Jonas’ last day of school was today!!! His brothers and I actually ended up walking him in to his classroom, signing him out, picking up his report card, giving his precious teacher a hug, and heading off to start the summer. We celebrated with a leisurely walk around the neighborhood and lunch/playtime at Chick-Fil-A. Here’s to summer and to the best teacher this little guy could have ever had for kindergarten!!!
Jonas had his kindergarten program and end of the year picnic today!!! Â I love that he sang all of the songs for me the night before because I was so hot in the gym squeezed in with all of those people and embarrassed trying to quiet his two fuss bucketedy brothers the whole time that it was hard to concentrate on what was going this morning…ha! It was SO sweet, though, and my heart was so proud and thankful for Jonas and for how he’s grown this year. Â Here’s Jonas with MeMe and PaPa, Maw, and his dear teacher Ms. Chase. Â Yay for Jonas!!!
I was so excited to get to volunteer for Field Day (I’m so grateful to my dear friend, Rebekah, who kept Roman for me…she said he had a blast playing in the backyard with her sweet girls). Â I worked the Pitch to Catcher station with the mother of one of Jonas’ favorite friends in his class and my precious friend, Jenn. Â We had fun cheering the kids on and marveling at their varying approaches, skill levels, and personalities. Â Jonas visited and got the ball in the net several times. Â It was so fun to see his smiling face and hug him!
Today was Bike to School Day! So, all of my boys rode on their wheels while I followed behind, pushing the empty jogger stroller, just in case…good thing too…Xander ended up falling and skinning both knees on the way down the hill so we left his bike there and I finally convinced Roman to ditch his trike so he could join Xander in the jogger stroller and we could catch up with Jonas. Â It was a crazy morning (we had painters in the house at 700 am, our van overheated on the way to preschool, etc.), but it was worth it to see the smile on Jonas’ face when we got to school.
Jonas lost his first tooth today!!!
Jonas put frozen strawberries (the ones we picked at Valley Home Farm) in the Gatorade he brought us when we were laying sod. Â It was so delicious that he wanted to do a lemonade with strawberries stand today. Â It was super hot, so Tom put up the beach umbrella for some shade. Â Xander had the great idea of twirling the umbrella to attract customers (Tom’s kids know how to sell, man!) and Roman even got in there with him, twirling the umbrella from the water table. Â MeMe and PaPa stopped by, as they were in the area, to buy some lemonade with strawberries and to let me hug their necks and give MeMe her birthday present. Â I loved looking out and seeing Daddy sitting with them. Â What a fun afternoon…we stayed out there for a while and had several customers. Â We’re looking forward to doing it again this summer!
Tom pressure washed the treehouse and the patio this weekend…the boys were all standing up on the deck, watching him in awe. Â He asked if they wanted to try it, and they all jumped at the chance and had a BLAST spraying down the old chalkboard.
We loaded up and went strawberry picking yesterday at Valley Home Farms in Wartrace (near Bell Buckle). This has been one of our favorite spring traditions since Roman was a brand new baby. There is just something about being way out in the country on a fifth generation farm in the middle of a strawberry field with rows and rows of strawberries as far as eye can see…it’s so peaceful and soul filling. We picked and picked…enough for strawberry pancakes for dinner, two trays of frozen strawberries, nine jars of strawberry jam, and a basket of strawberries to take with us to share with family at Pops and Maw’s for lunch on Sunday!!!
The boys and I spent most of the day outside today…we planted our corn, bean, cucumber, and carrot seeds and our tomato and sweet pepper plants and painted pavers for our garden. Here they are…hard at work on their creations:
On Easter afternoon, we all loaded up and went to Aunt Jean’s for a delicious lunch and a super fun egg hunt. Â It’s always so good to spend time hanging out and catching up with family.
That evening we went to the beautiful Life Teen mass.
Here are a few pictures of the boys egg hunting…
The boys, Petra, and I went for a long walk on Saturday morning before the rain came (they wanted to wear their swimsuits just in case), and we were all so excited to happen upon a box turtle on the trail!
The boys started swim lessons this week. Â It was Roman’s first swim lesson ever, and he acted like he’d been there all along (he is the first of the three boys to NOT cry starting out). Here’s to a swim-filled spring and summer!
Here’s Jonas with a four leaf clover he found this weekend!!!
The boys enjoyed getting super muddy again, making mud pies!!!
As a nice ending to spring break, Tom had the dirt delivered for the new addition to our garden!!! Â We all enjoyed helping out. Â Tom shoveled and wheelbarrowed dirt, I tried my best to spread it out with a rake, and the boys amused the workmen with their little boy antics and got their hands and clothes as dirty as possible.
The boys and I went to Pinkerton Park this morning to play…it got really crowded really quick so we moved from the wooden structured playground (which is really cool but really hard to keep an eye on all of them in when there are a lot of people milling around) to the more open parts of the park…they played in the sandbox, ran across a bridge, rolled down the hill, did a fair amount of squabbling, and a whole lot of not listening to mommy. We all good and wore ourselves out, enjoying the sunshine, and were near (if not) basket cases by the time we left…hungry and ready for a rest. Here’s to Spring Break and hoping for a good mix of sunshine, play, and peace. (I know the last one…and maybe the first one…are wishful thinking, but a girl can dream.)
In conjunction with Arbor Day, Middle Tennessee Electric gave all of the kids at Jonas’ school seedling dogwood trees to plant!!! His tree stayed with his teacher overnight because he was using it as a weapon in class which he was told not to do, but after having a serious talk with his teacher the next day about rules and why it’s important to follow them…he was all smiles stepping off the bus with it in his hand.
We decided to start it out in a pot to let it get a little strength and height to it before planting it in the backyard in free reign of three rambunctious boys and a playful dog. We’ll see how it grows!
Aunt Jean bought the boys a set of Picasso Tiles (thanks, Aunt Jean!!!) for Christmas this year and they play with them (and fight over them…haha) non-stop. It’s so cool to see all of the different things they come up with to build. Here’s the tip of the iceberg…
We had another round of ice and snow and a very short week with three more snow days. The cold, gray, rain/ice/snow, and lengthy amount of time stuck together inside is starting to get to all of us. So, we had one last freezing cold sledding hoorah in the cul-de-sac to try to break up the monotony.
I just keep looking at the flower seedlings and the bulbs that are pushing up in the sunshine by the window and reminding myself that spring is coming…
We woke up to snow this morning, so the boys and I made snow cream for a morning treat…they scooped up some fresh snow and then we added sweetened condensed milk and vanilla…it was delicious!!!
