Dance Class

Abbie has been begging for dance class for months. She finally got to attend her first class -- on her birthday no less! She had a blast! As much fun as she had, I think Nana and I had just as much fun watching her. There's nothing like seeing a 4 year old radiate happiness. She'd like to go "every day!" but I think we'll be sticking to the weekly class for now.

Completed yard

The backyard project is wrapping up. Here are the post-project photos. We're still waiting on the edge tile and light for the Sport Court, and the concrete patio needs to be sealed -- nothing major. Well, we also need to do some planting. The dirt behind the Sport Court retaining walls is looking a bit barren. Any ideas?? We're not sure if it isn't better to wait until the Fall at this point.

Note that I posted out of order, and the blog post after this one is more recent. It includes the coffee table / fire pit set that we got.

Marshmallows - Not Just for Family Camp Anymore!

We bought a coffee table / fire pit set last night and the kids had fun roasting marshmallows tonight while we tried it out. While you're looking at the pictures, check to see if you can find what is "missing." (Clue: check back two posts... for the first "step") Oh, in the background of the picture with John and Abbie you can spy the water fountain that we recently installed. While it looks quite simple, it still managed to take this construction-challenged pair a good afternoon to get it up and running.

Happy Mother's Day

Happy Mother's Day! I hope you were able to celebrate your mom and/or be celebrated! C.J. gave me a precious written quilt with thank yous for things I do for him. It had everything from making him a baby blanket to holding his hand at the dentist. It was especially meaningful, because I know how he struggles to write these ideas! Getting him to write a teacher appreciation card was like pulling teeth, and he adores his teacher! So a quilt with NINE thank yous... wow! Brendan invited me to school for a morning and we had lots of mother/son time. He sang songs about mom, served me muffins and juice, made a bracelet, read books about mothers with me, and planted a flower in a hand painted flowerpot. I thought would be it, but he made me a card to open this morning as well! It continued the flower theme and said that his love for me grows and grows. Aww. Abbie is learning. She made a cute flower for me at school, but she still claims that it is "her" flower.

I was lucky enough to get to spend part of the day with my mom today!

What's Missing?

Brendan got hit by a ball this evening and finally lost the tooth that has been dangling by a thread. I was quite excited that I didn't have to look at the loose tooth anymore, but Brendan was rather concerned about the blood gushing from his mouth. I did assure him that blood loss goes hand in hand with tooth loss. Well, usually. Toothfairy, we have a pick-up request!!

Thanks Uncle Craig & Aunt Ginny!

C.J. had a great birthday, and he especially had fun playing with the gifts that arrived from Uncle Craig & Aunt Ginny.

Here he is at TGIF's eating the glow worms. C.J. was nice enough to share some with Brendan and Abbie!



Next up, he's learning to fly the helicopter. It doesn't *quite* fly like the one seen on tv, but it's been a lot of fun for all three of my boys to fly. I keep hearing whirring noises even after the younger boys have gone to bed. Hmmm.



Finally, C.J. practices his dunk shot with the new basketball.



C.J. also enjoyed Animal Crossing from Nana and Gramps but we don't have any action shots to share of that gift. In the second picture, you can see his new bike from Grandma and Grandpa. He's quite excited to have gears! Another added bonus is the jealous younger brother. Mom and Dad gave him Guitar Hero, but there was a delay with the purchase (okay, okay, Mom screwed up) and it isn't arriving until tomorrow.

And, just so that you don't think I'm teasing... here are a couple photos with more inclusive pictures of the pool and sport court progress to date.



I know, I know... they aren't the best pictures. I'll try to get some more photos later this week. The pool gets its caulking (although the pool company has a fancy name for it) so we are practically done. Yeah!

Progress: Sport Court

We are redoing a big chunk of the backyard. We flattened the back left of the property, put in a retaining wall, and installed a sport court. The court is basically done except for some edging pieces and the painting of the lines. We're missing a couple parts for one of the hoops and the net.



In addition, we are redoing the patio outside the house and around the pool. It gets poured on Monday. Whew! The pool is being resurfaced. So far, the tile has been replaced. After the patio is done, they'll come back to sandblast the old surface away and install Pebbletech, the new surface we chose.

The final piece of the project, a new driveway, is not pictured. It looks amazing -- except for the mailman's footsteps when he chose to walk across the wet concrete.

And to answer everyone's favorite question, "Why do you have a hole in your fence?" The workers opted to use the orchard in the back of our house for "breaks."

Easter

We headed to Tahoe for the official Easter Sunday. (We had a fantastic brunch and Easter egg with my parents on Easter Saturday.) Here's my attempt at a photo of the three kids in the morning. Can you tell which of three was interested in taking pictures and who woke up on the wrong side of the bed?



After mass in the morning (well, most of it... we had to leave after an hour and forty minutes when they still hadn't done communion), we headed to brunch at Edgewood. The kids fared better for pictures here:





John even got a rare shot of ME!

Opening Day

Yesterday was opening day of baseball.



Brendan is playing on a Farm team. This year, they are representing minor league teams, and he is playing for the Storm. We love the uniform, as it has two eyes on the hat. Brendan got a couple runs today and had a fun time playing.




C.J. is playing for the AA Angels team. He made it to 3rd base twice today, but his team wasn't able to bring him home. This year, he decided to bat right handed (he was previously left handed). He thought about switching back once today when he had a sore thumb, but stuck it out with the right hand.

Sheep!

The orchard behind our house is being mowed -- by a flock of sheep! The kids had a lot of fun hanging out yesterday watching the work in progress. Of course, they are now asking (begging?) for a pet sheep in addition to the ever popular puppy. As for Brendan's shirt -- I was not in charge of dressing the child!

Celebrating the Cat in the Hat

It's Dr. Seuss' birthday! Brendan celebrated in school yesterday and came home wearing this hat. His teacher said that she can read The Cat in the Hat with her eyes closed, and Brendan wondered how that could be done. Should I tell him that he'll figure it out when he has kids? I think I can still make it most of the way through Chicka Chicka Boom Boom with my eyes closed!

Guest Photographer: Brendan

Brendan decided Mom should have a spot on the blog. He took this picture with his own camera (a gift from Uncle Craig and Aunt Ginny). He was fascinated with the process of downloading to the computer, editing, uploading to a photo hosting site, and finally posting on the blog. I imagine it isn't the last picture of his that we'll see on this site.

Lest we not forget C.J., he came home singing the loveliest of songs today:

There once was a genie who had a 7 foot wienie
He showed it to the girl next door
Who thought it was a snake
So she whacked it with a rake
Now it's only 6 foot 4

I imagine I have a lot more of this humor to experience in the years to come. Nothing like something making you chuckle and groan at the same time. He's so excited about his song that he's sharing it with everyone -- I imagine we just corrupted the 7 year old across the street as he was quite taken with the song as well after hearing it from C.J.

Valentine's Day

I realized that since everyone has received their valentines from us, I could post the pictures. Here's what we made this year! C.J. made the rockets with the saying "You're a Blast!" written on them. Brendan made the dogs. The group (myself, C.J., Brendan, and Abbie) worked on the Love Bug notes. I cut carrots into the shape of hearts and we used them as stampers. It's not a technique that I'd recommend, but it was fun for the experience. You can see that some of us were a bit more proficient than others at getting the heart shape to paint.

And Ginny, we did make fingerprint hearts! Brendan and I used our fingerpaints and the stamper you gave Abbie to decorate his box that he had to take to school for Valentine's Day!

Abbie Messing around

It's been a tough few weeks with Abbie. She's been wheezing quite a bit. In order to get it under control, she was on multiple medications, and they all made her hyper. So, we had a hyped up girl who couldn't sleep -- not a good combination. She was finally pretty calm today (she's now off most of the meds) and we were having a bit of fun before bedtime. I had her try on a new spring outfit that I got from a friend, but she was having the most fun bouncing on the bed. Here she is during one of her "landings."

Abbie Photos

Since Abbie gets the shaft on professional pictures compared with her brothers (at the same ages), I decided to quickly take some shots in her Christmas dress. Here are the results! I think she's a keeper. Who knows -- maybe one day she'll even get a baby book!