First days!

Public school is back in session!  Jackson started 2nd grade on Monday and today is Nash's first day of kindergarten.  How the heck this happened, I have no idea.  I am excited and nervous and anxious and being a whiney mommy.  The big guys are great.  I love them being at the same school and I really love that helicopter Aunt Natalie is there.  I am expecting lots of sneaky check-in pictures.

Daddy dab!

Eagle Pride!  I am so proud of this second grader!

Internet stars! We made it on the Creekside Instagram page.  I knew Nash would make me famous one day.  ;)

He's just starting, Kindergarten...!  Also, I picked out a 'church shirt' he would not wear it.  What a spirited, strong-willed kid I have (stubborn).

Grade 2!  New big book bags all around.  They were excited about them.

Best bros!

Winnie-Lou

Winnie had her 4 month check-up today and is pure perfection.  She got 4 shots - boo, but her brothers clapped for her and she stopped crying - yeah!  They all wanted to know when she could eat real food.  I told them when they all sit at the table and eat their own food without spilling it all over the house.  So maybe never, Winnie, sorry.  Glad you like that mama milk.

4 month stats!

Height - 25.5 in. - 78%

Weight - 16lbs. 11oz. - 84%

Head - 17.91 in. - 100%**

**the Farris family has its own head curve.  The doctor said if she didn't know her 3 brothers then she would be concerned, but she is not worried one bit. 

Chicago!

We did it!  Our first family of six vacation (trip)!  We flew to Chicago to visit our cousins and check out their new home in the cutest town of Wheaton.  Four days of forced Farris - Fowler family fun.  It was exhausting and we all loved every bit of it.  

  

Here we go!  The flight was direct, a little under 2 hours and didn't leave till 2pm.  I wanted us to have plenty of time in everything that we did incase disaster strikes.  It was the easiest check-in I have ever experienced.  We were practically the only people there.  Everyone got all their dookies our before boarding and Winnie only had one outfit change.  We didn't lose any luggage or kids.  It was as smooth as it was going to be.

Lucky mommy! Everyone wanted to sit with me.  The flight was smooth, Winnie ate and slept, Theo was super annoying, and we drank lots of Sprite and ate lots of candy.

Cousins!  Reunited and it feels so good.

First things first, ice cream.  You can walk downtown from their house,  the weather was glorious and  it was good to be off of transportation.

We headed to Chicago for the day and hit up the zoo.  It is right in the city, free, and amazing.  

I thought the monkeys were hysterical.  These guys loved the tiger.  I can't believe anyone would ever let their kid climb on a railing and fall in an exhibit...

The Bean!  Obligatory family photo.

They have an awesome park right by the Bean that the kids played at for hours.  Crazy faces in front of the skyline.

We got fresh haircuts from Uncle Kyle.

Therefor we got to walk downtown to the Popcorn store, aka a wall of candy.  

Date night!  Plus a sweet Winnie.

Sista - Sista!

 
Group shot before we left!  It went really well.  :)

Late night flight home.  Love this picture of these BFF / worst enemies / can't get enough of each other / never talk to me again brothers.

D. Bulls

We finally made it to a Durham Bulls game!  The boys have been to a game with grandparents but we all had not made it out yet.  It is one of my favorite things to do in the summer.  Baseball and snacks, all American family night out.

Cotton candy!

Ice Cream!

Cousins! BFF!

My big guys.

It was hot.  Last minute I decided to let a neighbor baby-sitt Winnie, good call.

Total Eclipse of the Heart

The Solar Eclipse!  We got the glasses, made the cereal boxes, waited and waited, ate snacks, ran around the neighborhood, and finally saw it, in all of it's glory, or lack of.  It was pretty neat and the big guys really enjoyed it.  I was hoping it would have gotten a little darker and everyone would take naps, but that is more like once every 200 years.

Ms. Diane gave these 3 a lesson on the Solar Eclipse and then Jackson relayed the information to me.  I pretended like I already knew most of what he was talking about.

No neighbor left behind!

Wanksta Lodge

This past weekend we took our annual weekend trip (right Lackey family...) to visit our Wilmington friends.  I really look forward to this so much.  We get to stay in their perfect little cottage, swim in the pool, ride on the boat, eat good food, drink strong drinks, all in our bathing suits and pajamas.  Our children love playing together and the older they get - dare I say - the easier it is!

Porch picture!  We are missing some and these babes were all bribed with lots of popsicles, but I thought it turned out pretty good!

Auntie Em!  Hostess with the mostess!

J-man lost his tooth! It came out while eating a pancake, ha! Love this snaggle tooth smile.

Winnie girl taking a dip.  She had no opinion on it, and really prefers someone holding her inside, AC is where it is at!

The Great Wanksta Lackey Lodge in full effect!

Winnie's first boat ride and Charlie's first selfie!

Nothing better than a boat ride, except ice cream on a boat ride.  Yes, Nash is feeding me a bite.  He knows what the ladies like.  

SaveSave

sweet summer time

We are soaking up these last few summer days.  It is hot and I don't even mind.  It gives me an excuse for eating dinner at the pool, swimming till we are exhausted, showering there and ice cream - always ice cream!

Rolling

And our sweet spot is over.  Home girl has started to roll.  After 3 boys you would think I would know that this is coming.  I guess I was hoping for another month or two.  She has to keep up with her brothers.  One of us does...

Mom! Winnie rolled over! 

Oh, hey mom!

What you know about that?

strolling

I have tried to get Theo to sit in a stroller for approximately 3 years now.  All of a sudden, he wants to ride in one and get in the baby bjorn (ha!), lay in the rocker, sit in the bumbo, sleep in the nap nanny, etc. etc.  He also still likes me to rock him to sleep while he twirls my hair and sucks his paci.  It is sweet, and somewhat ridiculous, but when it is 10:00pm and dude is still kicking it, I will do anything.  He is night owl and an early bird and super duper cute.

4 months!

Ms. Winnie had a big day celebrating turning 4 months old yesterday!  Her big brothers still fight over who gets to hold her and love her and tell her she is 'the best girl ever!' She really is the best girl ever - eating well, tooting lots, massive spit-ups, and some good long sleep stretches - all the things good babies do, we have just never had this experience before.  :)  She is a hefty chunk and my back is paying the price.  All she has to do is shoot me her wide open mouth smile or grunt just a little and she knows I will pick her right on up.  I can't help myself.

Theo had a birthday party to attend at the Burlington Splash Pad in the morning.  They were nice enough to invite siblings, not sure she knew how many Theo had.  Charlie went in at the butt-crack to prep for J-Mike's but was able to join us the rest of the day.  My favorite part about the entire day!

Afterwards we hit up Zack's Famous Hotdogs, you know, since we were in the area.  His face says it all.

And then a little stop on the way home at Maple View Farms for some ice cream, you know, since we were i the area.

And we ended it with a little date night out to eat.  Winnie slept the entire time, because she is an angel, and because it was finally quiet.

  

Aunties

Happy Birthday Aunt Nat-a-wee and BRIT-nee!  They have been celebrating in Jamaica...  So what better way to welcome them back than a surprise silly string attack!  Yep, I didn't feel sorry for them.

The 'big' 2-5!

Dirty 30!

Football!

It is about that time, football games in the front yard, all day, every day, until someone gets hurt.  We went to 'Meet the Tarheels' this weekend and did some serious autograph work.  Thankfully, I was able to convince Nash to put his poster on his room door and not the front door of the house.  I know, I know, some fan I am.

'One of the real football players even wrote Nash on my poster and he gave me a high five!'

The unveiling of the new Michael Jordan Nike uniforms, so even if we aren't that good, we will look good.

Summer time football!

The Hood Team

Between just 4 houses right beside and across the street from each other we have 12 kids - 9 of them boys- all around the same age.  They run from house to house (drive SLOW if you are coming down our street!) playing who knows what and eating all the popsicles.  They fight and yell and say they will never play again and 30-40 seconds later are back at it.  Summer days wear me out but I know I will look back at this with all the smiles.