My Boys

Just a few cute pics of the boys I caught while we were playing in the backyard. Zachary was taking a rest next to the neighbors fence and looked so cute, I had to snap a few pictures. Evan jumped in next, never wanting to miss a photo opp.

Spring Program

A few weeks ago was the boy's Spring Program at school. Unfortunately our video camera was not holding a charge so we only have still photos and some dark video taken with our regular camera. The pictures and video do not do Evan and Zachary's performances justice. They were hilarious. Anytime a group of 2 to 4 year olds put on a show its bound to be funny but these boys really stole the show. Both of the boys happened to be standing in line right in front of a microphone and took advantage of the opportunity to ham it up the entire time. They had the other parents rolling. Evan was having such a good time he actually had to be carried off stage. I love these boys!

Trains and Racecars

Last night my boys and I were playing a game of chase in the back yard. Evan was a train and he wanted me to be a race car. Evan then told Zachary that he could be the "rolling thing on the track". I asked Evan what exactly the "rolling thing" does, so that I could give Zachary some sort of direction as to what his role was to be in this game. Evan quickly said "nothing, the rolling thing does nothing". Oh what fun Zachary will have! I was so happy to see that my son was already so adept at "politely" excluding people from his games by tricking them into thinking they had a role when in fact, they were to do nothing. How brilliant!

However, Zachary was much smarter than Evan had surmised and was not going to fall victim to his evil plot. He realized right away that this role was in no way going to be fun. Shortly there after a fight ensued and both boys were wrestling and rolling down the hill ending the game for all.

Moral of the story: Be more creative when coming up with fictitious roles for games.

What the...

The other day my boys came home from school and I soon heard them running around the house repeating the phrase "what the heck". I was none too happy to hear them speaking like this. Jake and I discussed where on earth they could have possibly heard such a phrase since we are the "perfect parents" and it certainly couldn't have been from either one of us. We came to an agreement (rather quickly) that they must have learned it at school.

Of course, school! That's where they have learned every single bad behavior that they have ever displayed, because obviously we couldn't be at fault. Right? We conjectured that someone else's child must be the one who put this phrase in their heads. Mystery solved! Or so we thought. . .

Last night as we were heading home from school I turned down the street heading to our house only to come upon a huge back up of cars. I knew I was stuck and could be there for quite a while. Immediately, without thinking the phrase "what the heck" came out of my mouth. I couldn't believe it, I was to blame. Me. ME! I started wondering how many other things I was to blame for that, up until this point, I was blaming on the poor, innocent classmates of my boys (OK, well not so innocent).

Then I heard Evan pipe up from the back seat. "Mom, you don't say words like that. That's a bad word. You need to say only nice words. You need to call Daddy." I'd been caught, and scolded by my three year old none the less.

Oh well, what the heck...nobody's perfect!

Orange for Stellan

Today my boys and I are wearing orange and praying for Stellan as he undergoes heart surgery. You can follow his story here.

The Small Things

Sometimes, I wish that I could be as thankful for the simple things in life as my boys are. The pure joy they get from going down a slide, the excitement in their face when they see a snowflake (in April no less). It's wonderful to have a child to remind you of how great the simple things can be.

Take this for example. I made oatmeal raisin cookies the other day for Evan and Zachary's Easter party at school. I had a few left over and gave the boys each one after dinner last night. I told them that I had made the cookies as a special treat for their party. Evan put his cookie down, looked at me and said "Mom, you made these all by yourself?". I told him that I had and he looked at me, cocked his head to the side, put one hand over his heart and said "Aww, that's really nice!"

I wish I could replay that moment, I wish I had it on video. It was truly touching. The fact that I had made a simple oatmeal raisin cookie made his day. You could tell, that he was really appreciative and very sincere, something I know I don't always express, especially with the small things. Today I will take a lesson from my boys and remember to be appreciative of the small things.

Fat Lip

Yesterday evening my boys were in the midst of another wrestle-mania match in my living room when someone got hit in the face and got a fat lip. No, it wasn't Evan or Zach's pretty little puckers that plumped up, it was mine. Zach had thrown his head back right into my bottom lip.

After checking out my war wound in the mirror I noticed that it swelled up pretty nicely but only on the lower left part of my lip. Since, I was heading out of the house to go to the gym in the next few minutes I wanted to check with Jake to see if he thought it was noticeable. Now, you have to understand that this was an obvious question. If I could see it, I'm sure others could too, but I was hoping that he would console me and tell me that it wasn't that bad. So, upstairs I went to ask him.

Jake said that it was noticeable and that he could actually see it getting bigger as he was staring at my lip (not something you say to someone who is self-conscious by the way). He also said that it didn't look bad and that he liked full lips. In response I said that I already had full lips but this wasn't what I had in mind. In case he couldn't already tell, I reminded him that I looked ridiculous with only one half of my lower lip puffed up. He then told me to make the other side match. What did he want me to do punch myself on the other side? I looked at him like he was crazy because at that moment he certainly was acting crazy. He then looked at me funny and asked why I only put the "stuff" on one side of my lip. At this point I finally realized that Jake thought that I had done this to myself. The "stuff" he was referring to was plumping lip gloss. First of all who plumps their lips only moments before heading to the gym and secondly, who on earth would choose to plump only a portion of their pout! You've got to be kidding me!