sneaking a read

After putting Elliott to bed I started downstairs and heard his voice coming from his room and this is what I saw. He bought this Star Wars book from the Book Fair at school on Tuesday and has been diligently making every effort to read it on his own as much as he can. I had read a couple of chapters to him tonight and he just wanted to keep going. I love that he's making that connection that learning to read is opening so many more opportunities for him already. Keep reading, buddy!

last day of preschool (till August)

Today was Ethan's closing program at his preschool - they sang a few songs that they had learned at Bible (also the same ones from First Look!), showed off their skills at counting to 30 and also counting in Spanish. Ethan was in true Ethan form and started acting silly as soon as he got on stage - he always acts silly when he gets embarrassed or is in a new or uncomfortable situation (that should prove to be interesting over the next few years).

Singing "Gulp" and really getting into it!

Waving to Dad and missing a "high-five" from Ms. Trudi

With one of his friends, Matthew

With Ms. Wendy - one of the most wonderful, creative and energetic teachers and friends I know

Ms. Christy, mom to the boys' fun friend, Zach, helper to Ms. Wendy, and good friend of mine

Ethan got to choose a special treat today, so we ended up at Fritz's - I resisted the call of that yummy frozen custard and only had a small bite of Elliott's

Elliott thought he should show off some funky tricks while we were there (even after I told him about busting my knee open on one of those concrete parking blocks when I was on vacation with my family and missed out on a fun day at the waterslide - not sure the lesson sunk in but he was interested in the blood of course!)

Mother's Day

This was waiting on the table for me when I got home from church Sunday! What a fun Mother's Day gift! Thanks baby!

Brian had to work, so it was me and the boys at church all morning - they had been there for over 3 hours and when we have to have them there that long they're usually extremely tired by lunch and starting to get crabby. That was the case this Sunday, so after our friends Kendall and Lisa and their family asked if the boys and I wanted to go eat lunch with them, I had initially said yes but then had to tell Kelsey that we needed to go home for some rest - just didn't feel like dealing with them by myself in a restaurant while they were that crabby. Plus I didn't want to ruin Lisa's Mother's Day.

So Ethan cried all the way home - they love hanging out with the Bopps. I changed into my sweats and started making sandwiches when there was a knock on the door. There was Lisa at the door - they had driven all the way over to our house to ask us again to come out to eat with them. I wanted to cry for how kind and thoughtful they were! She is always so thoughtful to invite us and include us on holidays and other everyday things. She knows what it's like to not have any family close and I feel that they have almost adopted us and I'm so thankful for their true friendship and thoughtfulness. I so enjoy hanging out with them - our family has been so blessed by their family.

So thank you Lisa (and the rest of the Bopps!) for making part of my Mother's Day very special.

Happy Birthday Will!

How cute is he? We celebrated Will's 3rd birthday with him at the lake park last week - complete with dinosaurs, a pinata, snacks, cake and ice cream!

Happy Birthday Ben!

Happy 6th birthday Ben! Woohoo!!! We had such a good time at your baseball party - next time I'll make sure Brian can come, too, to help you in the outfield, Barry! Love you guys!

unlimited hugs

Elliott was very excited to give me this book of coupons that he had made during corners at school. It's for Mother's Day and has coupons for washing the dishes, cleaning his room without being asked, etc. Before he gave them to me he said "hold on Mom, let me take one off". So he tore it off and gave me the rest. A few seconds later he said that he tore off the one that said "unlimited hugs" cause we "don't really need that one cause we kind of do that anyway." Love that!

a gratitude

On a whim, Nyla and Mel and I decided to lunch at our house today with some of the kids. We went to the park for a picnic and then the kids played on the playground for a while, had some special birthday cookies for Sarah and, of course, experienced one boo-boo. It was so much fun to have them over and just hang out with them. After they left I looked around the house and realized it was looking much worse than usual and was a bit embarrassed. But then I was reminded that "....if you can't have us over, who can you?" when your house isn't looking as perfect as you would like. (Thank you Nyla!)

So as Mother's Day comes closer, I am reminded of how incredibly blessed I am with wonderful fun mom friends that are often up for impromptu lunches and come and hang out with me even when my house is a mess and don't think anything about it :)