Wedding Bliss

This past Saturday we hosted my sister's wedding in our yard.  After months of preparation we spent the final week in a frenzy, cleaning up and decorating for the big event.  The end results were incredible.  Not only were Julie and Aaron pleased with how everything turned out but I believe it was the most fun I have ever had at a wedding! (It was also the most work I have ever done for a wedding too...)

Julie wanted a small, meadow wedding and we all imagined it as a scene out of Tuscany with outdoor dining at long tables filled with platters of fresh food!  I appreciated how much Julie let me take part in the planning and if I were to be having my wedding now I would do the same style.

The boys (especially Zach) were so excited about the whole event.  They soaked up each aspect from the day: seeing Julie for the first time as a bride, the ceremony and cutting the cake.  Plus it didn't hurt that after the sun went down there were glow sticks and sparklers!

There are so many pictures that I love from the day and the events leading up to it, that I am going to post quite a few, enjoy!!

Sidelined

This handsome soccer and baseball player has been on the DL for the past few weeks while he recovered from some minor surgery.  It is so rare to get a nice, cooperative picture of him that I'm almost glad he couldn't play since it enabled me to grab this!!

His greatness

'Marconius Magnus'

This is a job for...

I wasn't planning on posting this story because I don't think it will make the transition from verbal format to blog, but after retelling it so many times I feel like it needs to be recorded for my memory.  If this flops just know that it is MUCH funnier in person! 

The boys have recently started pretending to be superheroes.  It's interesting to watch boy play develop because they started being superheroes before they had ever heard or seen pictures of the characters so prevalent in our culture right now.  They still don't really know Superman or Spiderman or the like, but every once in a while they will switch from dinosaur play to don the identity of 'Fireboy' or 'Strongman'.

The other day, while they were playing superheroes I had this conversation with Eli:

M: What's your superhero name?

E:  SUPERBANE!

M: Oh!  What is your super power, Superbane?

E:  (with very serious and intense expression and gestures) I lift up chairs.... and look for lizards!!



You never know when that skill might come in handy!

A cold opening day

I suppose it's another sign of spring that Little League has started.  It sure hasn't felt much like spring, especially for opening day which I had to navigate without Steve due to a work event.  Somehow the boys and I made it on time for the start of the parade and we survived the cold by collecting plenty of candy!

I obviously wasn't the only one worn out from the day's festivities, because during Zach's game I looked down at the stroller and found Eli fast asleep! 

Responsibility

Eli came in from playing outside one night last week.  As I was helping take his jacket and shoes off, I said,
"You went all day without any accidents, didn't you?"
He replied, "Um, no."
Me: "What do you mean?  Did you just have one outside?"
E: "Yes, I did.  Sorry mom.  My fault."

"Lokey Foam"

Steve and the boys often play sports together and in typical boy fashion, they like to pretend to be professional/college teams and players.  Steve also likes to do play-by-play announcing with occasional color commentary.  Yesterday, the Bulls and Spurs played the NBA Finals in our driveway (of all places)!  At one point during the game, Eli announced that the Bulls were bringing in their best player, "Lokey Foam", and he proceeded to bound onto the court.  Over the next few plays, Lokey Foam bounced the ball off his foot and lost several other balls out of bounds (an uncharacteristic performance from such a star player).  A few minutes later, Steve hoisted Eli high into the air so he could take a shot at the basket, which he actually made.  After being placed on the ground, Eli proudly announced:  "And THAT'S WHY they call him Lokey Foam!"

Autographs anyone?

Since last we blogged....

The boys and I went with my mother and our dogs to Asheville, NC for a visit with my aunt and uncle.  (Some day, after I have finished recovering, I will tell you about what it's like to travel 11 hours in a car with 3 kids and 2 puppies.....but not today.)  

While we were there, my cousin, Marcus, took us rock climbing and my uncle took my mother and I to shoot!  It was the first time I have done either activity and will not brag about how well I did...  

ok.... 

maybe I will...  

I did the climb without falling (even though I think my cousin chose a rather difficult first climb)!  

And I did hit the center of a 4 inch bullseye from 30 feet with a 9mm glock!!  (I have the bullseye and pictures on my phone to prove it, but really I wouldn't question my word since I AM so accurate with a gun.)

Oh, yeah and...

the boys did really well at rock climbing too...

I had Eli on "belay" in order to climb the trail!

What happened to my baby?

Marcus took his first steps on March 16th at 9 1/2 months old!  Since then he has moved quickly to multiple steps and is now very stable.  He likes to walk around following the dog or his older brothers.

Beatles and Spaghetti

For once, I cannot be blamed for this questionable influence...

The initial performance was spontaneous during dinner tonight but we did ask for an encore of the same song to be recorded for all time. 

Squeaky clean

Forgive me.  This is gross.  You don't have to read any further....

Marcus is very mobile.  I have to keep the half bath door closed when he is 'loose' in the house because he loves to stand up at the toilet.  Today, I heard him crawling in that direction but it didn't really register right away.  A few seconds later I realized where he was headed and thought I should check to make sure the door was closed.

Jumping up and running in there, I discovered that it wasn't... and that he was already standing up with his hands on the toilet seat.  AND, if that wasn't bad enough! he had a wet wad of toilet paper in his hands (yes, that's right!...  The last 'person' hadn't flushed-thankfully it was urine only, but still... eww!)  At this point, since everything immediately goes in his mouth, I can only assume that the urine soaked wad has already been there -- double eww.

So, I pick him up scraping his hand free of toilet paper.  Then I bring him to the sink, turn the water on and squirt soap onto his hand.  During the one second that I let go of his hands to check the water temp, he puts his soapy hand in his mouth, thus solving the dilemma of how to clean out his mouth.  It wouldn't have been the method I'd have chosen, but as I rinsed the bubbles out of his mouth, I figured it was probably pretty effective!

Basketball Art

Today, Zach presented Steve with this:

(It's crumpled because Marcus got a hold of it.)

Confession

I am not smart enough to be homeschooling my children.  It's true.  I'm not looking for affirmation, compliments or advice.  I've accepted it, for the most part.

Today I had to call Steve and ask him how I was suppose to teach Zach to solve a math problem (he's only in kindergarten; we're not even to the hard stuff yet).  I was, and still am, stumped.

Zach has been doing really well with addition and subtraction.  He has been solving problems by getting a number to 10; for instance 6+7 becomes (6+4)+3.  He is understanding the concepts and moving quickly through the book.  We have slowly gotten to more difficult problems and today we were presented with this:  

It looks like the book wants him to start with 10, take away 6 and then add it to the remainder (in this case, 1) to get 5; it would look like 10-6+1=5.  So that's how I was teaching him, but of course he is getting confused by the fact that we are doing subtraction and then addition to get the answer.  By the time we get to this problem I start to doubt myself and call Steve:

We proceed to have a discussion about which makes more sense: to do 10-9+8 or 18-8-1.  And then I think, "THIS IS KINDERGARTEN MATH!!!!  I SHOULDN'T ALREADY BE HAVING THIS TROUBLE!"  I arrive at the brilliant conclusion that we will skip math today and I will write a blog about it instead.

Future head banger

Over the weekend Marcus started 'dancing' to music.  I think he gets his coordinated moves from Steve.

Not the hairy one

At dinner tonight we were talking about babies and I told Eli that I had 3 babies.  I pointed to Marcus and said that he was my baby, then Eli and then Zach.

Me: "See, I have 3 babies!"

Zach: "No, mom. You have 4 babies."

Me:  "I didn't give birth to that hairy one!" (referring to Tek)

Zach: "Not the hairy one, I mean the bald one!"