Mother's Day

I have had the most wonderful Mother's Day weekend. I woke up to flowers on Saturday morning (Rob worked late on Friday night and put them out so I'd see them when I woke up first thing). Then I had all morning to myself. I went back to bed for a couple of hours, took an uninterrupted shower (miracle of miracles!), read a book while I ate lunch and then bopped to the store to pick up some flowers to plant in the front of our house. I don't know why I've never planted flowers before. Maybe I thought they were too expensive, but they're really not. I bought some pretty pink and white impatiens and then found the most glorious purple heirloom rose bush and bought that as well. We gave the rose bush to our neighbor, Mrs. Moore, who is quite possibly the sweetest woman I've met. She always remembers my kids' birthdays and gives them Christmas presents and loves them like they're her own grandchildren. She has the most amazing garden each year and I wanted to not only give her something for Mother's Day but also something to remember us by after we move. Purple roses are my absolute favorite - when I was a girl taking ballet and tap classes, my folks would always give me a purple rose after each recital. They smell so heavenly! Anyway, I got to spend the afternoon with Mrs. Moore (and Chloe) while Rob took Caleb and Camille golfing. They spent all afternoon at the local golf course having a great time playing golf (Rob let the kids putt on the green), losing balls in the water traps, and riding around on the golf cart. I'm guessing that it wasn't busy on the course. Caleb has decided that regular golf is as much fun as mini golf.

Today Rob let me sleep in and then he and the kids woke me up with a fabulous breakfast - hash brown casserole, peach-coconut coffee cake and fruit salad - and I was not allowed to lift a finger all morning. Rob took care of the kids all morning, getting them ready for church, and I just had to worry about myself. And they gave me my Mother's Day cards - for some reason this year Rob has been into musical cards, the ones that play music when you open them. This card had Care Bears on it singing a lovely tune about being the best mommy. It was a hit with the whole family, particularly the three kids who all took turns opening it to hear the music. Even Chloe got in on the action - especially funny because every time she heard the music she would do her little bouncy baby dance that I love. Caleb made me a card at school - a cute one complete with fingerprint flowers. Camille made me a Mother's Day wreath at the library story hour last week with Ms. Carol (another benefit of being the only person there!). It was actually quite pretty, paper die cut flowers glued in on a paper wreath frame and tied with a big bow for hanging. And I got lots of Mother's Day wishes and hugs and kisses.

What a day!

Stories by Caleb

The following are some actual stories Caleb brought home from school this week. I have left the original spelling and punctuation. I am not going to copy in the pictures although, take my word for it, they are really quite good.

"I played baskitball. I beet my Dad! Ya! It was fun! Wooo!

"I wocked Transformrs. Oktmis Prim dide. Bumbl bee got to be the next lyter and then thay wun."

"I wont a sord. I wont a spire. I wont a club. I wont a aro and bo. I love wepins."

"I went too the dog wood festubl at my nana's and papa's. I rod on the rollr costr and the faris well and...then I jumpt in the pond."

"I went to the stor. I bot Irn Hid and Bone Crushr. Irn Hid beet him. I love Irn Hid and Bon Crushr!

When I went to the Dentist
by Caleb
I went to the dentist. I had no cavadys. I was helthy. Then I went to the pet sop to get me a cat. I was happy. Then we went home. And then I played with my cat. I LOVE my cat! It was fun. I go to bed with my cat. He plays with me everry day. He is cute.

Wedding Bells...

This is the actual conversation we had over breakfast.

C1: Mom, guess who I'm going to marry?
M: Who, Caleb? Is it Savannah or Hailey?
C1: Hailey!
M: Does she know?
C1: Yeah. I asked her and she said yes.
M: How did you ask her?
C1: We were in handwriting and I said, "Will you marry me?" and she said yes.
M: That's really nice, Caleb. Hailey is a nice girl.
C2: (whining) But I want to marry my brother.
M: Camille, you can marry another boy. You can't marry your brother.
C2: I'm not going to marry anyone except my brother. So there!

There you have it!

For the record...

There are only 13 days until I turn 29 again. (I'm not sure that I want to claim 30 this year.)

So all of you folks who plan to send me a birthday card, remember that the post office raises the price of stamps to 42 cents on May 12.

Tiny Dancer

So the other night at dinner Rob and I got into a rather heated discussion about the song Tiny Dancer by Elton John. Rob is notorious for singing the absolute most wrong words of a song, thinking, of course, that he's totally right. You should hear the crazy things he comes up with.

Anyway, for the record, it's: Hold me closer tiny dancer

NOT: Hold me closer I'm tired of dancing

Here are some snaps of our tiny dancer, having fun dancing in the driveway.



Here one may argue that she's trying to ride the broom, but I promise there was dancing involved!

Cute Baby

Chloe just loves playing outside, and it is becoming increasingly more fun as she figures out how to do more than eat sticks.

Here she is standing by her little walker. She loves to push this thing around the yard.


And here you can see she has branched out from sticks to chalk. Or whatever else she can find on the ground.

Get on the Bus!

Watching Caleb wait for the bus is the funniest thing. We can see the bus come down the street from our kitchen window so on cold or rainy or lazy mornings we just wait at the door until we see the bus before Caleb runs out to catch it. (It picks him up at the bottom of our driveway.) On nice mornings, however, he goes outside to wait - and when all the stars align at our house, the rest of us go with him.

Here are some snaps of Caleb waiting for the bus last week. Please notice his attire. You'll notice on this day he added a lovely pair of dinosaur socks pulled up as far as they'd go. Now that is what we call a fashion statement!





The kid is so excited to get on the bus!


We live at the bottom of a cul-de-sac so the bus picks Caleb up, drives down the street to pick up a couple of more kids and then turn around and head back past our house on the way to school. We like to wave to Caleb as he goes back by - Camille loves to do this and even Chloe gets into it now that she's figured out how to wave on cue!