Scab Nose

I should mention, Asher's face is a result of a face plant on the pebbletec surface of the first step of our pool.  He was reaching in to splash and tipped forward before i could grab him.  Poor little guy.

Saturday School

We had quite the day today! Of course it started around 4:30 am because my kids (Benton) want me to go crazy. We didn't get up and stay up until 5:45, but then got started on the boys chores.

  Ethan had his school's annual Saturday School from 8:15-10:15 where they do standardized test practice.  While he was gone, I watched my friend's kids while they loaded their moving truck.

  When they left, I took Ethan, Benton, and Brinklee to the school carnival.  They had inflatable fun, got their hair and face painted, snacked, got balloon animals, etc.  My favorite part was getting cute photo booth pictures with Benton; I will be hanging these up somewhere.

The kids were all really good, so it was fun!  This is notable because it seems like I am in a stage that includes lots of activities for the kids, but I don't often get to enjoy them much because I am putting so much effort into coordinating them.  We came home and went for a chilly swim to recover from hours in the 90* heat.  I'm excited for pool season to start again!

I know I'm really going to miss this stage someday, so I try to enjoy it, but sometimes it is easier than others.  I'm glad today ended up being enjoyable, despite the sleepiness!

College Date Night

Last night we went on a date with Ethan. We took him to Wells Fargo to open a college account.  We are going to put money in it for his good grades each quarter. Then we went to ASU to show him what a college looks like.  These activities never go as smoothly as planned (tired kid, traffic, too long of a wait at the restaurant, didn't have his SSN, etc.), but I think it was still a positive experience.  This ended up being the only picture I captured.  We were hurrying back before our meter ran out at ASU.

Spring Break!

Spring Break started on a Friday.  We started the day with chores and an exercise playgroup, then we all went to Pump It Up.  This is Ethan creating an Angry Bird tower (I suggested he think of his creations more like Angry Bird towers so he wouldn't be so crushed when someone knocked them down).

 I can't remember what we did Saturday, maybe played in the pool?  Probably chores...Mike has also been spending a lot of time cleaning up our rental house.

Monday: Children's Museum

 and free ice cream at DQ.

 Tuesday: Zoo (thank you POGO Pass) to find as many animals as we could from the Angry Birds Rainforest book that Ethan and I had read recently.

 We stayed for about 5 hours, way past our usual cut off, so Asher crashed.  Benton struggled too since I didn't bring a double stroller.  They ran in the splashpad at the end and had a great time.

 We went to Scooptacular on the way home to get some cool treats.  It wasn't St. Patrick's Day, so I went green.

Wednesday: Ethan had Lego club at school and the rest of us followed our usual grocery shopping and gym routine.

Thursday:  Playdate at the Johnson's while I went to the gym, story time at the library, and I went shopping after everyone was in bed to get jean shorts for the first time in over a decade.

Friday: Exercise playdate and Castles N Coasters (thanks POGO Pass) with the whole family.  The boys did go karts, bumper boats, mini golf (which they were very excited about), a log ride, etc.  Ethan even did his first "real roller coaster".  The loops hurt both of our heads.

 Asher mostly hung out in the stroller.  He did like standing at this fountain though.

 No hands!

 Saturday: Playdate with the Johnsons, I went to a movie with friends, and then I took the three boys to the skating rink.  We were there for almost two hours and went around 10 times.  Ethan's shirt lies...

And Monday, we went back to a normal school schedule!

Lately

We introduced Asher to the water table; it is much better for splashing than the toilet (which he can now open).

 We went to Read Across America Day at Ethan's school.  After a short assembly, I took a few kids from his class and we read outside on a blanket.

 The boys got to wear their matching swim suits Nana got them last summer (Asher's didn't fit last year).

 Asher has been excited about standing up.

 Ethan decorated the bathroom mirror.  Annoying, but funny, especially since he wrote his name.

 Every Thursday we go to story time at the library.  One week they had a Cat in the Hat craft.  Benton listened to the instructions and then started without asking any questions.  I decided to not try to get him to do it right and to just watch unless he asked for help.  He was very focused and did the whole thing himself.  It wasn't exactly right, but he was very proud.  He is very different in the "sit and focus" department than Ethan was at this age.

 Benton dresses himself now.  "3 shirts, 2 underwear" no pants.

 Asher is still cute and starting to have some separation anxiety.  He isn't happy when I drop him off at Kids Klub lately.

 Asher has formed an attachment to Curious George.

 Benton, Asher, and I went to the zoo with our friends the Bennett's.

 It isn't as easy for Asher to squeeze naps in between my outings, but he still does pretty well.  This is at the gym.  We do the gym 3 days/week.

 Asher got under the chair, but couldn't get out.  This could come in handy next time I want to take a shower without him joining me...

 I think Asher explores more than my other boys did.  It is cute to watch him crawl all over the house.

 A few weeks ago I started an exercise playgroup.  2 days/week we meet at a park and exercise while the kids play.  Sometimes it is right at nap time.  This Monday I only got to exercise because there were several older girls there with their moms who helped with Asher.  He crashed as soon as we started jogging home.

 We are lucky to have really cute friends over for playdates regularly.  These two were eating lunch outside and in between bites they'd take turns laying on the table while the other one tickled their tummy through the umbrella hole.

 I got pull out shelves!  Our first house came with pull out shelves, so I got spoiled.  When I moved in here and every cabinet had little half shelves, I did not like how much harder it was to get to things and organize.

 On Monday, I took everything out of 19 cabinets and then got to reorganize those, plus more.

Another different thing about this house is the cabinet pantry.  Food would get lost in the back and it was very hard to organize.  Now I can see and get to everything!

 And the boys' craft supplies are very accessible.

 I also got to move their cups, bowls, and cereal within reach, so they can get their own breakfast now.

 I've missed having my commonly used dishes so handy!

And to top it all off, when Ethan unloaded the dishwasher this morning, he was able to put almost everything away!  Yay!