V-Rock Shop!

Wes turned seven yesterday and a middle of the week birthday when school has just started is kind of a bummer, let's be honest. Anticipating that a Thursday wouldn't present the best day to focus on birthday fun we celebrated a little early last weekend by taking Wes to the V-Rock shop in Canton. If you've ever met Wes chances are he has shown you his "collection". This consisting of a mish mash of odds and ends he's found (hoarded) and keeps in his room. It includes small toys, loose change, some feathers, an errant owl pellet from school but mostly rocks. He loves rocks, he's obsessed with geodes and if you ask him what he wants to be when he grows up he will tell you he wants to be a geologist. (Only he pronounces it geo-tologist...insert all the heart eyes.)

So when a co-worker asked me if we'd ever taken him to the rock shop before (I didn't even know it existed!) I started to look into it. As soon as I did I knew this would be the perfect birthday present for him. So we surprised him with a trip there Saturday morning to comb through their storefront and endless warehouse aisles of rocks, gems and crystals to pick out some special things to bring home. 

He was thrilled.

THRILLED.

He spent so much time looking through everything, pondering what to get, looking again, and then looking one more time to make sure he hadn't missed anything. He ended up with a couple carved stone animals and his own personal geode on a wooden display stand. Pretty fancy stuff ;)

As a bonus surprise the shop offers gem mining for kids outside  their facility. You can mine for rough or tumbled stones with buckets and a screening tray in their fully operational sluice. The boys LOVED it and when we told the sweet guy who was working that it was Wes's birthday he slipped in some extra big agate slices and other specialty items into his bucket to find. He came home with so many treasures and so many new rocks for his collection. It absolutely made his day. I can not recommend this place enough if you have a little rock lover in your life. Wes already told me that he wants to go again for his birthday next year.

And no Booth kid birthday can go by without a personal pie from Abby to celebrate. She brought over a pumpkin pie last night (Wes's request) and we all sang and had dessert together. I love this tradition and I had to slip these photos in too because they're just so stinking cute. We've got a party planned for tomorrow, but I'm glad we could still fit in a little celebration on the actual day.  

I still can't believe my baby is SEVEN!

Life (is crazy) Lately

So, August. Quickly becoming the craziest month of the year for the Booth family. We've got a lot of birthdays in August, mine included (32!). It fell on a Friday and Josh and I both took the day off work to spend it together, just the two of us. We went to breakfast at my favorite spot (get the french toast!), then kayaking at Camp Hi Canoe. We stopped for BBQ on our way back home and then later that night Abby and I went out to see Jeff's band perform live and he even slipped my name into a song as a sweet little birthday shout out to me. (Although the song was about a drug addict so maybe I'm giving him too much credit now that I think about it). Ha, I love my family.

Then Oren had to get stitches...again...in the exact same spot he got them last time. Because he's Oren. He also has a gaping cavity, is on antibiotics for tonsillitis/possible strep and is due for his last round of shots. August has not been his friend. Also, Ever has started standing all on her own. I haven't actually captured a good picture of this happening yet so that's just one from the weekend. You know, baby's first trip to Taco Tonto's needs to be immortalized. When in Kent to watch your sister graduate...you know the drill.

August is also the end of summer vacation around here. Ugh, I am SO not ready for this at all. My dad took Wes out for a one on one day on Monday before school started so I had a little impromptu date with Oren while they were gone. Ever came along too, but I left it up to Oren to pick and choose how we would spend the day. We had pizza and doughnuts (cuz my baby ain't no fool) and we went to the pet store to play with the puppies and hermit crabs. Did you know Bullgles are a thing now? Bulldog/Beagle mixes. I can't even.

Speaking of things I can't believe... Wes started first grade this morning! He did so great when we dropped him off this morning, not a single tear in sight which is a drastic improvement over last year. And tomorrow is his seventh birthday! Party this weekend so stay tuned, but man, where is the pause button when you need one?

And then we have Oren. He starts Pre-K tomorrow and today was his very last day at Miss Lori's. This is a huge, momentous and heartbreaking milestone so I was stifling tears all day at work and couldn't (still can't) get it off my mind. For four years she has watched over him when Josh and I couldn't be there and I am a true believer that it takes a village to raise a child.  He has grown and transformed and learned so much under her watchful eye. It's a very sad day to see this chapter of his life come to a close but I am so, SO grateful for every one of those years he has spent under her care. 

So tomorrow I will have a seven year old and a pre-schooler and I'm feeling alllllllll the feels tonight. This parenting thing just never gets any easier does it?

My Sister, the Speech Language Pathologist

Here are the facts,  a little over three years ago my sister was tired of having a degree she wasn't using and bored with a job she had been stuck in for years. She did a very brave thing and decided to take her future into her hands. She quit the dead end job, started waitressing nights and weekends and went back to school to earn her master's degree in speech language pathology. The program was rigorous, the student loans daunting, the change of schedule and massive work load were exhausting and stressful. She cried a lot. It sucked. But she did it. She got accepted into a very selective program. She got straight A's. Yesterday we got to watch her walk across the stage and get the diploma that she worked so incredibly hard for. We are so proud.

We celebrated with ice cream and next week we're sending her off on a very well earned vacation to New Orleans where she will eat her weight in seafood and beignets, as one should. Congratulations, Abby. We always knew you could do this.