Getting old

I just realized I haven't posted a picture of David sporting his new Coke bottle glasses. OK, they really aren't that horrible when you figure my eyes are 14 times as bad. However, to hear him talk, he needs a seeing eye dog and someone to chauffeur him around. I think he looks handsome in they and very Clark Kent-ish. He says he looks like a nerd. Same diff, right? (By the way, I have no idea what Owen is doing in the picture. He takes after David something fierce.)

Legos!

Christmas came early this year for the boys. I mentioned that we are in the market for Legos to my coteacher, Lynda. She said she might have some to unload and imagine my surprise when she brought over two huge totes of them tonight! Prying them out of the boys' hands before bed was quite the feat, let me tell you, but it was well worth seeing their happy little faces and hearing them chatter about what they want to build. Now we just need a Lego table to hold all their creations.

Bonnie Doon's

The boys had a field trip to Boonie Doon's ice cream factory in Elkhart today. I was lucky enough to sneak out from an all day meeting to go with them. Making ice cream is actually a pretty cool process and very simple. The boys were in awe of the huge walk in refrigerator and the pallets of ice cream. They speculated that it wouldn't take their Dad long to eat all the ice cream in the fridge. One of Owen's many girlfriends rode with us as well and she is in the pictures with us. He informed me when they get married, they will have cake AND ice cream at their wedding with Super Heroes on both.

Spelling

Owen just might be a future spelling bee champion. Today, on the way home, he asked me to ask him how to spell cookie. Playing along, I asked. His little voice chirped C-O-O-K-I-E. At this point, I became highly suspicious and asked him if he had a package of cookies or something he was reading off of. Imagine my surprise when he said he learned the word at school earlier. He can also spell cat, dog, mom, Gavin, on, no, off, and finally, dad. He informed me he wants to get a little notebook to "record all the words I can spell." Did I mention my kid is S-M-A-R-T?

It's here.

SPRING HAS ARRIVED!

My baby is getting big

Over the weekend Owen asked for some paper to make some pictures. He worked and worked for a while and kept telling us we couldn't look. Then he announced he'd made us some pictures for Easter and we "absolutely, positively should not look for them under the chair in the front room." We swore we wouldn't, because we already know he has our genes and cannot keep a surprise a secret for long. Monday, after we got home, the anticipation got to him and he gave us our pictures. My favorite is of our flower garden (bottom pic). He also practiced writing Mom and his version of Dad (we can't convince him it is not Dadad) on some of them all by himself. David looked at me like I was insane when I was reaching for a tissue to wipe my eyes. I'm a sap and I know it.

Things I'm going to do when my classes end.

I've spent a lot of time wishing I had more free time over the past year with my Masters classes. During this time, I've come up with a list of things I'm going to do as soon as June 28 rolls around. Topping that list are two things that will make my Mom happy: I'm going to learn to use my sewing machine and learn to either knit or crochet. The latter part will be a surprise for her because she has only been trying to teach me to crochet since I was six. I can make one heck of a single stitch chain (at least I think that is what it is called), let me tell you. As for the sewing, I think she bought me my sewing machine in 2000 and I don't even know how to thread it. Sad, I know. I also plan to get caught up on my scrapbooking. I haven't touched anything since Christmas and should feel overwhelmed by the looming pile of pictures I have right now. I'm not because I realize if I forced myself to sit down and do something with them, I wouldn't be as happy with the results. I want to take my time and do it right. Next, there is my never ending pile of Books I Must Read. It grows more gargantuan every day. And then there is the book I want to start writing, but that's a whole other story. ;-)

The sunshine today was so deceiving after the one and only day of spring last week. I was so sure it was warmer than it was today when I left school. Imagine my surprise when I almost blew across the parking lot! Even with the wind, the sunshine just added to my desire to get out in the yard and dig in the dirt. Owen and I spent forever yesterday pouring over a gardening catalog - dreaming about the trees, flowers, and plants we want. I'm pretty sure we'd need 20 acres to accomplish it all. Even Gav got into it picking out things he thought we needed because "we live on a farm" now. My personal favorite suggestion was his insistence that we "need a rooster for our farm." I am fairly certain the neighbors might object to rising to its crowing every morning. I know I would! I tried explaining this to Mr. I Rise At 6 A.M. Because I Can and he didn't get it at all. He also wants to "park his horse in the garage." Who am I to argue with a toddler - especially one who informed me it had to park in the garage because we don't have a barn?

A taste of spring

Spring stopped by this afternoon and, as soon as we got home, we went out to play in the backyard until David got home. The boys loved racing around and playing with all of their forgotten toys. Gav discovered he can climb the climbing walls on the swing set and Owen was thrilled to play with his beloved sandbox. He also practiced T ball in preparation for practice starting next month. I hope spring comes back soon.

Big Boy and the Polka Dot Kid

When I picked up the boys from daycare today, Gavin was sporting a crown that proclaimed he's a big boy now and Owen had polka dots all over his face in various colors. I'll start with the crown first. Gav went two weeks without having any accidents at school, so today Miss Shelli gave him his official big boy crown and let him pick a surprise from the treasure chest. He thinks he is really cool stuff and has yet to take his crown off. His new Matchbox car is also an item causing much envy from Owen.

On to Owen's polka dots, which were not caused by envy of said car as one who knows him well might assume. Dr. Seuss's birthday is this month and his class read Put Me In the Zoo with Gavin's. The animal in the book wants to live at the zoo, but he has a unique talent of changing his spots to different colors. He ends up joining the circus. To go along with the book, the teachers put red, yellow, green, and purple spots on the faces of all the kids who wanted them. Owen, of course, did. Gav, of course, did not. It was interesting explaining to the soccer coaches tonight why Owen had multicolored chicken pox.

Big kid

It seems like all of the sudden, Gav grew out of his car seat within the past two weeks. Buckling him in with his coat on was becoming near impossible and his movement was very constrained. (Think the kid in A Christmas Story who is so bundled up he can't get off the ground to get the idea.)

Friday night I took him to pick out his new booster seat and we really lucked out. The one we wanted was on clearance so we were able to buy two for the price of one. We swapped Owen's old one for the car seat in David's car and put the two new ones in the van so as to eliminate any sibling bickering over why they are different.

Gav tried out his new seat today and loved it just in case the big smile doesn't give it away. He's certainly becoming a big kid lately. I don't even know the last time he had an accident in his big boy pants. Yesterday was his buddy Kamari's birthday party and it took Gav only a few minutes to warm up to all of the strangers, then he was off to chase balloons and jump in the Spiderman bounce house. While I love his new independence, it makes me a little sappy to know he's getting so big.