A Bit Overwhelmed

We had a great vacation, and I am working on a post with more pictures than you ever wanted to see, but right now...[whine alert!] I am just a bit overwhelmed with all of the details of life.  The kind of overwhelmed where I was wide awake last night tossing and turning while a thousand "to do" things played over and over in my head.  Nice, puffy eyes this morning!  I've made an official To Do list with 20 items and have already crossed 2 off so that feels good!  The Spring Break vacation post is #14, so I'll keep plugging away.  Brent left for Europe today, and I'm going to work hard to get the list done while he is away.

I had my first mammogram today.  Too much information?  Just another bonus of turning 40! haha  Seriously, it was no big deal.  The horror stories weren't true for me.  Maybe not enough to really squish?  Regardless, Goal 55 of 101 in 1001 is done.

Will drew "Happy Fingers"

A quick Will funny and then I'm off to sleep....
Will likes "rock hugs", where I pick him up in my arms and rock back and forth while hugging him.  This afternoon while we were rock hugging, I was kissing him on the lips.  And then when he thought my eyes were averted, Will started wiping my kisses off.  I said, "Will, are you wiping away Mommy's kisses?!?!"  To which he responded, "Well, kissing is kinda gross." 

I'll remind him of this when he's a teenager.

A Peek at our Week 2011: Week 14

Saturday, April 2

We had a fun and busy day.  We went to the gym and then to Chick-fil-A for lunch.  The weather was just perfect so we played on the Chick-fil-A playground for awhile.  Then we made a stop at Daddy's office so Mommy and Daddy could get a few things done.  For dinner, we went over to Mr. Chad and Mrs. Valerie's home for a cookout.  The boys had a blast driving Charlie's cars up and down the street.  I have been begging Brent to get the boys an electric car but he won't do it.  He says we'll just have to come visit Mr. Chad more often!

Sunday, April 3

Nothing fun happened today.  The boys played, Brent worked, and I did laundry.  But the cherry tree in the front yard was showing off!  Love the pink pom-pom blooms.

Monday, April 4

Will still loves his bottle at night.  It hasn't bothered me because something wonderful happens during your second-go-around with mommyhood...Perspective!  I knew I wouldn't be sending him off to college with a bottle, so I've let him continue to have a bottle because it made the nighttime routine so easy.  But today I casually asked Will when it would be time for him to give up his bottle.  He thought when he turned 5 would be the time.  Okay, fine with me.  Then later this afternoon, Will told me that he would give up his bottle today and I could "give his bottles to charity."  So he is officially off the bottle, and we are officially done with babyhood.  sniff, sniff

 
Tuesday, April 5

Brent woke up this morning with what he thought was either a sinus infection or strep throat.  Not the way you want to start your vacation.  Dad called him in a prescription for Amoxicillan.  I went to pick it up and the pharmacist told me that it was free.  FREE!  FREE!  Really?!?!  Wow! Thank you very much!

Wednesday, April 6

Ahhh, the beach!  We love the beach!  It was a great day of playing in the surf, digging holes in the sand, and hunting for seashells.  We can never get enough of the beach!

Thursday, April 7

We are vacationing with some of our friends, and we are having the best time.  The boys were waiting so patiently to jump on the Eurobungy before we made trip to the candy store.  Who doesn't enjoy filling up a sack with as much candy as it will hold?

 

Friday, April 8

Another great day at the beach!  Jack had fun burying himself in the sand.  It was all over his face.  Made me want to scratch just looking at him.  Now that is sandy boy!  

How Many More Sleeps?

Around here, we are all excited about Spring Break and the chance to get away to the beach for a few days.  For the last few days, Will has been asking me "how many more sleeps until Spring Break?"   And it struck me what a great, concrete way this is for little ones to keep track of time.  It is hard to grasp the concept of hours because really that means nothing to them.  But the number of "sleeps?"  Brilliant!  I don't know where Will came up with this idea, because I have never used it, but I will from now on!

Zero more sleeps until Spring Break!  Yippee!  I am taking my computer, so hopefully I'll be able to update on all of the fun!

Ciao! 

A Peek at our Week 2011: Week 13

Saturday, March 26

The forecast for the weekend was rain, rain and more rain.  It looked very iffy for the T-ball game...would the weather hold off for an hour so the Red Soxes could play?  The weather hotline for T-ball said the games would be called at the field.  So we loaded up and headed to the baseball field, sat in the car for 10 minutes, and then the game was called due to rain.  Argh!   We picked up brunch at Chick-fil-A and headed home for a day full of DS and TV!  And our brains turned to mush.

Sunday, March 27

Jack has a new look...the top front tooth that has been loose for FOREVER finally came out.  Jack and Brent were play wrestling and it was bumped.  Jack has been working this one for months so it was surprising that a little knock would finally set it free.  But we have enjoyed telling everyone that "Daddy knocked Jack's tooth out!"

Monday, March 28

In an effort to adopt a healthier lifestyle (blah,blah, blah), I've been trying to snack on more fruits and vegetables.  Do veggies sticks count?  No?  So I've been munching on baby carrots (blek) and have found them to be tolerable with lots of bleu cheese dressing.  Which totally negates the whole 'healthy snacking' thing, but baby steps, people!  Today I noticed that my fingers were turning orange.  Cheez-Its never did this.

 

Tuesday, March 29

 

Those beautiful, long lashes?  They slay me.  The sprinkling of freckles across his nose and cheeks?  My heart just explodes into a million pieces.  And the yogurt on the nose and lip?  That's all boy.

Wednesday, March 30

Well look who lost another tooth!  I didn't even know this one was loose.  Jack pulled it out today at snack time.  He has one more loose tooth just waiting to fall out at anytime.  This is going to be one busy tooth fairy!

Thursday, March 31

This little guy had quite a day.  Two of his good buddies from school came over for a playdate this morning.  They had a great time playing together and were so excited that they would see each other again tomorrow at school.  This afternoon, Will was playing outside and tripped in our garage.  Unfortunately, his face broke his fall.  Poor thing has a nice goose egg on his forehead and some scrapes around his hairline and sideburn.  Hopefully, he is having sweet dreams lying on the caterpillar pillowcase he made at school.  Nite-nite...I love you!

Friday, April 1

 No joke.  6.2 miles.  Road miles.  Ran 'em all.  Jello legs.  Finished.  Proud!

April Fool's Day

Tonight, we had Jack and Will's favorite meal for dinner, Spaghetti and Meatballs!

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APRIL FOOL'S!

It was really Fake Spaghetti and Malt Balls!  When I saw this on the Family Fun website, I knew it would be the perfect prank to pull on the boys.

The approach:

Jack was a bit skeptical when he came to the table.

He just knew something was up; he thought the spaghetti sauce didn't look quite right.

Will was all excited about spaghetti and meatballs, and didn't suspect a thing.

 Will arrives shirtless to the table, as is customary on spaghetti and meatball night.

The taste test:

The verdict:

They loved it!  Jack was impressed that the frosting really looked like spaghetti.  And for Will, having dessert for dinner ROCKED!!  Lots of giggles that Mommy was able to pull off an April Fool's joke!

Bonus for me:  This April Fool's joke completes Goal 79 of my 101 in 1001 list: Have Dessert for Dinner!

Then we headed to our favorite pizza joint for our Lenten meatless pizza.  While we were finishing up our dinner, the waitress brings a pizza to the booth behind us.  We overhear her tell the family "please be careful when you are eating your pizza because the cook thinks he lost his contact."  Their booth was silent.  My jaw dropped to the table while my eyes were bugging out of my head.  Brent mumbled that "there was no way he would eat that pizza."  And then the waitress smiled an "April Fools" smile and everyone (us included) busted out laughing.  The dad at the booth put her up to it.  Now that was a good one!

Happy April Fool's Day!  Hope you didn't get punk'd too badly. ;-)

Dear God...

On Sunday mornings, Will goes to the Littlest Angels class (Sunday School) while we go to Mass.  After Sunday School, we always ask what he learned about.  And every Sunday, with the most exasperated tone, Will answers, "Ughhh, JESUS!" 

Do you think he's hoping that one Sunday he'll walk into class and the topic of the day will be Iron Man?!?!


This week, Will brought home his prayer list:

I'm sure Peter Pan and Sonic would appreciate your prayers, too.

Amen

Fun Run 2011

The 21st annual Fun Run & Family Picnic was today at Jack's school.  We were worried that it might be rained out, but the priests were asked to pray, prayers were answered, and the skies cleared!

This past week, Jack told us that he was going to run in the 5K.  Brent and I tried to explain how far a 5K is (3.1 miles!), but he would not be discouraged.  Jack had made up his mind...he was running the 5K!  Then Will said that he wanted to run the 5K, too.  Well, we put the kibosh on that real quick and suggested that he run the 1 mile fun run.  He was just excited to be able to run.

We split up the running duties.  Daddy and Will would represent the family in the 1 mile.  Mommy and Jack would represent in the 5K.


Pre-race warm-up activities:

I'm comin afta ya!

Will psyching himself up before the race.

The pre-race stretching.

We may not look athletic, but we were feeling it.

The 1 mile fun run was first.

Will and Brent are lining up with the other runners.

Earlier in the day, Will was talking about wanting to "win the race", which led to an important discussion about doing your personal best and finishing the race.  We told him how proud we were that he wanted to run; not many 4 year olds can run a mile.

And here they come to the finish line!

WILL RAN A MILE!  Good job, buddy!

Brent said that Will ran for 2/3 of the way and then they came upon a big hill.  They decided to walk up the hill.  Wise move.  When Jack and I saw them round the corner into the school parking lot, we started yelling and cheering for him.  You could see Will's face just light up!  He was so excited.  And he just looked so cute.  =)

Next up was the 5K...

Jack's teacher, Ms. Ross, was also running.  She was excited that Jack was stepping up to the challenge.

That's my boy!

We're psyched and we're ready!  Bring it!

And we're off.  Due to our amazing speed, it was hard for the camera to capture us clearly!

And what did Will do to entertain himself while Jack and I were running?  He practiced all of his grumpy faces.

Our little curmudgeon needs to keep his skillz sharp.

Oh wait!  Here we come...

Jack raises his hand in triumph!  He sees the finish line and he knows he's gonna make it!

A 5K completed at 7 years old!  Way to go, baby!

We're finished and we're happy.

After the race, I asked Brent, "Now that you've run the mile, do you think you might take up running?"  To which he quickly responded, "Nope.  Hated every minute of it!"  Hahahaha!

We enjoyed a picnic dinner of hamburgers, chicken sandwiches, chips, fruit and cookies.  We stayed for the awards ceremony, and then headed home for baths and bed.

It was a fun day challenging ourselves to push beyond our comfort zones.  We'll do it again next year!