While Jonas was having fun at Let It Shine camp today, Xander and Roman and I hit up the pool with the Morozovs. Â We had such a good time playing in the water and catching up (here’s a few pictures of the cousins together cutting up). Â We all headed back to our house for lunch and more play time/chat time and popsicles. Â We’re looking forward to more summer adventures together!!!
Xander spread his wings tonight and started full on reading…it was so precious to see the excitement on his face. Â Here he is reading “The Storybook Treasury of Dick and Jane”.
The boys and I went to Cumberland Park Sprayground downtown this morning with our moms’ group and had SO much fun. Â We loved looking at the perennial flower garden, digging in the sand, playing on the seesaw, splashing in the water, eating a picnic lunch, climbing the rope web and climbing wall, riding the elevator up to walk across the pedestrian bridge over the Cumberland River, and finishing everything off with an ice cream sandwich. Â Yay for summer!
Today was a cooler, gray, wanting to rain kind of day. Â The boys and I took a rest at home yesterday, so even though everything was a little soaked this morning we decided to hit up Pinkerton Park anyway. Â We had fun!
Tom turned 40 today, and he wears it well!!! Â The boys and I gave him cards and presents this morning, and we enjoyed the funnest birthday party ever with him and friends and family this afternoon. Â Here’s to the next 40!!!
The boys and I kicked off the summer with another trip to Valley Home Farms for strawberry picking. Aside from Xander busting his knees on the gravel when we first got there and Jonas breaking the rules and sitting in time out after walking over strawberry plants to change rows (to the tune of another mom feeling the need to correct him and alert me to that fact even though she had four kids in tow…obviously two older girls…and I was trying to help my two younger boys pick responsibly), we had a good time. Ha! We picked enough to make strawberry pancakes for dinner and a vat of homemade strawberry ice cream and to fill a gallon freezer bag with fresh strawberries for later. We love that place and are looking forward to picking their blueberries this year.
Note to self…NEVER let the boys have those little cracker sticks with Nutella dip in the car…or anywhere…ever again.
I should just let the picture speak for itself, but I’ll explain so you won’t think I’m the horribly negligent mother that I appear to be. Â Gracious.
So, Xander, Roman, and I went grocery shopping this morning. Â It all starts that way, doesn’t it? Â They did a good job behaving in Publix, so I thought I’d reward them with those little cracker sticks with Nutella dip. Mistake number one. Â They were so excited, and I let them have them in the car on the way to Kroger. Mistake number two. Well, not really…because they actually got the snacking part down that time. Â I guess they couldn’t keep up their behaving streak after a halfway decent job behaving in Kroger. Â So, on the way home…I swear I wasn’t doing anything but d-r-i-v-i-n-g…I hear, “We’re really going to need a bath when we get home…”. Â I turn around, and this is what I see. Â Help me, Lord. Â (I didn’t take these pictures until we were parked in the driveway at home and probably shouldn’t have as it might have just encouraged the wildness, but I’m working on amassing blackmailing pictures for their wedding rehearsal dinner slide shows.). All I could do was…drive…and say, “Don’t touch anything!” Â I saw our across the street neighbor unloading his three kids in his driveway and stopped to roll down my window and offer encouragement to anyone’s attempt at parenting but my own, “Hey…you should look in the backseat of my van so you can feel better about yourself as a parent.” Â The boys enjoyed a stiff talking to and a daytime bath in Nutella flavored water.
Xander and Roman had their last day of school today!!! Â We love HFLC so much…on the last day of the school year, they invite parents into the classroom after morning drop-off and present each child with a photo album with pictures taken of them at school all throughout the year. Â It is the sweetest thing. Â It’s tough with two celebrating at the same time and having to choose where to be (last year and this year) but Tom is so thoughtful and offers to go into the classroom with the younger one so I can be with the older one. Â I enjoy loving on the boys, hugging and thanking their teachers, and looking through their yearbooks with them. Â Here’s Xander with his precious teachers, Mrs. Kapolas and Mrs. Hindes. Â I’m so thankful I was able to capture a moment with Roman and his dear teacher, Mrs. Lindsay, when I dropped him off because by the time I stopped into his classroom after being with Xander, he was a super crank and was NOT into having his picture taken with his sweet teacher, Mrs. Michele, or with me for that matter. Â He was happy with Daddy, though, so that’s good. (His long suffering teachers had 7 two year old boys and 1 two year old girl in their classroom this year…I think the look on their faces was as much relief at the end of the school year as mine was fear mixed with dread…haha). Â Yay for Xander and Roman and their last day of school. Â Here’s to summer!!!
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 and his friend, Andrew, from the fire department laid sod in our backyard this week. I even got in there and helped them because I couldn’t stand not too. Â I tell you what…I have a new appreciation for those who do that kind of back-breaking work on a daily basis. Â We were worn out!!! Â I was telling Tom that there’s actually something really good that comes to me when I’m working hard outside…I think it’s peace. Â The boys were helping out by bringing us Gatorade to drink (their sweet servant hearts made me proud) and using the wheelbarrow that Mrs. Laura gave them after their hard work at the library. Here are a few pictures of Xander and Roman helping out…
A few weeks ago, I noticed that the flower beds in front of the library could use a little sprucing up. Â So, I talked with the head librarian and got his okay on everything. Â Then, we were off to the races! Â The boys went with me in different configurations and I went by myself a few times over the course of several days to do some weeding, pruning of the crepe myrtle and roses, and cutting back of the dead monkey grass. Â The Mulch Stop donated 2 yards of mulch, and The Southbranch Nusery donated 6 small pots of lantana to put in the flower pots out front!!! Â I talked with another instrumental mom in our moms’ group, and she suggested putting it down as an event on our calendar and inviting moms and kids out to join us for a work day. Â She also suggested rotating with each other playing with the kids in the library (reading, coloring, etc.) and working outside. Â We brought snacks to share, and we had a great time! Â Laura brought the mulch in her truck, and it was amazing how much we were able to get done. Â There is no way it would have gotten done without everyone coming together. Yay for community!!! Â Here are a few pictures of the boys hard at work…
Can I just be honest and say that for some reason these Mother’s Day luncheons never seem to work out for us? Maybe it’s just that what’s on the outside doesn’t match up with what’s on the inside sometimes, and my boys and I are not very good at pretending. All of the smiling, dressed-up mommy faces with their cooperative, sweet children beaming up at them (glaringly with one child or two children, with one being a sweet sleeping or giggling baby who isn’t mobile and can’t talk back). It could’ve been that at my table were two other moms, each with two GIRLS. I felt like they were staring at my boys and I like we had two heads apiece. Roman, for some reason, that always happens these days (geesh…I thought we’d already been through the terrible twos and paid our dues…but wait there’s more…the gouge-your-eyes-out threes) decided to cry and pitch a fit the entire time over EVERYTHING. Mommy’s trying to take a picture with just Xander (waaaaaaaah), he wasn’t looking where he was going and bumped into Xander (waaaaaaaah), Mommy didn’t open his present first (waaaaaaaah), he’s hungry at the table (waaaaaaaah), he’s hungry in the lunch line (waaaaaaaah), he doesn’t know what to dip everything in (waaaaaaaah), he wants more oranges and sour cream….right now (waaaaaaaah), his plate is messy (waaaaaaaah), etc. With tears streaming down his face and feeling my heart pound with the heat of stares and just wanting it all to be over, we bailed. Happy Mother’s Day to me…I get to bring my boys, who were sick and home from school all last week, home early with me today for a sweet end-of-the-year Mother’s Day gift (kick in the pants). Xander actually did a great job this year (unlike last year when we left early because the Oreo cookies I brought from home, because I’m such a bad mom, to substitute for non-peanut-free desserts were NOT BIG ENOUGH waaaaaaaah). Xander walked to the van…followed by me, with two backpacks and two truly precious handmade gifts in tow and…Roman, having a massive throw-down because I wouldn’t pick him up and carry him too. I went ahead and buckled Xander in and sat in the front seat waiting for Roman, who at the bottom of the stairs several feet away stood stock still and then, when he realized I wasn’t coming to carry his three year old self, muppeted his mouth open into the biggest Mommy-has-abandoned me wail and magically started walking to the car. Ah life, for which I am thankful…and ah kids, with whom I’ve been richly blessed…sometimes it just gets to me and sometimes I just have to laugh…or cry…or both. Why does God continue to put up with us…his children? I know we’re like this with Him…even as adults. I guess it’s because He loves us. I love my boys. Happy Mother’s Day!
Xander and Roman were so excited to get to pet the ducklings that hatched at preschool this week!!!
Xander, Roman, and I went to the zoo this morning with our dear friends and old neighbors…Stephanie, Grayson, and Claira. Â It was SO good to see them and to get some play time in together at the zoo!
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!!!
Xander and Roman and I stepped outside to check out the rain this afternoon. Â I was finishing up a phone call with Uncle Kerry and enjoying the rain drops…the boys started playing in the puddles and by the time I hung up…we were all soaked!!! It was one of those settled in kinds of rains (with no thunder or lightning)…the kind that I loved to play in when I was a child. Â So, I happily jumped into their play time, experimenting with floating different things down the rain water river in the gutter and enjoying the feeling of the water rushing over my feet. Â Soon, we had two little neighborhood friends join in the fun. Â (Even Petra was out there…usually she’s not a huge fan of rain but she’s always up for hanging out and making sure the boys are safe.) Xander and Roman took a long soak in a warm bath afterwards and put on pajamas fresh from the dryer. Â What a blessed spring afternoon!
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:
Xander, Roman, and I love Fridays…it’s a day of rest for us from a long week where we don’t have anything planned and often times even stay in our pajamas. Today we ended up deciding to go to Home Depot and hit up their herbs/fruits/vegetables sale…we picked up some basil, cilantro, parsley, lavender, and rosemary to round out our herbs and a few more strawberry plants. When we got home, we put on our rain/snow boots and enjoyed figuring out where we wanted everything to go, digging holes, planting, and watering everything in. It’s so exciting to see the garden taking shape and to share the planting of it with my little guys.
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…
