What? More May?

Soooo..... I was going through the June pics and saw that I had some snaps from May that were in the wrong folder.  Here are some more photos to make your life complete :) 

Biju's parents watched the boys while Biju and I ran an errand (picking out plants/flowers for the yard!).  Aren didn't approve of being put down for a nap by Amachee and Echachan so instead of sleeping in his crib they held him til he conked out and then was laid on the bed (their sheets were in the wash).

Our friends Autumn and Cael brought over a birthday present for Aren - a keyboard that interacts with the iPad.

We took Biju's parents out to dinner one night and then watched some ducks on the water.

These poor birds think the boys are offering food!

Posing by the fountain.

A picture of a duck just for good measure.

Aren and Amachee watching Echachan and a boy in his pajamas staining the deck.

Painting the underside - makes my muscles sore just looking at this photo!

School - 2013!!

I'm jumping ahead to bring you a current post :)  I'll go back to June again soon but I wanted to post a picture of the boys on their first day of school yesterday!

Ajay on his first day of Third Grade!

Just a little flash back moment - Ajay on his first day at this school for Second Grade.

A snap of all three boys together.  Alex was wanting to go to school but he had to wait until after lunch. 

 We came back home after dropping Ajay off ...

Just the two younger ones....and some nasty looking carpet that apparently needs cleaned.  Don't look at that part.  I said don't look!

... and played a little Candyland....

.....and blocks!

Proud of their mess!!

Then after several "When do I get to go to school?" type questions we were back on the road!

Alex back and ready to go!  Aren, too :)

Alex on his first day of Kindergarten!

Another flash back moment - Ajay and Alex on their first days at their old school.  Ajay in 2nd grade, Alex in Pre-K.

And then there was one....,

Around the time school was releasing I plunked Aren into his stroller (he had taken a super short nap and was not in a good mood) and we walked to the boys' bus stop.  Weather was a bit cloudy when we walked out but nothing alarming.  By the time we got to the corner I could see that the busses hadn't even pulled away from the school building yet.  (Yes, we're that close to the school but there is no cross walk so the boys either have to ride the bus or be picked up by me.  I don't mind drop off but I'm not crazy enough to attempt after school pick up!!)
As we stood waiting for the buses to leave it started sprinkling.  I flipped Aren's sun shade over him to keep him dry.  Then all of the sudden the sky burst open and we were stuck out in a torrential downpour.  Luckily, a fellow mom pulled up at that moment and asked if we wanted to get in.  We had met her before so I felt comfortable getting Aren out of his stroller and taking her up on her offer. 
The rain didn't let up so when the bus finally arrived we got her kid, my two boys and another boy who lives down the street packed into their van.  The moms then got out to put the stroller in the back.  We were drenched within seconds.

Here are the boys after we were dropped off at our garage...and a not so flattering picture of myself (but it does show how wet it was out there!)

Drip drip drip....goes the water... 

The sun is shining today so I think we'll be safe to try walking there again :) 

A little bit of tee-ball

Kicking off the month of June we have a few pics of Alex with his tee-ball team.

A team photo

Daddy and son (Alex is on the bench, directly to the right of Biju, you can see his back.)

Ajay was just hanging out during Brother's game (Aren stayed home with Amachee and Echachan).

Ajay used sweat to get this stylish look.

Landscaping - The Back

Here are some before and after photos of our backyard.  I am so happy with what Biju and his dad did with everything.  Digging, weeding, moving heavy rocks, painting the deck (multiple coats).  They put a lot of hard work and sweat into these projects!!

September 2012

June 2013

Sept 2012 - under those rocks was a broken fountain.  A pit with a hose that didn't connect to anything.  This was a lot of work to clean up!

June 2013 - this is where I can see the most difference!

Sept 2012

June 2013

We (they) also planted a couple of tomato plants!  With all the rain we've been getting this summer they really took off.

June 2013

July 2013!  And they're even fuller now plus we have little green tomatoes growing.  I hope they ripen before the weather turns cold.

These are planted along the side of our house - this was taken less than a month ago and they're already so much better than this picture shows!

Landscaping - The Front

Biju's dad loves gardening.  He doesn't have a lot of space to revel in this hobby back home so we were glad to lend him our lawn to do what he pleased while he was here.  The previous owners had already set everything up pretty nicely, we just had to get in there and see what was weed and what was pretty. 
When we moved in we had to cut down a tree that had died in the front yard. 

We were sad to see it go but knew it was just an accident waiting to happen if we left it. 

The trunk of the tree that you can see right through.

Biju and his dad found a couple of trees on sale at Lowe's.  The second one was to fill the in the space from another little tree we got rid of, also dead, on the other side of the drive.

Aren helped dig the holes for the trees :)

Some plants from before and some of the newly planted plants.

These beauties came with the house.

Just about time to plant the tree!

This is one of my favorite photos of the flowers.

Target practice

Ajay wanted to show Amachee and Echachan his bb gun.  We set them up in the backyard making safety our top priority. 
Ajay drew a target on a piece of paper and taped it to a box.

The boys were thrilled when Amachee took her turn!

Echachan kept an eye on the other two monkeys.

You can't really tell from here but that was the "50" (most center point) that Ajay hit!

Great pic of these three!

Echachan showed Ajay he still had it :)  He used to be in the Indian Air Force.