Daddy Time

The boys are enjoying extra time with Daddy for a while, since Derek is off until June 9th! They have helped Daddy change oil and put on new mudflaps. In fact, Derek had so much fun with his new impact wrench. I told him it sounded like a mechanic's shop in our garage! They've also helped Daddy mow the lawn.



In the midst of this holiday weekend, Aaron came down the the same fever Braylen had. So between the questionable weather and Aaron's illness, we didn't go boating. But we've been on a bike ride, played ball in the yard, and as I type this the boys are finishing off a big puzzle with Daddy. Tomorrow Little League starts, and this will be the first time Derek gets to come along. Vacations at home are fun. Especially for me!

A few Aaronisms: When he woke up from his nap he said, "My hand is spicy--no, it's sleepy. It fell asleep." He also tried to explain a thought at lunch time, and as he started and stopped he said, "What's my word?" He forgot what he was saying. :)

Change of Plans

Well, the school year officially ended yesterday, but not in the way we all planned. Braylen was up much of the night before with an upset stomach and fever. Since he hardly slept, and still had a fever, he had to miss his last day of 2nd grade. Horror of horrors! Kaleb got ready for school and off he went to enjoy his last day of kindergarten. You can imagine where I sent Braylen: to bed. That way he could mope in there and I could pretend I still had one last day to myself. Aaron eventually forgot Braylen was home. I finally decided to put him in the van and run a few errands without getting out of the vehicle. In the evening I did the rest of my errands by myself, so the day wasn't all bad! Actually, after the initial disappointment, Braylen did a really good job with improving his attitude. Extra Nintendo time might have helped a bit! Another bonus was his ability to go to his classroom at the end of the school day and pick up his things. That way he still saw his friends and his teacher. Kaleb brought home a DVD of kindergarten pictures taken throughout the year, and we enjoyed watching that. I still can't believe he's done.

We have had the rainiest 2 days that I can remember having in a long time. And not just rain, but crashing thunder and lightning, strong winds, and flooded yards. This is another way our week has changed. Both school boys have told me they don't like summer vacation if it's all storms and wind. I told them not to worry--we'll be setting sprinklers and going to the pool before we know it! Today we've done super-exciting things like clean the birdcage, vacuum the upstairs, and dust our dressers. We also played a board game and hide & seek. Please stop raining soon so we can go outside!!!

One more Aaron word mix-up. Instead of lilac bush, he says "eyelash bush." :)

Talents & Awards

Yesterday I went to 2 talent shows: one for Braylen, and one for Kaleb. Braylen played a small drum along with a Go Fish song called "The Mom Song". He picked out that song on his own, and it was so fun to watch him play along with that song! I was so proud of him. Getting up in front of your whole school and many parents is not easy. (over 350 people!) I know I wouldn't do that at age 8! Especially by myself! He introduced himself and told the audience what he was playing, and he did great. After school he told me he had stage fright "big time", but I told him he did a good job putting on a brave face over his stage fright.


Kaleb's talent show was a bit different. His was in the music room in front of kindergarten parents only. He stood in a line with other kids and played the cymbals to the song, "The Farmer Had a Band." I think our kids like percussion like their daddy. :)


Today Aaron and I went back to the school for yet another assembly! This one was an awards assembly. Kaleb earned the character award for his class. Way to go Kaleb! Braylen earned the "outstanding behavior before school" award. This last week of school I've been at the school more than I have all year long.

You might notice the text in the pictures. A friend of mine started doing this on her blog to protect her images. Especially ones of her kids. So I will do that too, since it is a good idea. Not to be left out, I'll post a picture of Aaron in a tree. We visited the boys' great grandparents this past weekend. Grandparents always have such good climbing trees!

Still Love Me?

I hear this question from Aaron throughout the day: "Still love me Mommy?" If I show the slightest bit of frustration towards something he's done, or if he knows he did something wrong, he'll ask me that question. It shows me his tender spirit underneath his "all boy" exterior. I feel like a broken record, reassuring him of my unconditional love for him.

Last week I learned how to vacuum wet, soggy, "snowflakes" out of my dryer. As I put Aaron's wet clothes in the dryer, I thought they were full of fuzzies. After a closer look, I saw they were full of something else: the inside of a disposable pull-up. What a MESS! After 2 more washings and an intense dryer vacuum job (at midnight), all was well again. I've washed rocks, chapstick, crayons, cap gun caps, money, kleenex, and who knows what else. But this was definitely the messiest! Aaron was told to never put his pull-up in the hamper again. I told myself to look at what I toss into my washer!

One more thing Aaron's doing right now. For a while he's referred to anything that's happened in the past as "Last night we did this..." Even if it happened 6 months ago, it's still last night to him. I've ignored it. There are only so many things I can correct in a day, and this is kind of cute. Well, Braylen and Kaleb have taken it upon themselves to correct their little brother. At first he didn't take it very well, but the other day I noticed he's started saying, "Last TIME we did this..." Just a small little change that I want to credit to Braylen and Kaleb, even if they were a bit bossy.

Finally, we have two new guests in our home. A gooey, squishy, caterpillar and worm are sticking to my ceiling. The worm is blue and the caterpillar is pink. Kaleb and his bug toys! I walked into the kitchen and I thought we had huge live critters in our house. Until I looked closer and saw the colors. :) I wonder if they will fall into my cereal tomorrow?

3 more days left of school. I can hardly believe it!

This and That

We are rolling right along towards summer vacation, and the boys are getting harder to wake up for school. Braylen told me this morning that all he'll do when school is out is sleep. Ha! We'll see how that goes. Kaleb's class picnic at the park was rained out today, much to his disappointment. But they still had their pizza and cookies in the classroom. After school we went to the dentist. 3 boys, 3 teeth cleanings: 90 minutes later we were done. Today I learned that we'd better start saving our money for orthodontic work to be done in the future. Now we can add that to our list of things to spend money on!

Aaron keeps switching words around, and half the time I can't remember what they are when I sit at the computer. But today he said a familiar one that I'd forgotten about. He asked me where more "paper toilet" was. He used to say that all the time, and apparently he still says it! The other night he asked me what a masterpiece was. I told him it's something great and special that someone makes, like a beautiful painting. He said, "Like shirts?" Okay, so he didn't get that explanation at ALL. :)

Daddy's Birthday & Mommy's Day

Today was a double-celebration day for our family. Derek was born on Mother's Day 33 years ago, and every so often his birthday falls on Mother's Day again. This year was one of those years. So we end up celebrating Derek's birthday and my Mother's Day at the same time. Hmmmm. As fun as it is, I am grateful it doesn't happen this way EVERY year. :) Derek enjoyed his gifts and his time with family I think. He especially liked his chocolate chip cake. Right Derek? His surprise gift from me and my parents is an Ipod. I was so happy to be able to surprise him with something this year! He is really excited to have an Ipod. Braylen found some nails and pounded some wood scraps together, creating a sign for Daddy to hang up in his garage. He sure does love to create things!

Mother's Day was like any other day with my boys. Loud, boisterous, and never boring. We picked up Chinese take-out after church and had our own buffet at home. I planted some of my flowers, called my mom, and just enjoyed the beautiful day outside. Kaleb's gift that he made for me in school is a blue-green painted clay dish he pressed and shaped with his little hands. It has footballs and football helmets pressed in the middle of it. I have it on the counter to hold my car keys. He was so proud of it! I think he wanted to keep it, because after I opened it he took it back and carried it around the living room. Silly boy.

Aaron tried to say the word "caterpillar" tonight. After a few tries, he finally said "patatigger." Hee hee! Another funny thing he said was when he sat on Daddy's new bike. Derek put him up there and Aaron said, "I think it fits on me!" He also likes rollerblading lately. He puts his pads on and his helmet and he wanders all over the place in those rollerblades. Sometimes I think he should wear those pads all the time, since he is constantly tripping over things, falling over at random times, and has had more close calls than I can count. His guardian angel must get a work-out watching over Aaron. :)

9 More Days

Since there's no school tomorrow, the boys informed me there are only 9 more school days left. Yikes! As much as I love having them at home for the summer, I am not blind to the struggles we'll all go through in the beginning. Aaron and I will feel invaded upon! Today when we went to pick them up from school, Aaron said, "I don't want to pick up them!" He loves his brothers and he loves his house to himself. Once the end of May arrives and baseball starts, we will have a summer schedule to help us adjust.

Braylen is already moving from soccer season to baseball season. He found his glove and was swinging his bat yesterday. After too many big hits and close calls, I told him to use only a platic bat and ball in our yard. What fun is that? So he and his buddy played catch instead. Then the ball landed inches from my head in our swingset. I think soccer season was much safer--for my head and my house!

Braylen and Kaleb made mother's day gifts in school. Kaleb demanded that I not look in his backpack or under his bed, since his gift is a surprise. Okay! Braylen, on the other hand, wanted me to open his gift before I even drove away from the school. The boy insisted I open it right away! He wrote me a letter, telling me why he loves me. He also interviewed me last week, so in the letter he put together all of my answers and wrote a nice little anecdote of my life. :) I loved it! There were 3 more gifts in the bag. The first is a tinfoil football player sculpture. He's standing on a little box and the title of his sculpture is "Go Long! Touchdown!" Aaron thought it was filled with candy. The second gift is a camoflauge-colored ceramic fish, but I have to confess I had no idea what it was when I opened it. I tried and tried to figure it out in my head. I turned in around in my hands, and all I could think of is that it was a misshapen star or a man with strange dimensions. I finally got the giggles and had to ask Braylen what it was! He and I laughed and laughed. The third gift is a mat he wove together. It's rectangular-shaped, like the back of a toilet, so I asked him if that was what it was for. Of course he said no, but I told him people go to craft fairs to buy things like that. He thought that meant I was going to sell it at a craft fair. I quickly straightened out that misunderstanding. Ah, what great mother's day gifts. :) I can hardly wait to see what Kaleb has for me under his bed!

Awana Awards

Braylen and Kaleb finished up their Awana year last week. Braylen earned his Sparky plaque after finishing all 3 Sparks books. He even did each book twice. Kaleb finished his first book, so he received his ribbon this year. He also did his book twice. Both boys were very proud of themselves, and we celebrated at Baskin Robbins after the awards ceremony. Braylen keeps asking me to put this bumper sticker on the van: "My child earned a Sparky Award-and I helped!" I don't know...if it was a magnet or window cling, but not a sticker. Instead I've decided to hang it on our front door with magnets, since we have a metal door.

Aaron received a remote control helicopter for his birthday and we've had lots of fun with it. Thanks Uncle Eric and Aunt Amber!

Some funny Aaronisms:
"Mommy, can we drink the plants?"
Translation: Can we water the plants?

At supper one night, he stabbed his green beans and said, "My green beans are having babies!"

The paper boy delivered our paper without a shirt on. Aaron stood at the window and said, "Maybe he can't find any shirts at his house."

When asking Mommy (over and over) to watch a movie, I told him to stop pestering me about it. He said, "I'm not pestering you Mommy, I'm just making noise."

Last Friday (3 days ago) we had snow--yes, snow in May. If you look real close in my picture, you'll see a robin in our grass amidst the little snowflakes! The next day it was beautiful outside, and we wore shorts all weekend. We planted bushes, sprayed the yard for weeds, and varnished outdoor furniture. Crazy!