Nature Trail

Miles' school has a very cool nature trail behind it. The kids take a few excursions on it each year - one to check out different leaves & trees and two others to learn/read a book about different habitats. The kids loves it and its one of my favorite volunteering gigs.



On the first Thursday of Spring Break, I took Miles and his friend Evan out to the nature trail for a playdate (Noah was at a friend's house and Griffin was home hanging out with Mike). They LOVED being out there to run around, climb across the stream on rocks, and just be silly outside of the confines of their classes.




While Miles was crossing the stream, his feet slipped off of a rock and into the water. He paused and then yelled, "Oh, yeah!" Then, he proceeded to stomp through the river (very rough video here - somehow I was taking it in RAW, couldn't focus it, etc...). On the surface, its a pretty boring video, but for me, its amazing. Miles spent y-e-a-r-s hating to get wet (outside of a following-the-rules wet situation...bath, pool, ocean, etc..). When he was younger, if he spilled a d-r-o-p of water on his shirt (or shorts, socks, etc.), he would take them off immediately. If he was outside playing and it started to rain, he would panic (I can still hear him in my head yelling, "Ahhhh!! I'm wet!!") I thought he'd hold to this aversion forever; but apparently he's been dropping it slowly over the past couple of years. Seeing him in the stream hit me: our first born isn't quite so little anymore...he is growing up and coming into his own...love it!

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As we left, Evan said "Ms Brooke, that was SO FUN! Can we come back tomorrow?!" Counting down until summer, my friend. Counting down until summer. :)

Legos

Our boys have loved legos for years -- loved hunkering down with zillions of pieces and creating cool ships/mobiles/buildings. Up until now, whenever the boys have been given a lego kit, Mike/me/my dad have been in charge of 'the build'....until now. Miles was given several lego kits for his birthday. With each kit, he tore open the bag of legos, cracked open the instruction manual, and got to work. The number of pieces ranged from 180 to almost 350. He did them all himself.


The kits took him a couple of hours to complete, so eventually, Noah and Griffin would join him for awhile. I love how they always gravitate toward each other.



When the boys weren't building kits, they would play with the new vehicles or just build for fun (poor Noah got really sunburned the first Monday of Spring Break, so he ran around in his pants without a shirt the next day because his shoulders hurt so much -- woops!!).



Noah and Griffin like to build -- but they really LOVE the guys. They go nutso over the guys. The other day I heard their guys talking to each other. Noah's guy said,"I'm going to Boston." Griffin's guy said, "me too! I love to go to Boston!" (Mike takes frequent business trips to Boston). So cute.



As a treat, I took the boys to the Lego store at Concord Mills. They were giddy! Miles selected a $99 HUGE star wars kit. We left without it, and with him swearing to save all of his money until he could buy it. :) He selected this one instead.

Griffin loved the store too. The entire trip wore him out and he took his only nap all week.



Ah, Spring Break.....!

Happy Birthday, Mom/Gram!

Happy birthday, Mom! Thank you for being so generous with your love, your time, and your heart. You are so very special to us and we LOVE you. xoxo

Griffin made this masterpiece for you. He flashed me a huge smile when he was done and said, "this is for GRAM!"



Noah worked really hard on his picture. The first phase was a picture of you and the heart. He said, "here it is, mom. I love Gram." Then, he started to draw himself right next to you, but he didn't like how the size of his head turned out (so he turned it into a balloon). When he was done, he said, "woops! gram is bigger than pop!" :)


Miles' picture cracks me up. I love that he made it a "funny card" (it has pop saying, "gram, you are stepping on my foot." and gram saying, "oh, sorry don.") He thought it was hilarious that he used dad's first name verses "pop". I love the way he drew all of you connected up to one heart. And it makes me giggle that he drew you in New Balance sneakers (notice the classic "N" on them) and dad with some sort of space ship on his shirt. Every time I walked by this card yesterday, I laughed out loud. :)

We LOVE you!!! Happy Birthday!!

Spring Break - Day 2

Day 2 of 'no school' was another hot one. It was in the 90's and was seriously raining clouds of pollen. Everything in this town has a constant layer of yellow film. Can't even imagine what our lungs look like.

We took our 3rd trip in 4 days back to the boys' favorite park. Miles got a 2-wheel scooter for his birthday and has been LOVING it. He's a master with the brake and loves this particular park because there are long sidewalks, basketball and tennis courts, and slight hills for him to race around. (Its the same park where Noah took a spill last summer on his bike. Miles now loves that same hill for his scooter.)

Heydon, Ryan, and Carolyn joined us at the park. The boys were in a particularly silly mood. They kept lifting up their shirts to show their belly buttons and then yelling out, "look at my secret freckle." Who knows where they get their material from - and who knows why its funny. But, in case you're confused, let me assume you that they found it to be v.e.r.y funny. :)


After the park we needed to c.o.o.l off, so we checked out the library. I haven't taken the kids in years - our last trip was a loud fiasco (something about the quiet spaces made the boys want to laugh loudly and wrestle). But, this time they did great and we left with dozens of books. We read so many before bed, that Griffin literally fell asleep sitting up. Love that. :)


The boys did great on "day 3 of no media" - lots of playing and they really didn't miss it. BUT, for the record, around 4:30pm Miles was really tired and just wanted to relax. He looked up at me with a sad face and in a very quiet voice he said, "this vacation isn't any fun. I really want to watch just one show." His sweet face really made me feel sad for him (momentarily). We settled in to listen to a book on cd, and it was all soon forgotten. As a treat, we're heading to the movies tomorrow to see the new chipmunk movie at the dollar theatre. I feel like its cheating a little on my 'no tv week', but since its an adventure at the same time (and we rarely go to the movies), we're going for it.

Ah....Spring Break

Today was just as it should have been. The boys were up at 7am, doing puzzles not asking for tv. :) We were outside by 9am blowing bubbles, riding bikes/scooters, building makeshift tents, and playing all sorts of imaginative play. We broke for lunch, then welcomed our friend/neighbor Will over for HOURS of water play in the backyard. We played with our jumpy slide, the water table, a little pool, the sprinkler, the hose. The only thing missing was the sunscreen (oops!).


Already excited for tomorrow, though I hear its supposed to be 90 degrees. Yikes. Thank goodness the water restrictions have lifted. :)

Happy Easter!

We sang one of my very favorite hymns, Jesus Paid It All, in church today. I cried tears of joy and thankfulness through every word. What a gift that God sent his son, Jesus, to die on the cross so that we might live. How a.m.a.z.i.n.g that on Easter morning He was raised from the dead -- and that we need only to believe in Him to receive God's GRACE? He is ALIVE. He ALIVE indeed.

I hear the Savior say,
"Thy strength indeed is small;
Child of weakness, watch and pray,
Find in Me thine all in all."

Jesus paid it all,
All to Him I owe;
Sin had left a crimson stain,
He washed it white as snow.

.....

I love these cuties and I pray that they grow to love the Lord as much as their father and I do.




We spent the afternoon at McDowell Nature Center. It was our first official hike as a family where everyone walked (Griffin was carried for about 10 seconds total). We heard a few "comments" in the beginning, things like, "I'm tired. I'm hungry. I want to watch a movie. I want to play wii. etc..." I figured since the kids were so burdened by all of the choices of activities for the day, that I'd give them a hand: no tv/wii/ds during the rest of spring break. I'm calling it Vacation Unplugged. The boys really appreciated me taking the pressure off of them. :) The complaints slowed down after that and we had a good time finding lizards, listening to the different animal sounds, throwing rocks in the water, watching fisherman hook worms, etc.. Ice cream on the way home was the perfect topper.



Happy Easter!

Saturday

Today's winning kick-ball team:


Ain't dinner always better when shared with best friends?

Hello Spring Break. We LOVE You!

As of 2pm on Thursday, our family kicked it into high gear for Spring Break. Our big plans include sleeping in (7:05am?), hitting all of the local parks and hanging out with our buddies. Ahh....sounds perfect....

We spent the first night of our vacation having pizza in the hood with some of our favorite neighbors. The boys loved the food, their friends, and of course, the Marlers kickin' tree swing. Love that thing (especially when Mike is doling out the underdog pushes).

Miles' Party!

It was a g-r-e-y day, with rain continually imminent, but Miles didn't care...neither did the 19 other kids who joined him to celebrate.



Highlights:

Miles invited all of the boys in his school class and all but one was able to come. They were all so excited to hang out outside of school. It was really cute.  Ella & Jack, Heydon and Ryan, and Evan and Sydney also joined us.

We had an entire "indoor party" (ugh) planned in case it rained -- but we lucked out and held the party in our front yard/driveway/garage. The party was kicked off with a little dancing while the jumpy was being set up. As soon as it was ready, everyone piled in. Basketball and nerf guns (targets = different characters on a Mario poster) were also big hits.  We made everyone special hats as a part of the kids' favors.  The boys got Mario hats, the girls got hearts with wings. Loved seeing the sea of red hats at the party.

The chocolate Mario cake was y.u.m.  We couldn't find a Mario character cake, so we ordered a bunch of little plastic Mario Brothers characters from amazon and stuck them a nascar background cake.  Worked great (too bad I forgot to photo it).
By age 7 (at least) the kids really want to open gifts at a party.  I was surprised how many kids gathered around and watched Miles.  I was so proud of how Miles thanked everyone for his gift immediately -- and how if he reached for a gift that was from someone not near him, he would find that person and let them know he was about to open their gift.  It was so sweet (and confirmation that if you tell your kids something over-&-over-&-over-&-over-&-over again that it will eventually sink in).

Noah picked out a skateboard for Miles and Griffin was so excited about some Mario trading cards he found at Target.  Miles loved them both.

Mike surprised everyone by coming out in his gorilla/Donkey Kong costume.  It was a huge hit - Miles was so excited about it.


We're thoroughly enjoying our last 5 months with Dana & Brad before they move to China.  So glad they could join us for the party (and much of the weekend).  Brad even made his own Mario hat for the event.

Mike was away for a long weekend (a much earned getaway!) and was able to return in time to celebrate with Miles.  For that reason, I couldn't have pulled this party off without my parents!  My dad made awesome Mario posters,  picked up the cake, blew up a ton a balloons, and took a bunch of pictures (many in this email).  My mom decorated posters, helped me set-up/clean-up, and helped with the boys.  They are such AMAZING parents and grandparents.  We love you!!