Isaiah the Caterpillar and "Baby Jack"

We met Griffin's favorite neighborhood friend, "baby Jack", at the park this week. Jack is a year younger than Griffin (hence the "baby Jack" name that has now stuck for over a year) but he is the same size as Griffin. Allison and I love hanging out, so we're both pretty excited that are boys are such buds.

Is there anything sweeter than your child picking a weed and saying, "here mommy, this is for you?"




Griffin's sweet friend Jack, contemplating the fun to be had in far-off pastures. :)


I always feel a little guilty when something like this happens and I end up snapping it. As if I should have been helping a falling child instead of documenting it? :) Fortunately, he was fine.


The boys were precious climbing on the fence. Thank goodness, no splinters.




The boys found a caterpillar. I suggested that they name it "Katie the Caterpillar". Griffin thought for a minute and then said, "no, Isaiah!" (Isaiah is the name of one of his favorite school friends). The boys had fun playing with Isaiah until Jack accidentally and unknowingly stepped on him. Poor guy didn't see it coming. Griffin and Jack were on to the next thing, completely oblivious. Already wondering if Griffin thinks that the next caterpillar he finds is Isaiah. :)

Sleep Over

The boys had their first friend sleep-over on Friday night. I love sleepovers and was so excited!! Yes, the kids were excited too. :) Plenty of outside playtime, a pizza party, movie night and a zillion bedtime stories. I love every single one of these kiddos.

Austin is all-boy and he fits right in around here.





Kathryn is one of my favorites. She kept me entertained with jumps, cartwheels, and stories. She's always got a story to tell.


Miles and Kathryn snuggled up during movie and story time. They were all about being right-next-to-each-other.


Noah and Austin shared the couch. Gotta love movie night with a brothers AND friends.


A great night....can't wait for next time!

Tree Fort

One night while we were playing outside, Miles said, "Mom, our playset is MUCH too small for me.  We need a bigger one."I told him that all of the playsets I've seen are about the same size with just more/less accessories. He responded by saying, "well, I'll draw a new one!" He ran inside/came back out some paper, crayons and a pen. He preceded to draw the view from the outside as well as plans for the inside. As he was drawing, he said, "mom, when I'm done with this, we can give it to a builder to make. Then, the builder can give it to the painter to paint. Its going to be AWESOME!"

As you can see, his plans include several slides, a chimney, 3 levels, several staircases (including at least one that can roll up), a rock wall, parachutes (including latches coming down from the ceiling where the parachutes will be stored), swings, monkey bars and a tent. He also included drawers for clothing, art supplies, etc..

When I told him that it would probably be really expensive to make, he said, "don't worry mom!  I'll chip in!"  :)  He also suggested that if Mike, he and I all chipped in that we could cover most of it and then just get "a little bit from the bank."  :)  He was so excited he asked if we could Skype with Mike (he was in Canada for work) immediately so that we could start reviewing the game plan. 

I was feeling badly for Miles that as soon as Mike came home that Miles was going to learn that we definitely couldn't build his tree mansion (I found myself wishing that I was Gwen Stefani or Tori Spelling -- surely these girls would hand these "plans" over to an architect and make their son's dream into a reality, right?). But - Mike surprised me. He has such fond childhood memories building a huge race track and tree grandstand/viewing platform with all of his neighborhood buddies in the woods. He and Miles are trying to figure how they can build something cool together (I suggested maybe a Brady Bunch style clubhouse on the ground?). The two of them even went to Home Depot together to check out supplies while I took Noah and Griffin to see the play Goodnight Moon on Sunday. Who knows what or when this structure while emerge, but at this point, its all definitely a possibility.

(PS Dad, Miles remembers me talking about the tree fort you build for me and Dana in Connecticut and he's already said, "Pop will DEFINITELY need to help." I say 'come one, come all' to any grandfather or uncle that is interested in helping. :)

Just Because...

...he is so cute and snuggly. Oh how I love this boy. Will be writing my Noah post soon...

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!

Make video montages at www.OneTrueMedia.com

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?