Loose Park

The boys absolutely love Loose Park. I love it because it's so close to our old house and it's the first park I took Jack to. It's also where we decided on Jack's name when I was pregnant. The boys love it because of the trees. There is a playground there but our rule is that we don't go there. Not when there are so many amazing trees to climb. They also pretend they are animals and that the trees are their homes. Or they make pretend kitchens under the trees. It's pretty awesome. We've gone twice this fall and even got to go with Nathan last week when he took a few vacation days.

Carving Pumpkins 2016

We carved pumpkins tonight. More specifically, the boys and Nathan carved pumpkins. They each did pretty much everything themselves except cutting the top off. They were very proud of their creations and are excited for trick or treat tomorrow night. The most fun they had was eating caramel apples after dinner. Things went downhill pretty quickly and ended with them smearing the apples all over their faces. They couldn't stop laughing, but wouldn't let me take a picture.

Reading

Books, books, books! All we do around here is read. Jack is an official bookworm and Henry is well on his way. We checked out almost 50 books from the library last week, all in one day. Those were books only for me, Henry and Jack. We also started listening to audio books during our road trip to South Dakota this summer. Now we listen on the drive to and from school. That gives us exactly 16 minutes of listening time each day. Henry's favorite books now are: Elephant and Piggie series, Cat in the Hat Knows A lot about That series and Magic Treehouse. Jack's favorites are: Harry Potter series, Percy Jackson series and Heroes in Training series. They also loved getting out all the Halloween and fall books, and are looking forward to getting Christmas books out soon!

First Day of School - Kindergarten and Third Grade

Yesterday was the first day of school. It was an especially big day for Henry because he started kindergarten!

His teachers are Mrs. Mason and Mrs. Monachino. He was a little nervous the night before, but yesterday morning he was excited and ready to go. He had a great day, but was very tired when I picked him up.


Jack started third grade and his teachers are Mrs. Conrad and Mrs. Shannon. He is an old pro at starting school, so he wasn't nervous at all. He was ready to see all of his friends and get back to school.

The night before school started, we enjoyed a special treat of their favorite chocolate cake.

In a way, I have been dreading this day since Henry was born. The start of kindergarten for Henry marks an end to the time of little boys home during the day with me. These years have been sweet and precious.

I was sad when Jack started kindergarten, but Henry was still at home. I was excited to have one-on-one time with him, as I had with Jack before Henry was born. We had three sweet years together at home, just the two of us during the day. He is my little buddy and our days at home were an easy rhythm of the normal things of life: playing, going to the gym, running errands, watching Lion King and Koko the gorilla videos on YouTube while we ate lunch.

I am thankful that we have two happy, healthy boys who are able to go off to school and thrive. And I recognize they can't stay at home with mom forever. However, for a few days at least, I am going to allow myself to be sad.

I suppose I am thankful for this ache in my heart. This ache means something is not quite right. But it also means that I had the gift of being home with them during these years.

About a year ago, I read a devotional that compared the changing of a season of life to a wave coming in to the shore. It said "If you try to stand and face the wave, it will smash you to bits, but if you trust the water and let it carry you, there's nothing sweeter... Unclench your fists, unlock your knees and the door to your heart, take a deep breath and begin to swim."

I guess it is time for me to start swimming. But this morning, I find myself listening for the voices of little boys and wishing for one more morning of playing outside with Jack and Henry in the cul-de-sac, with nothing on our to-do list except those seemingly mundane, yet oh so precious things of life.

Mother's Day

Nathan and the boys treated me to a fun Mother's Day. They are pretty sweet. Henry drew me a beautiful picture and made me all kinds of fun crafts at preschool. And Jack wrote me this beautiful poem (patterned after a book they read at school):


I love you, Mom, the yellowest,
I love you the color of the son on a hot day, the flare of a fire.
I love you the color of bees and the tree in the fall.  And starfish, dandelions, butter and gold.
I love you the color of sapphire, citrine, fire, opal, tourmaline, sphere, ziroon, quartz, and diamonds.
The color green vireo, Bachman's Warbler, and the fan tailed warbler.
The beautiful ranunoulus flower.
I love you, Mom, the yellowest.

Best Daddy

The boys have had some special times with Nathan lately. Jack got to go to work with him on Take Your Child to Work Day. And Henry has enjoyed Daddy being one of his t-ball coaches.

Knight Swords

Grandma Pam and Grandpa Glen just got back from Germany and brought the boys the best gifts they might have ever received. That's right, authentic (wooden) swords from a real castle! It doesn't get much better than this.

Spring Break 2016 - Wisconsin

We had an awesome spring break this year in Wisconsin. On Monday, we headed north and our first stop was very exciting! We stayed the night at Aunt Lindsay and Uncle Anthony's house. Yay for cousins and aunt and uncles.

The next morning we headed over to the Wisconsin Dells to stay at the Kalahari Resort. The resort has a huge indoor waterpark (at least 2x the size of Great Wolf Lodge) and an indoor amusement park. Our room wasn't ready when we arrived, so we headed over to the amusement park to play while we waited. First up was the ferris wheel.

Just for fun, here's a picture of the first time Jack was on a ferris wheel. He was six months old and we were in Chicago on Navy Pier.

We all tried the high ropes course and laser tag and go-karts! And then our room was ready. Here we are all ready to hit the waterpark for the first time.

The water park was lots of fun. We stayed for a couple of hours the first day and also went again the second day. Both boys loved the big waterslides. There was also a hot tub that was inside and outside. On our second day it was snowing... the boys loved being in the outside hot tub in the snow. And Henry would want me to add he loved the little kid area call Tiki's Watering Hole.


As a part of our resort package, we had vouchers for the breakfast buffet each day. Nathan had steak the first morning. The boys and I were grossed out!

We also had free bowling and pizza, so we did that the second day. It was the nicest bowling alley! Instead of plastic chairs they had leather couches. We are easily impressed.

Each night we ate at the brew house at the resort. On night two, we discovered they had a cabinet full of games to play while you waited for your food.

On day three, we hung out at the amusement park for awhile and then decided to head home. There was a bit of a snow situation and we had to get home in time for the KU game. As Nathan tells me every year after the Jayhawks lose in the tournament, all good things much come to an end -- including spring break at Kalahari!

Fairy Houses

When we were at Aunt Sherry's for Easter, she had a really cute fairy garden in a pot by her front door. Last Saturday, the boys and I made our own -- one for each boy. Apparently fairy gardens are quite popular right now because when I searched for ideas on Pinterest there were tons of results. We ended up only having to buy a few items and were able to use things we already had to complete them. This first one is Henry's.

And here is Jack's.

They each painted a birdhouse and we glued fake moss on for the roofs. We also bought the little white fence and they each got a tiny bunny to live in their garden. The other small items, like the birdbath and pots of flowers, were Grandma Pat's. Before she and Grandpa moved to Baldwin she gave me lots of her holiday decorations and these were part of her springtime décor. Grandma was the queen of Pinterest before there was a Pinterest, and I love having so many of her holiday decorations to have up in our home. Pretty much every time we decorate for a holiday the boys ask about every item, "Did Grandma Pat make that?"


I wish she could have helped us make the fairy gardens. She wouldn't have had to look at Pinterest for inspiration and I bet she could have made them even cuter!

 

 

 

Easter 2016

I guess I only took one picture at Easter. We attempted to take a family picture before church... and I think the rest of the pictures from Aunt Sherry's are on Nathan's phone. It snowed Easter morning! But by that afternoon and egg hunt time, it turned out to be a nice sunny day.