Glorious Friday

I'm feeling slightly guilty that we finished school today by 10:30am and enjoyed a bike ride and playtime outside until lunch. Don't worry though. We accomplished math workbooks, speed drills, flash cards, 2 grammar tests, spelling, spelling test, reading assignments, typing lesson, Bible, daily notebook, handwriting and phonics workbooks. (We start science and social studies next week.)

Two older brothers speeding away as fast as they can. I zoomed my camera in.

I'm SO thankful for this rare occurrence of ALL three boys being eager and motivated with their schoolwork!!! When I say rare, I mean rare! This is a gift from God and just what I needed after a very emotionally exhausting day yesterday. Could the weather be any more wonderful? 83, low humidity and sunny with a nice breeze!!

Aaron peddling as hard as he can to catch up to his brothers in the distance.
It's not fair that his bike tires are so much smaller!

Last Day to be 8!

How can my first born be turning 9 tomorrow? I should be sleeping, but instead I'm reminiscing.

Luke - 2 years old

4 years old

Seven and the last day of being EIGHT!

I'm so thankful for a great afternoon exploring a new park and celebrating Luke's last day as an eight year old. He made sure to wear his 8 shirt, since he won't be able to wear it tomorrow. ;)

(Aaron thinks he is 5, but he has exactly two more months left!)

 Exploring with bikes, water, dirt and rocks...couldn't be any more fun for these guys!

 Super glad they kept the bike helmets on for all their stunts. ;)

 What a fabulous day! Can't wait to celebrate him being 9 tomorrow! 

Winter Wonderland

We had super fun yesterday in the unexpected snow. The forecasters were on again, off again and we all were so glad we ended up with about 3 1/2 inches. What a delightful surprise! 

It was blustery and the snow was very heavy and wet, but it didn't stop us from enjoying it. 

 Our walk around the neighborhood to find a sledding hill. 

The saucers worked great to protect our faces from the strong gusts of wind. 

Super fun to have Daddy home and thankful for his hard work shoveling the whole driveway. 

More Summer Fun!

My visions of a restful and relaxing summer didn't seem to pan out. 

With three active boys there is just too much fun to be had!! 

Someday I'll sit on our hammock, sipping my ice water, reading a book. ;) ha!

Until then, I'll cherish the time spent with my busy boys.

 In Maryland, celebrating cousin B's birthday party and enjoying 

Geo Trax with Uncle Jeffrey and family. 

 Playing ball with Daddy!

 And... one of our favorite locations this summer... the POOL!!! 

They were fearless and had so much fun on the diving board! 

Beautiful Butterflies

We enjoyed the reprieve from the heat on Thursday with a trip to the botanical 

garden in town, just me and the boys. We had a leisurely and delightful time! 

There is a butterfly exhibit that was wonderful. I just wish Ethan was not so scared of all outside creatures. He was terrified of bumblebees, wasps, dragon flies and the butterflies. 

 Pretty understandable considering his experience being attacked by hornets, 

but so sad for him to be so scared. He spent most of the time holding tightly to my arm. 

But check it out, he did break away for a bit to climb a tree! This was huge!

It was so nice to not be in a rush and to have no agenda. 

We just explored and went down any path that they wanted. 

 There was a wonderful and very old mulberry tree that they allow kids to climb. 

Other bystanders were a little surprised that the boys climbed so high and that I let them. 

This is one area I just let them go. They are usually quite cautious and good climbers so 

I let them get it out of their system. 

Here is our self-portrait!

Summer Fun

Here are some snapshots of our summer fun. 

Running races... definitely a favorite if it is not too hot. 

A great opportunity to practice humility as well as being a good winner and loser

Ethan shocked that he is edging out Luke for the win in this heat!

 Park visits:

Tree climbing BEFORE the hornet episode. 

 Slip n' slide:

This was super fun for about 30 minutes one hot afternoon. 

However, I'm disappointed to say that in only 30 minutes the sun was so hot that it completely burned out the grass under the slip n' slide. I was quick to remove it from the grass as soon as we were done, but by then the damage was already done. So... grass lovers beware... we have a rectangular patch of grass in the lovely shade of yellow to remind us of our 30 minutes of fun.

Stung

Ethan made the acquaintance of multiple hornets (or so we think) today and it was no fun!

While enjoying some tree climbing at a park, he began screaming loudly. I looked up to see him racing across the grass swatting and screaming and running. The image in my mind is from a Winnie the Pooh cartoon as Winnie is being chased by angry bees. I could literally see them trailing behind Ethan. I raced after him and joined him in the screaming fest while I madly tried to get all the buzzing creatures from his face, arms, shirt, legs, etc. All the while completely freaked out by touching the creatures and them touching me. There must have been 40 or more hornets all over him. Poor little guy ended up with 20+ stings. The sting on his eye lid caused significant swelling, but is thankfully looking a bit better tonight.  A completely terrifying experience and yet, I'm so thankful for God's protection. So thankful that Ethan did not have an allergic reaction and thankful for benadryl.

After lots of conversations with our pediatrician and poison control, I'm confident that Ethan is safe and healing. A little sad that due to the mass numbers of stings he is now in danger should he ever get stung again, but I am trusting God to again keep him safe.

As he went to bed tonight he said, "Mommy can you pray that I don't have any bad dreams about the hornets chasing and stinging me?"  Poor sweet little guy!

Hoops!

A little improvising to make a basketball lover happy. Thanks for your creativity Grammy!

Don't you love the socks? :)

Why I love this time of year...

We have had a lovely spring! Which means bike rides, park visits, picnics, 

lots of outside time and boys who rest well at night. 

Who knew feeding goats could be so much fun?

 When you have 6 boys playing together, climbing on rocks is irresistible...

 and it is SO hard to stay on the trail!

Super times with friends enjoying God's creation!