This and That

Around the neighborhood: 

Friday night hang outs with the neighbors are still going strong. Hide and Seek. wiffle ball, or just hanging out. These kiddos have had so much fun together through the months. I am thankful for their friendships and for my own time hanging out with their parents on Friday nights. It's something to look forward to at the end of every week. 

In other neighbor news... fidgets are all the rage these days. Do your kids love them? I feel like I blinked and fidgets were everywhere! My kids are constantly begging to use their saved birthday and holiday gift cards on them. Each kiddo keeps their fidgets in their own container and spends each afternoon trading them with one another. My vocabulary has definitely been enlightened in the last few weeks by new words like: wacky tracks, infinity cubes, and pop its. 

The kids and I cleaned out the playhouse from its winter use of outdoor cushion storage. I love how spending just an hour or two organizing this little play house breathes a whole new life into it each season. Now Donovan and Emmerson want to be in here reading or doing art each afternoon. 

What are we doing while they're in the playhouse, you ask? Oh, you know... just sharing a tub of ice cream right on the kitchen floor together. Don't tell brother and sis!

Our backyard garden has been thriving. I don't have any pictures of it at the moment. But here is Donovan sharing a sweet reward for his patience. We have lots of herbs, tomatoes, squash, carrots, and lettuce growing. It's been a fun experience as always waiting it blossom. We're not quite reaping the rewards of the harvest yet... but in a few weeks I am certain we will have a bounty to enjoy.

Speaking of fruitful gardens, we are in love with Oma's weekly gift of fresh sweet peas from her garden. There is no better smell than these pretty little flowers. 

Other random pictures from this month. My little trooper that has to wake up earlier than her brother and sister each morning to get dropped off at preschool by Daddy on his way to work. She is such a good spot. These early morning wake ups get harder as the week goes on. I love her so!

Although spring sports have kept our week night afternoons pretty packed, we've still managed to squeeze in good family time, too. 

This impromptu dance party complete with old high school and college uniforms was a real treat, I tell you. I realized two things that evening. Number one, I am SO out of shape. Number two, I love this silly family SO much!

In other random news of May, it was Teacher Appreciation week a few weeks ago and I got spoiled! Just look at these adorable sugar cookies that one of my students brought in. I felt so loved and was humbled by the generosity of my parents. 

Teacher Appreciation week coincided with Mother's Day weekend. The kids painted these adorable bird houses for their grandmothers. 

Taylor made me the cutest things from preschool. I will treasure this little flower face forever. 

And aren't these little interviews the absolute best? Who knew my great talent was making chicken nuggets. 

Mother's Day was a simple, relaxing day. We all went to watch Donovan play baseball and then had a yummy taco dinner at home for Sunday supper. I am so very thankful for my Momma who has lifted me up in more ways than I can count this year. She is so strong, so compassionate, and my very best friend. 

And perhaps the best Mother's Day gift of all this year was that Grammie came back down to celebrate with us! What a gift these women are to me. Their love for me and for our children is the greatest blessing. 

And let's round out the post with some sports because goodness knows this is the real event of the past month. Here are a few pictures of when we finally snuck over to watch Daddy coaching at the high school. 

Emmerson's softball schedule ramped up this month to multiple practices and games each week. As tiring as the schedule can feel, it really does allow for some undivided family time outside in the afternoons and for that I am thankful. 

Taylor and I even got in some writing practice. I am going to miss when this magical stage is over. She is so excited to convert the letter sounds that she knows into words. It's the cutest thing ever!

And playing catch with this boy is also an afternoon highlight at the softball field. D is so much fun to hang out with. At 10 he is just an all around cool kid. 

Emmerson's season wrapped up last week. She hit her first grand slam in her final game. She was so proud of herself and we could hardly contain our excitement for her!

The most supportive fans!

Today we celebrated the season with her teammates. It was cold and drizzly but that didn't stop these fierce little gals. Way to go, White Hawks!

 And that my friends, caps off the last few weeks for us. Busy school days, busy sports days, but summer is on the horizon. Wishing you all a wonderful week ahead! 

xo

February Wrap Up

A million pictures taken by my very old phone in the month of February. Here we go, folks! 

Emmerson started her first season of softball and thanks to her big brother, she was very prepared. She's taken right to it and is having a blast this season!

 Her team is the Pink Unicorns.

 And all of her best friends from school are on it. 

 Taylor is always like a little tornado during every practice and game. Usually she is trying to climb up the most sketchy ladders on the playground equipment which keeps me constantly on my toes. But I did sneak this cute moment at Emmerson's first game when Taylor wanted to be with Em so much that she held her hand through the fence outside the dugout. 

This ball player is up and running, too. He is on the Dodgers this year for rec. To be clear, there are no Dodger fans in this household... but I do think this boy looks pretty handsome in royal blue. He is also playing on his Stallions team again this season. 

 Multiple practices a week and games/practice on both Saturday and Sunday are definitely keeping our calendar filled. These two have been such good sports with the few late nights we've had so far at the ball field. Here they are happily pretending to be dogs sitting atop the tables. 

This month, Dustin built this sweet shelf for Donovan's room using a very old shelf top that my Dad had handmade for my brother in 1984. Such a sweet thing for him to have in his room to display his ever growing collection of hats and bauble head dolls. 

Dustin's coaching season at the high school is busy these days, too. That means that I am rushing home from work to get Taylor in the afternoons and parking myself right here on the driveway until it gets dark each night. The neighbors usually find their way over to our house and the kids have such a fun time playing. Last week was all about chalk drawing, learning how to skate on rip-sticks, and playing four square. 

 Emmerson and Donovan have been reading like crazy this month! Emmerson read her very first chapter book all by herself. And Donovan has suddenly taken to the Harry Potter series and he won't put it down! He's read through the first 3 books this month and is about half way through book 4. He is absolutely reading obsessed and it blows my mind. 

Here we are on a typical weekday evening... tired, silly, and loving every minute of the chaos. 

Except I must say, I am quickly reminded of how challenging it is to parent without my other half. Last Saturday morning as I rushed to get Emmerson ready for pictures and the rest of the kids ready to go to her game, I let out a big "uuuuuugggggghhhh!" groan when Taylor ripped out the pigtails I had just laboriously put in her hair. Guess who is now saying "uuuuuuuggggghhhhh!" (with teeth grinding together on the regular.... you guessed it. Three year olds keep you real humble, let me tell you. She even told me, "This is what I say when I am fus-tated." Insert eye roll here. 

 Thankfully my man is always back in time for bedtime tuck ins. I took this picture the other night when I realized amongst all the chaos of this time of night that I am really going to miss these wild and crazy routines when they all become so independent that they no longer need our help anymore. 

 The sweetest girl dad ever also loves to read to his daughters before bed every night as I crawl into Donovan's to read beside him. These days are long and often exhausting... but I truly am so very thankful for them. 

 We enjoyed a sweet Valentine's Day mid-month. We kicked it off with some small gifts for our little valentines. One of which was Taylor's Paw Patrol hat which fortunately I bought! We had been buzzing through Target one day picking up a gift for Donovan's friends' birthday party and Taylor was begging for me to get her that hat when she saw it in the kid section. I tried to distract her from her incessant begging by saying, "Not today, Tay... we'll see, maybe for Valentine's Day." Well, fast forward two weeks later and Valentine's morning, in walks Taylor asking, "It's Valentine's Momma, where's my hat?" This child and her memory. Emmerson got a set of perler beads that literally became the thing of the long weekend. We all had fun working on it together. Donovan got a new shirt and the Harry Potter movies.  

 We opted for breakfast at a fun local spot. 

 And then spent the rest of the day being pretty lazy at home. Dustin and Donovan had a baseball practice in the evening so the girls and I got dinner ready for our valentines. 

 Heart shaped pizzas were on the menu. Neither of the girls like pizza. In fact, they don't like anything I make these days. But we have a new family rule that goes like this: Every night when we sit down we have to say, "Thanks Mom, for making us dinner"... and then take one bite. If we hate it, we can just sit there and not eat anymore. But we can no longer comment on how disgusting it is or how much we hate ____. One of the girls has taken to the new rule... one smaller one with the very strong will, has not. :) 

 We still had a blast making them and seeing how they came out. 

 There is no way I would rather spend the day of love than with these cuties!

 We also got together with our cousins for a big family birthday party combining all of the January and February birthdays. We always love going to Uncle Jonathan's and Aunt Jill's house. Their backyard makes us feel like we're on vacation and lucky for us, it was a gorgeous, sunny day. 

 Ed and Renee brought over some fresh shrimp. 

 And we had soooo much dessert including our very favorite Grammie cake! 

 Happy Birthday, guys!

 Oma brought the coolest candle ever that rotated and then opened up with a bunch of candles inside. It even sang happy birthday in a high pitched electronic tone. The even better part of this scenario came when Uncle Dustin took the candle after it had been extinguished and hid it deep inside of the bathroom cabinets of Aunt Jill and Uncle Jonathan who were haunted by the never ending birthday song for hours after the party ended until they finally realized Dustin had hidden it. Good times, good times. 

 I loved finding a whole series of these pictures in my camera roll when the girl cousins took my phone and opted to take cousin selfies for days inside Taylor's new princess castle. 

And also, for the record: I am not okay with my beautiful, first born niece turning 10 a few days ago. I just can't even believe it!

One last selfie. Here I am, yesterday. I was able to sneak away for an entire Saturday to go to a math conference in San Diego! I have been so fortunate to learn so much this year and especially enjoyed getting to see many of my favorite math edu-heroes in one space. It was awesome! 

Now onto a new month, a new week, a whole lot more baseball/softball. 

I am ready for it!