More swimming fun

Since this was a holiday weekend, we made the most of it and went to the water park ... a lot! Well, Steve and the boys went a lot and I went once. Joel has decided that he likes to jump in the pool and NOT be caught. He doesn't use a life jacket, either. He just sinks and then we grab him as he is coming back up. He really likes this! Unfortunately he doesn't always wait for us to say that we are ready. Apparently that is what happened yesterday when he got his first real swimming injury. Dad had told him not jump, but he did and he hit Dad's goggles. Those are the details I got from Evan, so I still can't picture the event perfectly in my head, but we can all picture the resulting "wound". Here it is!

More minerals please!

Every time we went to the beach last year Joel ate the sand. Now he is eating dirt almost every time he plays in the yard. Is it time to ask the doctor to check for a mineral deficiency? ;)

In the meantime, this picture gives me a glimpse into the future - Joel with a mustache and goatee. (However, I doubt his real facial hair will be as dark as this mud is.)

Evan's graduated!

Last night was Evan's pre-school graduation program. They sang several songs and Evan really got into some of them! Here he is singing away in the back row.


He also got a diploma! Here he is with his teachers, after the program.


Now that he has graduated from pre-school, he has homework. This morning he was doing some art homework. Life sure is progressing fast!

Before the program we had the kids out in the hallway to take pictures. For some reason the girls in Evan's class (all four of them) decided to give him a group hug. As you can tell, it's been rough for him to be the only boy in his class. ;)


I took a few more pictures of the hug, and after I was done the girls were still "attacking" him. He said, "She's done taking pictures now!" One day in the not-too-distant future he will welcome this type of attention more. We should definitely be praying about this now!

Fun while shopping

Yesterday we met our friend, Aunt Jenn, at an outdoor mall, supposedly just to see each other. However, I found some good deals that I just couldn't pass up. So, for me it was fun together and some good shopping! The boys didn't enjoy the shopping so much, but they did have fun playing outside and seeing Aunt Jenn. The carousel was one of the fun things they did (along with running, jumping, skipping, dino-walking, etc.). Joel watched Evan on the carousel for a while before deciding to join. After he did get on, he had a great time! Well, he got off before the ride officially ended, but while he was on he enjoyed it.

The boys have also been having a lot of fun building with Legos lately. This is a cow that Joel built all by himself, complete with a rider. (He has ridden a horse recently, and now he is asking to ride a cow. One of the lego guys got to live the dream!) He also made a couple of horses the other day which looked a lot like the cow except that they had tails (a longer lego piece sort of hanging off of the back of the horse). It looks like we might have 2 future engineers in the house.

My own sort of Mother's Day

Since I was sick on the official Mother's Day, I didn't get to wear my new outfit to church or take pictures with the boys. I decided that we would do that this past Sunday, just because I wanted to. Unfortunately, the boys didn't want to. So, Steve had to bribe them with jellybeans. And not just one jellybean, but two. Joel finally agreed as long as they were purple. Getting them to kiss me at the same time was a whole other ball of wax!

It's summer already?!?

It must be since today was the opening day at The Wet Zone, our local waterpark. Evan has been counting down the days, and today the big day finally arrived! Now don't think that I am complaining, but we have had a pretty mild May so far which made for some fairly cold pool water. The boys still had a good time, and here are some pictures documenting part of their adventure today.

Evan is dancing in anticipation - or jumping to get in.

Evan jumping in!

Evan did a great job swimming with his lifejacket on!

But then he got tired and cold and wanted to lie down to rest and warm up.

Getting ready to go in.

It took a while, but Joel finally got in and swam!

Practicing swimming on his back.

But the most fun is jumping in!

What are little boys made of?

Snips, and snails, and puppy dogs ... and a little sugar at our house.

Last night Evan was begging for some more cake - the cake that he was going to let me have the rest of the night before. I had already enjoyed a little earlier in the day, so Steve split what was left between the two boys. Joel was about to eat his when he suddenly realized that I didn't have any and there wasn't any more on the cake plate. He looked at me and said, "Mommy, do you want some of my cake?" I thanked him and told him no, so then he offered some to Steve, who also didn't have any. Steve also thanked him told him no. I am not sure how much we would have gotten if we'd said yes, but the fact that he thought to offer was so sweet!

I love my sweet little boys!

The Logic of Evan

Last night we were eating some more of the Mother's Day cake and after some of us had seconds, there was just a little leftover. Evan stated that since they made it for me, we should let me have the rest of it. (This was quite a change from the first night when before they even gave it to me they were asking eat some.) Steve so lovingly pointed out that if I ate the rest of it, it might make me into 2 mommies. (That would be a lot of weight gain!) I told Evan that he might not want to have 2 mommies in the house. He calmly replied, "We will have 2 mommies in the house." After I questioned him, he explained that it would be when Grandma comes for his birthday, since she is his dad's mommy and I am his (Evan's) mommy. I laughed and said that was he was very funny. He seemed puzzled since he was just pointing out the truth.

Happy Mother's Day!

It's a day late, but the wishes are sincere! My Mother's Day did not go exactly as planned, but it was still nice. The night before I started running a fever. That and a sore throat continued into the next day. I had hoped to go to the zoo or arboretum with the boys, but that didn't pan out. The boys were loving though, and they did make me a cake. Joel told me about it too. They had to stir it really, really, really, really fast and he ate it and brother told him no.


They also put sprinkles on it after Dad frosted it. I think they had the most fun eating it after dinner. Dad tried to get Joel to lie down on the floor to pose for the picture with the cake, but he didn't seem to "get" it, or he just didn't want to do it.


It seems that I am on the mend now. Since last weekend we have all had this bug, so hopefully this ends it and we won't go through another round. We hope that your weekends were more healthy than ours and that your week continues in that vein!

All dressed up

But where to go?

My sis-in-law and niece helped Joel with this ensemble, while they were visiting. I am not sure what was his idea and what was their influence. The blanket and blankie were probably his idea. The sunglasses and the clothespin on the paci - hmmm? Either way, the end result was quite fetching, don't you think?

Fun with Family!

We don't have family that lives nearby, so when we get to visit with family it is always a special time. This past week we had some family visit us for a few days, including some of the boys' cousins.

They had a great time playing together! Evan loves being the "big" cousin (with the other cousins he is the "little" one). He is very gentle with the little ones, and does his best to make them laugh. (I know he may not look gentle in this picture, but Olivia is actually pulling him.) They both like playing with him, too, especially Olivia. If he left the room while they were playing she would walk around saying, "Where is he?" until she found him.

Joel loved having the little ones around, too, for the most part. He is the baby of our family, so it did pose some territorial issues. He was very gentle with Levi, surprisingly so. There were times that he forgot that he was a lot bigger than Levi and tried to sit on Levi's back or something, but other than that, he was great! He even shared his treasured blankie with Levi, without any prompting. Most of the clashes came with Olivia, probably because they are less than a year apart. They butted heads a few times, but they played together well most of the time.