2 year old Baby.

Yep, he is still Baby Clay. Though its not said too much out loud anymore, I still think it every time I look at him. And his bestie, Harley, calls him Baby Cway so I guess it will stick around for awhile:)

For his 2nd year milestone Clay got to have a 2 celebrations. His actual started out with balloons above his crib (stole this idea from you, Mel) since he has been obsessed with balloons since Harley's birthday on June 1st. Poor guy stills looks up at the sky right outside the porch and sadly says, "baLOOOOON!" about the one that got away.

He was in heaven with the balloons, until Jack brought in Foofa, a stuffed doll from the show Yo Gabba Gabba, which he is crazy about.

Snuggling in our bed with the boys and Foofa.

He just hugged and hugged her, repeating "happy."

He liked his new sand/water table a lot better inside, and didn't even look twice at it after Jack, Quinn and I got it all set up outside during his nap. Oh well, you never know-at least the neighbor kid likes it:)
The rest of his day was spent outside, splashing in the water and even getting to hold and control the hose for about an hour-thats heaven! Some pizza and ice cream and my 2 yr old was ready for bed.

Then on Sunday, Father's Day, he got to celebrate with the Dad's on their day,

 and also with Papa Wayne as his birthday is one day before Clay's.

Little did we know that that annoying headache that I had 2 years ago while celebrating Dad's birthday would turn into Clay's birthday the very next day!

He loved being sung to. He would climb back into his chair and clap and wait for someone to sing to him. Papa and Meemaw were happy to do it over and over and over :)

Winding down watching Yo Gabba Gabba with Meemaw.

Baby Clay, I love you like crazy, and can't believe that you are two. I love that you love your Mama, copy your brothers, and blow kisses bye-bye even to strangers. I don't however love the climbing, obsession with flushing the toilet and emptying the silverware drawer 50 times a day, but you wouldn't be my Clay if you weren't causing trouble:)

Summer Vacation

Nothing like starting summer off with a bang (and setting myself up for vacation hung over kids from the get-go!) The second my graduates

exited school we were off to Papa Wayne and Meemaw (Clay's new version of Grandma) Kaye's. We spent one spoiled night there, complete with Casey's pizza, marshmallows, new bikes and stories.

Early the next morning we were off-bound for St Joseph to see Uncle Scott, Aunt Ashley and Kyra!

So, so much fun. They have a beautiful house, and anyone who knows Ashley knows that she is a great hostess and can throw a fabulous party! The boys loved the pool, Jack and Quinn swam an average of 6 hours a day.

 Clay couldn't get enough of the "watee" and proved to be quite a challenge to contain ( I really shouldn't still be surprised by this, he is almost 2 and has approached everything so far in this manner!) He also LOVED Mattie the dog, continually following her-even through the doggy door...

The boys played glow in the dark wiffle ball with Uncle Scott and walked with Meemaw,

checked out a park,

This puddle was almost as good as the pool!

and ate their weight in cheese balls-the perfect poolside snack.

We also celebrated Meemaw's birthday.

and had the best time playing with Kyra, hopefully we didn't teach her too many naughty things!

This girl loves her Papa!

Jack showing off his kindergarten skills.

We also ate a lot of suckers, if that wasn't obvious by the pictures!

We ended our stay with hot dogs and ice cream at Kris and Kates.

 And apart from the bit of drama on our 5 hour trip home-imagine being lost in Marshalltown in the not-so-good neighborhood with a dead cell phone and a throwing up child-it was the best start to summer that I can imagine! And also lengthens my successful solo trips with the boys to 5 hours away from home :)

Hi, we are the Thorson's

Seriously, 5 months. The more things that happened, the more I put off blogging. Then I felt guilty, then I felt mad, you know,  "This blog is not the boss of my life, I don't have to blog if I don't want to...,"then I realized I missed it and all of my blogging friends, so here we are. Who knows if I will ever back blog Christmas, Jack's birthday, Clay's 18 month milestone, Quinn's birthday, and you know a million other things that have happened in our life, but am forgiving myself and moving on :) weird how I feel I need forgiveness for this, but just one of those things, damn Mom guilt.

Quick update: Jack has 16 days of kindergarten left, and today was Mom's Tea. Oh man, I will never get through graduation judging by today's emotions. He lost his first tooth, and now has the biggest feet in his class (which he is crazy proud of!)
Quinn has 15 days of 3-4yr old preschool left, and has learned a lot, which he may or may not let on- depending on his mood. He has none of Jack's "need to people please" genes, but has become a sweet, polite helper.
Clay is a month away from being 2! My sweet, sweet baby.... except he has completely stolen the "this is the kid who will give me gray hairs" right out from Quinn's feet, and every day is more mischievous than sweet. He is talking all the time, has scaled everything climb-able in our house, and amazingly has not yet received any stitches or broken any bones. And he also completely melts my heart with every smile.

We did have some pictures of the boys taken about a month or so ago, on the golf course. I love them. A photography student, who works for Scott as a bartender, took them and did amazing! Not a single picture of the 142 shows all 3 boys sitting and smiling perfectly, which is just the way it should be, because they are NEVER still! So here's a few.

That's it. Happy to be back in the world of blogging!