Happy St. Patrick's Day

We woke up this morning to quite the St. Paddy's Day surprise! Little leprechauns had been creating mischief in our house during the night.

Here is the evidence:

The leprechauns made a Webkinz tunnel for Jack and Will to walk through in the morning

Apparently leprechauns love to read!

Yesterday, Jack remember that when he was in preschool, the leprechauns snuck into his classroom and made a mess. He started talking about making traps to catch the leprechauns when they came to our house and then getting them to tell us where the pot of gold was. Brilliant plan! But unfortunately we forgot to make the traps because with that pot of gold, Daddy was taking an early retirement!

I had never heard about the antics of these little leprechauns but we sure did have fun with their tricks!

Working Out the Spiritual Kinks

I am on the Spiritual Life committee for Jack's kindergarten class, and it has been a blessing. Throughout the year, we have gone into the classroom to teach lessons on various topics...Guardian Angels, Saints, the Advent Wreath, and the Holy Family. During Lent, we are learning about the Stations of the Cross. Each week, we discuss 4 of the Stations of the Cross and then do an activity to reinforce the meaning of Lent.

Today the children made Station of the Cross coloring books. Jack only had time to color in a few of the pages in class, so he was working on coloring a few more tonight before bed. After he had finished coloring, Jack brought the book to Will and me and started reading Station 1. After each station was read, we then said the prayer, "We adore you, O Christ, and we praise you, because by your Holy Cross you have redeemed the world."

Jack would read the station to us and then he and I would say the prayer together. During the prayer of the second Station, Will pipes up, "I am tired of that!" I pretended I didn't hear him. During the third Station prayer, he again says, "I am tired of that!" And finally after the fourth Station when he emphatically said, "Oh I am soooo tired of that!", we postponed the Stations of the Cross until Jack's bedtime story time.

Please pray for Will's soul....

Happy Love Ya Day

Will has declared that today is Love Ya Day. On Love Ya day, you are supposed to hug and kiss. I have been taking full advantage of the holiday, and getting as many hugs, snuggles and kisses as I can. Because before too long I will have to beg & bribe him to kiss me.

I really think Will is on to something here....

XXX & OOO to you!

JPEG(s) of the Week

It's been a long, cold winter....

...but there is hope that spring will be here soon!

Cruising on Two Wheels Now

It has been an amazing day for our family! Jack learned to ride his bike on his very first day of trying! Brent and I both said that this is one of our proudest days =). And Jack is pretty proud too, although he is playing all cool and nonchalant about the whole thing.

We woke up this morning to the first spring-like day in for-ev-er. Brent declared that today was the day that Jack was going to learn to ride his bike! Now, Jack is the type who can get frustrated if he can't "get" something in what he deems a reasonable amount of time (unfortunately, he inherited this characteristic from me), so Brent gave Jack a pep talk that set the tone for the afternoon. He told Jack that he wasn't going to ride his bike on the 1st, 2nd or 3rd try, and it wouldn't happen on the 20th or 30th try either, but probably around the 50th try he would start to ride his bike. Another great thing Brent did was to lower the bike seat so that Jack could easily put his feet down to catch himself while learning to balance.

We started practicing. And it was clear that Jack was close, and just needed time to work out the balancing issue. We worked for about 45 minutes with Brent and me taking turns running along side of Jack. And Will was wailing the whole time because his tricycle wouldn't go fast enough and he wanted to ride a big bike too.

So we made a Walmart run to get Jack a bike helmet that actually fit and to get Will a big boy bike (because in his defense, his knees were hitting the handle bars of the tricycle).

And it is a super cool Spiderman bike!

He took right to it and was so proud =).

Then Jack went back to practicing...and something just clicked. I gave him a running start, let go of the bike, and Jack rode about 25 yards looking like he had been riding for weeks! And I looked like a crazy lady as I am hootin' & hollerin' & dancin' in the middle of the street.

Go, Jack, go!

Awesome! We are so proud of our boy!

By the end of the afternoon, Jack had learned how to start, ride, and stop the bike all by himself! Amazing! I know it took at least three weekends of me riding and Mom & Dad running beside me (along with a scraped up elbow and knee for me and shin splints for Mom and Dad), before I learned to ride. I was expecting it to take several weekends for Jack...Nope! The first day Brent was learning to ride (this was before bike helmets), he rode his bike into a parked car and knocked himself out! So I feel very fortunate that Jack learned to ride so quickly without any injuries, since clearly genetics were working against him!

Yay! No training wheels!

Jack,

You make us so proud! Your hard work and determination are inspiring. We love you more than you'll ever know.

Love,
Mommy and Daddy

Ya Got the Pink Eye

It is spreading like wild fire through our house! Monday morning, I was running on the treadmill and got a call from Will's preschool...he has pink eye! Tuesday, Brent called from work and says that his eye feels itchy...he has pink eye! Both Will and Brent are on the drops and I am washing my hands like crazy. After Brent and Will have been on meds for 24 hrs, I begin to feel like we are past the worst of it. This morning as Jack is getting ready for school, I see him rubbing at his eye. Yep, case #3! This really doesn't reflect well on our hygiene practices! So I am playing Florence Nightingale to 6 pink eyes...and washing my hands like crazy!

The irony is that yesterday Jack was complaining because Will had a school holiday today and he had to go to school. He just wanted to stay home too! This morning I tell Jack that he has pink eye and will stay home from school today. He bursts into tears because "I want to go to schooooool!" Be careful what you wish for, little man.

Now, I'm off to wash my hands....