Jonas, Xander, and I went to the Lego Club at the library this morning (while Daddy spent some one on one time with Roman). It was really cool to see so many boys and so many Legos all in one place. The boys created and built to their hearts’ content and had fun doing it…we will definitely be going back!
Jonas, Xander, and Daddy ran a Gatorade Stand this afternoon in our driveway (while Roman helped Mommy make some “basagna”). The beautiful sunny day, super low price, and contagious waves and smiles from three cute boys made it a success!!!
I ran my first 5K in years (like since way before marriage and children) this morning!!! Here’s a picture of: Jonas, Xander, and I bright and early before the race (Roman was still sleeping); Kim and I gearing up to head to the starting line (we have been training partners and have kept each other accountable and motivated for the past few months…yay, Kim!); and Jonas, Xander, Roman, and I celebrating after the race. My favorite part was seeing Tom and the boys at the crest of the last hill, cheering for and running with us.
It’s been a rough couple of days emotionally for me, so it was really sweet to see the boys have fun playing in the rain this morning like I did when I was a little girl. They grabbed their umbrellas, rain boots, and swim suits and went exploring…and then the sun came out. It was a good lesson for mommy…and refreshing for all of our souls.
The boys and I stopped into the garden center this afternoon to pick up a few perennials for our front flower bed (I think I’m finally realizing that swapping out annuals twice a year is not worth the time or the money). We grabbed some tomato cages while we were at it for a few of the tomato plants in our garden that have started getting big. And I cracked up when I looked over and saw this…they said they were “growing themselves”.
The boys and I went out to visit MeMe and PaPa this morning. It was a rainy day, but they still had a big time…picking onions from the garden, painting watercolor pictures with MeMe, throwing Xander’s stuffed penguin up in the air with PaPa, playing with the wooden train and tool toys, and eating lunch on the back porch. We’re so thankful for the lazy days of summer!!!
The boys were so excited to get a package in the mail from Aunt Sherri yesterday…she sent the boys wooden rosaries to put together themselves!!! Jonas and Xander worked on theirs this afternoon while Roman was napping. What a great spiritual learning activity…thanks, Aunt Sherri!
Jonas and Xander started swim lessons this afternoon. They were so excited about their goggles that they wore them in the car the entire way there. I had to document the cuteness…
We were a little bit early, so they sat on the side of the pool and had fun kicking their feet in the water (and water at each other) until their lesson started. Their classmates were another set of brothers (ages 3 and 5) which I thought was pretty perfect.
I prayed for Xander on the way that he would be able to move past his fear and enjoy it. He is the daddy-deemed “water dog” of the family and could easily play in the water all day. But when he took his first crack at swim lessons last summer, he was TOTALLY not into it (even the swim school director felt that it just wasn’t the right time for him.). So this summer he’s going into it with a year of preschool under his belt and his brother who’s in the same class. He still put the breaks on when he realized I wasn’t going with him into the water, and he freaked out a little bit and cried a little bit when I handed him off to his coach. But she just took it all in stride; and, within a few short minutes, he went from holding on to her for dear life to patting her on the back and smiling and splashing with the best of them. Go Xander!!!
Jonas was all about it…going under water and just all around chomping at the bit. The gymnastics camp that he’s doing one day a week over the summer (where they do gymnastics and get to play in the pool) and the thought of going on his first beach vacation in a few short weeks has got him fired up about swimming. Here’s hoping we’ll have some swimmers pretty soon!
The boys and I ventured out to the zoo this morning. It always takes a certain amount of energy for me to go there with them, and I wasn’t all together sure I had enough today but I thought I’d give it a shot anyway. (We’ve been trying to keep it fairly low key after a crazy last week of school and first week of summer, so we were all ready to get out and about a little bit.) We were supposed to meet up with some of Xander’s friends from preschool but ended up doing our own thing as they were all spending the morning on the jungle gym which was not my idea of fun after losing Roman there for the worst few minutes of my life the last time we went to the zoo. SO we rode the carousel, fed the lorikeets, pet the goats, and checked out the red pandas and the leopards. I realized later that I didn’t get a good picture of Roman, but here are a few good ones of Jonas and Xander riding the carousel.
To celebrate the end of Jonas’ baseball season, Tom invited all of the boys from the team out to the fire department to run through the water from the fire hose. Jonas was a little hesitant but eventually got into it, Xander was all about it, and Roman would have none of it. (The crying picture of Roman might be the first in a new series I’ll post, directly inspired by Greg Pemboroke’s hysterically therapeutic blog “Reasons My Son Is Crying”…he was crying because I wouldn’t let him take pictures with my phone near a 50 foot jet stream of water from a fire truck.)
Xander freaked us all (and himself) out by running into an electrified barbed wire fence…all I can say is that Tom got to him quicker than I did and I was running for my life down the hill. He was amazingly and thankfully okay except for a vertical scrape down the length of his chest and understandable tears from being hurt and scared. I saw something in that moment…the difference between Tom and I and in what we’ve passed on to our kids…I would’ve just wanted to go home and certainly wouldn’t have gotten back out there…so I was so proud to see that Xander tended more in this moment towards what Tom would’ve done…he got right back out there and had more fun than most of the other kids. I’m so grateful for these little…these big triumphs of character in the little things. Go, Xander!
The boys and I went strawberry picking this morning. We were headed to a local patch with our moms’ group, but we found out at the last minute that it was closed. So we ended up driving out to Valley Home Farms where we’ve gone the last two summers in a row…since we got out there a little later than we would have if we had planned on it…it was HOT. We enjoyed our picking time but didn’t last that long in the heat. The boys were so drained that I ended up pushing all of them in the stroller back down the little dirt road from the strawberry fields back up to the home store. We cooled off in the shade and treated ourselves to the best homemade strawberry honey pops in the world. We’re looking forward to visiting our favorite u-pick farms this summer and picking more delicious, in-season fruit!
Jonas’ baseball team went to the playoffs!!! They won their first playoff game which was so exciting to watch. They put up a great fight tonight at their second playoff game, but the other team still ended up winning. Here Jonas is with his hard-earned trophy…he was so proud. And we are so proud of him…what a brave little boy.
Today was Jonas and Xander’s last day of preschool for the year. It hit me this morning, as I was trying to keep a peaceful heart in the midst of a van full of wildness, that this would be my last morning to drive Jonas to preschool EVER. And that’s when it started…that lump in the throat thing. So far, I’ve been surprised at my out-of-character, non-emotional response to: talking with friends and family about Jonas starting kindergarten in the fall (he’s ready to go and I’m ready for him to go), attending the kindergarten registration meeting and turning in all of his paperwork, and buying his school supply kit. But there was just something about walking him to his preschool classroom for the last time and getting to witness a few of their daily morning activities (circle time, prayer, and the Pledge of Allegiance) that really got to me…it was definitely a slow motion and a fast forward moment all in one. Here are a few pictures of him with: his best friend, Henry; his dear teachers, Mrs. Deese and Mrs. Nofi; the American flag; his yearbook; his classmates; and his Mommy (I totally have the same look on my face as I did the day I brought him home from the hospital).
Tom spent time with Xander and Roman in Xander’s classroom, where Xan-Man was delighted to receive his yearbook as well. Here’s a picture of his sweetness with his precious teachers, Mrs. Cathy and Mrs. Lynda.
I ran by the dollar store earlier this week to surprise the boys with a small end of the school year gift…among the winners were these sticky foam animal mosaics that have been a big hit with the big boys (especially Xander) and a bag of pipe cleaners that they all have been playing with in different ways. We were having a restful morning, and the boys had all settled into a project…Jonas was doing a paint-with-water page and Xander was working on a sticky foam mosaic…and Roman was restless so I busted out the colander and pipe cleaners for an activity I’ve heard can keep toddlers busy for a little while. It did and then the big boys wanted to join in too (we only had two colanders so Jonas found a cheese grater that worked just as well). Yay for easy mornings and for the creativity that rest brings.
It was just the best to share one of Jonas’ rainy morning baseball games with MeMe and PaPa and Aunt Jean. Here they are holding Jonas up like the trophy he is…and he got the game ball for the game winning hit!!!
Tom and the boys and I went to Touch-A-Truck this afternoon at Pinkerton Park (it’s an annual event where the city brings out trucks from the Fire, Police, Sanitation, Streets, Water, and Parks to celebrate and honor the City Public Works Departments). It’s so awesome and what a wonderful educational opportunity for the boys to learn more about our community helpers! They checked out a SWAT truck, a Bobcat, a John Deere tractor, a garbage truck, and a school bus. The favorite by far was the bucket truck that held a man high up in the air who threw down soft earth balls to all of the amazed kids below. A sweet surprise for this mother’s heart was…when each of my boys climbed into the Bobcat…the first thing they did was look for the seatbelt and try to put it on! The boys were chomping at the bit to play at the super fun playgrounds the whole time, so they did that before and after too. There is NO way I could have managed it all without Tom, so yay for Daddy being so hands-on and for being able to come with us!
We enjoyed spending Mother’s Day making breakfast for Maw and hanging out with Maw, Uncle Kerry, Aunt Julie, and Aunt Jeanne. What would we do without our mothers? Here are a few pictures from our time together…
I had lunch with Jonas and Xander at preschool today in honor of Mother’s Day. They gave me the sweetest gifts, hugs, and smiles. (We ended up leaving a little bit early as Xander had a meltdown about the Oreos I brought him just in case the treats they provided were not peanut-free which they weren’t…some meltdowns will forever be a mystery to me…oh well…I just keep trying to take a deep breath and try again.) Anyway…Happy Mother’s Day!
Jonas has been sick all week, so we’ve been taking it super easy. This morning, the boys did some painting with watercolor and fingerpaints. (I couldn’t find the paint brushes in our overflowing craft bins, so I found some q-tips in our bathroom closet for the boys to paint with while I did a little bit of craft supply organizing.) In my mini downsizing project of our slightly out of control collection of coloring, activity, and skills books…I was so excited to find a Paint with Water book that I think Aunt Sherri gave the boys a while back!!! I have the fondest memories of spending countless summer minutes on these with my sisters and cousin at my Granny and Grandpa’s house, and I loved watching Jonas and Xander have just as much fun with them.
Jonas got the coolest gift for his birthday last year…a crystal mining kit. He has totally loved digging through the rock with his special tools to unearth crystals. So, when Tom found a few dinosaur bone digging kits on clearance, he brought them home for the boys. It was the perfect thing to bring out this week, as Jonas has been sick and we’ve been taking it easy at home. It definitely made a mess (next time we’ll take it outside), but they had so much fun with it which is what matters most.
