Doughnuts with Dad

Thursday at preschool was doughnuts with Dads. James had a meeting in Roanoke he couldn't miss, but Popsie and Papa were able to join Brady. (Plus Brady got a special lunch out with James earlier in the week!)

Hush, little baby...

Feeling punchy from all the early-morning sugar:

Tour of his classroom:

Maggie saves the day

Brady wrote his first story last weekend. The title is Maggie Saves the Day.
The story:

Maggy safse the day.

Mggy liks the wotr. wots she so a vulaanod. the vulkano x. Maggy sase the day.

Translation:

Maggie likes the water. Once, she saw a volcano. The volcano exploded. Maggie saves the day.

"Tubing"

More of Charlie

Our new pup is a bit under the weather these days with kennel cough. She's feeling a little lazy, but is still very affectionate (and adorable, of course!).

This is how I've been waking Brady up for school since Charlie came home...put Rudy and Charlie in his bed. He actually seems to wake up in a pretty good mood!

We were dogsitting Charlie's "uncle" (my inlaws puppy) this weekend. I'm sure having him around contributed to Charlie's exhaustion! The kids and the dogs did a lot of running!

All worn out:

Brady, helping her practice SIT:

This is what I found while putting away laundry last week...dog and Rudy in the tent in Ru's room:

Rudy had a great time playing chase with Charlie in the tube:

Golf with Dad

We happened to have a free evening this week with no rain, so James and Brady took advantage of it to finally get on to the golf course. James said Brady did really well - great attitude, good sport, and some excellent shots!

Introducing Charlie

We still really (really) miss Maggie. A lot. At the same time, we also missed having a canine in the house. We watched petfinder all week and went to visit several puppies at a local adoption event. We knew we were likely to come home with one and, sure enough...here's Charlie:
Maggie was named after one of our favorite towns in Italy (Riomaggiore). We decided to stick with that general theme, so Charlie is named after the town in St. Thomas (Charlotte Amalie).

We have no idea what breeds Charlie's parents might have been. She's a purebred mutt! We think she definitely has some black lab (her face), border collie (speckled feet), and chow (poofy fur and curly tail).
It's hard to get a good picture of her; she is so black that all of her features blend together unless there is really good light!
She's great with the boys and they love her! They love chasing each other around the yard. We took her on a little hike today down to a river. She wasn't impressed with the water and the retriever genes don't seem to be manifesting themselves yet - we'll need to work on those two issues!

Mothers Day at preschool

Brady's preschool class...note who is the tallest!

They hosted a mothers' day tea for us on Friday, complete with snacks, flowers, and songs.

All mothers and grandmothers were invited, but Brady was the only one there with anyone besides his mom. He was so proud to have both of his grandmothers join him!

Getting dressed

What happens when you ask a 2 year old to put on his pajamas by himself:

Welcome back!

This post post is way behind schedule! Kathy and Tony got back into town over a month ago. The boys were SO excited to see them!

The boys got a special treat from them as well...new golf clubs!

Crazy hair

Face painting

Kathy and Tony took the boys to a few festivals last weekend. Brady came home as a pirate:

Rudy didn't want to get his face painted, so he had a blue angel on his arm:

Goodbye