The Harvey Family: August {2017}

This month Brett:

started 3 year old preschool. He liked the idea of school because he always wants to do what Blake does. Now that he has started going he is always very hesitant to get out of the car. At the end of the day when I pick him up he says his day at school was "great" every time and he comes running out with a huge smile on his face. He says his teachers are really nice and one of his best friends is in his class with him (Beckett). He is so cute when he says bye to Beckett. Last week he said "Bye Beckett, cya at the next time we have school!". So stinkin cute.
has gotten good at building things. He is very creative with the straw builders and he's finally strong enough to put the straws and connectors together to create buildings and other structures, but mostly enjoys making weapons. He likes to project his hoarding tendencies on everyone else so he'll make each person a sword, a fishing pole, a crossbow, a spikeball, etc.
loves eating oatmeal for breakfast. He eats the packages of maple and brown sugar and always scrapes the bowl clean.
had to switch his carseat with Blake's. Since we drop off and pick up Blake from school in the car line, we had to move Blake to the passenger side of the vehicle so he could get out on the curb without having to climb over Brett. It has been weird getting used to them being on different sides, but soon it'll become the new normal.
likes to sit out on the front patio with me and watch the bees pollinate the flowers on the cucumber plant. Once I explained to him how bees collect nectar to bring back to their beehives (I guess we technically watched a few videos on it) he was pretty fascinated with them and wasn't scared of them at all. Interestingly, he is still terrified of house flies.

This month Blake:

started Kindergarten. He was so excited to finally get to go to school every day. He loves having someone entertain him all day. I also think he enjoys not having his brother around to pick at him during the week. It makes the time that we all spend together much nicer since they get a chance to miss each other. Blake's school is all day (8:40AM to 3:20PM) with an hour early release on Wednesdays. He is pretty exhausted most days when he gets home because that is quite a lot for a 5 year old. They do have 2 recesses and get a PM snack in addition to lunch so that seems to help. It seems like he is academically more than ready for Kindergarten and he has been doing really well making friends which makes me so happy.
started playing soccer for the first time. He decided he wanted to play soccer this fall so we got all his gear ready and he was so exhausted after his first practice. He was not ready for all the running. Since then it seems like he's gotten used it and has done much better. He's really getting the hang of all the skills, and while he's not the most aggressive out there, he's starting to get much better at dribbling and shooting.
became obsessed with making money. He has been talking about getting an allowance for a while now so we finally made him a chore chart so he can earn money. He saved it for a couple weeks, and then he decided he needed to spend all his money on art supplies. It has been a great lesson in him learning how much things cost and how much work it is to earn money. We've also been able to talk about exchanging coins for dollars which he thought was really cool.
got a marker maker and a paint maker. Chris and the boys went out shopping while I was at a dance class one day and found a marker maker set on clearance and Blake was completely obsessed with it until we made each of the 16 markers. It was really cool because you could do any combination of ink from the 3 primary colors and make all kinds of different colored markers and also choose what type of tip you wanted for it. The paint maker set was easier for the boys to do on their own (without parental help) because the colors that got mixed together with the base paint were just pieces of paper basically that you added to the paint and waited for them to dissolve.
still loves maps. When Chris and I were on our trip to Niagara Falls, I got a map of Ohio from the welcome center on our way home and he just loves looking at everything on it. It helps that he can read everything too, so it means a lot more to him.

Pics:

I grew sunflowers so I could photograph them. This month gave me a lot of opportunities.

Even the back of the blooms are really cool to look at.

It was interesting how they were all different sizes but came from the same seeds.

I planted 12 seeds and didn't think they'd all sprout, but they did! We lost a couple due to bugs but had a pretty good turn out in the end.

Our carrot harvest was comical. I was tired of all the bugs in the greenery so the boys had a great time plucking them all out.

The zucchini blooms are just so pretty!

The peppers finally started turning yellow.

And we had a grand total of 3. Also laughable. They tasted good at least!

I was just so impressed with what we could grow in containers this summer. It was a learning experience for sure, but also makes me want to get started on next summer already!

Blake helping with dishes.

Brett built a weapon out of the marble run pieces.

Blake's first day of school.

These are a few pictures from Blake's first soccer game. He was pretty timid but got to touch the ball a couple times. He claims he likes game much better than practices.