Wednesday, May 29, 2013

Last day of Pre-K (for 2013)

Kale had his last day of pre-k for the school year today. He has had a great school year and really enjoyed going to pre-k--that is after the first few weeks. He had a few weeks at the beginning of the year in which he cried, a lot, but he slowly grew to love school. He made lots of great friends and we loved his sweet teachers. I think he managed to learn a thing or two, as well!






First day of pre-k in September

                                                                                               
                                                                               
                                                                                         Last day of pre-k. I think he grew a bit...

Kale celebrated his last day of school by participating in a picnic with his classmates. After they ate, the boys all went to the top of a grassy hill and rolled down to the bottom, then they started wrestling. It was so funny to watch all these small boys wrestle nonstop. There were only 3 girls in Kale's class and they sat nicely at the table and watched the boys.
 
Kale will go back to the same school in September. He will go 3 days a week next year.


Sweet Summertime

Dad is home! Dad is home! We are so excited! 


I LOVE summertime! The warm weather, sunshine, flexible routine, no work...everything about summertime equals heaven for me. Kris got home just in time for Memorial Day. We had a bunch of people over and grilled out on Sunday night. I started to take some pictures, but my camera died right before I took the first picture. Frustrating...on Monday, we went to have lunch and then to the park. It was a nice, relaxing day.

The weather has been very warm here lately, so we got out the sprinkler and let the boys play. Liam loves the water toys, but Kale is a little more reluctant. He will play, but only if momma or dada play too. Liam filled his plastic cup with water from the sprinkler and enjoyed a nice, long drink!




Kale finally decided to get in on the action.

Ice-cream is another treat we participate in far too often in the summer (well, truth be told, we eat a lot of ice-cream in the winter, too...)

We tricked the boys by telling them to go look at the ball, then when they were really close, we turned on the sprinkler.

This was their reaction!



Wednesday, May 22, 2013

Almost There!

We have almost made it through Kris' busy travel schedule. He has been gone essentially since the middle of April. He has been home for a day or two, then back on the road again. His long travel stretch--gone for 14 days, will come to end this Friday evening! Woo-hoo! Some days have been so hard...I really feel for all the single mommas out there. But we managed to get into a groove and we are making it!

It helps that these two are so darn cute most of the time! Liam has always looked up to Kale and loved his big brother, but he is very into doing EVERYTHING that Kale does these days. He mimics his actions, which drive Kale crazy sometimes.
The other morning Kale wanted to sit in the living and eat his cereal (with no milk) while watching cartoons. I let him, so guess what? Liam insisted on joining him.

We have not been without some injuries. For example, Kale got mad at Liam (don't ask me why---they were playing outside in the little tike house) and Kale bit Liam. He left quite the mark. Kale's behind hurt for quite awhile after this one.

Liam also has matching scratches on his knees. He is very independent these days, but tends to be rather clumsy. My boys are covered in bruises and scratches from the knee down.
 
So, the biggest thing that has helped me get through the past 6 weeks of busy-ness and Kris being gone is MEXICO!!! In less than 2 weeks, Kris and I will board a plane to head to Cancun for 5 days and 4 nights. I am so psyched about this trip. This will be our first vacation together without the boys since the summer before Kale was born. I am ready for this getaway...we both NEED a vacation in a bad way. And to make things even better, I found swimming suits at Target with Spanx! Yes, Spanx. This is such exciting news for me. For those of you who don't know what spanx is, it is a material that sucks in your stomach when you have to wear something tight (i.e. a bathing suit). My stomach actually looks like it did before I had kids with the spanx suit on. It's amazing! I called Kris to tell him about my latest find and he was in a meeting. He answered the phone and said, "Hey, I'm in a meeting. Can I call you back or is it an emergency?" I said, "Yes, you can call me back, but it actually is kind of an emergency....I FOUND A BATHING SUIT WITH SPANX!!!" He agreed that this was breaking news, but for some reason, thought he needed to finish his meeting. Afterwards he did call me and ask if I could try to find a suit with spanx for him.

A Visit from Uncle Dave

We received an unexpected visit from Uncle David on Sunday afternoon. He and his buddy, Sean, attended a fishing tournament over the weekend in Maryland and made a stop in Richmond for visit. It was such a nice distraction since Kris is still out of town.
 

Kale loved cuddling on the couch with Uncle David. He actually remembered him from Christmas. I am lucky to have two such snuggly, loving boys.

We didn't do too much...just hung around the house, played outside, went for ice-cream, out to dinner, etc. But the boys loved seeing David and getting in some good wrestling time (since Dad has been gone they have missed out on roughhousing).

It was tough to get a picture of all three. I gave up trying to get one of all of them looking at the camera and smiling at the same time. I settled for a picture of the 3 of them together. I had to bribe Liam with candy to get it accomplished!

Tuesday, May 14, 2013

Wow, what a Day!

Somehow the pictures that I thought I deleted around Easter time magically appeared on my camera. But that's not what this post is about...

Today, I felt like Liam looks in this picture. I don't know if I have ever been so glad that a day has been over. Last week, I blogged about how anytime Kris is out of town, things always go wrong. Well, case and point, the past two days. Kris left yesterday for Europe for 2 weeks. 10:30 a.m., I get a call from Kale's pre-k teacher saying he has gunck in his eye. I went to pick him up and took him to the doctor. He has pink-eye and ear infection. Great! This messes up school, swim lessons, plans with friends, etc. I started doing everything I could to keep Liam from touching anything Kale did. Apparently, it was too late. Yesterday, when Liam woke up from nap, he had eye drainage too. Back to the doctor--he has the same thing as Kale!!
 
So, that's bad enough, right? I don't think so! This morning, we get up and get ready to take Kale to speech. Everyone is looking good and seems to be in good spirits. I took Liam out to the car and began putting him in his car seat. Kale was in the laundry room putting on his shoes. When he came out to the car, he very proudly told me, "I locked the door, mom." Not good-my stuff was still in the house. So, we trek to 3 different neighbor's houses, trying to find someone who was home. We called a locksmith, waited for an hour for the locksmith to arrive, missed speech (which I am sure I will be billed for). When the locksmith arrived, he took him approximately 5 second, 5 SECONDS, (I am not lying!!!) to get the door open. He then charged me $150. What was I going to do? Tell him, no that's too much, just leave me outside with my two screaming children. I was desperate and he knew it. (I am fairly certain he took advantage of the fact that I had no other option...)
 
And one more thing--I did not show any ID--how did the guy even know it was my house?
 
What a day!! So glad I get to start over tomorrow.
 
 

Busch Gardens

On Friday, we decided to take the boys to Busch Gardens, which is in Williamsburg, about an hour from us. We decided to take them for a couple of reasons...first of all, Kris was leaving on Monday for Europe and would be gone for 2 weeks. We also wanted to sign-up for the "preschool pass" program that Busch Gardens offers. I had no idea how much tickets were...70 bucks a pop!! Prices have gone up since the last time I went to an amusement park. The cool thing about the preschool pass is that as long as you sign your kids up and redeem the pass by May 31st--they can go to the park for the entire summer for FREE!!! Busch Gardens also has a "fun pass" for Virginia residents. You pay full-price for one ticket and then you can go to the  park for the rest of the summer at no charge.
 
So, we took off on Friday morning to experience Busch Gardens for the first time. Kale was in heaven! Liam was a little unsure about the whole experience.

Busch Gardens has a whole section called the forest of fun. It's geared toward preschool aged children. The Sesame Street Characters wonder around this area and all of the rides are sesame street themed. All of the rides are also geared toward children UNDER 42 inches.

The boys enjoyed playing on the playground area. We got hot though--it was about 85 degrees.


Dad rode one ride with the boys, but I think it made him a bit sick. Mom got to go on the rest of the rides.

I wasn't sure if Kale would like this one, but he did! We went all the way to the top and dropped down to the bottom suddenly. It didn't go super fast, but it kinda freaked me out, considering I am slightly afraid of heights.

The park had a giant splash pad in the forest of fun area. Liam LOVED this!! (Of course, this activity is something we can do for free at any park in our area...but good to know he enjoyed himself.)

I did not know that there would be so many water activities, so I didn't pack the boys' swimming trunks, but I definitely will next time. We learned a lot about what to pack and what not to pack for next time...


Liam had a melt down around one and I thought we were done around the day. My boys are on such a schedule that anytime we get off the schedule, it's just not a good thing. However, he got his second wind and we made it until 3 o'clock.

We had a great time visiting Busch Gardens. It is really a beautiful park and I think we only hit about 1/10th of the activities that we could have. I hope to take advantage of the park a few more times this summer. We were absolutely exhausted by the end of the day though.

Sunday, May 12, 2013

Happy Mother's Day!

 So thankful for these two--without whom, I wouldn't have a reason to celebrate today. I often blog about how hard motherhood is and how my children sometimes drive me to the edge and although all of these things are true, I also feel like the luckiest mommy in the world to have these two little men in my life. The days are long, but the years are short--that I have already learned.
I remember my first mother's day, right after Kale was born. He was about 3 weeks ago old. He cried a lot as a baby and nothing I did seemed to calm him. However, he really seemed to love his dad. Kris could walk in the room and hold Kale and he was all smiles. That first mother's day, I remember sitting in my master closet sobbing, because I felt like a horrible mother. I mean, my own child didn't even like me!!! Things have changed a bit since then--some days are still hard and I still want to go sit in the closet and cry, although I rarely have time to do that. :)
 
Each day, even the hard days, have moments that absolutely take my breathe away and make me so eternally grateful to be a mother. Sometimes those moments seem to stretch on and other times, I blink and they are gone and someone is crying again. But it's those moments, however few and far between, that get me through my days.
 
Like when Kale and Liam are chasing each other around the house and cackling uncontrollably.
 
Or when Kale gives Liam a kiss at nighttime--whether it be right on the lips or on the forehead--and says, "I wuv you, Liam."
 
Or sometimes it's when I pick Liam up from his crib and he wraps those chubby arms around my neck and places his sweet head on my shoulder.
 
Sometimes it's when Kale is helping me do things around the house and helping to take care of Liam and I realize what a big boy he is becoming, how proud I am that he is my son.
 
I thank God everyday for giving me the gift of motherhood.
 

I also wouldn't be a mother without these two. I am so thankful for my beautiful mother and grandmother. Life has sometimes handed them lemons, but they have always made lemonade. They definitely taught me how to put others first--as they have made that their lives' work. Growing up around wonderful mothers gave me the great gift of knowing how to mother when I had children.


Thursday, May 9, 2013

Friday, May 3, 2013

Recent videos


YouTube Video

Liam trapped Kale in the toy box. I'm afraid we have a bully on our hands.

YouTube Video

My boys love to play "monster". I love the way Liam mimics Kris by going to the edge of the living room and knocking on the wall.

YouTube Video

Liam received shoes with squeakers for Christmas. He has finally grown into them. Luckily, we can take the squeakers out. :)