A Very Merry Un-Birthday

Us summer birthday people run the risk of being gypped out of school birthday parties. Luckily, Quinn and Colby's preschool teacher is very sensitive to this phenomena, so today was the boys' "pretend birthday" at school. Everyone sang them "Happy Birthday", Mom brought treats, and the students made each of them a "birthday book". They were a little disappointed and confused as to why there were no presents, but... oh well. Now I just have to convince them that they're not really 5 years old yet. That'll take some doing.

Rob's Project

Last year, this was a pile of mine waste. Thanks to my husband's genius (there's a plug for you Rob ;) ), it is now a beautiful, park-like setting, handling spring run-off just as it's designed to. Hope the boy doesn't get a God-complex, designing rivers and such....

Super Heros on the Phone

They were SUPPOSED to be cleaning up the mess behind the couch -- the mess where the little imps dumped 4 bins of STUFF, so that the toys were even with the top of the couch. It took over 2 hours and much threatening on my part for them to clean up, probably because they had to PLAY with each and every toy before it got put away. Superhero Quinn was having a hilarious conversation with "Daddy" on his headphones. It went something like this:

"OOOOOHHHH NO, Daddy! You got stuck with needles? Ouch. Awwwwwwww. That's too bad. Owie." Don't really know what that was all about, but apparently he was commiserating with his punctured father. Waterman Colby wanted in on the conversation, so followed suit with headphones of his own. I spend a good deal of my time shaking my head in confusion these days.

A Saturday

Celebrated cousins Ben and Bekie's birthdays today with a pool party. Very fun! We all went swimming, ate lots, and enjoyed the general merriment. As there was no microwave to warm Reagan's bottle, we floated it in the hot tub for awhile - quite the technique. It swam very well, that bottle, and the nipple never went underwater :).

Afterwards, you would THINK the boys would be exhausted, but... no. They did NOT want to go to bed tonight, so I thought I would entice them with a "fort" . They're up there now, pretending to go to sleep, but I hear them bouncing around. So much for that idea.

Exhaustion

All I said was "why don't you lay down and read a book?" 30 seconds later, this is what I find....

Sometimes, preschool is just plain exhausting.

Staying Fit

Dang U.P. weather - just when we think that spring has finally sprung, cruel winter gives us one last (well, hopefully last) storm. School was cancelled today, as it it has NOT stopped snowing for the past 24 hours or so. Craziness. I tried shoving the little folk outdoors for a bit, but it didn't last long. So instead, we spent the afternoon exercising. It was theoretically yoga, but we highly modified it for out-of-shape middle-aged mothers and 4 year old boys. The boys took off their shirts to "let their muscles out" like Dad. I haven't been able to touch my toes since the mid-90's, but one thing I CAN do is lift children... I was actually able to benchpress Colby a few times! It's a good thing all of this happened in the privacy of our own home, because the three of us would've been laughed out of any self-respecting gym, I'm sure. Reagan thought it was pretty funny, at least.

Kindergarten Registration

It happened. My babies are registered for kindergarten. HOW did that happen??? I was just adjusting to the thought of preschool! They met their teacher, listened to a story, did a craft project, and rode the "big kid" bus (no seatbelts!!). They were THRILLED. Colby, in the middle of making his frog puppet, yelled "HEY MOM! I'm a BIG KID now! I'm in KINDERGARTEN!!"

I almost cried, but laughed instead. I tried to explain that this wasn't actual kindergarten - just a trial run, but... he wasn't interested. As luck would have it, the local ice cream shop opened up today, and so we celebrated the occasion with the first ice-cream of the season. It was a beautiful day, so afterwards, the boys and I played a little softball in the yard. Colby came outside wearing one of Rob's shoes and one of his own muckin' boots. It's such a metaphor for the day... Colby wanting so much to be a big kid, trying to fit into those over-sized shoes, but still being a little boy. At least for now.

Happy Easter!!!!

Hold on to your hats... Mom went a little camera happy this beautiful Easter day!!!

Holy Saturday

The day started off immediately with craft projects.

"Tomorrow's Easter! We have to decorate the house!!!" Quinn declared, as soon as he woke up. So the preparations began. The boys made crosses without my help at all... Quinn even drew Jesus on his. Then we made cotton ball lambs (or "cannon ball lambs", as the boys called them). We now have miscellaneous construction paper and egg carton artifacts duct-taped to several walls in the house. Beautiful. We're ready for the big day.

Mom and Dad were BRILLIANT with the egg-dyeing this year. We tail-gated it outside. No mess to clean up!! (At least, none that we cared about). Thank goodness for sun and 40 degrees. I roped Rob into participating for the first time. He said it had been nearly 35 years since he last dyed Easter eggs, and I had to give him some pointers because he had forgotten how! Crazy. Not surprisingly, he did a bang-up job with his multi-colored egg - truly a work of art. Afterwards, Dad and boys played soccer in the yard. OH, how we are looking forward to summer, when we don't have to play soccer in "muckin' boots", and don't have to dodge snow banks or deer carcacasses the dog dragged into the yard from hunting season!!!