The Barnes Boys - An Update

Brotherly Love-ish

Bryson chipping at his second tournament

Bryson - 5th Place at his third tournament

First Grader!

Bryson started First Grade last week. He has an amazing teacher and we are so excited...in fact, at back to school night she was getting me so pumped up i signed up to volunteer for like a hundred things because i wanted to be in her class so bad...then i came home to my piles of work/laundry/dishes/ etc and was like, "what was i thinking?" but i do want to make volunteering in the classroom a priority because i know how much it would mean to him (and seriously...i want to be in her class...for reals).

Bryson LOVES school. i am so grateful. but, he does have a problem with homework...and practicing golf. turns out he would rather play than do either of those things, what? crazy kid, huh? i know...i am trying to find our rhythm now of longer school hours and homework and balancing play and practice...and cooking dinner. that cooking dinner part is seriously the most challenging part of my day. my options are to throw them all outside and listen for screams and fights to ensue, or put a show on and listen for screams and fights to ensue. or do nothing and let them crawl all over me and try to steal knives i leave on the counter. so much fun! it works best when both bryan and i are here together, but that is not always the norm! i havent figured it out yet...maybe the week before school ends i will finally find my rhythm like last year.

Bryson is still doing golf tournaments. His next one coming up will be his 5th one. He is also doing the Heartwell progam (fun fact - Tiger Woods did this same program at Heartwell when he was a wee one too!) and we are very excited for him to play with other kids his age in a non-competitive way. He apparently loves golf - i make sure to ask him all the time, because it makes no sense to me...but i am grateful he is clinging to a sport that won't wind him up in the ER...it just will only bankrupt us...just kidding...kind of...not really, but it really is not a cheap sport...

This is his serious face

This is his cheese face

Bobby! I mean, look at that face - what a CHEESE BALL! he is so goofy...i feel like i just updated you all when i wrote about his second birthday, so maybe i can just update how he interacts with his brothers. With Bryson - he just adores bryson - the other day i locked him in the kitchen with me because bryson was practicing golf and he took a chair - scooted it all the way over to the door leading out of the kitchen to the backyard and climbed up and just screamed "FY-SHEN, FY-SHEN" for like, 5 minutes. It was both simultaneously hilarious and annoying. With Bodie, they are still trying to figure out how to interact without meltdowns on both ends. Bodie does not understand the art of distraction and manipulation like Bryson has mastered - "Here Bobby - take this car - its plain black, but soooo much cooler than that hot rod car you have!" so Bodie resorts to just grabbing whatever from Bobby...which Bobby is not okay with...at all. My day with them when Bryson is at school is teaching them how to not kill each other. which is absolutely fine as long as i have absolutely nothing else to do at all. which is the case for me for probably an hour a day. But I can see improvement and everyone keeps telling me how great this short age distance will be in a little bit...just have to get through this part. i have hope, friends! 

Bodie is a cheese as well

My boy!

Bodie is really starting to come out of his shell. He is starting to talk a lot more and it is always entertaining to know what has been going on in that curly head of his...he tells me about a lot of inventions that he could make. He tells me about all kinds of different skateboard ramps we could make - he makes up songs - he tells me made up stories. It is so fun to see his little imagination coming to life. For the first time on their own doing, bryson and him played an imaginary game Pirates for like an hour. it was brilliant and not mama-inspired at all! Bodie is still such a sweet heart and his placement in the family couldn't have been more perfect...imagine if i had bryson and bobby back to back! oh dear...there might not have ever been a third ;)

Big brother of the year!

Playing pirates together.