Fun with Friends

A few weeks ago the Leonard girls came over and the kids had so much fun (and frustration) trying to climb the tree. They were so creative and some of the stuff had me laughing so hard!

Most of the effort was put into tying the hose around themselves and the others trying to pull them over from the other side. 

Note: Nobody ever got over.


Then another afternoon the DeBoer kiddos came over and we had some water fun!
I tried to get Elin to nap but she just kept saying, 'No. Pool. Pool.' I couldn't resist this adorable face.

If someone is going to do something dangerous, it's going to be Isaac.

Luke kept going so much farther than Jacob on the slip-n-slide and we finally discovered it was because he was shirtless. Once we took Jacob's swim shirt off, he flew! 

Preschool

A couple weeks ago we finished our letter-o-the week preschool and I am going to miss it! We had so much fun every week and made some great memories! 

I've probably posted most of these pictures before, but I wanted to do a little recap of our year together. 

This was the first week - Isaac, Josie and Livi all ready to learn about the letter A.

Isaac's first craft

And his first worksheets. He was so proud of himself for writing the letter A!

Josie and Isaac hard at work mixing up some cookie dough. 

Can't wait for those cookies to be done!

Bug Safari!

Whatever Sarah is saying, it must be very interesting!

Snack time may have been the most favorite part! I think almost every week, within 10 minutes of arriving Isaac would say, 'I'm hungry!' because he knew there would be a yummy snack coming soon. 

This was the only picture I got of our end of the year party last week. I went indoors to see what the kiddos were up to and found this. Isaac is looking at an old cell phone and Aliyah is 'nursing' her baby. I laughed so hard I cried! Never a dull moment with these kids!

And this has to be my favorite picture from the whole year because it just so perfectly portrays these kids and what our preschool days were like. Josie has an ice pack on her eye because she smacked into Isaac's head, Livi is wearing rain boots and a tiara and Isaac is wearing boots and holding his new box of Band-Aids. I just chuckle every time I look at this picture!

So, now these kids are on to bigger things next year - preschool at a real school! So thankful for Sarah and Cheryl who were willing to partner with me and do this. Isaac and I enjoyed it so much!

Mother's Day

Jacob's class had a sweet Mother's Day tea this year. It was just too cute!

They sang a little song and recited a poem

They served us refreshments and Jacob was a perfect little gentleman bringing me my sweets and drink.
Then he handed me a gift. Inside was this precious necklace that he made. The little indentation is his thumbprint. So, so sweet!

I didn't get many pictures of the Mother's Day festivities at our house. I made a couple quiches, yogurt and berry parfaits and a salad with oranges and fennel. For dessert, Alan made dessert waffles with homemade vanilla ice cream and a strawberry and rhubarb sauce (the rhubarb was from our garden). Bad picture, but awesome dessert!

Jacob didn't want his picture taken with me, so I took a frowny face pic.

Guess I looked pathetic enough to convince him he better get a pic with his mommy.

Got some great ones. Ha!

I think Jacob was doing some kind of disco dance. LOVE these boys!

This year I said all I wanted for Mother's Day was to get a couple treatments at the mom's night out spa night we had with my boot camp girlies the day after Mother's Day. I got a massage and a pedicure and it was wonderful!

A race and a birthday

Last weekend was the Run Through Redlands. I ran the 10k, solo and Alan ran the 5k pushing the boys in the stroller. 

A before the race photo with all my boot camp friends. Three of us ran the 10k and the rest ran the half marathon. So, so proud of these girls! 

Alan and the boys coming across the finish line. Very proud of Alan, too, who is not a runner but came in 10th place in his age group - pushing a stroller!! 

I was hoping to do a little better, but can't complain since I beat my best RTR 10k race time by 3:30 minutes. 

That afternoon we celebrated my mom's birthday. 

This was the cake I made - chocolate cake with peanut butter frosting, topped with peanut butter cups. Good thing I ran 6 miles earlier that day!!

I took my mom out to lunch on Sunday and then we saw Anne of Green Gables at Lifehouse Theater. Such a fun afternoon! My mom and I don't often get to just hang by ourselves. We always have little interruptors running around. We even got in a little shopping and my mom convinced me that I needed this dress. I've been eyeing it at Kith for a while and just needed the tiniest nudge. 

 The boys were not happy about the fact that they didn't have anything to do with Oma's gift so I suggested we get her some flowers and make her cards. Isaac right away said we should go to Trader Joes' because, 'Mama, they have LOTS of flowers!'
They picked out this gorgeous hydrangea and made books for her. So fun to see their giving spirits!

Recent pics

Found lots of pics on my phone......

The boys discovered pipe cleaners the other day and started making some pretty awesome creations. 

Isaac carried this glob-o-pipe cleaners around, hid things in it, re-created it - so much so that the wires started poking out and we had to throw it away. Lots of tears until we promised new pipe cleaners!

Jacob loves to read and especially loves to read to other kiddos. Here is a little before breakfast reading session.

One of the first things Jacob asked Lucy when she was over yesterday was if he could read to her. Love it!

One of Isaac's costumes.

His latest obsession is Eon Kid - he's got the red shirt (inside out Spiderman shirt), the red boots, the red gloves and Alan fashioned a red and yellow helmet. Pure joy on that face, huh?

Love this pic of Luke and Isaac snuggling Homer! Luke used to not care for Homer at all and now here he is cuddling up close!

Spring is here! And with it comes lots of yummy, fresh foods. 

A salad of asparagus, fava beans, peas, fresh egg (forgot the pea sprouts), homemade bread, strawberries with fresh ricotta. Yum, yum and YUM!

                           

 Jacob was very proud of his radishes. Aren't the colors cool?

With the warmer weather comes pizza on the grill! YAY!!

Look at that filthy face with cheeks stuffed full of pizza!

Pizza = happiness

Isaac wanted me to take a picture of him eating his pizza.

We've had some pretty warm afternoons so one day we busted out the Spiderman sprinkler. Oh, and I mean busted literally. Not 10 minutes later, Spiderman bit the dust. Oh well. We used it all last summer and I paid less than $10 for it.

 After Spidey was done for, the boys decided hose wars would be fun. I got caught in the crossfire and ended up with soaked pants. The boys thought that was sooooo funny. It kinda was.