S'more

We have been lucky enough in the past few weeks to have friends that we have known since childhood, and have somehow either ended up living in the area, or visited those that do, stop by for dinner.

First the Tyson family came down for a Saturday of bike riding, Chinese food, and backyard s'mores. The Tyson's moved out to the midwest just a year after we did to go to medical school in Milwaukee. We were thrilled when Dr. Jared found out that they would stay for residency also! Del has known Jared since he was just a little boy, and I have known him since high school. Jared couldn't have married a better girl and friend for me! We are just glad that we know they will be her for at least a few more years while he finishes up residency. Then, we may have to shop the country for somewhere to live together again. Having them close has been priceless.


Jack and Georgia

Checking on the horses next door.

S'mores, always a crowd pleaser.

It is nice to have a friend to give you a push.

A couple of weeks later, we got to have some more friends from home stop by. Kelley and Mark moved out here last Winter for work. I have known them since Jr. high. Kelley's younger brother married Amy, my good friend from way back. So when Amy's family came to Chicago, thy fit us in their busy schedule. It was so much fun to see them. We all learned that we can work as a disaster clean up team well, when the kids made the toilet overflow, and we had a minor flood in the basement. What a great Chicagoland adventure for them! Good thing the paint towels were still handy!

Thanks for visiting everyone! We love you!

My Husband Is A Cool Guy

And the latest example? 
A couple of Saturdays ago, I was an idiot.
We were in a rush to get out the door by 8:40. Will had a soccer game, and Wally had tutoring. I loaded Wally, Georgia and Walker in the car with not a minute to spare. Del was running right behind me to take Will to the game. I had a lot of things on my list of "to-do's" during the hour and a half that I wait for Wally. .

One of those things had been added the day before when I got ambitious and decided to touch up the paint in our basement. After making big touch up marks all over my walls, I realized that the paint was drying with a different sheen to it.  Shoot!! The paint is three year old left-overs from when we finished the basement and it had gone bad.
 I guess, that yes, paint can go bad when it freezes. And it does get mighty cold in our garage in the Winter. My thought; "hey maybe if I take it back to the store they can reshake it in their big shaking machine, and it will be fine."After all, we had almost five gallons in one of those big paint tubs. Hate to see it go to waste.

So, after getting the kiddos loaded, I put the paint in my brand new vehicle... and it tipped. Slow motion horror as I watched about a gallon of paint quickly spread over the floor of the back seat.  I begin screaming to Del in the house, "Help, help, help!!!! Paint in the car!"

I know that is very coherant, and when Del walked out the house with a handful of about three wadded up paper towels, I realized just how very bad I am in an urgent situation.

I grabbed the floor mat, which luckily had slowed the flow, turned and ran out of the garage with it.  I left a trail of destruction. Paint all over the side of the car, the floor of the car, the step, the door, the driveway, the inside of the garage, my folded up stroller sitting in the garage, and my very pretty and most favorite shoes.

I was blubbering like a baby, but had no time to stop and fall apart like I wanted to. Paint dries, ya know!?

So, instead of soccer, instead of tutoring and errands, we spent the next hour working like mad people, using every towel we own, and finally just putting the garden hose in the car and spraying it out.  Then we went to work on the driveway.  Then the garage floor, then the walls, then finally my shoes. We both had to run inside and change clothes in the middle of the chaos, because we found that once paint gets on your clothes, you tend to spread it around to new areas when you move. (Like the driver's side of the car while backing it very carefully out of the garage to avoid getting paint on the wheels.) I made a very embarrassing call to the Learning Center to ask to reschedule Wally last minute. I couldn't even think of anything to say except the truth. The nice girl said something like, " Oh, of course don't worry about it, sounds like you are kind of living a nigtmare right now, you can call me back."

And so, after the panick subsided, I looked wearily at my husband and said , " I am so sorry."

And he is just cool. He put his arms around me, smiled and said, "It's okay, worse will probably happen to this car over the next twenty or so years that we own it."

He is not one to get fixated on "things." Bless his heart.

Now on to the "It Could Have Been So Much Worse If's...."

It had happened in the dead of Winter. No hose, snow, cold. Shudder.
It had happend while Del wasn't home.
It had happened in the hardware store parking lot instead of at home. Shudder.
It had happened while I was driving.
My kids had not been contained in seat belts.
My husband wasn't such a nice guy.

By the way. The car is fine. There is a finger print that a friend pointed out on the side of the gear shift thing that we missed. I could work on it, but maybe I won't. It is a reminder that material things in this life come and go. It is easy to make them our "idols."  It is a reminder that we are all human and make mistakes. It is a reminder to slow down and make sure the proverbiale "lid is on the paint."

But most of all, it is a reminder of why I love Del so much. And how I am lucky that he loves me. 

More than his car.

The Music Party

We had a music party for Will this weekend.  We had lunch and cake at a park, and then headed over to "Music Makers" for some instrument fun.  It was nice to have the entertainment built in with the park playground, and then a professional music teacher. That took a lot of stress off of me.

It was SO windy, I was afraid our cake might tip right over. I had all kinds of great ideas of how I would decorate around the table. But with the wind pounding away at me, making me want to lose my mind. (I hate wind!) I decided to bag it. We just went with the basics, and it was just fine.  Will was very proud of this guitar cake.


But not nearly as proud as he was of his REAL guitar. It is fun to listen to him strum and sing away.

He also got a Plasma Car, and some fun dragon toys, and money from Grandma and Grandpas'.

I love how excited Will is in this picture.

Blowing out the candle in the wind was pretty much not going to happen. Instead, Will blew while Del held the lighter next to the candle to give the appearance of a flame.  No worries. Perception is reality to a five year old.

On to "Music Makers!"  There was singing...

More singing...    I love Wally's long skinny legs in his soccer uniform.

Instruments...

Like drums...

The cymbals were a bit loud for Will.

And howling like a dog. The kids had a lot of fun, and Will got to take home a brand new keyboard as a gift! They even had goody bags for all the kids! It was so nice.  Two parties down, one to go! And then I am taking a Birthday party break for a couple of years! Whew!

Will

Happy Birthday to our big five year old boy, Will. 

Will's teacher told me that we had better look out for when he is older, because she has fallen in love with him, and so will lots of girls. I think she may be right. He is a charming little guy.

Will is very quirky.  This often makes my day.
He has a very low, gravely voice, but at the same time, his intonation is very loud. It is pretty entertaining to listen to him tell a long story. He speaks in third person and spells his name with a giant circle to dot his "i."
His teacher told me that most days at school, he wears a pair of blue shop goggles all day long, and he is in love with a stuffed hedgehog that she keeps in the classroom, named Chuckles. She said every day when he arrives at school, before going to hang up his coat down the hall, he peeks his head in the room and calls, "Miss Gena, Will is here!"

Will is a "jack of all trades" kind of guy. He loves music. He picks up lyrics to songs faster than I can believe, and goes around singing all day. A few months back, I sang "Come Thou Fount Of Every Blesssing" in church, and Will came home and performed it for the family later that day. As best he could anyway.  He wants to play all kinds of instruments.  We will have to cultivate that one so that he does have the ability to play at least the piano.

He has also become a big golf player lately. He concentrates so hard on getting the ball into the mouth of his golfing alligator. He even kneels down and eyeballs the hole, just like a real golfer.

Will loves school,  idolizes his dad, gets bossed by his best friend Georgia, tries hard to be like his big brother Wally, and always wants to smell and kiss his baby Walker. Yes, smell. He always tells me Walker smells so good, and sticks his nose right into Walkers belly and inhales.

He has an amazing memory. He is constantly asking me if I remember things we did when he was not even two years old.

You name it, and Will can find a reason to love it.

We have a million reasons to love you Will!   We thank our Heavenly Father that you are ours! Happy Birthday!

Yum!

Walker is my first baby to love his fingers. He is especially content when he can manage to get a thumb in his mouth and keep it there. 

The other day Walker was in his Saucer and Wally called me over and asked, "Mom what is he begging for?" I asked what he meant and Wally told me that Walker had his 

hands clasped together like this and that means that you are begging for something because you really 

want it.  In Walker's case it is just because he LOVES to suck on his hands, and he does this Praying Mantis thing while he tries to cram both fists into his mouth. 

That is our handsome boy! Here he is in his Easter outfit.

Pig Tails

Yes! She officially let me do her hair. They are nowhere near perfect because I didn't want to press my luck.
And they even lasted about two hours before she ripped them out and wanted nothing to do with the whole idea anymore. Baby steps.

She let me take her picture with Wambert. That would be Lambert her new pet lamb that she got from the Easter Bunny. She likes sleeping with Wambert.

The Hunt

We will try to make this post about Easter super interesting by giving it a title that makes it sound adventurous. Otherwise, it is just us pictures of us picking up eggs.

It was actually a lot of fun, thanks to the wonderfully organized Lacey.  She hosted an egg hunt at her house, with lots of yummy treats.

Some of us look like we know we are getting our picture taken.

Kelley arranged for an Easter Egg Roll relay game. Here she is demonstrating for the kids. How come some people are just graceful no matter what they do? Look at that form. I guess that is what you get when you are a dancer. You look good walking,  even with an egg tucked under your chin.

Watching Will try to get the egg between his knees was funny. I think all the other kids did the course about three times, and Will was still working on completing it once when we called it quits.

Lacey, the Hostess with the Mostess.

Ready for some eggs.

But every time I tried to get one of her picking the eggs up,this is what I got.

A good group of ladies. I must admit that I wish I knew many of them better. It is always fun to get together with them, and their families.

Promises, Promises

How many of us made a promise to ourselves before we had children that they would never have a face that looked like this?


Or this?

And now? For all I know, most of the time, I might be walking around with something on my own face. Blissfully unaware.  I do have to admit that I was embarrassed the other day when I ran into a friend and she looked down at Will and told him, "Will, you have a boogie hanging out of your nose."

Okay.

Maybe I need to recommit myself to the "My children will never have gross faces, or noses" promise. It is looking like that might be a good one.

And Georgia's hair? I know, it needs...something! But you put a hair clip or elastic band in this girl's hair at the risk of losing an eye.

A few days ago she was looking in the mirror and then said, "Mom, my hair is getting orange! Then she told me mine is yellow. I kinda hope it isn't exactly "yellow."

Speaking of faces. I got some good ones of Walker this week. I can't decide which is my favorite. And as for the messy face above... I will always love it! No matter how smeared.

A little too high.

A little confused.

There we go!