birthday gift

Luke got this great "transforming" tricycle from us as his big birthday gift. It can be a large trike or a big wheel and, since Matt was out of town, I built it all by myself!

Nan was here . . .

And we really enjoyed her visit. I don't think we would have survived Daddy's trip to England without her. I'm pretty sure we wore her out! We love you, Nan! Come back soon and bring Poppy!

Buddies

Luke and Jennie played together twice last week at parks. They had such a good time together. This picture is from Blendon Woods, but the best was watching them at another park. They were both taking special care of their little friends--for Jennie it was a stuffed cat and for Luke it was Bumblebee. No, not some cute and cuddly stuffed insect, but a large transformer robot. It was hilarious to see them pushing their "babies" in the swings.

Haven't been very good . . .

at blogging lately. I think it's because there's a nagging sadness at the back of my mind that I've been avoiding blogging about. But since most folks who read this have already heard either on Facebook or on the mommy board, I guess I may as well just post it and get it over with. Our doggie is not doing well. Gavin the Greyhound turned 12 over the weekend (at least we think he did, we've never been totally sure about his birthdate). He's been in slow decline over the past few months, but he's gotten much worse over the past 2-3 weeks. We're not sure how much longer he'll be with us, but we'll love him as long as we have him.

Michael Bolton is . . .

. . . officially Michael's new nickname. Yep, he's a bolter. Sidewalks. Parks. Parking lots. You name it, he bolts across it, giggling like a madman as you shout and chase him. I used to think that Luke 'went through a bolting phase.' Nope. Not compared to this. Well, at least daddy's back now to help with the chasing!

Birthday playdate

My friend Ellen hosted a birthday playdate for Luke and her son Ethan whose birthday is a few days after Luke's. There were cupcakes and bikes to ride and cars to drive. What could be better? What the camera doesn't capture is the absolute mayhem, especially when Michael and Ethan's little sister Mya would get caught in the traffic jams! There were a couple of minor vehicle vs. pedestrian incidents (we did have to pull Mya out from under the jeep once) and lots of near misses!

Chuck E. Cheese's

On Wednesday night, we went to Chuck E. Cheese's for the first time since I was a little girl myself. It was smaller than I remember, but maybe the one in Denver was bigger or maybe I was just a lot smaller then, too! We met Luke's best friend Eli and his mom Sharleen and sister Sadie there. The kids had fun. Luke and Eli played air hockey a lot. They were surprisingly good. Michael figured out how to get into the big tunnel on the ceiling by climbing up the slide and nearly gave us a heart attack before we found him. Then, Nan kept him company while he rode the Stuart Little ride about a million times. He was less excited about meeting the other mouse--Chuck E. Cheese. Michael ran straight into him and then started screaming like a banshee. It was the funniest thing I have seen in a long time, although I probably shouldn't laugh at my child's terror. Overall, a fun night, but definitely a "once in a while" kind of place.

Happy Birthday, Luke!

Luke is four years old today! I can't believe it. I'll have to post the pictures of last night's trip to Chuck E. Cheese and this morning's playdate later as I left my camera at the playdate! Our video camera is also out of discs--so what was I left with this evening? Luke's birthday gift from Nan--a real digital camera. It's a kid's vtech model, so the pictures are "cell phone" quality. We celebrated with our neighbors and had a great time even if we got caught in a crazy downpour as we were trying to clean up.

The really cool thing about the camera is that it shoots video. Blurry video, but video nonetheless--with sound even, which is an improvement over my real camera.

Memorial Day

Monica and Manuel, our very good friends and Michael's godparents, invited the boys and I out to Granville today. We went to the shortest Memorial Day parade ever. Then, we joined the parade and all made our way to the Granville cemetery. Turns out sober speeches and two-year-olds don't mix. Michael ran all over the place. It would have been terrible except that Monica (who teaches at Dennison) hired a student to help watch the kids! How awesome is that? She chased Michael every time he bolted! But eventually, it was just too much and we went back to the Martinez house where the student continued to chase Michael while Luke and Tomas played together. Luke and Tomas are hit or miss, but today they had a good day and Luke even got some birthday presents. We came home tired and happy and ready to see Nan tomorrow.

Prayers to St. Christopher

We said goodbye to Matt on Saturday. He'll be in England for the next two weeks teaching an intensive British History course to ODU students. Wasn't I the one that got a PhD in British History? Doesn't he study France? Hmmm. Oh well, he's escorting ten never-been-out-of-Ohio students, so he has his hands full. Before he left, he gave Luke a St. Christopher medal to match his own, so now Luke is saying prayers to St. Christopher for his daddy. Tonight Luke even remembered to ask the archangel Raphael to take the prayers up to God (Raphael is on the back of the medal). Safe travels, Matt! We miss you! And safe travels to Nan, who arrives tomorrow for her longest visit ever!! Woo-hoo!

First and Last . . .

. . . days of school on the Big Rock.

Last Day of School

Luke finished his second year at the School for Young Children today. We are officially done with the 3's class and onto the 4's (and next year, Michael will start the 2's). The best part about SYC is that at the end of the year, each kid gets a folder full of drawings, photos and commentary from the year. Some of it is so funny. I am going to take pictures of some of the contents and post them later.

Even though we know we'll be back next fall and we'll probably be spending some time at school over the summer since I'm on the playground committee, it's always bittersweet to end the year. Luke will be in a different room next year and will have different teachers. It was especially sad to say goodbye to Chelsea, Luke's small group leader. She'll be teaching afternoons next year, so we won't get to see her. Chelsea is an amazing teacher, she had some of the more colorful kids in her group (especially Luke) and she just seemed to "get" them. She celebrated Luke and all of his quirks and he really blossomed under her care. We will miss her lots!

Niagara Falls

We've started to realize that Luke is old enough to appreciate experiences now. Driving from the cottage to Toronto after dark on Monday evening, he was amazed to see fireworks going off all over the place. It was Victoria Day in Canada. He was even more amazed to see his parents suddenly decide to chase the fireworks rather than rush him home and put him to bed. After that experience, we decided it would be fun to stop at Niagara Falls on the way home from Toronto. It was hideously expensive for a stop that took less than an hour ($20 per car), but it was worth it to see Luke's face. He couldn't take his eyes off the water. Michael, on the other hand, preferred to chase the sea gulls.

At Granddad's cottage

Granddad and Grandma Sylvia have a beautiful cottage on Georgian Bay in Ontario. The boys love it there. Unfortunately, temperatures in the forties and 60mph winds do not make for a great visit, but we braved the outside anyway. Matt and Luke discovered that the dock (which couldn't be put in this weekend because it was too cold) made a great pirate ship. For the rest of the weekend, we took on pirate personas and Luke referred to us by our pirate names. Matt was "Captain," Luke was "First Mate," Michael was "Lookout Boy" and I was alternately "Pirate Girl" and "Girl Pirate." Luke stayed up late Sunday night asking questions about when daddy and Uncle Chris were little boys and got in trouble and he even got Granddad to tell the story of when he got his foot caught in a sewer pipe when he was a little boy. Thankfully, our second day was much nicer weather-wise. Still chilly, but sunny and no wind. Michael couldn't resist wading. There was more pirate play and lots of rock throwing and rock collecting. And there were birthday gifts to play with--Luke got a scooter from Granddad and Michael got a tractor. It was a lovely, quiet day together.

Martyrs Shrine

We made a whirlwind trip to Matt's dad's cottage on Georgian Bay this weekend. We had one day of crazy windy cold weather and one day of beautiful weather. On the crazy windy cold day, we went to The Martyrs' Shrine, a Roman Catholic shrine dedicated to eight Jesuit martyrs who lived and died among the Hurons 350 years ago. It was especially nice to get to say a prayer at the shrine of Blessed Kateri as Matthew recently lost a friend who was a Dominican sister and had taken the name Kateri. The place is huge with lots of statues to run around, ladders to climb and a giant sculpture of rosary beads. The boys loved running circles around it and Luke begged for his own set of rosary beads to take home. How many people can say their kid begged for rosary beads? And he demanded that they have "Jesus on the cross part, not a plain cross." Something tells me that Luke is going to make a good Catholic.

School Picnic

Last Wednesday was Luke's school picnic. It worked out great because Grandma Carole was visiting, so she got to come to the picnic, too. The teachers put on a show and the kids had a great time even though it was chilly and drizzly.

Class Picture

This is Luke's class picture. There are 18 kids in his class. One boy was visiting family in India when the photo was taken--so they held up a picture of him. Hilarious. By the way, the little girl that Luke is planning on marrying is sitting in the front row with the red dress and jeans (she always wears both). For months, Luke has said that he will marry Matilda "because she's a girl." And they will move into our house and live with us. Lucky us.

Mother's Day

I had a great Mother's Day. We went to breakfast and then to Slate Run Historical Farm. I got to nap for a while in the afternoon. Matt and the boys made me a great dinner. And Matt got me a wireless router, so that I can finally get internet access on the laptop he bought me months ago. I'll still be blogging from the desktop (as long as it holds out) since that's where the pictures are, but it will be quite a luxury to check email and do facebook from the couch or the bed!

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