Catching Up

Well, I've fallen behind. Way, way behind. Until today, I hadn't posted since the middle of April. Inexcusable, I know. And I was going to try to post-date the missing blog entries (because, of course, it's not like we haven't done anything in those 2 months or that I haven't taken pictures of our activities...just that I haven't posted about them) all sneaky-like, but Blogger won't let me. I had to experiment a bit with the Easter post to figure that out (which is why it's posted first and only NOW am I writing this note to explain).

So, the next 10ish posts will be from various events and fun that we had over the past few months. The last weeks of school and baseball and the full moon(s) got away from me and I just didn't get around to blogging...but I'm here now.  And my summer resolution is to update this blog at least once a week, and try to stay as up-to-date as possible. Wish me luck! :)

Easter (Catching Up...4/24/11)

We just love dyeing eggs together on Easter! Anthony is the master, with all sorts of creative ideas of mixing colors and making crazy patterns, and the boys always come up with some interesting ideas, too. No plain, solid-color eggs at our house!

Here are the boys, hard at work:

I think I caught Cody a bit by surprise here:

Witness the return of the wink!

Here are some of the masterpieces. Luke especially really enjoyed using the glitter pens.

Jackson got into the experimental side of egg dyeing with Anthony, even making a few that looked tye-dye (and that's without one of those special kits designed to make the eggs come out that way). 

I think Luke ended up with more dye on his hands and arms than on the eggs, but he sure had fun.

And here's my favorite egg: the rising SON! :)

Happy Easter! 

Bluebonnets

It's that time again! This weekend, we headed out to Bluebonnet Trail to take some pictures of the boys with our state flower!

Here's Codes...rocking the Justin Bieber (or, according to him, "Beaver") haircut he's so proud of.

I can't believe how grown up Jackson looks in this picture. It may be the best one of him that I've gotten in a long, long time...but it makes my heart hurt a little, because he looks like a young man and not a little boy. He's going to be 9 in just a couple of months!!!

And take a look at these shots of Luke. The first is from two years ago, when he was about 18 months old. The second one is from yesterday. Uncanny, isn't it? Unintentional time-lapse "Baby in the Bluebonnets" photography!

We love Bluebonnet Season!

Momstache and More

The boys have been saying the most random and hilarious things lately. It's really fun hearing the things that come out of their mouths!

Jackson has been experimenting with puns and wordplay. Here's a joke he came up with:

What did one car say to the other car?

You've got "Auto-tude!"

He and Cody and I also had a silly conversation on the way to our family pictures the other day. I suggested that if they cooperated and smiled for the photos, they could run around at the park afterwards, but if not, I'd just tie them to the front of the car and they could pull it home as a way to get out their energy. 

Jacks: Pulling the car would take years. You'd grow a Momstache.

Me: That would be awesome. I could totally rock a Momstache.

Cody: It will be pink! And full of farts.

Me: Cody, you are such a dork!

Cody: Yeah, but I'm YOUR dork.

And he totally IS my dork. :)

I have one last silly conversation to share, this one between Cody and Luke. I love the innocence, touched with wisdom. 

Cody: You know who's the coolest person in the world?

Luke: Me?

Cody: No. GOD. And Santa. And the Easter Bunny. 

I dunno, I think me and my Momstache are pretty cool... ;)

Family Pictures (Sneak Peek)

  

We met with our favorite family photographer this weekend to get some shots of everyone we love! (Kate-Kate was in town for a visit, Tina is here for a role with the Dallas Opera...but we were sad to be without Anthony, who unfortunately had to work.)

These are just a few shots we got as a sneak peek...we should have the rest of them in a week or so. I love them all!

Upside Down

Today, Cody brought home the assignment above. His class read "Silly Sally," and they were supposed to draw a picture of themselves, glue it on upside down, and write a little bit about what they were doing.

So there's Cody, upside down, along with a dog (note the tongue sticking out and the wonderfully expressive ears) and a disco ball. Yes, you read that right. Up there in the upper left hand corner is a disco ball. Cody is VERY proud of the disco ball.

The writing reads, "I am upside dawn (down). I mit (met) a dog. We daste (danced) a gige (jig)." So silly, just like Sally! :)

Sally's story isn't all that has Cody feeling upside down these days. I think the boy has his first crush. This is so interesting to me as Jackson seems to look at boys and girls as equal opportunity friends, but doesn't think girls in general are anything special. Cody, on the other hand, has told me he likes to be nice to girls and that several girls in his class want to marry him.

But now...now there's CINDY. Or maybe her name is Sydney. With the way he pronounces and spells things, it's a little hard to be sure. (And Cindy seems like such an old-fashioned name...do people name their kids things like "Cindy" these days?)

I had heard nothing about Cindy (?) until today, when he told me he wanted to make her a present. So first he drew this:

That's Cody and Cindy sitting on top of a rainbow. It also has their names with arrows pointing to the people, and "Love Cindy" and "Frum Cody."

On the back, he wrote this:

There it says, "Love? Sedey." I like how instead of "To:" he writes "Love." 

The he folded it up and had me help him tie it in a bow.

He also made an envelope for the present.

That's the inside of the envelope, and it says, "Heres a presit (present) Sedey." With a smiley face. Aww. 

The outside of the envelope looks like this:

And then he folded the present up inside the envelope and stapled it closed. 

Man, I hope that girl (whatever the heck her name is) knows how lucky she is. Well, who am I kidding, she won't....she's SIX. But I hope she likes the present he made for her. I hope she likes him as much as he likes her. And I hope she doesn't break his gigantic, adorable, precious heart. 

By the way, even when you think you love your kiddos with every fiber of your being, when you think you couldn't be more grateful for the wonder and joy they bring into your life, and when you think you couldn't possibly love them more...you can. See above. 

My cup runneth over. ♥

Dallas Blooms

Today, we took advantage of the beautiful weather and the beginning of Spring Break and paid a visit to the Dallas Arboretum. Every single thing is in bloom, and the dazzling array of flowers and colors was just amazing.

This year, the play houses exhibit has a "Fairy Tale" theme, so the boys had fun exploring all the castles. Here's Jackson at Aladdin's humble abode.

We enjoyed having Gramma and Grandad join us for a bit, and it was fun to find the special flower bed dedicated to Gramma! The sign says, "This area of our floral display has been given in honor of Eleanor Penrose by All the Family." :)

Grandad was nice enough to take a couple of pictures of the 5 of us. (Luke enjoyed wearing Grandad's hat.)

Then I took about a million (if you ask them, they'd say it was more) pictures of the boys. Here are just a few!

I had told Cody to squeeze in with Jackson in the above picture, and he took me VERY literally!

Luke was an ever-moving blur throughout the morning....I don't think he slowed down at all during our visit.

I got Cody and Jacks to sit together for a minute by promising they could take a silly picture after the "serious" one.  So here's serious:

And here's silly:

And even more silly!

I did get this nice shot of Cody by the reflecting pool.

Anthony tried to get a few pictures of me with the boys, but by then, they were just DONE with the camera. So Cody stuck a little wink in this one.

And he refused to smile in the rest. Plus, Luke was sad because he'd just done a giant face-plant in the grass (I actually found a big green smudge on his forehead after this picture).

Clearly, it was time to call it a day. But we had a great time, and we hope to go back again to see even more of the spring flowers!