Sept Misc

Home Depot Build

It had been quite a while since our family had signed up for one of these free kids' workshops at Home Depot. This month's project was one we just couldn't turn down-- building a miniature football field! It was right up Jaden and Cody's alley. Both boys had gained a lot more coordination and independence since last time we had attended a workshop. It was fun to watch them do a lot of the project on their own!

While Mommy and Daddy assisted with the projects, sweet Adley kept herself busy in the stroller eating some snacks and paging through her beloved Highlights Hello magazines. We were shocked at how long she was content!

Once the fields were built, the boys enjoyed affixing the stickers, painting their goalposts, and playing with the mini-football.

These small fields provided SO much entertainment for Jaden and Cody throughout the month! The boys put their two fields next to each other to create a "full-sized" field and then brought out their small plastic football helmets. They paired up their team helmets against each other and acted out mock games, creating winner and loser tournament brackets. They played with these fields and their helmets for hours! Oh, these boys have sports minds just like their Daddy! What a great project!

Summer Reading Awards

Early in the month after a weekly chapel service, Cody and Jaden's school handed out awards for the school-wide summer reading program. The boys got four certificates for participating in each of the following contests: 

• The Globetrotter Award -- reading books set in countries from at least 5 different continents 
• The Literature Award --reading books from at least 5 different genres
• The World Series Award --reading at least 4 books from at least 2 different series
• Mr. Boldt Challenge --trying to read more total words throughout the summer than one of our 8th grade teachers 

The boys didn't read more words than the big avid reader Mr. Boldt for the last contest, but our family chapter book read-alouds + audiobooks over the summer DID tally up to over 800,00 words! We didn't even count the picture books we read or the boys' daily easy readers (Mommy was tired of looking up word counts by this point!). The boys still got a certificate, though, for attempting this challenge. Jaden and Cody had to work really hard to fill out all the paperwork for all these awards this summer, and of course, they spent a LOT of time reading and listening to books! They felt so proud to be called up to the front and recognized for all their hard work.

Cody and Jaden also received a Gold Medal Award for reading at least 15 minutes a day for every single day of the summer. This award also came with a real medal. So fun! We were proud of our little bookworms. :)

Lost Teeth

Throughout most of the month, both Jaden and Cody were working on some loose teeth. One Sunday at lunch, I looked over at Cody and noticed that one of his bottom teeth (his second lost tooth) was missing. I remembered brushing his teeth the night before and seeing his tooth still in his mouth, but now it was gone! Cody didn't remember losing the tooth and couldn't find it in his bed, so our guess was that he probably swallowed it at some point without realizing it! What a funny way to lose a tooth! Cody wanted to be sure that the tooth fairy would still bring him money that night, so he wrote a special note.

That same evening, Jaden asked me to tug on his very loose top tooth, and his tooth came out as well!

How fun to lose a tooth on the same day!

The next day, Jaden was ready for top tooth #2 (also VERY loose) to follow suit. This one took very minimal effort for Mommy to pull out. Jaden was so brave about losing both of these teeth. We think he looks pretty cute with his missing 2 front teeth!