Weekend without Mom

On the rare times that I am away from my family, my husband does a great job of keeping in touch via emails with pictures. This weekend, I was in Orange Beach, AL with two of my dearest friends. Daddy was home with all three kids. T is more than able to keep all three on his own for an extended period of time, but when I can see the kids and observe smiles on their faces through photos, I am reassured that all is well.

Here are some of the pictures I received in email form while at the beach (and these were taken with his Blackberry so their quality is not so great):T drove them to Columbus on Saturday to cheer on their cousin Wages in his baseball game. I'm just grateful that he remembered to put hats on all three!
The three amigos with cousin Wages after his Cougars' victory.

They returned to the ATL late Saturday afternoon and spent quality time on the play set.

T even braved taking the kids to the pool on Sunday, though he has no photo to prove it. I think he probably had his hands full, as a trip to the pool with all three is not something I would do on my own!

Now I'm thinking . . . Since Daddy seemed to fare so well, I might have to make a weekend escape a fairly regular occurrence. . .

Lordy, lordy! Look who's . . .

climbing the stairs!! The picture is a little shaky because I was holding the camera with one hand as the other one was out, ready to catch B.

The fun begins . . .

Making a Mess

Kids love to make messes. The problem in our house is that the kids don't like to clean them up. This morning, Hayes decided to completely clear his train table so that his cars could drive on it. (I had created the train track after following a diagram I found on the internet. Needless to say, I was pretty proud of my configuration and VERY disappointed to see it in pieces on H's floor.) I let H drive his cars on it for a while until we all got tired of stepping on train tracks. Then, I told him it was time to clean it up. Boy, did he give it to me then! "Oh Mom, it's such hard work! I can't do it all by myself! You have to help me!" My response was the same one I've used every other day (really, every day!) that I've heard him complain like this. "Hayes, if you can make the mess by yourself, surely you can pick it up by yourself!"

Unfortunately for me, this argument is usually met with little success. I do know, though, that I'll try and use it again tomorrow. . .

Crocs

Where would we be without our Crocs? They are just too easy in the summer. I know they have their issues (escalators), but I love that we can hose them down when we need to and that my kids can put them on by themselves (HUGE bonus).

All three children have their own pair, and the older two got to pick out their colors. Eleanor wanted pink since she had red last year, and because pink is one of her three favorite colors (pink, red and yellow for those keeping track). I had originally bought Hayes orange since I thought it was a great summer color. I tried selling him on the fact that orange was for the Florida Gators, but he did not by it. Instead, he asked me to exchange the Florida Gator orange for Georgia Tech Yellow Jacket yellow. The little guy has his own pair that are navy. I put them on his feet this afternoon for the first time, and he was not pleased. I'm betting though, that by July, he'll be walking in these shoes when we hit the beach. Can't wait!

H's Last Day

Friday was H's last day of school as well. Since I could not be at two places at one time, Daddy joined Hayes at his school for his popsicle party. By the time Dad arrived, though, Hayes had already plowed through two popsicles! I had asked Dad to take a picture on his phone and this is what he came back with:I had thought I had dressed H in the same outfit for his last day as I had for his first day, so I found the pictures to compare. Luckily, he has on different outfits, but it is neat to see how he has grown over the school year. Here he is at the start of school in September. . .
and here he is on Friday morning . . .

Splashdown!!

Today was E's last day in kindergarten. To celebrate, the kindergarten classes have what they call "Splashdown". All of the kids wear their bathing suits to school. Then, beginning in mid-morning, they head out in front of the school to play water games. I witnessed them throwing water balloons, blowing huge bubbles, washing a car (lucky person), having water relays, painting murals, and jump roping. At the end of the two hours, the final send-off is pretty exciting. The fire truck from our nearby station shows up and sprays the kids with their hose for about 10 minutes. The kids all squish together in anticipation of the first spray. The parents are on the sidelines, eagerly awaiting the splash of water to begin! Once the water comes, everyone starts running for their lives . . .
The kids AND PARENTS got soaked when the firemen "accidentally" redirected the water into the crowds of parents numerous times. Younger siblings were screaming as they had no idea what was going on, but they knew they were soaked. I tried to take a picture of the hose in action, but spent so much time running from the water, that I could not stand in one place long enough to aim my camera! Eleanor's teacher got drenched, and she was standing right beside the fire truck.Heading into Splashdown, I did not know that to expect. In the end, though, actually being a part of it was so much fun!

Kindergarten Portfolio

Recently, I had commented to another parent about how little art Eleanor had brought home from kindergarten this year. While in preschool, my memory is that she came home with some sort of art on a weekly basis. Now that she was in "real" school, the art seemed to have stopped (though I know she does have art class).

Well, wouldn't you know that yesterday, Eleanor brought home her art portfolio. After dinner, we all gathered in the family room for an art show as E went through each piece and the thinking behind it. She really does love art and it is so fun to see the smile on her face when she talks about her masterpieces. So that we are not storing masterpiece after masterpiece after masterpiece in our house, I always take pictures of her work so that we'll always have an electronic copy! Here are some of my favorites:And I thought these next two would look great on card stock as (1) a birthday cardand (2) a Christmas card.

Daddy's Boy

Who has ever heard of a baby that favors their father over their mother when they have the choice? I feel like any baby under the age of one always prefers their mother . . . but my youngest has proven me wrong. He LOVES his daddy. When Daddy pulls into the driveway each evening, I tell the kids, "Dad's home." The one who comes figuratively running? Ben! When Daddy walks into the door, Ben is right there, begging for his father to pick him up. If Thomas does not do it immediately, Ben will literally crawl over to Daddy's feet and sit on him to give him the message. He's always trying to get into Daddy's lap or to get his Daddy to hold him. Maybe he knows his daddy will take him with open arms?!

Great Day for a Picnic

It's a beautiful day in the neighborhood, and the perfect day for a kindergarten picnic at our neighborhood school! Thomas, Ben and I met Eleanor and her class out on the field for lunch to commemorate the end of school. (Hayes was having his own fun on a field trip to Wendy's for lunch at his school.) It is hard to believe that this group is going to be in first grade next year!Eleanor's teacher, Ms. Howell, is retiring so we were thrilled that one of our children was lucky enough to be taught by her. Its great to know, though, that E will still see a happy, familiar face next year when she spots Ms. Tilley, the asst. teacher, in the hallways of the new primary center.One final shot and its one that will mortify Eleanor when she sees it out of sheer embarrassment. . .This is Wright and Eleanor. Wright has not hidden his starry eyes for E this school year. I just think he's so cute, and am thrilled that I was able to capture this shot before she shrank away!

Zip-A-Dee-Doo-Da

The last few days, Hayes has been serenading me to "Zip-A-Dee-Doo-Da". He's got the hand motions to go with it. Here is "Plenty of sunshine heading my way . . ." The song is one of my childhood favorites. Whenever I hear it, I always think of Brer Rabbit, Briar Fox and the Uncle Remus stories my great-grandmother would tell about these characters.

Unfortunately for me, the smile only lasted a minute or two more as H quickly lost all of his zip.

Little Miss Artist

Eleanor and I colored this morning at my encouragement. (I'm trying to make a dent in our drawer full of coloring books!) She pulled out her pastel and colored pencil kit (thanks Uncle Steven and Aunt Brandi) and we started coloring away. After a few minutes, I made a comment to her about how messy the "crayons" were and questioned why she was using them over the colored pencils, which I thought were much cleaner. She replied,"These aren't crayons, Mom! They are pastels! If you color with them and then use your fingers to rub the colors, they turn out really beautiful . . . " Guess that shows you how little I know!

Dream Catcher

For the last few weeks, Hayes has been waking up EVERY NIGHT with nightmares between 10:30pm and 11:30pm. It had gotten to the point where I could not fall asleep before 11:30pm because I knew I would get woken up by a screaming Hayes shortly thereafter.

Knowing how distressed her parents were by the whole situation, E had a great idea. We had bought two "bad" dream catchers at a dollar store in the fall, and she had both of them in her room. She offered to give one to Hayes and pitched him on the idea of how the "bad" dream catcher would catch his bad dreams and keep him safe. We really talked it up and were excited to see if this idea would be a successful one. Hayes picked the spot on his bed on which to hang it and off he went to sleep. The next morning, after Hayes slept successfully through the night without waking up (!!), he came downstairs, eager to talk. He reported to me, "Mom, the dream catcher did not work. I did not see anything hard in it." Then, there was a long, long pause while I thought for a minute about this comment. I eventually realized that he was expecting the net to catch something tangible overnight. He expected to wake up and see a dog with pink and blue eyes in it or a shark who was trying to eat him. I quickly explained to him that dreams are in our imaginations and that he would not ever see anything caught in his net. . . but that I was so proud of him for not waking up in the middle of the night. Yeah, Hayes!

Isn't it amazing how a toddler's mind works?

'Hood Crew

Since my kids still had Chick-fil-A on their minds from earlier this week, they hit E's school's Chick-fil-A night for dinner with Dad. (I met some of H's classmates moms out for dinner.) Guess who they saw? Our 'hood CREW! Thomas took a picture with his phone and emailed it to me (so the quality is not great). They all piled into one booth while the dads and Ben sat in another booth. Pretty cute!

First Words

It's time for me to come to grips with the fact that Ben's first words will not be Mama. I should have known better, since both Eleanor and Hayes mastered other words first, but I kept the hope alive. What are Ben's first words? Dada and Dogdog, of course!

Play set!

The new play set arrived today. The kids were SOOO excited! Once it was constructed, they went right to playing. I think their favorite part about it is a bell that is up in the fort. They rang that thing constantly, much to our neighbors' dismay. I heard them call for a "Tornado Warning" (we've obviously had a lot of bad storms this spring) and an ice cream truck coming through, so they were having a grand ol'time. E's most anticipated part, the tire swing, is on back-order so we are anxiously waiting its arrival in a few days.

Hair she is!

Eleanor spent some time upstairs in her room yesterday because she was having trouble listening to her parents. When it was time for dinner, she came down the stairs with this hairdo.Isn't she lovely?

Mother's Day Messages

Both Eleanor and Hayes made Mother's Day cards for me. I had to take pictures and post them because I think they do a great job of capturing the kids at this point in each of their lives. They both worked very hard on my cards and I love how they turned out!

Eleanor actually made this card for me last weekend, when she was supposed to be working on a birthday card for her father. The yellow writing inside says the following: Dear Mom, I will let you slepp in on Mother's Day.

Hayes came up with this:If you see how hard he works on his letters, you know how long it must have taken him to write that message. And, one more portrait of Mom. I like this one because he includes my age. He currently is obsessed with ages and numbers so this is VERY appropriate for him right now.

Mom's Day

Yesterday was Mom's Day at Hayes's school. I joined him in his classroom for breakfast, attended chapel with him and then came back to the room for a few final minutes to play. I think we both enjoyed our time together. I came home with two gifts that he had made for me: (1) a special painted heart jewelry box and (2) this portrait of me.Don't you see the resemblance?

Chick-fil-A on their minds

One of the added benefits of living in Atlanta is that we have a Chick-fil-A right down the street. I try to limit our eating a fast-food meal to one time a week, much to the kids chagrin, but luckily for them, its always at Chick-fil-A.

Well, its been a week since their last meal there (Friday night with their grandparents). E and H both have it on their minds. How do I know? I've got two very good reasons, and they are as follows:

1. Hayes just informed me that he had a dream last night about Chick-fil-A and the Atlanta Hawks. He then said about Chick-fil-A, "I wish we could eat there sometime." (Just to let you in on some of Hayes-speak, his code for "today" is "sometime".)

2. Yesterday, Eleanor brought home a story she had written while at school. Eleanor's story began with the following paragraph:

"Once upon a time there were three cute little puppies. They lived with their mom and dad. They left home because they needed food. They went to Chick-fil-A to get chicken nuggets and French fries."

**Just for the record, I always order fruit for the kids with their chicken nuggets meals, but obviously Eleanor would love to live on the wild side and get some French fries every now and then.

Path of Destruction

Ben is at the point where he finds great pleasure in clearing tables. Any chance he gets, he applies his sweeping motion to everything in sight. We've stopped cleaning up our family room because we keep walking in on this scene, which I saw again this morning . . .I even caught him at the scene of the crime upstairs in the playroom.These scenes brought back familiar memories that led me to go digging through some old pictures. Look what I found . . . This was big brother Hayes at 12 months destroying the family room of the beach house we were staying in at Jekyll. Look familiar?

Preschool Days

Today was Preschool Days, the opportunity for Hayes and his classmates to showcase all of the songs they have learned during the school year. I was very interested in observing his stage presence this year. Last year, upon walking into the assembly room and seeing all of the cameras, people, and more cameras, he had a total breakdown and never got up front to sing with his class. By the end of the performance, I am happy to report that H has gotten over the fear of crowds and seemed relatively happy singing in front of 60+ adults.

(Speaking of breakdowns, I had put out a red collared shirt for him to wear to school today, but he would have no part of it. He put on the shorts that I had out, but he switched shirts on me. It is amazing how he is already very opinionated about his clothes!)

Back to the show . . .I do love to watch older three- and young four-year-olds sing in front of their parents. You never know that they are going to do! Some of the more quiet kids shout out loud the entire time while the more boisterous ones hardly make a peep. I enjoy just watching some of their faces . . .and get a kick out of how many of them don't even bother singing.Good times were had by all!

Happy Birthday, Daddy!

May 3 . . . Today is Dad's birthday! His one request was a caramel cake which we easily fulfilled. Though we had no big surprises for him like he did on my birthday in December, I hope we still were able to make his day special! Thanks for all that you do, Daddy! We love you!

P.S. I found a card Hayes and Eleanor made for Dad. They woke up very early (about 6am) to get working. Hayes dictated to E what he wanted to say on his card. When they were done with the process, they brought it downstairs to Daddy who was still sleeping. Here is what Hayes said (Eleanor actually wrote on three different sides of the card so there are three different messages):

To Dad,
Happy Brithday, Daddy! Dad Today is your Brithday. Dad I am going to be nice to you! Dad I wish I could win the socer game! and scower some gals (score some goals)! I Love you Dad! Form Hayes

Dad I Love Ben! Dad I am going to Let you slepp in this moning! Eleanor Loves to play with Hayes! Dad can you please play with me today.
Happy Brithday.
Form Hayes

And the last one . . .
After June 23(Ben's birthday) It would be July 7(Hayes's birthday)! Ben is after Dad's Brithday! Today dad is going to eat cake! I Love you! dad. Amen

Thanks to Eleanor's new writing skills, we are able to capture moments like these when Mom and Dad are not around!

Some Small Distractions at the Recital

There we were this afternoon, at Eleanor's ballet recital. . . All five of us in the front row, eager to see our little ballerina perform. I was holding Ben while Hayes had moved over to Thomas's lap after his chair had folded on him (so typical for this age). Thomas and I both had our respective cameras, the video camera and the photo camera, in hand, ready to document these 4 minutes of E's life every way possible. When E's group came on stage (above), I had to put Ben down so that I could take pictures. Of course, he was not happy about that one bit, and he let everyone in the auditorium know it. He quickly realized, though, that he was free to roam so off he went to try to pull up on the stage. His big bro Hayes decided that pulling up on the stage during the recital was not appropriate behavior so he tackled Ben to the ground in typical Hayes fashion. Hayes got the LOOK from me and let his brother crawl away. Phew! Crisis averted and I went back to my picture taking . . . until I heard another, more distant cry from Ben. This time, he had good reason. I looked over to my left and there he was, surround by 3- and 4-year-old ballerinas with big tutus and even bigger hairpieces. He did not know who or what they were, but he knew that he wanted to be rescued. (I can only imagine how scary a picture that was to a 10 month old!) I ran over, grabbed him and started sprinting up the steps to exit the auditorium. At once, though, I stopped and turned around to catch one last glance of E's routine - this one:When we got home, we all enjoyed watching the video of the performance, but I especially appreciated it since I was really seeing it for the first time!