What we've been up to

I've fallen behind on blogging, so brace yourself for a post that's basically just filled with random happenings and pictures.  You're welcome! :)

After years of tagging along to many, many birthday parties (a benefit of being the 2nd child, I suppose)  Liam is starting to have his own little social life at birthday parties.  This was a recent one for one of his besties, Maya...with an appearance by Ariel!!

Painting seashells-look how sweaty his head is, he had just come out of the bouncy house!

As I posted before, Liam has pretty much moved away from weekend naps.  It's fine for the most part, and sometimes if we're home, I have both of them take a rest in the afternoon to recharge....sometimes they read or do something quiet, sometimes I put on a movie and pop some popcorn:

And sometimes, after an especially tiring weekend, this is what happens around 5pm:

 

DONE.

We had a low key Father's Day celebration, which was very welcome after a few busy weekends in a row.  My parents came up and the rain held off so we were able to have a family wiffleball tournament, followed by a trip to Bruster's and burgers on the grill later in the evening :)  Happy belated Father's Day!

Me and my dad, circa 1984

Brian and his dad, 2006

Brian and the boys, 2011

Nothing like seeing a picture of your newborn to make you realize how quickly the time passes.  *sniff, sniff*  Is someone chopping onions in here?!?

Anyway--this past weekend was pretty much a total wash.  Saturday was storm-tastic.  There were maybe 3 breaks in the rain with tiny amounts of sun, but that would be followed by a full blown storm with sideways rain. We did the usual rainy day activities for most of the morning....coloring, board games, etc.

We gave up on the day by lunch time and went to "Inside Out":

I promise Jake was having fun, I'm not sure what is going on in that picture, haha!!  It was a good movie...not my favorite Pixar movie, but good. It made me cry, though I'm pretty sure there hasn't been a Pixar movie produced that hasn't resulted in tears for me! 

Sunday was a bit better in that there was no rain by late-morning, but temperature wise it felt more like fall.  I could nearly taste the pumpkin spice latte!!  We made it to church in the morning...I have to tell you a little more about this picture.  It's rare these days that Jake wears anything other than "comfy" shorts (aka-athletic shorts) so when he does venture out of them, I like to document it.  They were both looking handsome and my impatiens are the BOMB this year (if I do say so myself) so I wanted to snap a picture of them in front of the beautiful flowers.  That's not asking so much, is it? 

Well, according to my 7 going on 17 year old it was.  His exact response when I told him to stand still so I could get his picture was, "Mom, are you seriously going to take my picture?  These church clothes are embarrassing" Well, excuuuuuuuuse me. 

Also, when did I become "mom"???

The rest of the day ended up being a nice balance of work and play....Brian was able to get some treehouse work done (I promise to post an update soon!), I was able to clean out 2 closets that looked like they were going to explode at any minute, and we were able to play in between that stuff.  At one point we were all wizards and sorcerers:

And later in the day, we headed outside to play baseball. 

In case you were wondering, my cue for that picture was "smile boys!"  NAILED IT.

So that's it for right now; it's hard to believe that it's almost JULY! 

Welcome to the world, Luke!

The other great thing that happened while we were in San Diego was that our new nephew was born!!  Nate and his wife, Katie, were expecting their first child and Luke made his grand entrance earlier this month! 

Adorable, right??

I couldn't wait to meet him, so I took a day off of work, loaded up the boys in the car and set off to get my hands on those squishy little cheeks.  The boys were so excited, but confused when we walked in to find him sleeping in the pack and play.

After nearly dying of anticipation, Luke woke up and the boys were able to hold their new cousin for the first time:

Be still my heart! 

Jake was interested in him, but quickly became more interested in the fact that Uncle Nate and Aunt Katie have Netflix :)  He quickly became engrossed in a show we don't have access to at our house, but Liam continued to obsess over Luke.

Toward the end of our visit, Liam asked if we could take him home and really didn't seem to understand why that couldn't happen :)  It was very sweet, and they have both talked about him since then.  Over the weekend, they found a huge piece of cardboard in the garage and asked if they could bring it to the playroom to color.  I said sure, and they proceeded to decorate it then told me that it was a playmat for baby Luke, that way when he comes to visit they can lay him on it and give him some toys :)  it's the thought that counts!  

Welcome to the world, Luke!  We are so happy to have you here.

Ice Skating Date

Jake loved when he and I went ice skating last year, and I had promised him we could go again this year.  Well, days turned into weeks and weeks into months, and winter temperatures into arctic temperatures and here we were mid-March with no ice skating to show for ourselves all season.  I realized last weekend that it was the very last weekend our outdoor rink would be open (and it also happened to be a kinda-sorta warm 40 degrees and sunny) so we headed out!

 

He was cracking me up before we even made it into the rink; we got there just before they opened up the afternoon session and had a few minutes to kill.  I told him I wanted to stand in the sun to stay warm and he said "Oh, no problem mommy...I'm going to hold my helmet like they do on Star Wars and pretend that the shadows are Storm Troopers".  Well, ok then!

We hit the ice once the session was open, and other than a few short breaks here and there, didn't stop for about 2 hours.  My legs were screaming the next day, but somehow Jake seemed completely unaffected!  He had a great time, and did really well for having not been for a year.  Video:

"You're a Jedi, you have to care."

If we're friends on facebook, you probably saw this already but I wanted to share on here because I love having a record of the funny things the kids say. 

Let me set the scene for you.....
All of the lights are out in the house, I've turned on the "Star Wars" theme song on my phone, and we are preparing for an epic lightsaber battle.  Jake is running through some quick directions before we start.....

Jake: Mommy, put your lightsaber up in the air.

Me: And wave it around like I just don't care?

*At this point, Jake puts down his lightsaber and gives me a look similar to the one pictured below*

Jake: What?  No.  Why would you do that??  You're a Jedi, you have to care!

Player of the Week

Jake was recently selected as the "Player of the Week" for his class; not only did he get to be the teacher's special helper for the week, but he got to make this giant poster about himself and have it displayed at his school!

Conductor Jake

Jake's school does this thing where teachers can pick a "conductor" to represent the class for a week; a conductor is someone who honors the pledge of their school to be a responsible, safe, and respective member of the community.  The teachers look for someone who has shown kind characteristics and lives up to the pledge.  After wishing for weeks that he could be the conductor, Jake was notified last week that it was him!! 

He was VERY excited.  The kids get their picture taken and it gets placed on a huge train that runs the span of the main hallway in the school right by the office, and their picture goes up on the screens in the lunchroom.  He felt like a celebrity! 

In other fun Jake news, here is a recent assignment that was sent home that made me giggle:

In case it's not clear, it says:

Instead of a baby brother, I think it would be fun to have a baby wildebeest. First of all, they have the largest migration of any animal and I want to go with them.  Also, I have a lot of grass and they eat grass.  Finally, wildebeests snort loudly which will make me laugh.

I'm impressed with his animal skills, and the fact that he knew how to spell "wildebeests"....because let me tell you, I just tried to type it in as wildebeasts and autocorrect saved me.  Schooled by my 6 year old again!! 

I call this artwork "Aroma"-by Jake

Jake has a vocabulary test every week; last week, one of the words was "aroma".  On the test, they have to use the word properly in a sentence and draw a picture that represents how the word would be used.  Here is Jake's version of "aroma":

If there is any doubt in your mind, I will confirm for you....yes, that is a picture of someone farting.

He did get full credit for his answer though, so there's that. 

I just can't stop myself...Christmas is coming.

It's one of those unfortunate years where Thanksgiving falls late in November, thus making the time between one holiday and the next super short.  I know I've blabbed here about how much I love fall...and I absolutely do!  But really, fall gets a lot of time, you know?  I usually put out my fall decor and start getting excited for changing leaves and PSL's the week after Labor Day.  That's nearly 3 full months of fall!!  But Christmas?  Christmas is really just a small time period when you think about it...so make Thanksgiving a bit later and bam....Christmas is left sobbing in the corner!

That's why this year is the year I decided to say screw it...screw the stigma enjoying Christmas before Thanksgiving, and screw my own self imposed rules that I've forced myself to abide by over the years.  This year, I'm all in and I'm all in early.
 
I cranked up the Christmas music last week when it came on the radio. 

image courtesy of esquire.com

 I drug out my Christmas dishes over the weekend. The pumpkins were thrown out.

 We put up our Christmas lights. 

image courtesy of clarkgriswoldcollection.com

 I told the kids we could watch a Christmas movie the other night and even let them wear their Christmas PJs when they begged to do so. 

 

someone invaded my space halfway through the movie.

I even let the boys write out their Christmas wish lists for Santa over 2 weeks ago:

 

Funny note: there were a few things that didn't make it onto each kids lists after a little chat.  It's really the first year that either of them have asked for something that I just knew Santa wouldn't be able to bring.  For Jake, it was an iPad and "either a jersey, helmet or poster signed by Big Ben".  For Liam, it was a baby sister in a purple hat.  He plans to name her Elsa and take her to Target.  I have no idea what this says about me and my shopping habits. 

So.  As you can see, it's 3 days before Thanksgiving and we have completely ignored any type of holiday rules....maybe we're just starting our own type of family traditions?  Don't worry, we are still very much looking forward to Thanksgiving...and I promise we will take the time to enjoy it that day and acknowledge that it is its own holiday :)

When does the Christmas season start for you?