Sweet summertime

 I can't believe that in a few days, Matthew and I will be headed back to KS.  It seemed like we'd be here such a long time and it's gone too fast.  I feel like we just got here.  So here is Matthew getting his head shaved the day after his birthday.  First time Dad ever cut his hair.  Once again Matthew chopped a bit of hair off with scissors.  Just one cut this time to a cowlick in the back, but noticeable.

The next day I left for 5 days, by myself, for KS.  The boys immortalized their pleasure at my absence with a photo.

 A few days after I got back, Phil's Aunt Tara came to visit and we had an awesome time!  So much fun.  Here is Phil and Matthew in Phil's office.    *photo by Tara

 One day, while she was here, we took her around post.  Phil took her and Matthew to see a tank.  Matthew was so excited.  In the drivers "hole".  It was like 120 degrees inside.  Not for the faint of heart.

 *photo by Tara

 *photo by Tara

 With Aunt Tara.     *photo by Tara

 It was so fun to get on the tank.

We played crochet in the backyard with Tara and alot before and since this summer.   *photo by Tara

One day we went took her to San Antonio's riverwalk.

 This time there was baby ducks.  So cute!

 Gotta love my husband's photos.

 In front of the Megatron at Ripley's.  We saw Optimus Prime last summer.

 This sign just killed me.  :)

 The day we took Tara back to the airport, we walked around Austin's SoCo district.  Awesome shops.  This is looking down the street at Austin's skyline with the capital in the middle.

 With Matthew's birthday money, he was able to buy all these wall tracks.

 He was so proud!  Thanks Mamaw and Poppa, Auntie, and Aunti Tara and Uncle Dan.

 Enjoying the huge sucker Aunti Tara got him in the candy store on SoCo.  (She spoiled him just a bit.)

 The cats are learning to love each other again.

 Matthew transporting lawn games and himself.

 For 3 days straight it rained off and on.  What an awesome sight!

 Overnight it rained enough to create puddles.  I wonder why we didn't bring rain boots with us...

 For those of you curious, the back of our house.

 No scenic cows here out the back fence.

 The front of the house.

 As it's been clouding up lately, there has been some amazing clouds.

 What that amazing cloud let go a moment later.

 For the last week or two, Matthew wakes up and says, "Let's do a project."  That has been a challenge here, as we aren't as well equiped for projects.  It has had me scanning the internet for ideas, that we have the supplies for.  This bubble printing didn't work, but what we saw was beautiful.  It might have been because we used acrylic paints since we can't find where the tempera got packed.  Matthew still enjoyed blowing bubbles.  I don't remember who's site we saw the idea.

Another day we used our acrylic's to print with truck tracks.  It was a mess to clean up, but he like it and took a bath while washing the trucks in the tub.  Again, I don't remember where I found the idea, but it's very likely that I found both ideas on The Crafty Crow.

Anyway, here is the end result.

One day Matthew decided to make a rocket out of a box.

With a little help, we have the front...

...and the back.  He had so much fun.

Matthew has been making our bed lately and then decorates it with stuffed animals from his bed.  Which animal is real?

I've been stalking thrift stores for special clothes.  Matthew has taken advantage of this to pick up some "pretty sweet deals".  Here he is with his Thomas track.  He had a tiny part and the 2 trains from 2 Christmas's ago, but we were able to pick up a lot more track for pennies.  Since he's been stealing his Dad's tools to "learn about being a builder" we also got some "tools" for him to practice with instead.  "Cutting" the track, I'm sure, is a good way to learn.

Matthew cut a piece of hair out of his bangs this time, so he got another haircut last night.  We may have to hide the scissors.

Loving it.

That boy...

We made Reading Confetti's frozen popsicle chalk.  We used flour instead of cornstarch.

Looks good enough to eat.

When it dries, it looks like chalk.  Pretty cool stuff.

Today we redid his rocket, as the tape let go and we found packing tape in our car.  Don't ask.  Anyway, we decided to make some fun upgrades.  It became a family project.  I suggested letters and numbers on the sides.

Phil blinged it out with flames.

I cut a hole in the back cover, so people can see the wires in the back.  Matthew was thrilled with the end results.

Another day Matthew made a city out of magazine photos.  We got the idea from Se7en.  I liked the results a lot.

One day we found watercolors.  The one of the right is me petting a turkey.  Inspired by turkey hand prints.

The last project of note, is this paper plate frisbee.  We found it on How does she?.  We played with it outside one night.  It worked pretty well.

Ahhh, sweet summertime.