We had a snow cone and water balloon party at Jackson’s house after school today! Welcome summer vacation.
Watch out for water balloons!
Splash!
Here comes trouble!
Kendall, James, Jackson, and Jack.
I can’t wait to see them 12 years from now. I bet I’ll blink and it will be here.
Let’s celebrate! Congratulations James!
Kindergarten graduation is tomorrow.
I hope he likes them.
We have been going to Miss Mary’s storytime at the community center every Tuesday this year. Thomas didn’t have school on Tuesday, so it was the perfect opportunity to get out of the house and have some fun. Some days we would leave early because he just wasn’t that in to it, but others we would leave happily singing about going on a bear hunt.
Yesterday was Miss Mary’s birthday. She does storytime every Tuesday and Friday, but because of school we have never been able to go on a Friday. She decided that she was going to have a birthday party and bring Elmo to celebrate today.
I told Thomas about it last night and he woke up taking about Elmo’s party. He couldn’t wait to get there.
Thomas is fast. He bulled his way right up to Elmo when he arrived and pretty much wouldn’t let any other kids have any face time with him.
He was so excited about him.
I finally made him give Elmo a hug and step away so the other children could have a turn. Surprisingly, he did it without much fuss at all. He gave him a hug, told him goodbye, and walked away from him.
It could have been the piece of cake you got after hugging Elmo that made him leave so easily, but maybe not.
My boys let me sleep in today. It was wonderful. And when my two little angels came to wake me, they didn’t yell, or jump, or anything like that. They were both so sweet and whispered, “Happy Mother’s Day, Mommy!” It was so sweet. It was so perfect.
Jim cooked me a delicious breakfast. The boys had all of my presents on the table for me. I was loving every second of it.
An owl from James. He made it in art class and he is extremely proud of his work. I don’t know what I love more, the owl, or how proud of it he is.
A pillow from Thomas. He made this in pre-school. I tried to lay on the couch with it, but he thinks it’s his. I love it, and him, too.
This little boy is who makes me being a mom possible. I owe it all to him. I love my boys dearly, and am the luckiest mom in the universe!
Thank you James, Thomas, and Jim for making me feel like a queen. I love you!
I’m so proud of my little runner. He did great!
At the medal ceremony.
James, 3rd place! He was so excited.
James ran his first race this morning. I registered him for the one mile run in the Swift Cantrell Mother’s Day Classic.
James and his friend Pierce ready to start.
This is at a little more than half way. Pierce has first and James has second.
In the end some other kid took first, Pierce took second, and James took third.
I am so proud of my little guy. He did so good.
The ribbon ceremony.
This was his first race and he was pretty excited about it. Unfortunately I didn’t prepare him the way that I should have and he wasn’t familiar with how to pace himself, or with the layout of the course.
He and Pierce took off like a cannon and didn’t let up. They were running strong, but the finish line is a good 400 yards behind (and around a corner) from the start. I ran with him but he was so fast I couldn’t keep up. He stopped, while still in first or second, at the start line thinking that it was also the finish line. I was yelling for him to keep going, but he couldn’t hear me over the cheers from the spectators. I finally caught up to him and persuaded him to finish. He was so confused and tired and he kept telling me he wanted to throw up.
I got him to walk with me for about 50 yards and then he saw that the finish line was ahead. He burst into a sprint and finished.
Again, I couldn’t keep up with him so I don’t know what the final time was, but it was fast.
When the ribbon ceremony came there was controversy over who the third place winner was. We knew it was between James and another kid. When the other kids mom said his time was over 10 minutes, we were pretty sure that James was faster than him. Like I said, I’m not sure of the actual time, but it was fast.
He was so proud, but he was also very gracious. He went up to the kid and patted him on the shoulder and told him, “Nice race.”
He wants to do it again. After the race a good runner came to him and instructed him on how to pace and not to burn all your gas at the beginning. I think he did a wonderful job of explaining it to him. He wants to run with Jim in the evenings, and I hope that he does. I am so proud of him, medal or no medal.
Thomas and I were playing outside tonight and having a little snack. I brought out some water for us, but evidently he wanted some chocolate milk.
He disappeared into the house and was gone longer than I expected. I didn’t know what he was after, so when he was gone for a minute too long for my liking I went to investigate.
He was coming to the door and he was carrying a plastic grocery bag. Inside the bag was one sippy cup, one almost full gallon of milk, and one container of chocolate milk mix.
He said, “I emptied the begtebales and brought you the milk!”
I loved it. I looked on the counter and sure enough there was a lime, two jalapeños, a can of black beans and mexicorn, and some cheese, all components for my cinco de mayo dip tonight.
Jim went to India for about ten days and my mom decided to come up for a visit. While the boys and I missed having him home, we loved having Grandma here. We all had a lot of fun playing together while she was here.
Grandma and her baby Thomas walking to watch James play soccer.
James was so excited to make Grandma breakfast in bed on Sunday morning. She made him a hashbrown, a breakfast burrito, and a Diet Coke. Breakfast of champions!
Grandma and her boys. After we had breakfast we went to the park. We stayed there for quite a while because it was so beautiful outside.
Just me and my boys. I sure do love these two, and thankful every single minute that they are mine.
Grandma was the mystery reader at school on Friday. James was so surprised, and so excited that his Grandma read The Fat Cat to his class.
We tried and tried to wake Thomas to say goodbye but he was too tired. I guess he was worn out after a fun week with his Grandma.
James was awake though. He kept asking as soon as she left when she would be coming back.
Just me and my mom. I realized the past few times that we were together that we never take any pictures together. I promised myself that I’d take more, and even still I only got one as she was leaving. Oh well, next time, right?
We had a wonderful Easter yesterday. It started out with Thomas behaving almost the whole mass. While James is a champ at mass, Thomas can’t handle the full hour, plus the time before that’s needed to get a good seat. He made it all the way to communion without any meltdowns (well, almost) and after that I took him outside to unwind while Jim and James stayed until the end.
My boys is their handsome clothes. They looked adorable, and I am so proud of them.
When we got home we saw that the Easter Bunny had left us a treat the night before. Score!
He left James some Legos, a Star Wars Guess Who game, a tie dye shirt, light up cup, cookie, and a ton of chocolate plus candy filled eggs!
He left Thomas a bubble blower lawn mower with extra bubbles, Toy Story jammies, Thomas the train aquarium train cars, a light up cup, a cookie, chocolate, and candy filled eggs.
He even left mom and dad some good stuff!
We went to Steve and Mandy’s again for their annual Easter brunch. We had another Easter egg hunt for the kids, and they all froze their little bunny tails off swimming in their pool. The food was amazing, as always, and Jim and I really enjoyed the afternoon with our friends.
Happy Easter! I wish all days were as perfect as yesterday.
We survived another Springfest! I sure do love this time of year. Winter is over, the grass is green, flowers are blooming, I can (sometimes) have the windows open if the pollen isn’t too bad, and we go to Springfest. Springfest is my happy place. It’s not because of the music or the festival or the hippies or any of that stuff. That stuff doesn’t get me. It doesn’t bother me, but I’m just not into it. It’s because I get five days (at least!) with no responsibility, my camper, lots of good food, a glass of wine or a yum-yum drink in my hand, and my kids (and husband) running free like a bird! I have a hammock under my rear end, and my feet floating in the air. I have music playing in the background and I don’t have to change the station because of a commercial. I have friends all around me, and personally, life is just great at Springfest.
We have been going for 10 years now. Well, Jim for ten, me for nine. I met him shortly after Springfest in the summer of 2002. I think we might have missed one a few years back, but it was probably made up for by going to Magfest. I’m not so much a fan of Magfest anymore, but that’s because all of the kids are now in school and we can only pick one to go to. Springfest seems to have won over Magfest, so that’s where it is for me.
My kids love Springfest. They absolutely love it. And I love that they love camping so much. I can remember camping as a kid with my parents. We also had a camper. I just have one memory of it, and it was at Ft. Wilderness at Disney World, but I don’t remember the Disney part, just the camping part. Shortly after that my parents sold the camper and that was the end of our camping days. I loved that Jim liked camping when we met, and am thrilled that our children now love it. It’s such a fun family experience.
Here are some pictures of us this Springfest. I don’t have a lot and they are not the greatest, but just trust me when I say that we had a good time. We really did.
We kidnapped the Ball’s and took them with us. Jim and Dave went down the night before us, and Christy and I took the kids after school and Thomas’s doctor appointment the next day. It was great arriving at camp already set up. Now if we could just leave early and not have to do the clean up life would be really good!
We also kidnapped Mr. Pike and dragged him along. He’s definitely returning next year. He can’t stop talking about it. On this particular morning we took him with us for our early morning golf cart drive. We went on some trails that we had never been on before and soon found ourselves lost. It didn’t matter one bit to us, just made the adventure that much more fun!
There was one really steep hill that the boys and I decided to let Mr. Pike handle it alone. He did great, which was to be expected.
James took over driving at that point. He’s a pretty good driver (when he doesn’t drive into any ditches!)
Proof that I was along for the ride and didn’t just leave my kids abandoned for the week.
We went swimming in both the river and the pool. This little man was so cold and so tired he curled up in my lap and almost fell asleep. I took him back to the camper just after this picture was taken and he slept for at least two hours.
We always end up with some sort of freaky joke at camp. This year it was this creepy clown. Someone shoved a pole up it’s rear end and he went around to all of the shows and chased people around the campfire. Rumor has it he’s going to end up on tour with Donna the Buffalo, but I am not sure if it’s really gonna happen. The kids handled Mr. Creepy much better than a lot of the adults did.
Somehow we ended up with a traveling massage therapist at our camp. Lots and lots of people got a massage, including Thomas. Not bad, eh?
Mommy and Tom Tom chillin’ in an orange and blue hammock. He loved swinging in the hammocks and I couldn’t help but encourage it whenever we saw an empty one.
Jim and his boys during one of the shows. Thomas doesn’t have the patience for music (takes after his mom, I guess), but James can hang with his dad at the shows like a champ. Guess Jim can take him to all the concerts once he’s older.
I let the boys get henna tattoos while we were there. Thomas got a train and James got a snake. I love the henna tattoos.
There was his stump behind the soundboard that the kids liked to climb. There are four kids on it in this picture. At one point the kids were climbing up and jumping into Jim’s arms. He was exhausted. It sounded good at first, but he was done after the third kid, and we had a lot of kids there.
James, Josh, and Thomas with Mr. Creepy.
Here are all the kids that we camped with. There were 14 total. These kids had a blast and came home dirty and tired. But it was worth every single minute of it! Just ask them.
 | Happy on Chocolate milk, please |
 | Aimee on Grandma comes for a visit |
 | Happy on Happy Easter from James and… |
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| Happy on My poor little man… |
