by George

We had some ODU friends over tonight. Jim teaches in the Math department and Julie plays the piano at a lot of ODU events. They have five kids. At some point, Luke found my camera and began to take pictures. George, who is six, bartered his mother's cell phone for the camera. I hope Luke didn't make any international phone calls. Here are some pictures by George:

Little brother Ron by George

Luke by George.

Blurry big sister Cici by George.

Boys by George.

Dad Jim and big brother Steven by George.

Everyone by George.

George by George.

Mother's Day Craft

I got my first school-made present yesterday. Luke's class planted flower seeds (sweet peas, I think), painted pots and then transplanted the seedlings. Luke's teacher said he told everyone that he was painting "blueberry pie" on his pot. We added the stake at home. Luke's school doesn't do a lot of holiday stuff, so I was really surprised by the gift. I love it.

Boys vs. Mud

These pictures are from my cell phone, so they're not great. After school on Mondays, the kids are allowed to hang out and play on the 4-year-old's playground because there are no afternoon classes. Today the sandbox had a huge puddle in the middle of it. All of the kids got trashed. There were toddlers in diapers and rainboots covered in mud and lots of muddy bare feet. Michael had muddy water dripping off his nose and Luke had to drive home without pants. I'm very glad I keep a towel in my car. What a mess!

Spring at Innis Woods Park

seems like summer already

Here are some random pictures from this weekend. We had our first real heat wave. It was 85 today. We had our friends the Storcks over for dinner on Saturday. Isabel really wanted me to take pictures of the bubbles they were blowing, but when the camera was ready there were no bubbles and when there were bubbles, the camera wasn't ready. All the kids played outside until 9pm! Then nobody slept because the house was too hot. Today we turned on the a/c for the first time. We went to church and then to Lowe's where the boys drove tractors. Then we came home and Michael slept while the rest of us worked on various yard projects. Overall, a great, but exhausting weekend!

Belated Earth Day Post

I want to show off all of the eco-friendly stuff that Matt has built in the past few weeks:

We have four raised garden beds. Each is 4 x 4 and divided into 16 squares according to the square foot gardening method. We don't know much about gardening, so it was nice just to buy a book and follow the directions. So far, so good. These are the spring crops of cabbage, peas, spinach, mesclun, strawberries and radishes. Lots more to come with crazy trellices and everything. Good thing the book came with a plan for cages because, as my friend Diane's Facebook status line read last week "squirrels are a**holes."

These are our two compost bins made from garbage cans with holes drilled all around them. They don't smell at all (which means it's working). I'm still a little grossed out by collecting all of the kitchen scraps in a bowl and then emptying it each night, but I'll get over it, especially when the compost finishes and we can use it to help out the terrible soil in the front where nothing will grow.

This is one of our two new rain barrels that Matt built. They collect runoff from the roof and have spiggots for filling watering cans and hooking up a hose. We'll use the water mainly for the garden.

Good job, sweetheart, the boys and I are proud of all of your hard work!

The "old" park

The weather was beautiful last Saturday--it hasn't been nice since. Matt was at a conference, so I took the kids to the "old" playground at Whetstone. This equipment used to be up by the library, but it was moved a couple of years ago to make way for new equipment which just opened up. The new stuff is nice, but the old stuff is fun and nostalgic since Luke has been playing on it since before he could walk. There is one ramp that I can remember Luke and his friend Abigail both falling down within moments of each other when they were about a year old. I tried to get Luke to pose by it for a picture, but he was too busy on the slide! Michael loves the sand, but his patience for the sunhat is limited.

Michael's birthday playdate

We had some friends over today to celebrate Michael's birthday, albeit a bit late. I didn't take nearly enough pictures. There were kids and babies and kids and babies! The weather was awesome. It was great to be outside. And look . . . girls! We don't get to see many tutus at our house.

Easter gifts

The Easter Bunny brought Luke a much-begged-for weed trimmer and brought Michael a leaf blower. Both came with "safety goggles" which the kids wore all day long despite the fact that they left big red lines all over their faces.

Following Nan's instructions to eat the chocolate bunny "ears first."

Showing off his new trowel from Poppy and Nan, which Luke thought made an excellent sword.

Easter Egg hunts

On Saturday morning, my friend Kendra hosted an Easter Egg hunt for the EBC kids. It was a lot of fun. Luke was very fast and serious. Michael did a good job finding the eggs, but then kept dragging the basket on the ground and losing them. On Sunday morning, we did it all again in our backyard!

Great Grandpa Bo

My grandfather Jimbo and his wife Sheryl came to visit for the long Easter weekend. The boys had a great time with Grandpa Bo and Auntie Sheryl. And the grown ups had a nice evening out on Friday night thanks to my friend Sharleen who watched the kids and got this picture of all of us.

Then on Saturday night, Bo and Sheryl watched the kids so Matt and I could attend Easter Vigil, where I was officially received into the Roman Catholic church. It was a beautiful service and a wonderful night with my husband.

Second Birthdays

Lately, everyone has been telling me how much the boys look alike. I still don't see it so much, but looking at these pictures of each of them on their second birthdays, you can definitely tell they're brothers.

Happy Birthday, Michael!

This is his "big" gift from mommy and daddy, a massive parking garage. It was pretty much "total assembly required" and I think we did a good job!

CAKE!!

PRESENTS!

Playing at Galaxy Games and Golf this morning with friends.

Happy 2nd Birthday, my sweet angel!