Jon David's birthday and a visit from Grandma

WARNING: PICTURE OVERKILL POST.

No sooner had David and Eryn left, that we started getting ready for Grandma's visit. She arrived on Thursday evening. We did some birthday shopping together on Friday, and then Saturday was Jon David's party. He had invited a few school friends and our neighbors. Thankfully, it didn't rain! It was actually pretty hot. We had the party at a park here in Wilmore. Jon David seemed to have a great time. Our wonderful neighbor, Kelly, made the cake. Thanks a MILLION, Kelly!!! It was a hit.


These next two pics are for you, Mom! They are of him opening your gifts. The elated look is for the sketch pad. Good call! :)


Grandma had not gotten a chance to give Luke his birthday gift yet, so she bought him a bike. She bought Jon David a skate board for his gift. Both were complete with helmets and pads. They enjoy these a lot!

Jon David really loved all of the art supplies he got. He is doing a good job of sharing with Luke--who also loves them.



When we got home from the party, Jon David said that he was very grateful for all of his gifts--a moment I will try to remember for a long time!

Sunday came and went without too many events, and then on Monday, we decided to get out of the house and have a fun day. So we tried the pool first--got rained out after about 10 min. Then we took the boys bowling for the first time. They loved it! It was cute to watch. Unfortunately, on the way home, and for a while after we returned, Jon David finally had his post birthday melt-down, I guess. Sadly, it happened on the day that he actually turned six... Felt like dealing with a two year old. He threw a fit about something small... Don and I got pretty frustrated. There's nothing like trying to do fun stuff for your child, and then it backfiring... I guess it was overkill. I pray that Jon David will mature and learn to be more grateful and content. Help us, Lord!!

In case you are wondering what the boys are doing in the above pics, they are bowling with a ramp. It was really cool. I had seen kids bowl with the sides up on the gutters, but never this contraption. Anyway, if it's ever available when you take your child--especially for a preschooler--I would recommend it. Basically, all they had to do it place the bowling ball on the ramp and push it off. It was especially helpful for Luke, who had a hard time rolling the ball down the lane by himself.
Oh, and I wanted to include these pics from behind, mostly because they remind me how big my boys are getting! For some reason, it hit me watching them from this angle. Time does fly... everyone was right about that.
A few extra random highlights from Grandma's stay:

The boys being silly:

Who said Jon David was the only silly one?



... Check out Don's eyes! :0

Grandma left today. The boys both felt a little sad--as they do anytime family leaves. Don asked Luke why he missed Grandma. "Because I love her," he said.
So I thought I would cheer them up with some slip-n-slide time. It was fun for about 15 min, then it started to thunder and rain... So back inside we went.


We are getting ready to move again--thankfully, it is only across town this time. God has provided a three bedroom renter just in time for the new baby. What's my blog title again? Yea, I think it's appropriate.

Later!

A good day

Saturday, May 16th was a great day for our family. It was one of those days that you look back on with fond memories, one that you wish you could duplicate even. We woke up, got ready, and went to Luke's first soccer game. He was so excited. It rained a little, but not enough to cancel the game. It was so much fun to cheer for him. Go Luke!




And he got his very first medal--which he loved. I must say here, to quote Mr. Incredible, that it does sometimes seem like they keep coming up with new ways to celebrate mediocrity. Don't get me wrong, I'm happy for Luke, and would never say this to him, but come on... medals for every kid who randomly ran around on the grass, trying to figure out what in the world they were supposed to do out there? Not to mention the precious little girls who kept crying for their mommies... I'm not criticizing AT ALL! I just think sometimes our kids are hilarious! The coach had her hands full. One girl on our team kept scoring in the wrong goal. And kids were dropping off of the field like flies. The coach kept trying to get them to come back on to the field, or to leave (if it was time to rotate). She kept trying to get them to point to the correct goal. Some were chatting, some were hanging around the goal. And then there was usually a handfull actually trying to kick the soccer ball. Oh, and the rain threw several of them off of their groove too. I tell ya, it was a sight to be seen. Luke held his own. He got a hold of the ball once or twice. Hey, at this point, that's just about all you can ask for. :)


After being home for a while, we loaded up again and went to Jon David's soccer Spring Fling. It was a sort of end-of-season celebration I guess. They had a bounce house, snow cones, and a couple of other random things. The boys loved it. Then Jon David played his last soccer game. And it was truly a grand finale!!! He played aggressively. He looked like a different kid out there. It's like it took the whole season for it to truly "click," but it finally did! He scored a goal, too! It was so much fun.

Finally, David and Eryn came to see us. It was such a fun surprise!! They came Saturday evening and stayed until Monday morning. The boys LOVED it, of course, and so did we! They sent us on a date Sunday night. We went out to eat, and to see "17 Again." Thanks for sacrificing, Don! :) It was pretty good. We enjoyed it. It was so nice to have a date! Our dates are soon going to go back to being few and far between... It is going to be an adjustment to have to think about feeding a baby again. I pray that God will give us strength.


I am very embarrassed to say that this is the only picture we have of their visit!!! This was the morning right before they left. Jon David was already at school. By the way, he didn't realize that they would be gone when he came home, and was devastated. He loves his aunt and uncle! So, just try to picture back yard pics including baseball, soccer, chase, and all sorts of other games. Thanks again, guys!

Mother's Day :)

Mother's day is often a bit of a joke for those of us who have young children. It's just not always possible to be pampered on Sunday morning when you are trying to get a family out the door for church on time... among other miscelaneousness. I do have to give props to my precious husband for getting up with our children this morning, getting them fed, preparing my breakfast, and getting everyone ready for church so that all I had to do was get myself ready. He also helped the boys sign an adorable card for me, and wrote me a tear-jerker of a note himself. A few days ago, he planned ahead and discussed with me what he wanted to do for me for mother's day, but since finals are coming up for him, we couldn't do it today. Finally, he grilled steak and salmon for dinner, so I didn't have to cook. Thanks, Don! Sorry that your tough-exterior reputation that you are so proud of is getting ruined on my blog. You're the best.

OK, so while Don was out studying this afternoon, I took the boys to the park. It was a beautiful day. Breezy, but warm, sunny, and well, just beautiful. After about 45 min. however, I was reminded that I have a very unfortunate allergy to what some would consider to be the most beautiful season of the year... I was sneezing, sniffing, etc... Thankfully, the park is a very short walk up the street from our house. Also, Luke suddenly had to go the bathroom, so I decided it was time to go home. On our way out of the park, Jon David wiped out on his razor scooter on the concrete. It was a good plunge, leaving him with multiple scratches and booboos, bleeding too. He panicked and screamed with pain. I knew it hurt, although I could also see that it was nothing too serious. So I went over to try to comfort him, thinking we could sit for a while, walk the short distance home, and then bandage him up. My goal was to calm him down. At the same time, I glanced over at Luke, who was doing the "pipi dance" as we call it. I told Luke to come over, and though we were not close to a tree, I made a quick analysis of our surroundings, deciding instantly that it would be OK for my four-year-old to "drop trow". Come on, it's cool to be a boy, right? Well, I immediately yank his shorts down, and tell him to go. "I have to go poopoo, Mommy" was the response. So I tried to console Jon David as best I could, and told him to be brave, that we would have to walk home immediately. Picture the image with me, here: a 5 month pregnant mother (ON mother's day, none-the-less), walking down the sidewalk, carrying the bag of snacks, and two scooters -- one on each shoulder -- a five year old trailing behind whimpering about his wounds, and a four year old in front, trotting steadily ahead, helmet and all. It was quite a sight.

On a lighter note, Luke informed me today that they sang about droids today in church. I said, wow, there's a church song about droids? (Quick refresher on Luke, my four-year-old: He LOVES star wars movies, star wars toys, he even plays the guessing game where we have to guess which character or ship in star wars he is talking about). Well, the more he talks about the song, I finally understand that he is talking about the children's song that goes something like this:
I've got the JOY, JOY
JOY, JOY
JOY, JOY
(repeat this twice)
Down in my heart, (clap, clap)
.....
Pic of Luke watching Return of the Jedi with Daddy (pic from last week):

Anyway, if you try saying or singing this refrain, you can sort of see how he would have gotten "droid" from "joy" I guess. :) Hey, who said there were no church songs about star wars?

I have to say that God has been providing for our every need. Sometimes, I have an easier time trusting Him than others. Lately, it has been easy. As you know, I am pregnant with our third boy. As you may not know, Don and I went back and forth some with this decision. We prayed a lot about whether or not to try for a third child. During this time, I gave away a lot of our baby clothes. I felt like God was telling me to let go, and Don kept saying that God would provide if we ever had another one, and it seemed silly to hoard stuff that other people needed. Now that we live in a smaller townhome, we don't have room to store a lot of that stuff anyway! Thankfully, God has provided us with a larger rental for us to move into this summer. Also, my next door neighbor just had a baby a couple of months ago. Her infant has already grown out of the smallest size baby clothes, so she presented me with a laundry basket full of 0 to 3 size clothes a few weeks ago!!! :) Then, a lady from my ladies group here brought me some clothes recently that her toddler has grown out of. She said that she had already given away the 0 to 3 stuff, but had 3 to 6 months, and 9 months, and some 12 month stuff, too, I think. Anyway, I was just totally amazed at how God is blessing me and taking care of me -- even in small ways like baby clothes. :)

Random pic of Jon David being silly (I wonder where he gets that personality trait??)

Happy Mother's day! :)

The Return of the Jedi

Although the title will not be discussed right away, it seemed nice and dramatic, especially for a boys Mom's blog.

We have been blessed with fun neighbors. On one side, we have a family with a two and a half yr old and a 2 month old baby (both boys). On the other side, a very nice younger couple (Kyle and Charley) who is great with kids! This is a picture of Kyle playing with our kids. Beside him in the orange shirt is another four year old boy who lives two doors down. Jon David and Luke love their neighbor playmates! Thanks for entertaining them so much, Kyle!!! Kyle and Charley also have just started growing lettuce plants, and sometimes Kyle lets the boys help him water them. They love doing this, too!

Warning: bragging portion of post... We have been so proud of Jon David for how well he has been doing in school. We received a letter recently stating that he had been selected, along with a handful of other children from his class, to be a part of a special group led to conduct scientific experiments (age appropriate, of course). So for a few days, he has been pulled out to be a part of this group. The culmination was a class session in which he and the selected others got to share their experiments with the rest of the class... OK, so MAJOR help from the teachers on this one. It was a little humorous to see the children pretend to be in charge. I don't think there is any way that Jon David could have presented these experiments by himself. The teachers were constantly telling them what to say, but I was super duper proud none-the-less. And it meant a lot to us that he got to be a part of that. So here are a few pics of him "leading" his classmates. Oh, and if any of you would like some science ideas, the experiments were pretty clever, I thought. Here are the three that we saw: Pouring tonic water into a cup and then adding raisins to see the raisins "dance" (move up and down in the water); adding baking soda to vinegar to see the fiz; and experimenting with which items float or sink in which medium (chose your own items, and try them in water, oil, and then corn syrup). Before each experiment, they were supposed to ask their classmates a question (ex: do you think this will float or sink, or what do you think will happen to the raisins/water?...).
Luke got to try one of the experiments, too (he looks so grown up here...):
Luke also helped me take pics of JD, who caught him doing so:
On Friday, I was getting ready to vacuum, and I was asking the boys to put certain items away that were on the floor. They put several items away, and also several larger items on the couch for me. After they were done and the downstairs looked pretty clear, they disappeared upstairs for quite some time. By the time I got up there, they were playing outside. I was so surprised to see their bedroom floor, and the floor in my bedroom totally clear. They had taken everything that was on the floor, and put it on the beds, so that I could vacuum... I had a moment realizing that even though I don't have any girls, God is providing in special ways, what with my children helping me with house work... and they are boys! It was a good moment.


Saturday was gearing up to be a pretty crazy day. Jon David had to be at a soccer game at 8:40 A.M., and Luke had to be at soccer practice at 9:15 A.M. And, you guessed it: two separate locations. So Don and I had to divide and conquer. Well, we woke up and it was rainy, but neither event had been canceled yet, so out we headed (having had to wake up the boys)... Only to arrive at both separate destinations and find out that both events were indeed canceled... When we came back home, it was still early on a rainy Saturday--not exactly a boy's version of heaven. So Don scored major points and popped in "Return of the Jedi." The boys loved it! They kept talking about each character. They were very brave to watch the "Jaba the Hut" sp? scene, too. They got to see Yoda, and the Emperor, and they also got to see Darth Vader's face, and see how he turned good at the end.
And finally, the next pic is of making chicken-and-dumplins with Mommy. Oh, and just in case you're starting to think I'm being a little too Mommy-of-the-monthish: they had no sooner kneeded the dough once or twice each, that they were done and licking their fingers. The help was very short lived. But as you can see, we had a good time!