Mitch gets Promoted

 Okay, so the day before Mitchel's promotion (graduation) I took August to the store to help me decide what vegetable to have with our chicken. As we are walking through the produce isle August looks over and exclaims "I want some Eggplant." Seriously?
How does this kid even know what eggplant is?!
Well, because I told him he could purchase anything he wanted (vegetable-wise) I went ahead and bought it.
Because I had never really cooked eggplant before I had to try and look up recipes...

 I ended up choosing a recipe after googling "Eggplant that kids will eat."

Of course it was a recipe which required deep frying it.
I sliced them dipped them in a seasoned flour mixture and then I dipped them in egg and fried them in olive oil.
Simple enough.
Slicing the eggplant was cool. They were pretty neat looking inside...

 The boys liked them enough...
Not like clear the plate, like them, but more like ate the one I gave them, liked them.

August also chose this lemon cake to celebrate his brothers graduation.
Mitch moving on to high school, Brayden moving onto middle school.

He also found a frog in the backyard.
The poor thing became his prisoner for the week. He did take very good care of it.
He also treated it like a toy and rode it around on his cars...
He sat it on his chest while he watched tv.
He let it "help" him when he made lego towers.

We finally made it to Mitchel's promotion day.
They are laying a brand new floor in the middle school gym, so the ceremony was held across the street at the football stadium.

He was pretty excited.
He picked out a new special shirt and a bow tie.

It was very surreal watching my baby leaving middle school.
I think it is even more so, because of how clearly I can remember entering high school, and now he is at that stage in his life.

I tried to take pictures of all of us...
Some were more cooperative than others.

 Mitchel holding up his "Certificate of Participation"...

Brent and Mitch getting up on their tippy toes...

 The next day Mitch's team had a last, last game.
Only this time they were out on the field as mentors to a younger team that was "actually" playing.
It was really sweet to watch. They did this for a boy who has leukemia on the younger team.
Towards the end they pushed him around all the bases while everyone cheered.

I wasn't there for that because August decided to play in the creek and get soaked.

This is when he sees the water..

He gets a little close...

...and then he's in!

This was a pretty memorable few days...

Boys Trip

(8th blog post in a row...)

So Brent took the boys to Nevada for our family friend's graduation.
Laurie was like an adoptive mother to Brent.
Her daughter Jacqueline has always been special to us. When Laurie's cancer was acting up Brent and I were appointed to take her if anything should happen.

The boys had a blast at Jackie's graduation.
Brent booked two nights in Reno at Circus Circus, and then two nights in Gardnerville where they live.

Brent was super good about sending pictures the first day...but then he let his phone die and the pictures puttered out.

This was also Brayden's Birthday. This was the first time I have NOT been with my little guy on his birthday. It was weird. I was able to sneak some fun stuff for him (cards and notes) Plus I called and sang to him. Still, it was sad.

So these are pictures from that Brent would send me throughout the week.

All of their spoils from the arcade and Circus Circus

Daddy and August have their hair all done up to go out and have some fun.

Apparently Daddy must have an Ice Cream After EVERY meal policy...

Took the shuttle over to the Casino

Daddy said for breakfast "why choose when you can have both" Nachos and donuts? Really Brent?!

The boys were EXCITED to have sushi for lunch

They had a great trip with Daddy.
August was obsessed with Jackie's sister Vanessa and her baby in her tummy.
Now of course he wants me to put a baby in my tummy so he can have a little brother or sister, or so he says....Hahaha. He's precious.

Plus Jackie's friend RJ gave the boys a race car game for their Xbox. I think that is about all the highlights they gave me. They swam, played, drove a bunch, and ate what they wanted.

A trip to remember.

*This was when Bray was two months old and we drove down to Nevada to visit.