Happy Mother's Day

I often think its odd that I'm a mom - I alway think that because I'm the youngest in my family, I'm really not that old and grown up. Odd, I know but true. And now I look at the above picture and think 'wow' those are my children! I'm proud to be their mom and they are pretty good kids. I can't imagine our lives without them! Mother's day is not only a day in which we are celebrated (and now being a mom, I totally understand why Mother's day exists!), but it is a great day to say thanks for the chance to be a mom.

Before church the boys gave me this for Mother's day (because they forgot the other item I had hinted about wanting). I think they did a great job of picking out a meaningful bead to add to my bracelet. [Bill did a great job getting me the bracelet for Christmas as it is easy to get me a gift - just add a bead to my collection!]

We went to church and stayed for the brunch sponsored by the youth. We put bids in on 2 items and won both: a round of golf and carts for 4 here in town (which will be used when my brother's family comes in June) and a cedar vase made by a member of our church:

(I also won the little vase of flowers as a door prize.) He has made vases before for the auction and we never put a bid in before today. I was pretty excited when I woke up from my nap to find that in our kitchen! The picture does not do justice - it is beautiful. I made 2 baby hats and put them in the silent action too; I'm not sure who ended up with them though.

Following brunch I took a nap which was great because after my nap I was back in charge of the kiddos. Adam needed to finish up the landscaping as we are expected to get some rain so having the lawn seeded would be great before a nice rain. I did manage to try out my other Mother's day gift:

Just kidding, we did buy it last night though. Our hand me down 1980's Lawnboy was spitting out more oil and would eventually burn our grass that we've worked so hard for (the whole back yard was a 'rock pond' when we bought the house). So rather than try and squeeze one more year out of it, we went shopping for a new one last night. I was pretty excited because we left the kids at Dahlen's so we could get dinner and make an evening out of it - until we realized it was Prom! So all the nice restaurants you would go to w/o your kids were full of brightly colored (ugly) dresses and their vest matching dates. So after spending way too much time trying to find a nice place to eat we were so hungry and didn't want to rush thru a dinner that we paid good money for, we ended up at Chipolte! (It is actually a place we rarely go to w/ the boys b/c there isn't much for Gerrit to eat there at this point - he hasn't mastered eating a taco well.) So we enjoyed chips and guac. and our burrito bowls, the only thing missing was a margarita and I looked to see if they sold them in a bottle, but they don't. We sat at a high table too which we couldn't do if we had the kids. So even though it was not Victoria's (our 1st choice) it was still dinner w/o the boys.

And now both boys are tucked in and I'm able to sit down for the 1st time since my nap. During dinner Adam thanked me for watching the kids on my 'day off' so he could finish up the yard. It better rain these next 2 days! Now we can finally concentrate on getting the hoop up!

Spelling Words

This week I have been a mother to 4. We are watching Luke and Paul for a few days while their parents are at a conference up north. It is pretty easy to watch them because they actually watch my boys!

Tonight Luker was busy practicing his spelling words with me. (Odd that he is doing this with me, I was never a big fan of spelling tests and am thankful for spell check these days!) When he finished, Gerrit took the pad of paper and pen and said he needed to write his spelling words too. [A bunch of scribble marks on the paper were Gerrit's words.]

After playing for a bit, Gerrit came upstairs and said he needed to do his spelling again. I later found him sitting at the computer desk where he had written on some mail (luckily nothing important!).

I hope he is as excited about spelling words in 4th grade as he is now.

Not Quite Done

Just when I thought getting a new driveway/sidewalk would be an easy job with little work on our part:

I didn't think about the mess that would be left to deal with. The picture on the left shows how much space there is between the lawn and sidewalk. Rather than building a retaining wall, we thought we'd take a few layers off the lawn and make it flush with the sidewalk. Saturday afternoon, Adam chewed up the yard (part of it). We 'hired' Paul to come and help move the soil to low spots around the driveway. A little more tilling and then we can plant the grass seed. I spend the day keeping Gerrit out of the way and Emmit happy - I don't know who was more exhausted, Adam or me!

Many cars slowed down to see what Adam was doing and one neighbor rolled down his window and asked if we were planting corn!

The Park

We went to the park (playground of the Lutheran school) nearby as a family. It has been a while since we all went to the park together. Emmit of course watched from the stroller.

Need for Speed

Gerrit is actually slower and more cautious on his new bike. He walks it down hills and will sometimes try and stop by putting his feet down. He loves to stand up and ride and has gotten more comfortable trying to stop by pedaling backwards. When he has the whole stop concept down, we will take the training wheels off (maybe by the end of summer?).

Almost Done

This is my new favorite place to sit. I can see Gerrit a lot better (a greater distance) when I sit here. Nick and Shorty had this done so the boys have more room to ride their bikes...little did we know how much we and others really like it! It turned out great.

All that is left is to fix the edges of the lawn...easier said than done!

Shadow

A friend called Gerrit Adam's 'shadow'. She said every time she drives by our house she always sees Gerrit doing what Adam is doing. I had never really thought about it, but when she said 'shadow', I had to laugh because it is true.

Gerrit loves to do what Adam is doing. It does not matter what Adam is doing, Gerrit needs to do it to - from wearing the same cycling clothes, to mowing the lawn and other yard work.

Here are recent photos of Adam and his shadow prepping the yard for more landscaping!