Category: Roman

Blackberry Picking…

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The boys and I went blackberry picking this morning. We tried out a different blackberry farm close to home. It’s their first season open for picking, and they were super laid back. The farmer was really sweet with the boys and had them all fascinated by and taking turns holding a shiny green bug before they even set foot on the blackberry fields. It was just us out there which was so peaceful. The blackberries were wild, so it took some getting used to the thorns. Roman was the least into it, wanting to be carried and saying, “Don’t prick me, blackberries! Them pricking me, Mommy!” We brought our own containers at the request of the farmer, and we left with two sand buckets and one Easter basket…each filled about a quarter of the way full…not bad for a morning’s work of picking.

Lily’s Visit…

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Lily came to stay with us for a few weeks to help out with the boys, followed by a weekend visit from The Paccassis!!! It ended up being a SUPER busy time with VBS, swim lessons, park and pool play dates, a marionette show, a zoo visit, a fire department tour, a Centennial Park/Parthenon hang, and a van tour (Seyfried style) of downtown Nashville. Phew…it makes me tired just thinking about it…ha…but we had fun! Lily and the boys ran in the sprinkler and went down the water slide, made crayons, finger painted, and did lots of creative play. And she and I even got some good girl time in (we painted nails, worked on a sewing project, and went for a thrift store/ice cream run). Here are a few pictures from our time together…

For more pictures from Lily’s visit, click on the “Lily’s Visit 2014” page to the right.

Painter’s Tape Roads…

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While Jonas and Xander were playing with the Lego table (we bought a few Lego plates and Tom used them to convert the top of a car/train table into a Lego table for the boys), Roman and I had fun making some painter’s tape roads on the kitchen floor for his cars. We used a big salad bowl as a hill and small popcorn bowls as car garages. Xander and I enjoyed adding a few more twists and turns to the roads, and even Jonas couldn’t resist tweaking the road design a little bit.

Playing Train…

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The boys and I had fun playing train this morning…we took turns conducting and taking tickets…we stopped at Ah-Ah Land, Friend Land, and Candy Land…and we picked up friends and pretend sweet treats along the way…fun times just hanging out at home.

NVFD…

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The boys had a BLAST at the NVFD this afternoon with a load of other kids from our moms’ group…checking out the fire trucks and playing in the water from the fire hose. It was so fun (and hot) in fact that several of the moms and dads joined in as well (including Tom and I). Here’s a picture of the boys with Daddy on the fire truck.

Water Fun…

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We’re getting pretty good at the hanging out thing this summer. Ha! When we got home from dropping Jonas off at camp this morning, Xander and Roman amused themselves for a while with the water table, baby pool, water guns, garden hose, and paint bucket in the driveway. It’s amazing the things that become toys and games with the boys in general…but especially when there’s time to just hang out.

Blueberry Picking…

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The boys and I went blueberry picking this morning with our moms’ group. Most of the ripe ones were up a little high, so I took turns lifting each of the boys up so they could pick their own blueberries and picking handfuls myself and dropping them into their buckets. Either way, a lot of blueberry picking (and eating) was done…the best parts were that it was just down the road from our house and that we shared it with friends.

Twenty-Eight Months…

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At twenty-eight months, Roman is: having a blast playing in the pool (in the front yard, in the backyard, and at the rec center with Mommy and Daddy while Jonas and Xander take swim lessons); enjoying a bit of gardening; getting excited to help out with driveway lemonade stands; and loving a visit with Audrey and his first visit to the beach.

Audrey’s Visit…

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We were SO blessed this summer to have Tom’s niece, Audrey, fly down from Connecticut to stay with us a few days in Tennessee before and after our road trip together to a beach house in Florida for a week!!!

Before we left and amidst the packing (and my shaky mental and emotional state…poor Audrey and the boys), we went to Centennial Park in Nashville to feed the ducks and to the Smyrna Splash Pad.

We really loved our time in Florida…playing in the ocean, splashing in the pool, and kayaking and snorkeling in the bay…and there is NO way we could have done it or enjoyed it without Audrey. Her sweet and calm spirit was SUCH a welcome addition to the loud and wild chaos of our family life.

For more pictures from Audrey’s visit, click on the “Audrey’s Visit 2014” picture page to the right.

Brothers…

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It was so hot this morning that I filled up the baby pools in our backyard early… I thought the boys might enjoy cooling off while working out some of their boundless energy.
As we struggled with our dynamic like we have been this summer, I was having a moment of despair about the boys…how incessantly loud they are, how they don’t listen and follow directions, how much they use mean words and sassy words and potty words (the bane of my existence), how often they hit and push and kick and bite each other, and how quickly they can unclean a house and how destructive they can be…and more than anything…thinking what kind of a mother am I that they’re like this and I can’t seem to do anything about it…then I looked over and saw this sweetness happening and had to capture the moment to remind myself to stop and be thankful for what I have…wildness and all.

Couch to 5K…

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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.

Dairy Day…

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After dropping Jonas off at camp this morning, Xander and Roman and I headed out to the Lane Agricultural Center for Dairy Day. The boys sampled cubes of cheese, crackers with fresh butter, ice cream sandwiches, and chocolate milk. The latter two, of course, were their favorites. Xander enjoyed playing a few milk bottle games (bowling and ring tossing); and Roman joined in just in time to have fun in the preschool area…picking fruits and vegetables, gathering eggs, grabbing handfuls of grain, and milking a cow…they even got to exchange it all for money (all pretend but such a great idea) to buy an educational coloring book about agriculture. Our last stop was a quick ride on the tractor. Yay for Dairy Day and for two little boys to share it with!

Playing in the Rain…

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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.

A Roman-Sized Pool…

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This afternoon, while Tom took Jonas and Xander to swim lessons, Roman and I enjoyed some one on one time. He is the most beautiful thing when he first wakes up from his nap, and I loved just being able to sit with him in the playroom, watching him and talking with him while he ate his snack on a picnic blanket…he is seriously cuteness personified. He was SUPER excited when I busted out the baby pool for him to play in on the patio in the backyard…his face says it all. Thank God for the simple things in life.

Visit with MeMe and PaPa…

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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!!!

NVFD…

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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!