4 Miles

Last week I found a pair of bright green rain boots on clearance in Will's next size (they're a bit too big right now). I've been keeping an eye out for boots for the boys, and the fact that they're green made them even better. Both boys have been wearing their snow boots outside when it's muddy, and Will's boots are really starting to get too small.  After we got home, he put them on and went out to play on his motorcycle. Then he came back in, asking for his bike helmet.  Now, he's a policeman when he wears them.

Last Tuesday was 80s Night for our MOPS group. Here's me getting my hair teased, since I needed help! (In my defense, I was too young for most of the big hair time, by the time I was in high school it was the early 90s, and while I was in Texas, home of the big hair, I had short hair. And yes, I am wearing the vest James work in RD&S's wedding, it seemed kind of 80-ish, or the most I had in the house. 

As I mentioned in the last post, Will's Spring Break started last week. So we've been finding different "crafts" or activities to do. Last week we pulled out the paints–a VERY special treat because Mommy doesn't want to deal with the clean-up/supervising of Alex.  Here are a few pictures of that fun time:

The middle picture is a self-portrait of Will. It's him with spiky hair.  Alex had a great time with his water colors and actually made some nice abstracts.  

Saturday and Sunday we had the warm weather we've been waiting for! (I heard one of the weather people say we'd already had 2 days in the 80s by this time last year!)  We hit the 60s and spent a lot of time outside.  On Saturday, James had help from the boys while he laid some bricks by our gate. You can see they were great help. I spent the time preparing for my Monday class.

Sunday they were going to help me pick up all the sticks we've had fall off the various trees in the past few months. The boys got smart and decided pretty quickly they'd rather play then help me. So we were outside while daddy watched the race.

Monday we had our trip up to Grandma's house and they played outside all afternoon while I did labs and taught. We hit 70 that day! I had to smile at the students in shorts.  The boys were excited to wear T-shirts and Alex pointed out (quite happily) "No coat!" when I was putting him in the car to go. Will was sad the next morning when he went outside and realized it was cool again! Typical spring weather, we're changing several times each day!   

Yesterday I attempted to make my own yogurt. Again. I've tried this various times over the last 3-4 years with dubious results. Once again I had really runny results, but it worked well for smoothies. So we made berry smoothies for our 3:00 snack yesterday. Or "Milkshakes" as the boys called them. Alex enjoyed his more than Will (probably because it wasn't as sweet as a real milkshake). When his straw got blocked by a berry he started to cry "Milkshake broken!"

Today we made sidewalk paint and painted the deck (and anything that was on the deck). The boys enjoyed making their car "beautiful".

I left the next picture big so you could see a true artist at work–or at least one who's not afraid to get into his craft and to really show the world his work.

Well, we’re trying to get back into the swing of things. Last week was MY spring break…this week we had the hour drive up to school on Monday again. The boys did fine. I felt I only did ok. The goal is to do much better next week, though I’m a bit overwhelmed with the amount of material I’m supposed to cover (again). I used to spend NINE WEEKS on the Animal kingdom when I taught High School. Now I get to cover this in one hour! Yikes!

We got back and Tuesday Alex started getting sick. Yesterday he actually fell asleep in my lap–if you know Alex at all you know that means he was SICK. He actually was acting fine, it was like his batteries just died. I was holding him and suddenly I realized he was leaning against me and out. Today he hasn’t acted as tired but his nose is running worse and we keep working on him to blow it. His eyes have started to water and he told me “Blow eyes” as he used the kleenex to wipe them.

Will’s spring break starts tomorrow (yes, on a Friday…yes, that annoys me. It seems the local schools got tired of people leaving early on Friday for vacation, so they just give Friday off too…and that really bugs me) and his break goes on all next week. Today I already started to hear “What are we going today, Mommy? Will you play with me?” We did arts and crafts and made a mess. Alex’s sickness (and me not feeling to great either) are preventing me from really planning some fun activites. We shall see.

So, that’s our exciting update…not much happening. It remains a cool, rainy spring here so we’re trying to avoid cabin fever as well…and hoping warm weather will come soon!