4th of July Weekend

Wow, I'm posting about one weekend before the next one happens....that hasn't happened around here in awhile!!  :) 

It seems like lately the universe has been apologizing profusely for the positively terrible winter it dished out just a few months ago.  The weather has generally been pretty pleasant and last weekend... a HOLIDAY weekend no less, was gorgeous.  Just perfection.  Friday was the actual holiday and we just hung around the house and got a few things done. 

Saturday, we headed down to WashPA to visit my parents and also to attend a wedding for my dear friend, Olivia and her (now) husband, Bob (thanks for babysitting, GG!).  Olivia is one of my oldest friends, and I was so excited to be there to share in her special day!  Her wedding was outside and she really could not have asked for more perfect weather.  Her venue was gorgeous; if you are looking for an outdoor/rustic feel for a wedding, you should definitely check out Shady Elms Farm.  Both the venue and the bride were stunning! 

 

Sunday we were able to see another friend of mine, Cortney!  Lilianna and Liam picked up right where they left off the last time they saw each other and enjoyed swimming for hours :)

Both of the kids were drained after all of the fun of the weekend.  Liam fell asleep at my mom's house and slept for much longer than we anticipated, we ended up crashing her house for dinner since he didn't wake up until almost 5.  Then Jake looked like this in the backseat at 6:30 within just minutes of leaving:

I hope your weekend was just as fun!!

Baseball Awards Ceremony

I already posted about the very last baseball game of the season, but I just wanted to share the cute pictures of the awards ceremony they had a few weekends ago.  Each player was announced on the field over the loudspeaker as they went to accept their trophy....you know Jake was pumped for that!! 

So our sports season is officially over for the summer....we told him he could pick one thing to do in the fall and it looks like right now he's leaning toward trying out basketball for the first time.  I will not argue with an indoor sports choice for a time that has cooler weather :)

Liam's 1st trip to the dentist

With age 3 comes many responsibilities....preschool, potty training (still working on that), and the obligation to get your pearly whites examined on a regular basis.  Liam went to the dentist for the first time the other day, and it was a successful trip...no crying, no cavities!  As I expected him to do based on his visits to the pediatrician, he climbed right up in the chair, talked to the hygienist about his favorite things (his friends from Mickey Mouse Clubhouse, playing outside, and going swimming) then leaned back for the exam.  All was well! 

Say cheese!!!  See ya in 6 months :)

Some days are better than others.

"BOYS!  Keep your hands and feet to yourselves, please."

It was 6:15pm.  We had pulled in the driveway earlier that day around 5:40 and while I drug all of the stuff in from the day at work/daycare/summer camp and let the dog out, the boys played outside.  In a surprising turn of events, they came in at 6 without a fight when I told them I had to go in to start dinner.

They were both looking exhausted from the day (the heat and fun summer camp activities have been having that effect on them lately) so I told them they could just relax and watch TV while I got dinner started.  I flipped on the TV in the playroom and headed into the kitchen.  No sooner had I pulled the pack of chicken out of the fridge did I hear the bickering begin.  He touched me, he's sitting too close to me, he's making me hot....

"Liam, stop bothering your brother.  Jake, use your words and not your hands to keep him away.  I just need to get this chicken in the oven and I'll be right in."

Ok, where was I?  Oops, oven isn't on.  I'll wait for that. What else can we have with this?  Do we have any....

My thoughts were interrupted by the sound of a body hitting the floor and crying.  I walk in and Jake is sitting on the couch immediately starting to apologize....

"I didn't mean to....he wouldn't stop bugging me....I only pushed him a little....I'm sorry....I'm sorry....."

I wish this is where I would say that I comforted everyone, turned off the TV, and we had a little Full House style family moment where we talked about respect and kindness.

Instead, I yelled. Not just yelled, I reached a level that most people (and dogs) would probably categorize as screeching.  I was livid.  I was near tears.  We hadn't even been in the house for 20 minutes and they were at each other's throats...and while watching TV!  How is that even possible?  I screeched about how all I needed was 10 minutes and they couldn't even give me that...how they are brothers and they should be able to get along without needing a referee half of the time...I screeched about things I don't even think were related to the actual incident.

 I was frustrated with Liam for being an instigator and not leaving Jake alone after I had asked him to do so.  I was frustrated with Jake for taking matters into his own hands and not just moving to another chair to stay out of Liam's reach.

Basically, I was frustrated that they are 6 and 3 years old.  Should they know better and be able to control themselves for such a short period of time?  Yes, they should.  But should I realize that not everyone is perfect and that I could cut them some slack for doing what are normal sibling behaviors?  Yep.  I could do that for sure.

But it's so easy....it's so easy in those moments to forget the good things.  To forget that just 10 minutes before that incident, they happily played basketball outside with each other, no incidents whatsoever.  It's easy to forget that just the night before, I had been able to get dinner started while they set up a whole Toy Story scenario in the playroom and happily acted out scenes with their figures from the movie with each other, even taking turns with who got to be the coveted Buzz Lightyear. No pushing, no fighting, nothing.

After I cooled off and got the boys separated, I retreated back into the kitchen.  As I was digging through the freezer trying to find some veggies, I heard little feet creeping into the kitchen.  I turned around to see Jake standing there with his arms open, waiting for a hug.  I slammed the freezer shut and picked him up...as we were hugging he said "I'm really sorry that I pushed him off the couch and made you feel so sad."

I have to pause here to say that he has come so far, because I can guarantee you that 8 or 9 months ago, that scene would have played out in a completely different way.  Chances are, Jake would have gone off to his room and would have been inconsolable for an hour or so. He never would have apologized on his own, without prompting.  He wouldn't have pulled himself back together that quickly.  I know some people probably think I'm out of my mind when I talk about his sensitivity to food dye, but I believe 100% that it has an adverse effect on him.

But I digress.

The point of all of this is that I'm certainly not perfect (as evidenced by the scene I just described) and neither are my kids.  Neither is my husband for that matter.  But we put on our super mom/wife/friend cape every day nonetheless, and we do the best we can. Maybe we do it while repeating to ourselves little snippets of inspiration like, "this too shall pass" or "they're only this little once" or "tomorrow will be better"....but we do it. 

I'm preaching these words not only to my fellow super moms, but also to myself because I think we all need a reminder that some days are better than others. 

Goodbye Kindergarten, Hello First Grade!

I just realized that it was well over a month ago, but I forgot to post about the end of Jake's kindergarten year.  As with most things in life (especially since having kids) the year just took off and was gone in an instant.  I'm happy to say that even though kindergarten started out a little shaky for our little man, he worked things out and we ended the year on a positive note (aside from him crying the last week of school because he didn't want to leave his teacher...but I guess even that can be looked at as a good thing!)

Here are some comparison pictures of the first and last days of school...

First day, August 2013:

Last Day, June 2014:

A few days before school ended, I sent Jake in with a copy of Oh the Places You'll Go, along with a note to his teacher, asking if she would sign the inside of it...kind of like a yearbook message.  I'm hoping to do this every year for him (at least until he finds it to be embarrassing and begs me to stop...even then, maybe I'll just do it behind his back!)  Here is the message she wrote:

Dear Jake,

I loved having you in my kindergarten class this year!  I remember seeing you play Battleship on the first day of school, and now you can read and write!  It has been so nice to see you learn, grow, and make new friends.  You are a hard worker (and neat too!), and you have a great sense of humor (your laugh is contagious!)!!  Always stay that way :)  I can't wait to hear about your future elementary school adventures, so be sure to visit.  Maybe I'll even see you zipping past me on the ski slopes!  Best of luck!

I really feel so lucky that we were able to have such a great teacher for his first year of school!  Jake wrote her a little note for the last day, and we sent it in along with a plant and a Panera gift card:

Less than 2 months until we have a first grader....

Get movin', mama.

Remember a little over a year ago when I started running?  Not because I particularly had an interest in doing so, but because I made a vow to myself to do what I can to stay healthy for my husband and kids?  That went ok for awhile.  I kept up with it nearly all of last summer, running two 5Ks over the summer, and another one in early October with my sister-in-law, Katie.

That was in early October; it all fell apart after that.  We went to Disney.  It was Halloween.  It got cold.  It was the holidays.  It was even more cold.  It snowed for 439 days in a row (at least it felt that way)  All excuses, I know.  But they were excuses I was willing to accept.  I was sporadically doing the Jillian Michaels 30 day shred, but I wasn't being as consistent as I should have been.

Spring was finally just around the corner, and a friend asked me to run a 5K with her.  Not just any 5K (because if it had been just any old 5K I would have immediately told her no, there was no way I'd be ready)...but this dear friend has watched her dad battle leukemia for over a year.  She has been by his side for multiple hospital stays, testing, treatments, and transfusions.  There were times when she was going through that when I felt helpless..I would do what I could, I'd drop off food, take her daughter for a few hours so that she could go to the hospital...but I always felt like I wanted to do more.  So this 5K that was for leukemia?  That I could do. 

I ran it. It wasn't pretty since I literally had not run since October, but I did it in 38 minutes.  But I knew after running it, I wanted to do something else.  I needed to try something new, something more structured.  I know myself all too well, and it's way too easy for me to make excuses to not keep up with running.

So I finally took the plunge and signed up for a fitness class through work; it's called total body fusion and it meets 2 days as week for 50 minutes each class.  It works for me for two reasons: #1, I paid for it (really reasonable, but still) so I'm more inspired to go to get my money's worth out of it.  #2 - it's in the middle of the day, not during my "home" time.  The home thing was a big part of it for me before, I felt guilty (even though I shouldn't) for going out to run when I was at home with the boys.  After being away from them all day, the guilt was eating away at me when I would leave them again to go do something for myself.  But doing something during my lunch hour eases that guilt right up!

I don't love the class, and I think I just have to accept the fact that I will never love any type of workout.  I think that was another issue for me; I keep waiting to have that "a-ha!" moment that other people seem to have...the one where they find something that clicks for them and they look forward to it, and crave it when they can't do it.  I'm not going to lie...I hate every minute of being in that class.  I hate the sweating, I hate the tiredness, I hate hauling myself there when frankly, I would rather take a leisurely lunch break to myself.  But, I will do it because what I don't hate is knowing that I  am helping myself, and through that, helping my family in the long run. 

image courtesy of theworkoutmama.com

Wordless Wednesday: No bad guys in this house!!

Explorers: unite!!

During Liam's nap last Sunday, Jake played very nicely by himself with his legos for about an hour (we've really been trying to work on this whole, "you don't need to be constantly entertained by a human or electronics" thing with him recently....it's been getting better, that will be a whole other post at some point)  I had wrapped up the few things I had been working on (like un-burying myself out of a mountain of laundry) and Brian was outside setting up the pool and slip and slides for later that day; I asked Jake if he wanted to do something for a bit before Liam woke up and without hesitation he said, "Yes.  I would like to go on a scavenger hunt.  Do you have a notebook I can use to write down my observations?"  Well, then.  How could I say no to that?  We gathered up the essentials (notebook, pen, magnifying glass, binoculars) and headed outside, scavenger hunt items in my head.

I told him the following items were part of the scavenger hunt: an acorn, a bug, a flower,a piece of a fern, a twig and a rock.  After he found each one, he would stop and sit in the grass to write down his observations.  Here is page 1 of his "scientific notebook", as he called it:

 

After he located all of the items, we took them into the "secret hideout" (aka-the clubhouse area of the swingset) and took a look at our findings.

 It was here that I discovered upon inspection of my legs that something had decided to enjoy me as a late afternoon snack.  I had EIGHT bites on my 2 legs, and not just little bites...I'm talking welts the size of a coaster that were already hugely swollen and standing off of my legs.  I called Brian over to look at them, and he kind of shuddered and said "I've never seen anything like that!" and immediately checked Jake.  Jake didn't have a single bite.  not one!!  And for the record, our yard is surrounded by woods on two sides and while we were near the woods, we were not IN the woods.  In fact, I was probably not closer than 5 feet away from the woods.  How did I get attacked so viciously??

This just further cements my case that I am simply not made to be outdoors for prolonged periods of time.

But, despite that little incident (which are still there by the way, 3 days later...and still itching like crazy!) we had a great time on our little hunt.