Jameston, the Apprentice :-)

On a daily basis, Jameston tries his hardest to follow in his Daddy's footsteps. His latest feat was "helping" him rebuild our fence (see previous post). Here he is taking down the old boards...

Three generations of hard-working fellas!

Love it! One of my ABSOLUTE favorites :-)

Using his "hamma!"

Like father, like son

THE BEST! Checking Daddy's work :-)

Daddy's little Helper

So proud of my boys, standing by their finished product!

Celebrating their hard work by watering/playing in the sprinkler!

Can't wait to watch their future collaborations!!

Brett, the Builder

Have I mentioned that Brett is pretty dern crafty? I mean, a hard-working handyman? My mom calls him Saint Joseph and for good reason. He can repair, make from scratch, or construct just about anything. I know I'm bragging, but he's good. I'm a lucky gal! Anywho, as if he hasn't been busy enough from January to May, he jumped right into busyness on the home-front as well.

First things first, he is almost finished constructing our very own compost out of the remnants from our old fence. He's a thinker, that guy. Now if I can just change my habits, we will be one composting-friendly family :-) I will post a pic of the final product! His second project: our fence. When we made an offer on the house in December, we knew we would have to rebuild the fence (just not 4 months after we moved in). But with all the rain and thunderstorms April and May brought, we had to bite the bullet and start sooner than we had planned on! And to save money, we (I mean, Brett) built it all.by.himself. Sure, he had some help, but not much.

The pile of wood that inhabited our garage for about a month :-)

After the first coat of stain

No fence in sight...a clean slate!

Drillin' the 3 foot holes for the poles with an auger

Poles in, just not set yet

Cemented upright, now it's time for the boards!

Perspective showing the dog yard

While I was in New York (post to come very soon, I promise), he did A LOT of work (and no one took pictures)!

The finished product (I forgot to take one with the trim, oops)!

And the gates, custom-made by Brett

And, to Brett's relief, he doesn't have as big of a project lined up in the near future. Now it's time for summer vacation. Or just hanging out without a laundry list of things for him to do on a Saturday :-)

Play group

Last weekend Jameston and I headed to Frisco for a monthly play-date with our new play group. My friend, Kim (mother of two), lives in Frisco, right down the street from this great splash park.

Jameston had a blast!

All of my pictures of him at the splash park were blurry-not just because they were from my phone, but also because I could hardly keep up with him :-)

And his buddy, Camden (2 1/2) wanted to show him around his neighborhood

He was even so kind to pull JW and their friend, Alexa (18 months), home in his wagon! What a host :-)

Once we got back to Camden's house, Jameston had a blast in his sandbox.

I couldn't talk him into getting out when it was time to go home...the boy loves him some sand!

He was so tuckered out after an action-packed morning outside that he fell asleep soon after we got in the car after lunch.

We are looking forward to next months' play date :-)

BUBBLES!

One of Jameston's favorite activities lately is blowing bubbles.

Our patio is shaded by 4:30 or so in the afternoon, so we have been spending some outdoor time in the evenings with bubbles.

His favorite part about it all is taking the wand out (rather quickly I might add) to see if the breeze/force brings about any bubbles.

He also likes to spin around and see if any bubbles happen because of his bubble-dance.

It is rather cute I might add.

Through this activity he has better learned to share with other participants, an attribute he is slowly gaining strength in...

It is precious to watch kiddos learn and see the pure joy they get from the little things in life!

Love it.

It's going to be a great summer :-)

The zoo!

The Friday of Memorial Day weekend, Brett took the day off, so we loaded up and headed to the Dallas Zoo! I was worried it was going to be super crowded, being it was the start of the holiday weekend and one of the last Fridays of the school year, but we showed up early and beat the crowd. Thank goodness!

These pictures pretty much speak for themselves

Elephants!

We were able to get thisclose three giraffes

My boys!

It is nearly impossible to have Jameston look at the camera and smile when we ask him to...as you can see in these above and below pictures

At least he is semi-smiling :-)

Headed to take the tour of the African Safari

JW wanted to have a seat to himself...too cool to sit with his parents!He changed his mind quickly, though

After the tour, we headed to check out the tigers. Our little fella made quick friends with another little observer See any resemblances? :-)

Jameston was enamoured with the lion, or "yi-on" as he calls them He had a great time, so we plan on getting the family pass next year!