The Joy Project

The Joy Project

Weekend on the Farm

What a weekend we had at Pop's!

I love this photo of the boys walking down the road together; tired, dirty, and happy!

We met Pop at the lake for some fishing, then the boys had a grand time at his house... getting as dirty as boys can be, riding tractors, three wheeling, and "burning stuff".



Liam caught his first fish ever! It was a small blue gil. He was so excited. But when he tried to pick it up it finned him and he slapped it! :) That's our Liam. Brian says he is "Arlis" on "Old Yeller".

This pond is behind Pop and Trish's trailer. We built a fire, roasted hot-dogs and marshmallows, and had some very tired boys on the drive home.


Brian was in hog heaven getting a son to actually watch part of a football game with him. Bad news though, it was UT! :P
http://www.shutterfly.com/view/pictures.jsp For more photos of this fun weekend, check out the photo album at Shutterfly!

Sleepovers and Big Bugs

The boys are wrapping up their summer with a big bang. We had an impromptu sleepover with our friends, Hunter and Chandler.











Today we found the biggest moth I have ever seen. It's called a Polyphemus Moth (we looked it up on the internet.) It's a female and we (mostly me) are hoping it will lay some eggs and we'll get to see some more of these gorgeous "birds" in the spring. It's really cool. Her wingspan was about 5 1/2 inches. Here's a photo of her on Jack's hand.
Jack is turning out to be alot like his mom in terms of caring for creatures. Yesterday he wanted to stop the family walk to "rescue" a little dog that was running around the neighborhood. Today he was very intrigued by this moth and wanted to keep her. The body of this moth was as big as the end of your thumb, very thick and had "feathery" stuff on it, very soft. I was afraid to hold it because it felt kind of gross, but Jack loved her. :)

Speaking of walks, the nightly walk has become such a part of our summer routine that Connor gets very upset if we don't get up from the table and walk out the door. Don't know how he will adjust when it's cold.

Tonight was fun, we ran into our neighbors during our walk and the boys ended up just riding scooters, bikes, trikes, and roller blades with about six neighbor boys while all the parents chatted. Gotta love the summer nights! :)

End of Swim Season!

The boys had their last swim meet yesterday. It was great. They are both great swimmers and Liam has really improved through the team this year. They call him the polar bear because of the lumbering way he moves through the water, but he is actually very efficient and is faster than he looks. He went from getting participation ribbons in the beginning to winning third and even some second place ribbons in the last two meets. Quite an accomplishment for a guy who's swimming against many kids who are twice his size and almost two years older than him.






Connor is growing and talking like a big boy. He can say anything and gets his point across, sometimes with great emphasis! He has started to swim like a master with his life jacket on, which makes my time at the pool significantly easier. We have really enjoyed the summer together.

Brian's family visited from Ireland this summer. What a treat that was. The boys are so fortunate to have gotten to spend a good amount of time with their Irish cousins and form a bond I think they will hold on to. They fell in love with all of Brian's family and we all had a great time together.