The Artist

One of O's favorite school experiences this year was "the art unit". Every year, the director of our preschool spends several weeks at the end of the year teaching the pre-K students about art. They talk about what art is, learn about specific artists, and try out many different styles and media. The in-depth art adventure culminates with a trip to the local art museum and the grand opening of their own art gallery in the school gym. I remember this unit well from 2 years ago when C learned that "We are all Artists." I knew C enjoyed it, so I was interested to see what O would think.

In general, O does not love art. Or writing. Or working particularly hard. All year, we have gotten the feedback that O is very bright, but just does the bare minimum on his assignments so he can get back to playing with his friends. And what he produces is generally simplistic. As his teacher said at his final conference, "He does exactly what is asked of him, and nothing more." So I was anticipating that this art unit might be a little torturous for him. Boy, was I wrong!

Each day O came home bursting with information about the artist & style they had studied that day. Unlike C, who told me cryptic bits and pieces that I didn't really understand, O reported the names of the artists and styles with ease. And his teachers kept commenting on how hard he was working on all his art projects.

After the trip to the museum, O reported, "My favorite piece was the Chihuly. And the mobiles and stabiles by Alexander Calder. But we didn't get to see the Mondrian, because that gallery was closed. But we did see some Jackson Pollack!"

Me: (!!!) "What's a Chihuly?"

O: "Mom, don't you know? Chihuly is an artist who makes things out of glass. And it looked like a giant floating tree but it was really made of glass."

Nope. I didn't know that. I've never even heard of Chihuly. I love that O is teaching me things!

The next day, his art gallery opened, and O was thrilled that Hubby was able to join us for the exhibition. O took his responsibilities as our "docent" very seriously and led us around the room explaining all of the works. Just a sampling of some of the display (which included line art, shape composition, color composition, artistic interpretation, pop art, photo montage, abstract expressionism, kinetic art, and quilting). I think it's quite a collection for 5 years olds!

Looks like we'll have to plan a trip to the art museum this summer, so O can teach us even more about art!

For the Birds

A few weeks ago, I took down one of the hanging pots on our porch and was very surprised to find this inside...

The boys were so excited to see the nest, and since I noticed that the Mommy bird seemed to be tending to it regularly, we were optimistic that some of the eggs might actually hatch. We took the pot down every few days to take a quick peek and soon saw our first hatchling!

And over the next few days, all the eggs hatched. We discovered that newly hatched birds are kind of funny looking without their feathers!

My mom said that baby birds are "all mouths" and she was right. Can't you just imagine him wailing "I'm hungry!!"

Mommy bird is doing a good job feeding them, because they sure are growing. We've been careful to only peek at the nest for a couple seconds every few days, and we never touch the birds, to make sure we don't scare her away.

They're so cute sleeping all huddled up together...and now they really look like birds! Feathers and all! I wonder how soon the nest will be empty because the birds will have grown up enough to fly away.

My mom suggested keeping the nest as a souvenir after the birds have abandoned it. At first I thought that was a great idea, until I realized how much baby birds poop. You can barely even see the nest now. It just looks like the birds are sleeping in a poop circle. Gross.

But those birds sure are cute!

Phew!

End of the school year craziness is definitely in full swing around here! This month between C & O, there are 3 field trips, a play, an art gallery presentation, final conferences, soccer, TBall, swimming and piano lessons. Not to mention all the scrambling I am doing to figure out what they are going to do this summer. Add to that Hubby traveling to Europe during school vacation and one of the boys bringing lice home from school (A parenting rite of passage that I definitely could have lived without!), Baby A finally being on the verge of walking, and I feel like I've just been swept up by a whirlwind!  I know this month will fly by, and then I'll have to wrap my head around having a second grader, a kindergartener, and a toddler. 

Phew!

But life is good.

Springtime Splendor!

I've been so thrilled with how our adventure with bulbs is turning out. First the crocuses appeared and now we have beautiful daffodils and tulips! Definitely a success! I had no idea that some of the tulips would be hot pink. I love them! Can't wait to plant even more next fall!

And then I made a Super Mario Cake.

O's birthday always sneaks up on me. It's only 6 weeks after C's birthday and that seems like a lot of time but it really isn't. So some years I just don't have a lot of creative fire when it comes to his cake. It doesn't help that most years he requests the same cake that C had. This year was no different. "I want the same cake as C had, Mom!" O said. "But with a Mario face instead of a Luigi face because Mario is MY favorite."

That would have been easy enough to do since I already figured out a method for the Luigi cake a few weeks ago. But this year I was determined to make O something special and unique.  I wanted to try to create a Super Mario scene.  But how to do it?

Luckily I was able to find a few mini figures on Amazon to help me flesh it out. (Hooray for 2 day Prime shipping since I only thought to order them a few days beforehand!) I made my typical two round cakes, but split one in half and stacked it to make the backdrop for the scene. Then I added icing for bushes, clouds, coins, and to cover an oreo cookie pipe.

The results?  A grumpy baby who was upset over being ignored, a very sore back from hunching over the cake for hours, and this....

I was a little worried that O wouldn't like it since it wasn't the Mario face he asked for, but thank goodness, he thought it was awesome!

Please take your own advice!

Yesterday, O came home from school in a very whiny mood. Everything was a problem. It took too long for me to make his sandwich, I didn't put it on the right plate, it wasn't fair that I was making him a sandwich in the first place because he only wanted to eat cookies, etc, etc, etc.  I knew he just needed a rest, so I said he could lie down on the couch and watch TV for a bit once he'd finished his lunch. I just asked him to drink some of his milk first. But apparently that was just too much to ask, because for the next few minutes he lay on the floor sobbing and screaming over and over:

"But Mom! It's not fair! DRINKING ISN'T ANY PART OF FUN!!!"

That's right, son. Make sure you remember that when you're in college!

My Funny Valentine

A few days before Valentine's Day, C came home from school brimming with excitement.

C: "Mom! Wait until you see what I made! It's a special Valentine's Day surprise!"
Me: "Oh. Well, maybe I shouldn't look at it until Valentine's Day then?"
C: "No, no, you can look at it now. Look what I made in school today!"

C pulled a beautiful handmade card out of his backpack. As he handed it to me, I could already tell that it was a masterpiece! The front of the card was filled with heart shaped stickers, glitter, and other festive decorations. C had clearly put a lot of effort into this one! I looked down at the card and saw "Dear Mom" at the top. "Awwww..." I thought, "Look at this beautiful Valentine's Day card C made me! And he's so excited about it, he just can't wait to give it to me!" I noticed that he had scribbled over the 'Dear Mom' with pink highlighter. "That must be for emphasis," I thought, "He was even trying to decorate the words themselves because he loves me so much!"

And then I kept reading...

The next few lines read "Dear Ms. T, Happy Valentines Day! You are so nice! I love you! C"

Wait...What?????

Me: "C? Is this card for your teacher?!"
C: "Yes! Do you think she'll like it? I really hope she likes it!!"
Me: "Well, it's beautiful, so I'm sure she'll love it....But why does it say 'Dear Mom' on the top?"
C: "Oh yeah...well, I started making a card for you. But then Liam said he was going to make a card for Ms. T. And I thought that was a great idea because I REALLY love Ms. T! So I crossed out the 'Dear Mom' and made it for Ms. T instead!"

Oh.......

C: "And then I brought it home so she wouldn't see it before Valentine's Day. It's going to be a surprise! Do you really think she'll like it, Mom?! Don't let me forget to take it to school on Valentine's Day!"
Me: "It's really special C! I think Ms T. really will love it!" I put a big smile on my face and gave C a big hug. "I'm so happy you like your teacher so much!"

But I couldn't help being a little sad inside. I would have treasured that card and probably kept it in C's memory box for years. Ms. T probably gets so many cards from students, that it wouldn't really be special to her. Hubby must have sensed my dismay because he said to C, "C, I think that's a beautiful card that you made for Ms. T. But you know what you have to do? You need to make a card that's just as nice for Mommy for Valentine's Day. Because you love her too, right?" C replied matter of factly, "Well, I would Dad. But I can't. Because I don't have any of those cool stickers. That stuff was just for at school."

Oh well.

I dutifully saved the extra special card on the kitchen counter, and on Valentine's Day I put it in C's school folder so he could bring it back to Ms T.  When he came home from school, I asked, "Did Ms. T like your card?" C beamed and said, "Mom, she said it was so nice! And then she gave me a big hug! I think she really liked it!"

Well done, Ms. T. She really is a great teacher, and I am happy that C loves her so much.

I just wish I'd thought to make a copy of the card before C took it back to school. It's not every day your name gets scribbled off the front of a love note from your child. I think I'll remember that card...the one that was almost mine...for a long time.

Let's Get Away!

As I mentioned in my previous post, we had a wonderful vacation in Florida last month. It was so nice for all of us to spend a week together. Since Hubby works long hours during the week, and I work on the weekends, "family days" (as we call the days where everyone is home), don't happen as often as we'd like. So to spend a long stretch of time together as a whole family was really great. We spent the first part of our vacation visiting my inlaws and the second part at Disney World!

The boys had a wonderful time checking out the ocean...

...and the new Red Sox spring training stadium...

...meeting some characters...

 

 ...enjoying the fireworks...

...riding the rides (Toy Story Mania was C & O's favorite)...

...and, in the case of Baby A, plenty of snoozing...although the rest of us can't say the same!

Yup, it was exhausting! But, we can't wait to go back again!

Luigi Cake

A few weeks ago C turned 7. The boys are currently obsessed with Wii and Super Mario Games, so it was no surprise that C requested a "Luigi" cake. Due to his food allergies, I can't just order him a beautiful bakery cake.  So I am always trying to figure out how to accommodate the theme he requests into my very basic homemade cakes. I think the best cake I've ever made was probably the Chick Hicks cake I made for C when he was 5. I set the bar too high with that one though, because now I never feel like I quite live up to that cake! When C requested a Luigi cake, he was imagining a vertical cake carved in the shape of Luigi. But since we had just returned from a great trip to Florida the night before, I was exhausted. I could only really work on the cake while baby A was sleeping, which was when I also wanted to be sleeping. I knew there was no way I'd have the mental sharpness to figure out how to make a full body Luigi cake. Especially not a vertical one! So instead, I looked online for pictures of Luigi, and when I found a satisfactory 2D image, I printed it out, enlarged it, cut out just the face, and used that as a template. After using a toothpick to trace the outline on the cake, to make sure the overall shape was right, I freehanded the rest of the face with icing. It didn't come out quite how I was envisioning, but C said "Wow, Mom! That looks just like Luigi! I thought you were going to make a whole Luigi, but the face is just perfect!"

That's good enough for me!

Hubby insists that there must always be an extra candle on the cake ("One for good luck!").

Now to figure out what to do for the Mario cake O requested for his birthday....

First Grade Poetry

C has been working on a poetry unit in school. On his report card a few weeks ago, his teacher commented that C "wrote a beautiful poem about snow." I had no idea what she was talking about, but it all made sense when he came home with this today.

He informed me that "'Soaking flakes on the grownd' is my poetic name for snow."

Grownup Display

When Hubby and I got engaged in 2001, my future mother-in-law insisted that we register for fancy china. "You'll want to have it for when you host Christmas!" she said. That seemed so far down the road, and I would have put off registering for that sort of thing, being fairly un-fancy by nature. But she insisted that Hubby's relatives wanted to give us nice dishes, so we finally settled on a pretty white and light green Wedgwood set. I still remember the excitement of checking our wedding registry, seeing what had been purchased, and then waiting for the boxes to arrive in the mail. We got so much mail back then! I don't think we've ever received so many packages since. We were well on our way to having fancy dishware for life.

There was just one flaw in the plan.  When we got married, I was just starting my first job, Hubby was still a student, and we lived in a tiny apartment. We had barely any counter space, only a handful of cabinets, and no room for anything. There was barely space for our regular plates, never mind fancy china. So we took a couple of place settings to use on our anniversary, and the rest of the gifts stayed boxed up in my in-laws storage room, waiting for us to have enough room for them. Since that first apartment, we've lived in 3 other apartments, but none of them had the room for our fancy dishware. So my in-laws have been storing our wonderful gifts for 10 years!

This house finally has a dining room, and space for our fancy dishes. But there was still a problem...over the years, we had never acquired any dining room furniture! Luckily, my in-laws decided they wanted to get us a dining room set as a housewarming present. It took several outings before we finally settled on a set, but it was finally delivered last week. My father-in-law delivered all of our wedding boxes several months ago, and they have been sitting in our garage since then. So it felt great to finally open up all the boxes and display all of the china that family and friends so lovingly gave us 10 years ago! It was also a fun trip down memory lane, as I found many handwritten cards tucked in with the gifts. It feels great to finally have all our things in our home! And I'm sure my in-laws are happy to have their storage space back. I really like how the room is coming together! My mother-in-law was right, now I am grateful to have all these lovely pieces.

Looking at the finished product, I remarked to Hubby, "Now that we have a china cabinet, I really feel like we are grownups!" And he agreed.

Not sure why the three kids didn't get the same point across!

Spring has Sprung!

We've really been enjoying the unseasonably warm weather so far this year. This week it's been feeling more like summer than the early days of spring. Amazingly enough, despite my total lack of gardening know-how, we are seeing some flowers in the front yard. It was thrilling to see the very first bloom--our first gardening success in our new home! I immediately took this picture and sent it to my mom! She always told me that I would get excited about gardening when it was for my own yard, and I guess she was right.

Our very first crocus!

It's been even more fun to see more crocuses popping up every where. The boys love counting up the number of flowers we have so far--I think we're up to 52 crocuses!--and they can't wait to see if we'll have similar success with the tulips and daffodils we planted in the fall.

We've also noticed that there are some new leaves popping up in places where we didn't plant anything. It will be interesting to see what those turn out to be. Hopefully a beautiful parting gift from the previous owners of this house.

No longer "brand new!"

Baby A turned one. Two months ago.

I know. I can't believe it either. My sidebar is so out of date.

I also can't believe I didn't blog about it. Maybe I am in denial. In a lot of ways, he still feels brand new to me. After all, he's still nursing, and still waking up at night wanting to hang out with me.

But in other ways, he's clearly been around a while. He crawls away the moment my attention is diverted for a second, especially straight up the stairs. He's obsessed with his "Dada". When Hubby gets home from work, I might as well disappear. A close second to "Dada" is Backyardigans.

Yes, Baby A has a favorite show. That's what happens when you're the 3rd child. Your mom is much more likely to let you watch TV. After all, TV means she can sit down with a cup of coffee or change a load of laundry. I sort of feel guilty about that. But I also sort of don't.

Hopefully he's not too worse for wear. 

Baby A would rather pose with the Backyardigans than with me!

It's been too long...

OK. Clearly I stink at blogging. I keep meaning to sit down and write, but never seem to get around to it. I really wish I had documented more of the last year. It's been amazing and exhausting, funny and frustrating to have 3 boys, but life just never seems to sit still enough for me to really reflect on it. Yesterday, when C brought up April Fools Day, I realized that I still remember vividly the funny little things I blogged about in the past, like when he played a confusing April Fools joke on me when he was 5.  He's 7 now... 

There are so many other things I've forgotten. So many things about which I thought "I've got to write that down!" but then didn't. Now I have no idea what those things were. I'm so glad I documented our April Fools exchange because it still makes me chuckle. And I'm sure I would have forgotten it otherwise.

How is it possible that I have a 7 year old anyway? Has that much time really passed since C came into my life? When I was 7, I met one of my friends for life. She was the new girl in my girl scout troop, and the first time she came over to my house to play, we couldn't figure out what to do. We ended up tossing a stuffed bunny back and forth for most of the time. I'm not sure why she wanted to come over again after that less than stellar entertainment, but that was only the first of many playdates, sleepovers, and vacations together. We called ourselves "The JJs" since we both shared the same initial and would scribble stuff like "JJs forever" in notes to each other. I was sure then that we would be friends forever, and 25+ years later, it looks like we're off to a good start. She has 3 girls now. I like the symmetry in that. I think "Auntie J" was the only one of my friends rooting for Baby A to be a boy, so she must like it too! Who knew that day when I was 7 would be the start of something so meaningful?

I wonder if C will be lucky enough to make a friend like that this year. Big stuff is happening right around me every day. I'm just not sure which of the everyday occurrences will end up being the big stuff. So here's hoping I can make more time to sit down to write and reflect on our regular old life, and get a snapshot of what really matters.

Girl Traps

Much of Parents' Night at O's preschool focused on social interactions and group dynamics. O's teachers commented that this year, his pre-K class seems to be unusually focused on boys vs girls games, a phenomenon that they are trying to gently diffuse. Apparently O is right in the thick of the boys group. This was interesting news to Hubby and I because last year O played mostly with the girls, disliking the boys' favorite superhero/villain activities. O's teacher pointed out, "Well, now he's matured and caught up to the rest of the boys." Every day stories come home about how today they played "Bad Guys" or "Catch the Girls." Frankly I wouldn't have minded if he stayed a little immature for longer! But I couldn't help but laugh at this conversation on the way home from school last week.

O: "Mom, guess what I'm going to do at school tomorrow!"

Me: "What?"

O: "I'm going to build Girl Traps!"

Me: "Girl Traps? What's a Girl Trap?"

O: "Well, I'm going to build a cage, and then make some pretend pretty wooden bows! And then when the girls come to take the pretty bows then they'll get trapped in the cage! HA HA HA HA HA!"

Me: "Oh....Well why do you want to do that?"

O: "Because they're girls!! But don't worry Mom. It's just pretend!"

Me: "Hmmm...well, I think the girls might be too smart to get caught in your trap."

O: "No, Mom. They like bows! They'll think the pretend wooden bows are real bows. Because they'll be pretty! And sparkly! And then they'll get caught in the cage!"

(thoughtful pause...)

O: "But maybe you're right, Mom! I know! I'll put a sign on the cage that says "Boys Trap!" That will trick them, because it's really a trap for girls! HA HA HA HA!"

Sigh... Who knew my middle child was such an evil genius? Or that preK girls were so into hair accessories?

We've been BOO-ed!

After years of apartment and townhouse living, I am really loving having our own home. One of the things I am looking forward to the most is finally amassing a collection of decorations for the all the different holidays that the kids enjoy. We didn't have too much for Halloween this season, but luckily the kids were happy to create some handmade decorations for me!

I love the look of our front door now! A closeup of one of the windows will reveal another reason we are loving our new home...

That's right! We've been BOO-ed! Earlier this week, the doorbell rang and the kids were confused to find that no one was there. They soon discovered that a mysterious bag full of candy and Halloween trinkets had been left on our doorstep. A letter of explanation explained that we had been BOO-ed! Our mission, should we choose to accept it...to post the BOO sign on our door, and to BOO two houses that have not yet been BOO-ed.   So off to the store we went to pick up some treats for our version of the BOO bags. The next night the boys couldn't wait for it to get dark enough to head out and BOO some neighbors. They spent the day practicing how they would run away after they rang the doorbell. The stomping feet and giggles that spilled into the house when they came back were sure signs of a mission accomplished! I love living on a street where people BOO each other. I hope this is only the start of the boys growing up with a real sense of community!

Ramona is still a pest!

Even though I have a kindle and rarely buy paper books anymore, I still love perusing the piles of books at Costco. It gives me ideas of what to download on my kindle, and I can always pick up great gifts there too. I also love seeing what children's books they have, and last week, I hit the jackpot! I found "The World of Beverly Cleary", a collection of 15 books, for only $25!!!

I was an avid reader growing up, and Beverly Cleary's books were some of my favorites. C reads well on his own, and O has just started reading, so I thought now might be a great time to pick up these books. I had a vision of sitting down with the boys and slowly working our way through this collection of books a chapter a night. But, there was a small wrench in the works... They're boys! Would they be as taken with Ramona and Beezus as I had been as a young girl? I think I would have put the collection back if it had only contained the Ramona series, but luckily it also included 3 Henry Huggins books and 3 Ralph the Mouse books, and I figured the boys might at least like those. And what a steal! How could I pass up that price?!

Turns out it would have been a huge mistake to put back the Ramona books. When we came home, the boys were eager to start reading. Hooray! The big propaganda speech that I gave them on the drive home (about how these were some of my favorite books when I was a kid and I was so excited to finally get to share them with my boys) clearly paid off.  I had planned to start with "Henry Huggins" but "Beezus and Ramona" was the first book in the box, so C wanted to start with that one.  So I took a deep breath and dove in.

And they loved it! After the first chapter was finished, they begged for another, and then another, and I ended up reading until my voice was hoarse. Both boys were taken with Ramona and how naughty she could be. They also seemed to really understand how Beezus was torn between loving her sister and finding her just so annoying, because I am sure they feel the same way about each other at times. I was amazed how quickly the stories came back to me as I was reading. I began to remember exactly what would happen as we continued on, eagerly anticipating how Ramona would eat just one bite out of all the apples and how she would bake her doll in Beezus's birthday cake.  We finished "Beezus and Ramona" in two nights and immediately the boys began begging for "Ramona the Pest." While they enjoy reading, usually they are begging for TV and videogames, so begging to read a book in the afternoon was quite a nice surprise.

It's been great to rediscover these stories with them, and amazing that they are still so relatable 50 years after they were written. Hours of reading, snuggles, and a whole new generation discovering Ramona. Not bad for $25!

Challenge accepted!

C seems to be settling into his new school nicely. He really likes his teacher and I'm starting to hear the names of certain classmates over and over, so hopefully he's making some new friends too. He was so excited that the first graders finally started to have homework last week, which included 8 spelling words, a reading log, and a couple of pages of simple addition and subtraction. Last Friday, he had his first "spelling challenge" and was thrilled with his results.

:-)

All Thumbs

My mom is a great gardener.

I am not.

Every time my mom visits, she brings me a plant. Which is almost always dead the next time she visits. Did I forget to water it? Water it too much? Not enough sun? Too much sun? Who knows? I definitely do not have the magic touch when it comes to plants. My mom always takes the pathetic specimens back home and usually manages to revive them. It's amazing!

So, plants and I have a questionable history. But now that we finally have our own house, I'm hoping to improve. I've managed to keep the hanging plants that the previous owners left behind alive for these last few weeks, although that probably says more about the hardiness of those plants than it does about any improvement in my gardening skills. But, ever hopeful that I will get the knack for gardening, my mom came over this weekend and brought along some chrysanthemums and bulbs to plant in our new front yard. After digging a couple of holes, O lost interest pretty quickly, but C was quite into the whole project and kept announcing "I Love Gardening!!"  Hopefully he'll get the green thumb that seems to have skipped my generation! For now, I'm really enjoying the new additions to our front walk. Hopefully they'll still be alive next week!

And we all can't wait to see if any of those crocuses, tulips, and daffodils come up in the spring! If one afternoon of planting really leads to a spring full of blooms, I might be able to get into this gardening thing. As long as I have C to help me!

47 Tall

O: "Mom, I can't wait to be 47!"

Me: "Why do you want to be 47?"

O: "Because I want to be tall!"

Me: "But you'll be tall before you're 47. "

O: "Yeah, but 47 is a lot of tall. I want to be 47 tall."

Me: "OK."

O: "Wait, how old are you Mom?"

Me: "34. Why?"

O: "Wow! 34 and you are already tall. Mom, you're going to be really tall when you are 47!"