Mother's Day Tea

Yesterday was the annual Mother's Day Tea & Art Show at Drew's school. It was beyond precious! The kids put on a little show for the moms with adorable songs about mothers and how they love them. We then went to their rooms where they gave us gifts they had made for us. We had "tea" (fruit punch) and cookies in the courtyard and walked around looking at all the displayed artwork from each class. It was a wonderful day and provided precious memories!


The "Welcome" Archway - doesn't he look cute in his plaid shorts? He picked out his outfit (with some assistance) but wouldn't tuck in his shirt. Oh well - he looked adorable anyway!


Getting ready to sing! He was so excited!


My beautiful Mother's Day present - the flower pot is a metal box and his picture is a magnet. Around the box is a paper that says "If mother's were flowers, I'd pick you!" and has flowers made from his fingerprints. Those teachers sure do know how to make a mommy tear up!


Mommy & Drew!
(Notice my "corsage" on my wrist - he picked out each individual color and made it for me earlier in the week. He was so proud of it!)

Here are a couple of videos of the singing. I didn't get every song, and I was in the back so I could stand and not block other's view, but these are pretty cute! This is not his entire school - just some of the 4-year old classes.

When it's quiet...

...you never know what you might find! They boys were being very quiet this afternoon after lunch. I found them in Drew's room, laying on their backs in the middle of the little nest they had made, just talking! It was pretty sweet...a rare moment of brotherly love! :)

Happy 1/2 Birthday Allen!

In the car the other day, I mentioned in passing that it was almost Allen's half birthday. He immediately said "I get cake?" - it was so precious that I couldn't let it pass. So on Friday afternoon, Drew and I baked Allen a birthday cake. We celebrated after dinner by singing "Happy Half Birthday to You!" and enjoying the 1/2 cake. It was lots of fun and Allen was just beaming from ear to ear! Priceless!

Congratulations!

The boys have a new cousin - another little girl! Katherine Susan was born 4/6/10 and weighed 7 lbs 11 oz. Maggie, Jim and big sister Elizabeth are doing great! I am excited to have another niece - with two boys at home it's nice to have an outlet for my "girly" side!
(And now Jay can officially be my favorite nephew!)
For more on Katherine, see the link to their blog under "Our Friends"

What have we been up to?

Patrick hiked a mountain near our house...


...and took some cool pictures along the way...


Drew picked out his first car...


...and Allen started his preparations for our upcoming trip to Disneyland...


Drew had his Easter egg hunt and party at school...


...and Allen got some early practice for school next year...


We found a squirrel at the zoo protesting their strict rules...


...and, bucking all botanical rules, after nothing for the past 5 seasons, my Christmas cactus decided to bloom...on St Patrick's Day...


And finally, Allen has taken to reading books at all hours of the day and night...or at least those hours when he should be asleep...and then just crashes any which way in his bed...leaving the magic fairies to clean up the mess...


I think that about sums it up!

Catching up...

So...I haven't been so good with posting, although I have tried! We went camping in February and I documented everything on blogger with tons of photos and when I went to publish it everything disappeared! So I got frustrated and gave up for a while but I'm determined to try again!

St Patrick's Day!

Don't my little Irish boys look cute in green?!

Ice Skating

A couple of weeks ago, Daddy & Drew went ice skating at our local rink. Drew apparently was great at walking on his skate...until he hit the ice! Fear took over a bit but he said he had fun! I'm not sure how soon Daddy will be taking him back...
(Pictures were taken by Miss Sarah who was in town for her spring break! Yet, somehow I don't actually have any pictures of her...)

Happy Birthday Mommy!

Riding the zoo "train"

Enjoying a gourmet lunch - pb&j sandwiches and applesauce

One of our many feathered friends!

Three little monkeys...hee hee hee

My beautiful balloons!

Mommy & her boys...

Happy Birthday to me!

I turned 33 in February - that is really hard for me to believe! Our celebration was very low key, as all moms out there I'm sure can relate to! The boys chose to take me to the zoo during the day where they made a new friend and ate lunch with ducks and peacocks. Patrick baked my favorite cake (yellow cake with chocolate icing) that evening and the boys decorated the kitchen with pink and purple. Lots of hugs from the boys made up for any lack of fanfare that might have existed...

February?

Really? Where did January go? I suddenly realized yesterday that, since it was my birthday, it was also February! And that was not something I was quite ready for! Life is just getting back to normal from the holidays, and we are gearing up for visitors in the spring. First up is our "last" visit from Grandma & Grandpa - they have a new house in Golden, CO so they won't be spending as much time in their camper in our neck of the woods! We are planning a fun weekend camping with them over Valentine's Day. The boys are thrilled! Next up is a visit from Nana & Grandaddy, along with the FBR Open (our local PGA golf tournament that we can walk to!). Just a few days after they leave, our dear, sweet babysitter from TN is coming to visit over her spring break - how much does that rock?! And just a couple of weeks after that, a wonderful friend from our college days is coming for a quick weekend visit to do some fundraising for her heart's work with Beads of Courage. We will follow that up with Drew's spring break (details haven't yet been worked out but something fun hopefully will be happening!) which takes us into April! On April 18 we head back to Disneyland for what will probably be our last visit to that magical place while we live out west. Nana & Grandaddy will make that trip with us and Drew is already talking about everything he needs to "show" them at Disney. Then suddenly, it will be May; our TEN year anniversary (can you believe it?!), the end of another school year and the start of another hot summer in AZ.

In the midst of all of those plans, I have challenged myself to work on some areas of our lives and get some things back in shape.
* Budget
* Grocery
* Meal Planning & Execution
* Home Organization
* Personal Fitness

I'll let you know how everything goes!