Thankful for Mrs. Rose

I have a lot of respect for someone who can spend all day everyday with 15-18 3 and 4 year olds.  I really appreciated it after I made a visit to Brody's class for his Easter party.  They had their party about a week before Easter and he was pretty excited.  I'm so thankful for a job that allows me to rearrange my schedule to allow me to go to his party.













We had a busy day ahead of us - run to Chick Fil La to pick up nuggets for his party first thing in the morning.  As soon as we walked in some little girl yelled out Brody's name - I guess she was pretty excited he was there.  He joined right in on the song they were singing for all of the parents.

They made a little edible craft - bird nest with eggs.  It was pretty cute but Brody really just wanted to eat the eggs so of course I ate the nest aka rice krispie treat.  Brody's not a big fan of them.

The kids were so excited for the Easter Egg Hunt so off they went "ran" to find only 10 eggs.  You know we had to make it fair for them.

Holding them all back.

And they're off....

His good friend Dominic

When they finished with that they came back in the room for their jelly bean hunt.  There were jelly beans ALL OVER the room - on shelves, toys, tables, chairs.  Mrs. Rose gave each of them a little bag with the jelly bean prayer on it to put all of their jelly beans in it.  The kids had a blast.  I love how Mrs. Rose makes sure to focus on the real reason we celebrate Easter - it makes a mom happy.

Resurrection Eggs reenactment

With Brody getting older, we were hoping he would understand more about the real reason we celebrate Easter.  Thankfully he goes to a Christian school that teaches the Bible so he hears it there as well.  Last year we started the Resurrection Eggs so he was pretty excited to get those out again this year.  We start ours 12 days from Easter and open one a day.  He gets really excited and of course wants to open more but we have to keep some suspense.  I really enjoy hearing him try to retell the story in his own words.  I feel that he is really understanding it. 

Don't you just love this look?  It's probably because we made him sit like he does at school for storytime.

On Easter he actually started acting the story out.  He was Jesus and he would lay on the cross and then he would get off the cross and get in the tomb (which was in between Jason's legs).  We would count to 3 for the 3 days I guess and he would come out of the tomb and go hide.  I was Mary and Jason was John and/or Peter.  "Jesus" would come to "Mary" and I would say "Teacher" and he would show me his hands where the nails were.  Jason would have to look in the tomb and say "Jesus isn't there".  It was one of the sweetest things.

It's beginning to look like summer around here

With all of this warm weather around here, we have been spending a lot of time outdoors and of course that means 2 dirty boys and trying to do ANYTHING to cool off.

 I turned my back for a minute and I found Trevor like this.

 The cup to pour the water all over the front of his shirt.  This is our potty training attire but after the water dumped all on the front I couldn't tell if had peed or not.  I'm really not sure why he is liking these Mardi Gras beads lately, but you usually find him with them on sometime during the day.


They both love snowcones so our personal snowcone maker comes in pretty handy.  Trevor isn't quite big enough to hold his own cup so Brody and I share - such a sweet brother.

 I love Trevor with his mouth open - like "where is my bite"

Not sure what is going on with this headband - he actually put it on himself.  I guess it was his way of telling me it was time for a little haircut.

Being boys outside.

 Brody has his cape on pretending to be Superman and of course Trevor is chasing him.

 Trevor about to do a body slam on Brody.

My 2 sweet and DIRTY boys - bathtime......

Sweet 16 - Hard to believe

A couple of weeks ago we attended the 16th birthday party for our flower girl and ring bearer - Sara Lynn and Tyler Ard.  Yeah, we were feeling a little old with them turning 16.  They had a pretty big party with lots of food, some dancing, games and tons of room for the boys to run around.  

With the party outside I knew the boys would probably be getting pretty dirty and oh were they dirty but they had a blast.  

 The twins with their cakes.

 What a surprise - their car.  They had no idea so it was fun to see their faces when their Dad drove up in it.

 All of their friends.

 Showing off their Michael Jackson moves.

Trevor enjoyed joining in on the dancing.

Showing off his Twist & Shout moves.

 Brody tried to join in but he would rather be running around and on the playground.

 Checking out the videos.

 Brody with the girls.

Even though he was SOOO dirty.

Loving all the blooming

Yeah, I know people have allergies and may not like this time of year so much but thankfully it doesn't bother me and I can really enjoy everything in full bloom.  A couple of weeks ago, the boys were outside playing I of course had to have my camera to document our time.

Trevor loves saying flower but of course he likes to pull the petals off.  Brody is full of expression when he says "Look at the beautiful flowers - they're so pretty".  I think he's heard me say that a few times.  Here are a few pictures from our afternoon outside.

 Playing peek a boo behind the bricks.

Our beautiful rose bushes in the backyard.

Creative juices trying to flow...

I don't really mind cooking but it is such a pain to try and plan what we are going to have and then come home and cook with 2 little boys thriving for my attention.  And then we really want to enjoy the weather outside in the evening so it has been a struggle lately.  

I have been trying to plan the meals out a week in advance to try and help things go smoother.  Jason always laughs at me because we really don't have the same things twice in our house because I LOVE to try new recipes - I got that one from my mom.  I have tons of cookbooks with dog eared pages showing recipes I'll one day get around to trying and then I have just as many printed out recipes with the same idea.  

One day during my blog reading, I found something that I just knew was going to help me out with this menu planning issue - a menu planning chalkboard.  I already had a chalkboard hanging in our kitchen that I had NEVER used, so I got crafty one day and created this:

It only took about 30 minutes to cut the little circles and then I sprayed them with adhesive spray and put them on the chalkboard - Complete!!  I felt pretty crafty - yeah I know nothing fancy but it was a start for all the stuff about to happen in our house - more on that later.  

Yeah, I know don't you like the first menu planning - McDonalds was in our plan.  Brody LOVED it and of course was looking forward to Thursday all week so we could go to McDonalds after his game.  He also learned his days of the week from this board and really enjoys seeing what we are going to eat for the week - especially if it says McDonalds.

Disney on Ice

A couple of weeks ago we took Brody to see Disney on Ice - 'Let's Celebrate'.  He was pretty excited ever since we received the flyer in the mail.  We decided to not take Trevor because we weren't sure how long he could stay still.  He would have been excited to see Mickey for the first 5 minutes and then I'm sure Jason or I would have been walking him up and down the hall outside.

John, Tracy & Baylie actually got seats right next to us so of course Baylie and Brody were pretty excited to be together.  At one time during the show,  each of the princesses came out with their prince and Baylie would lean over and ask Brody if he had that movie.  Well, when Tiana came out I thought Baylie was going to jump out of her seat.  She asked Brody if he liked Tiana and he said "No, I like Buzz &; Woody"  Classic statement from a boy.

Captain Hook - one of Brody's favorite characters lately thanks to Jake and the Neverland Pirates show.

 All of the princesses with their prince.

I tried to get him to wear his Mickey shirt but he told me he had to wear his Buzz shirt because he was going to see Buzz

It got towards the end of the show and Buzz and Woody still had not made their appearance and Jason and I were getting a little worried that they might not be there - oh the disappointment from a 4 year old if this happened.  Thankfully within the last 5 minutes, the Toy Story cast appeared and he was so excited.  His face says it all.
  
 Right when Buzz came out.

 It was a great night and I think Brody had a wonderful time - maybe next year Trevor will make it....