Between myself and Brian, I can honestly say that we have a handful of super useful skills. Among them are Brian’s ability to cook like a gourmet chef and my ability to sew a straight line (super handy if you need a square or other basic shape!). Landscaping, however, is not one of our strong suits! We have planted, dug up and re-planted something, somewhere every spring. Our front bed is, again, practically empty after a bush planting gone bad. We have finally decided to purchase a landscaping plan (soon…I hope).

Included in one of our many attempts was a smattering of tulips. When they came in one spring, we decided they were too sparse and needed better grouping. In the backyard, we planted some around baby lilac bushes that are now down to the ground and completely cover the flowers anyway. When we dug up the errant flowers, we missed a bunch and ignored a bunch (and then never replanted the old bulbs anyway). Now we have 20-some tulips randomly coming up in all different areas of the yard which is, again, a testament to our serious lack of vision on the landscaping front. Last week, I let Aiden use our (surprisingly sharp!) gardening scissors to help me cut the flowers that had bloomed. He was super excited to be given such awesome cutting power. Together, we collected enough to make a cute little arrangement in a mason jar. Another handful of flowers bloomed just the other day. Aiden is already asking when he can cut them down :)

In other news, it was so warm a few days this week that we actually broke out the water toys. Don’t be fooled though. The shot below was taken near the end of the day, when shadows had eclipsed the back yard and it was not, by normal people standards, warm enough to be 1/2 naked running through water. Tell that to these two who begged and begged to play just a little bit longer…

Brady, my only sane child, asked to be brought in because, “I cold”. Here he is, wrapped in a towel, watching our new family favorite show, “zoomy zoomy” (It’s really called Umi Zoomi and it’s a super cute show about math skills, counting, shapes and patterns.)  

I meant to post this picture a couple weeks ago when all the boys in the house, included Brian, got haircuts. They both looked so cute with fresh cuts, I had to take a picture! Little and big BMH:

This past Friday night was beautiful. Just a tad chilly…nothing a fire and some blankets can’t cure! Brian and I hauled our gas-driven outdoor fire pit from the garage to the backyard along with the cushions to the outdoor seating and gathered our kiddos together after dinner for a little fire time. Ahhh…outdoor fire season is here - YEAH! Despite the productivity of the neighbors around us, we also spent a good deal of time sitting/laying/sleeping and reading on the outdoor couch the whole weekend. Saturday we were completely useless until at least noon. From my place on the couch, coffee and book in hand, still clad in “lounge wear” (ie: pajamas with undergarments and a jacket), I watched our backyard neighbors trim, mow & fertilize while the guy next door seemed to have hired a team of men to help him super mow and aerate. Brian gave in to the pressure and did a good deal of yard work Sunday morning…and I finally admitted a need for more food in the house and hit the grocery store (but then it was back to the outside couch for more reading that afternoon!!)

Brady: ready in PJs and under a blanket – settled in for fire time!

I see a perfect spot for me…too bad daddy has my blanket on top of him (can you guess which one it is? maybe the only pink one in the bunch?!)

So the boys did a little less sitting than we did, but they had a blast playing with bubble stuff on the porch. They also behaved themselves well enough that we didn’t ever have to get up which was lovely…

Lacking the ingredients for s’mores, Brian split a banana, loaded it with mini kit kat bars from the left-over Easter treats, wrapped it in foil and threw it on the fire.

This is either 1. A picture of the boys anticipating the best dessert ever or 2. The boys singing and dancing to their new favorite “song” which goes “Shake your go-go, shake your go-go”. Both of these things happened during our fire. The go-go song, Aiden claims, came from Yo Gabba Gabba. When I asked him, “what is a go-go?”, he turned around and pointed to his (tiny) rear end.

Admiring planes in the night sky

And here we are again Saturday morning…looks like daddy is still trying to get some rest.

Aiden took my camera for a while. This is me watching something…maybe I’m thinking “hey! what’s with the productive yard work?! It’s only 10 and I’m trying to read here!” 

me and Aiden – shot by Logan.

When my children say, “oh yeah! I love (fill in name of food you just told them for the 4th time you will be preparing for dinner),” do NOT believe them. Upon delivery of said dinner to the table, they will decide that while they may like the meal you made, they just aren’t hungry for it right now. Either that, OR…they will suddenly declare great distain for the food which only an hour ago they claimed to love (strangely they do like the veggies…probably because they get one of the same three every night and have grown to accept them). Now, I have heard tale of children who eat whatever is put in front of them…oh to have those kids in my house! Our motto is: serve them what we’re having and ask that they take at least X number of bites per item on the plate including all veggies (X = age of child). If they don’t like it, they can pick something else healthy (something that requires no heat or massive amounts of effort to prepare…toast is permissible despite need for toaster). If you don’t eat all your dinner, noooooo sweets, don’t even ask. Shocking fact from tonight’s dinner: Brady totally digs goat cheese. He didn’t necessarily like the pasta and meat sauce, but he couldn’t get enough of the herb and garlic variety I brought to the table to sprinkle on my meal. The other boys tried it and made faces. Brady climbed on my lap and said “I wun more! more! I wun more!” He ate at least 6 finger swipes! Wonders never cease.

Engine Company #554: Yesterday it was raining and we were heading out to have dinner with our friends. The boys all wanted to wear their firefighter rain gear. We played “fire truck” all the way to Lisa’s house (most dialog, sound effects, and action phrases supplied by Logan…look how stinkin happy he is to be in “costume”)

Logan: “This way to the truck! The fire is out of control, we’ve got to get going!”

Brady

My neighborhood friends are all working (madly) on our subdivision’s elementary school’s “Spring Fling” event which takes place tomorrow night…Hawaiian theme. They totally think they tricked me into making a tree for “pin the coconut on the palm tree”. Rrrright girls…twist my arm…I so hate crafts! The orange, yellow and blue felts were left over from the camping crayons last year. I had this thick paper downstairs and I discovered, thanks to a loan from Susan, that I super love spray mount!

One thing I’ve learned from my kids is that they have an amazing memory for “what happened last time”. For example, a while back we had friends over for the afternoon who, sadly, hadn’t been to the house in a while (I’m talking about you Karen!). Logan wanted to know if we were going to throw water balloons against the patio wall with them. I had NO idea what he was talking about until I realized that we did that the last time they came over.

This year, Logan had very set expectations about Easter: baskets to be waiting on the landing followed by an egg hunt and then “big” presents in the basement. I hate to disappoint, but the bunny did a few things a tiny bit different this year…well, not much, just a little.

Here are the boys, pre-Easter, decorating eggs. I found a really cool egg spinner at WalMart that even Brady could do. You put a hard-boiled egg in the spinner, add a few drops of color, put the lid on and press a button a few times to make it spin and spin. Brady wasn’t allowed to wear cloths during the coloring:

They were pretty cool looking! We used these to make egg salad for dinner on Easter Sunday night (new family tradition? I think so!)

I saw these super cool egg holders in Family Fun and wanted to try them. I should have really read the directions as they are for blow eggs, not hard boiled ones! Pipe cleaners are no match for the weight of an actual egg (but they’re cute, right?!)

On Easter morning, the baskets were, as anticipated, waiting on the front stair landing. All the most important elements, according to Logan, were included: peeps (which I will forever think of as “stretchy chickens” thanks to my friend Laura), chocolate bunnies (dark chocolate this year…you know, for mommy…in case the boys didn’t finish them all…) plus just a few little trinkets like bubble blowers and gum shaped like eggs inside of mini little egg cartons – too cute!

Smile and say “peeps”

The Easter Bunny left a note… (he’s not the best at drawing egg shapes I guess…)

I made quite a fuss about cleaning the house before the kids went to bed Saturday night. I have to give credit to the Easter Bunny for noticing the effort and for rewarding the boys for the extra “neatness” in the house. The card had the bunny’s signature “prints” on it…which the boys found on their feet and hands when they woke up.

Brady needed a little help finding eggs, but he was THRILLED about the whole thing!

Logan checked the front porch after finding an egg perched on the door handle.

Aiden, mid hunt:

There was one big egg among many little, candy-containing, eggs. The big egg had a note instructing the boys to follow the bunny’s path: to the playroom, then the pantry (where, it said, he had a snack), then the basement and finally to their rooms (where he hopped on their beds  and kissed them…hence then bunny prints on their hands and feet) and then under their beds.

Here is Brady finding his Easter Bunny surprise under his crib

Wow – it’s the very Thomas train he had claimed the Easter Bunny would bring (how amazing is that?!) It’s “Toby,” whom Brady calls “Tody Train”

Everyone settled on the rug in the big boys’ room to sort through candy and play with the new stuff. Logan got a little trick track set. Aiden got a Leapster letter drawing game (which is, by the way, super cool and teaches kids to write upper and lower case letters along with basic shapes and letter sounds)

Still in jammies, the boys enjoyed a little bubble time out on the patio

Brian’s side of the family arrived around noon for brunch and another egg hunt out in the yard courtesy of Meemaw and Grandpa. The four youngest kids searched for eggs with their initials on them. Again, we had to help Brady find the “B” eggs, but it was really cool overall. Aiden, Logan and Jack not only hunted for their own eggs, but helped each other by yelling out when they found someone else’s egg.

 

The two older boys were totally troopers and helped in the hunt

Max manned the fort!

6 boys…what a joy! Our 7th boy on this side of the family was missing since he lives with Aunt Sara and Uncle Peter in Arizona. Denay’s 1 (and a 1/2!) boys were also sadly absent since San Fran is too far to travel for brunch (oh, but Den…there was some good French Toast and honey baked ham…you so wish you were here!)

Hey, look at that – a picture of us!

The next morning, the boys found some interesting uses for their Meemaw-issued Easter baskets (Brady sat in his and said “mommy…push me!”)

Too bad mommy took and hid the GOBs of candy they got between the eggs and as treats after the hunt. Again I ask…was that Easter or another Halloween? No matter, I’ve been using the candy as bribes for the older boys to go to bed. Hey, it works and they usually forget they’re supposed to have chocolate with breakfast when they wake up the next morning. And, in case you’re wondering, there are still 2 FULLY in tact dark chocolate bunnies…but don’t remind my kids ;)

Today the boys have been moving at a snail’s pace. “It’s like herding cats,” I like to say. They counted the worms on the driveway courtesy of last night’s rain before I had to beg, plead and threaten them into the car. At Logan’s school, they were thrilled to find clover growing in the grass by the walkway. Each boy had to find a perfect one to pick. Walking back to our car after drop off, Aiden wanted to smell the flowers growing around the big sign in the middle of the front lawn. He also decided he need to find “a bigger clover!” Several moms walked in and out of the school. I explained to the them, from my crouched position on the grass, that we were flower smelling and clover hunting. We didn’t have anywhere to go in a hurry…

Later this afternoon, it was time to drop Aiden off at school. As we walked down the art-filled hallway (a different location than Logan’s school, but the same program), the boys counted bees on honey pots, pointed out a poster of expressions and tried to name them all, then admired the different backpacks hanging along the way.

I’ve always loved the curiosity and exploration of my kids. It makes me think that, even if you have a place to go, sometimes experiencing life is more important that being right on time (sometimes…sadly, not always). It’s good to remember to stop and smell the flowers, walk in the clover…and count the worms.

...when your husband begs you to leave the kitchen alone until the end of the day and then congratulates you when you manage to follow his instructions and only clean once after the kids are in bed.

...it helps to leave the house for 8 hours to run Easter errands, do the grocery shopping and take the older boys to a roller skating party for most of the afternoon...

Last year, we made the decision not to send Aiden to 3’s preschool this year based on his July birthday. Technically, he makes the cut-off and should be in three’s right now, but there are a slew of reasons why I feel like holding him back is a good thing (none of which is his academic level or his desire to be in a classroom).  Instead of pre-school, he has been attending “Little Learners” which is a 2-hour class that meets 1 day a week for kids who have late birthdays.

Back in February, I tried to register Aiden for 3’s next year. I was told that he needed to be in 4’s preschool based on his age. There are several options after that if we stick with our decision not to send him to kindergarten, but long-story-short, he is going to be in 4’s next year and, sadly, miss out having Mrs. Jen who was Logan’s AWESOME teacher from last year.

Well…the school year is starting to draw to a close and there is only 1 more “session” of Little Learners left. However, when I went to enroll Aiden, I found out that the class is full. That same day, I ran into Mrs Jen at the school and a thought occurred to me. I know she has openings in her T/Th afternoon class so I asked if Aiden might be able to join for the remainder of the year. As luck would have it, the preschool coordinator walked by as I was talking to Jen. Long story short, Aiden started preschool this week!

For his first day, I asked him if he wanted to wear his basketball shirt. Oops…when I opened his drawer, I realized it was in the wash. Luckily, he pointed to another shirt and said, “no mommy…I want that one”. I was dying laughing! I took Aiden downstairs and showed both of the older boys Logan’s preschool book from last year. Logan wore the same shirt to Jen’s class on his first day!

Obligatory “first day of school picture”. Since Aiden goes in the afternoons from 12:30-3:00, his send-off meal was lunch…he requested a salad!

Blast from the past: Logan on his first day in 2008!

Ready to go: He literally said “school!” while posing for this shot! He was so excited! (Aiden is my “joiner” and loves classes, school, crafts etc. Not to say that Logan’s lack of school enthusiasm makes him any less lovable, but it’s a refreshing change!)

When I went to pick him up, they were having a song and dance time. I have to say that Aiden was cutting a rug in there…dancing all over the place like he’d been in class from day 1. Jen said he fit right in and did very well!! YEAH AIDEN!! Here he is with Mrs Jen:

For fun-zies, here is Logan doing the “almost out the door shot” on his first day. Look at Brady crawling around the laundry room in the background!