It was so interesting to watch!

The bulldozer smashed up all the concrete around the pool, then buried them in the middle of where the pool used to be.

This is what Isaac looked like all day

And this is what Noah looked like all day

Most of the concrete is cracked and buried, and a large bowl of dirt is all that remains

Yep, still glued to the window

Just when it seemed like the day couldn't get more interesting, this dump truck showed up and dumped fill dirt on our front yard.

This is Isaac's reaction to the dump truck.  I love this look on his face!

Progress is looking messy right now

Isaac surveys the backyard

Matt surveys the backyard

Fast forward a few hours of watching the bulldozer bring loads of dirt from the front yard to the back yard...and...drumroll please... here's our new super flat and super huge backyard!!!

Here's the new view of our backyard from the back door.  There used to be a large staircase going up to the pool, but the stairs are gone now, and you can just walk out onto our new super flat backyard!

Our front yard also needed to be re-leveled after our sewer repair from last year, so here is our new and improved front yard.

Noah had a great time learning how to raise and lower the bulldozer scoop, and Isaac had fun sitting on Matt's lap.

Well, the pool is gone and we have a backyard now.  It's so exciting!  Of course, this also brings the need for grass seed, landscaping, a new garden area for Noah to grow his pickling cucumbers, a possible retaining wall, a possible play set for the boys, and the list goes on and on...  But it's so fun to think about!

The Elusive Smile

Isaac has a great smile, but it's really hard to capture with the camera right now.  Every time I get the camera out, he wants to see the digital screen and he wants to "help" me take pictures.  So, I try to catch him off guard and spring the camera on him.  That usually doesn't work either. 

Once in a while I get lucky and catch a little smile...

...right before it turns into a game and he runs off and hides from me, smiling the whole time.

Bribing doesn't work either.  Isaac was having fun sitting in the kitchen sink, but then he needed help getting out.

We said, "Give us a nice big smile then we'll help you get out." 

 Well, we did get a nice big cheeseball smile!

Email

Noah has his own email address, and he eagerly checks it every day. He loves sending and receiving email. Sometimes he dictates to me and I type his emails for him, but he mostly prefers to type them himself. When he's in charge of typing, he types as many random letters as he can, then he adds all sorts of emoticons just for fun.

The main recipents of Noah's email are Baubie, Grammy, and Yaya, but he sends the occasional email to friends and family and he's tickled pink when he gets a reply.

But there are days when he checks his inbox and only finds a one or two new emails. He really does prefer to have about 7 or 8 emails in his inbox, so he just sends himself about 5 emails and giggles when he opens them and reads them.

I have created "folders" for his emails, so when he gets a new email, he reads it, replies, then puts it in the correct folder. He likes organization like that. He said, "When I am a man and I have a job, then I can just make new folders for the email that I get when I'm at my job." Always thinking ahead, this one is.

One day Noah decided that he wanted to introduce Isaac to the exciting world of email, and I snapped these pictures:

Noah shows Isaac his inbox

Noah opens an email for Isaac to see, and it has little emoticons in it.

The little pictures are smiling right at Isaac, and I love his complete surprise and delight!

Noah says, "See? I knew it! I knew Isaac would like email too!"

Spaghetti Night