Spring Break - Filling the Void - Day 3

Please excuse the delay in this post. There have been some major (lack of) internet issues at our house, but luckily a new router seems to have resolved the situation!

Anyhoo...

Day 3 of our 24/7 childcare adventure was thankfully filled with the birthday party of a dear friend, Miss Annie-Boo. Hard to believe this little angel is already 4! We celebrated with a super fun party at Hazel Parker playground. Dorothy and Gregg had thought of everything, including getting enough pizzas so that the adults could eat as well.

It's hard to pass up a $5 Hot n' Ready! The kids all behaved beautifully, playing their hearts out in the warm sun and only occasionally stopping by their respective parents to have an empty bubble jar filled or to request another piece of pizza or the opening of a juice box. It is amazing to me to bring these children to parties now and know that they are pretty well self sufficient. Although it was only a few short months ago that I was having to keep foot to foot with Benny, he and "My Best Friend, Pincky" can now go and play together without too much interaction from us. As long as we eyeball them every couple of minutes, they are fine. They basically know their boundaries and theoretically know what kind of behavior we expect from them. Of course, none of this would be possible without the village we all have created to raise our children. (I never thought I would ever agree with Hillary!) The younger ones come up seeing how the older ones, siblings or not, and this in turn shapes their own behavior. Thank you to all my girlfriends for raising the kind of children I want my own boys to be. It has made my job immensely easier! Of course, the dads also have a bit to do with this village. Here are two of them who have gone out and hunted and gathered that elusive pizza for their youngest ones.

Due to the unfortunate timing of a 2 year old potty break, I missed getting good pictures of Annie Boo blowing out her candles. After eating way too much pizza and cake, it was all we adults could do to just sit and watch the little bodies run and play. I again wonder where they get the energy! Oma spent some time giving JJB III advice on the finer points of being a chicken fan.

Thanks, Annie Boo, for being born and for being such a dear friend! We had a ton of fun at your birthday party, and it was an excellent way to check off another day of spring break!!

(Blogger will not let me move these pictures where I want to!!!)

Spring Break - Filling the Void - Day 2

We had our annual BUGS Baby (and I use that term loosely as a couple of these "babies" will soon be taller than we are) Easter egg hunt today. Thank you, Amanda, for hosting us. Your yard was perfect for our intimate 21 child group. While part of me does miss the big one we have done for the past 3 or 4 years, an even bigger part of me was so thankful to have today's hunt with just a few children. Of course, there are many little ones we sorely missed, but I think this scaled down version is a bit more manageable. And it was so good to see old friends we haven't seen in ages. Tradd is groing up way too fast!

We started with lunch, and then, with the children re-energized and chomping at the bit, we released the hounds. We had divided the yard into two sections - one with numbered eggs for the older kids and one with plain eggs for the little ones. It was perfect, both sets were totally entertained and challenged. Of course, after the hunt, it was time to crack some eggs and chow down on the delicious cupcakes Melinda had sent. Nancy and I both found this little session between Bennett and Ellie to delicious to pass up. (Unfortunately, I had not adjusted my shutter speed so these pictures were way overexposed, and I have not yet reinstalled Photoshop on my computer, so this is what you get. Sorry.)

Then it was time for fun on the slide, or as my children like to call it (if they called it anything), "Let's see just how close to dangerous we can get before the grown ups stop us." It all started out so innocently with a simple train of girls going down the slide. Don't they look precious? Then the boys got involved and it quickly deteriorated into a precariously balanced human tunnel. What is it with testosterone that makes a classic, simple toy like a slide not quite exciting enough? Please notice here that that is Eliza sliding underneath Reeves. Of course, there was one casualty, but luckily, the injuries were nothing a big hug and some magic kisses couldn't fix.

This was a perfect way to carry on this well started spring break. The boys and I had a great time. Thanks again, Amanda, for letting us all invade your homestead, and thanks everyone for continuing to create these special memories for all of our children.

(And as a bonus to help fill our void, Reeves had t-ball practice at 5:00. Another hour taken care of!!! Woo-hoo! But that's a whole other post.)

Spring Break - Filling the Void - Day 1

So here we are on the first official day of spring break.

Today turned out to be a wonderful day filled with friends and fun - relatively impromptu gathering at a park near our house. The weather held off long enough for us to have lunch, play, ride bikes, and get all soaking wet in the fountain. Reeves and Spencer quickly tackled the "Hill of Doom". (Reeves and Fordham have ridden this before, but it takes an older first grader to come up with such a fearsome moniker.) Those boys were unstoppable. They never got tired of pushing those bikes up the hill and then racing them down. Bennett, on the other hand, quickly tired of pushing his bike up the hill and then ... pushing it down. I must admit, I was a little worried that he would try to ride it down with the big boys. Maybe he does have a little caution in him and there is a chance that he won't be the first of our children with a broken bone.

After a while, we went on an adenture over to the fountain and memorial. Aileen and I briefly questioned letting Reeves, Spencer, and Bennett ride so far ahead that they were out of our sight, but I assured her that Reeves knew where he was going and there wasn't really anything up there that could hurt them. Naturally, as we approach, we see that workmen have blocked off the whole memorial for cleaning or something. (Great, I just sent my two year old unsupervised into a work zone. Please add that to my Uber-Mommy status.) I think Bennett was the first to ride his bike through the fountains. Once the others realized that he was not getting in trouble for getting wet, it was katy-bar-the-door. Off went the shoes and socks, up rolled the pants legs, and, in one case, who needs anything but the undies? Wilson took great pleasure in getting his bicycle super clean. I wish my children had thought of that!The children had a blast. I think part of the fun was that this was really the first warm day where they could truly enjoy getting playing and getting wet. It was a true taste of summer (isn't that what spring break really is?), and they loved it. Like Aileen said, "These are days they are going to remember."

After the playground we headed back to our house so that Rossi wouldn't have to drop Aileen and her kiddos off at Tire Kingdom to wait endlessly for their car to be fixed. (Yes, you heard right, Rossi drove out to carless Aileen's this morning and not only picked her and her children up, but also their two bikes. What an awesome friend!) Anyway, what was supposed to be a play for the rest of the day, turned, for the most part, into a watch cartoons afternoon. But honestly, that was OK by us. We were tired, and we hadn't done half the things they had. Luckily for me, everyone stayed for dinner. And I say "luckily" in all honesty. Feeding my children is my least favorite part of motherhood, and somehow, I find there is power in numbers when it comes to mealtimes.

Thanks for such a wonderful first day. I can't wait to see what special memories the rest of the week holds in store for us.

Strike One!

Guess who bowled a strike on his first try ever? My little Benny. Looks like Daddy's a good teacher. I can't believe how quickly he's growing up. We were at Preston's 8th birthday party, and this little man insisted on getting his own pair of shoes and going right out there to the lanes with all the big kids. He's getting pretty good at holding his own. We're so proud of our Bowlin' Bennett!

The Best Part of My Day

Taking a cue from Anne, we have started asking Reeves what his favorite part of the day was. We usually do this after prayers, right before he goes to bed. Tonight, he got me. Without me even asking him, he turned to me, put his arm around me and said, "My favorite today was loving you, Mommy."

Seriously.

Anything you want, Reeves. It's yours. I love you.

Go, go, go!!

Bennett's favorite thing to say in the car, whenever we're stopped at a red light, is, "Go, Mommy, go!!" To which I always reply, "Benny, I can't go. Do you want me to crash into all these cars in front of us?" This is immediately followed by howls of laughter from the older brother, and then Reeves says, "Yeah, Mommy, crash into them!!" This, in turn, brings about a second round of hysterics from both boys. And so on and so forth. (We have a lot of monkey see, monkey do around our house.)

Now, Bennett has brought his car talk out into other areas of his world...

Daddy on the golf cart. "Go, Daddy, go!!"

Daddy and Reeves on the boat. "Go, Daddy! Go, ReeRee, go!!"

Even poor William on the tricycle. "Go, Willy, go!!"

Looks like this one inherited my impatience for slow drivers. Poor Bryant, now he'll have two of us telling him how to drive!

I Must Have Blinked

Reeves has been riding his 12" bike with training wheels since he was just over 2. He loves that thing and can pretty much make it go wherever he wants. Even out in the country, there is almost nothing Preston can do on his big boy bike that Reeves can't do on his little bike. Well, that didn't last too long. In his constant effort to "be just like Preston", Reeves randomly requested, a couple of weeks ago, to have his training wheels removed. Right, so here it was then, this day I have dreaded only slightly less than the potty training and big boy bed milestones. Luckily, Aileen has been recently pushing me (kicking and screaming) into regular exercise, so running along beside him wasn't nearly as bad as I had envisioned. Here he is all geared up for the first attempt. It literally took only about 4 or 5 times up and down the driveway before he got it. After he mastered the art of riding in a straight line, we headed across the street to the big grassy field to attempt turning. This took a bit more practice and angst because it is so different than what he did with the training wheels, but it wasn't long before he got the hang of that too.

I wish we had taken more still shots of him on this little 12" bike because it wasn't but a day or two before we realized he really needed to move up to 16". He rode with Bryant all the way to The Back that weekend, and his little legs were moving way more and way faster than they needed to to get him where he was going. Luckily, Preston had graduated from his 16", so we were able to inherit that. And who knew, it's blue! We still have a ways to go before he's starting on his own. (This part is driving me crazy!) He has done it a couple of times, and as soon as he remembers that he can do it, I know we'll be fine. Now Reeves is beaming because there truly is nowhere Preston can go that he can't follow. As for Reeves' old bike, it has found a perfectly wonderful new home in the very capable hands of a two year old little brother who absolutely adores that he gets his big brother's bike now.

Bryant and I keep asking each other, "Are we really already at this point?" The older is riding without training wheels and in a couple of weeks, the younger one will be riding this little bike right along with him. What's happening to our "babies"?

Bennett's First Haircut

I was trying to hold out until his second birthday, but the wings (when dry) and the rattail (when wet), finally took their toll on me and I gave in. It’s not that I didn’t want to cut his hair out of some fear that it would make him look too old, it’s just that, even though it was such an disorderly mess, it was my baby’s disorderly mess, and I was afraid I would miss seeing that toeheaded rat’s nest every morning, miss trying to put his hair in a ponytail or pigtails, or miss having people mistake him for a girl just because he happens to have on something smocked and have longish hair. OK, maybe I wouldn’t miss that last one too much.
Anyway, we finally bit the bullet and made the appointment. Bryant met us there. Reeves was thankfully at the beach. Sometimes, despite their best intentions to make the little brothers happy, big brothers create nothing but a rambunctious child and a stressed out mommy. Bennett did a great job masking his immense nervousness about going under the scissors. He drank his milkshake, talked on the phone, and played right into the hands of all the grannies waiting their turns along with him. Finally it was his turn. He sat right up there on his daddy’s lap and let Ms. Cindy do her thing. He didn’t squirm too much, didn’t cry, and didn’t get distracted by all the hair falling around him. He was very focused on the task at hand.
When it was all over, he got his obligatory lollipop and went at it with gusto. He was definitely ready to leave. Little does he know he will be back in just a few short months to repeat the whole process. And no, I do not take for granted the fact that my children only need haircuts every few months. It’s nice to be able to have at least one thing we don’t have to do too often!