Happy GratiWednesday!

So much to be thankful for, and it's been a long time since our last "Grati" post. I know I'm forgetting to add a lot, but here are a few:

1. We found a great sitter for the Fall! We are losing our sweet Tara (she's graduating this semester), so she'll just be able to watch the kids as her school schedule allows. We changed gears and actually found someone who nannies professionally, and we're hoping we don't burn her out! She started this week and (knock on wood) we think it will be great.
2. Fun birthdays! We celebrated our sitter Becky's 21st birthday this week, and (of course) Brent's birthday yesterday. Brent's birthday ended with a great dinner at the new Mongolian grill (Genghis) and a movie ("Expendables" with Bruce Willis, Sylvester Stallone, Arnold Schwarzenegger, Mickey Rourke, 'Stone Cold' Steve Austin...you get the picture). He had a great birthday! (& yes, for those of you keeping score, it WAS complete Hell for me. He totally paid me back for making him watch "Letters to Juliet" on my birthday.)
3. Tara brought the kids all kinds of fun goodies last night when she babysat for us--dress-up necklaces, magnets, butterfly tattoos and more--and the kids had so much fun playing with her.
4. Air conditioning! Mercy, the AC has worked its tail off.
5. Average bill payment for electricity (for #4 above). I'm sure we'd pass out if we had to *guess* how much to budget for electricity. Woooo, last month's was a doozy!
6. The last FPU class ended a couple of weeks ago, and we still have a couple of weeks "off" before the next one starts. It's nice to get a break, but I'm anxious to meet our new classmates for the next session.
7. The kids' pediatrician for filling out the necessary forms for Sophie's preschool without making us come in for an office visit. She's the best!
8. Kelly helped me take the boys for their 'big boy' haircuts at the salon! This was their second time getting 'real' haircuts (Mommy's been doing it at home), but we wanted a good haircut for their upcoming pictures. The boys did amazingly well! (Side note, we won't be going back to that salon--Kelly and I almost fainted when the total was $18 EACH! For toddlers??)
9. My friend Laura and her daughter Jaiden invited us to a movie last weekend. We saw "How to Train Your Dragon" and the kids were really good. I was surprised that it held their interest for so long!
10. Mucinex and Vicks. I'm battling a summer cold this week and the 'Vicks + socks' bedtime routine is a lifesaver!

So many more that I'm forgetting right now--I'll have to add more to next week's list.

As promised, here are some pictures of the kids!

After the boys' haircuts--you can see the slight "spikiness" of the front of their bangs. Cute!

At the movie with Jaiden:

Purely for blackmail later (their favorite movie right now is Cinderella--you should see them ballroom dance!):

More pics to come as the week progresses!