Our week in review~

The summer count down has begun. 10 and 1/2 more days of school. YIPPEE!! It's the count down that is helping me finish this school year strong. :))

Here is a peek at some of the cell phone pictures and the moments I captured this past week...

Getting some dippin dots for my boy.

Last Friday our middle son and I attended Math and Science day at Kings Island with his other classmates. It was a rainy rainy day and we were soaked by the end. However, all the rides we wanted to do were 'walk on.' He had a blast.

Date night for our oldest and his girlfriend~

 Hubs and I dropped our oldest and his girlfriend off for a little date night dinner Saturday night and then we drove just down the street to eat our dinner with our 2 other boys (girlie was with Nana/Papaw) while we waited on the 'come pick us up' text.

The front of the card we bought for my Mom/Nana.

Mother's Day was a fun day and when Nana opened her card it sang, "What a Wonderful World." Nana said it was sad. (in a good way) We had a really nice day.

My favorite cell phone capture this week. Love.

 Girlie has had a sore throat that turned into a wet cough. I wasn't sure if she had allergies or bronchitis... I scheduled an appointment with the best Doctor we know and found out she does have allergies. :( However, she thought it was super ticklish to have daddy feel her lymph nodes.

Hershey likes our new welcome mat at the front door.

 One of my favorite memories from this week :: Tuesday, after girlie went to the Dr. I stopped by the greenhouse 'to cheer her up.' We picked out our flats of flowers and had 2 hours to get them in the ground before we had to get the brothers from school and such. The 2 littles planted and planted working the hardest I've ever seen. They planted all the beds while I planted the flower boxes and containers. I love it and I've told them every day since! :)) (I've got gardeners!!! The mister said at one point, "I like planting...I was born to plant.")

Have I ever told you sunshine rolls are my favorite???

Making water balloons.

 When girlie stayed home from school earlier in the week (for allergies) I got a renewed glimpse of what our summer will look like; these two keep me on my toes.

New sunnies for me!

Hubs is afraid my new sunnies are going to cause me to get pulled over more frequently for speeding. (I did get another ticket this week. SIGH.)

 Another fish that didn't make it; girlies. Miss wanted to send it off to the sewer.

Late night play time after I had asked the mister to get in his jammies. The bed time at our house is creeping later and later with the sun staying up longer and longer.

Girlie heading in last night after her game; they lost by one.

And another week filled with softball, baseball and lacrosse. We've been triple booked most nights and some nights quadruple. Lacrosse ends this coming Monday so that should help a lot.

Have a great weekend.

xoxo,

Happy Mother's Day, 2013

Mother's Day. It started 16 years ago with the birth of our firstborn for me.  Being a mother is my favorite. 

Today:

Made with love by first grade girlie at school~

 I woke early with the sun in my eyes, the first one up, and I shuffled to get coffee. As I entered the basement I realized I wasn't the first up as my 2 youngest boys sat on the couch with Good Luck Charlie playing on the t.v. With my coffee in hand I joined them on the couch and I told them, Happy Mother's Day. They told me the same :)) and after a few minutes the phone rang. It was my girl who had spent the night at Nana and Papaw's.
Me: Hello?
Girlie: HAPPY MOTHER'S DAY!!!
Me: Aww. Thanks, sweetie.
Girlie: Go look in my school bag...right now...
Me: Ok...I LOVE it!!
Girlie: Giggles~

Proud boy with his present wrapped for Nana

It was my mister that gave me fits today. He didn't want to wear anything fancy or even semi dressed up for church and lunch out with Nana. For Mother's Day?? Nope. He wasn't even going to do it for Mother's Day. So I let him wear his outfit of choice; jeans and a hoodie with Mickey Mouse on it with the understanding that he couldn't wear the hoodie on his head all day! He only put it up once to walk in to church. Then, about 5 minutes into the sermon buddy boy fell fast asleep. I understood then why he had such a hard time getting dressed that morning.

My mom. I love her.

After the church service we had just enough time to run into the grocery store. Hubs and the boys really wanted to get flowers for me. Girlie wanted to buy me chocolates. We also needed bread, eggs, milk and peanut butter. We hurried home passing Nana and Papaw on the way heading to lunch. (they called and said we were heading the wrong way! Ha.) Hubs our oldest and I unloaded the groceries while the three littles stayed in the car and we met Mom and Dad for lunch 5 min. late. It was a scrumptious buffet! We gave Nana her gifts and the biggest hit was the gift our eleven year old picked out for her; flashcards for the current slang. To keep her hip. ;)

For reals. I laughed until I cried as I read through the stack.

After lunch we took a little walk down to the water at my request for a group shot. Just as we were getting ready to say, "cheese" a girl that looked to be about eleven threw a giant rock in the water to the side of us. Funny.

Our oldest is pretty special.

Our oldest asked to have his picture taken with me next for his Instagram. :)) I love Instagram and I love our oldest so not a problem.

It's pretty special being a momma. I'm so thankful to have these children for this time.

To end the day our oldest watched the kids as hubs and I went to see The Great Gatsby. It was soooo good. So good. Hubs even liked it and he wasn't sure he would.

Hope you had a lovely day.

xoxo,

10 on 10, May 2013

It's the tenth of the month already. Time is not slowing down! Three more weeks and school is out!!

Today's set of pictures taken over ten hours capturing this day and the beauty in moments ::
a link up

Sitting down to morning emails and coffee. I spy a little happy paper flower 

someone left by my seat.

 Cereal for everyone kind of morning.

(I asked the 5 year old mister if he'd like Cheerios, Special K or granola. 

Granola he confidently replied, paused and then asked, what's granola??)

Hello, Hershey peeking at me from the window as I walk by.

 My mister happily bounding up Nana's steps. 

It's an alone day two days in a row for the mister with his Nana.

(I'm missing him...the last few weeks of school are full full full.)

 Late drop off. (I let the school kids sleep in.)

Fifteen more school days and our biggest boy will be a junior. Sigh.

***

After the school drop off our 

  5th grader and I headed to a 

 (WET) Kings Island theme park day for math and science day.

 Ready to find a sweat shirt to purchase for coldie cold cold Captain America. (I don't know why I didn't pack one for him.)

Buddy boy and I just finished riding the Diamondback; he mentioned it had the longest drop of all the rides in the park (250 foot drop?!!) after we were buckled into the ride.

 A little cinnabon snack to take for the road.

Good bye cold wet day. It was sooo fun. Every ride was a walk on. Perfect for an eleven year old boy and his friends. :))


Happy 10th and Happy Mother's Day weekend!

xoxo,

Quality time.

At the dinner table; Friday.

Last Friday evening after I dropped our middle (11 year old)

 son off for baseball practice I sat and watched awhile.

Just me and one other dad in the stands with the coach leading the boys in stretches.

I sat awhile for the first time all day it felt when hubs texted to see if we could 'trade places;'

he was home with the youngest two.

I headed home and as hubs walked out the door he told the littlest 2 if they picked weeds

 while he was gone he would pay them a dollar.

They picked and picked for nearly the entire hour their daddy was gone.

The mister came in once saying he "couldn't take it anymore." I didn't say a thing. 

He stood and thought at the front door and said aloud, "okay. I'll head back out..."

 (In what hubs and I refer to as his 'Eeyore' voice.)

Upon returning home hubs gave the kids each 2 dollars for their 'hard work.'

They earned it.

Yesterday, the mister had a hand full of money in his hands as he came upstairs to my side,
the money he earned from pulling weeds combined with the money Nana had paid him for walking 

Beau while she and Papaw were out of town recently.

"Wanna go to pitt-puttering with me, mom? I'll pay..."

How could I say no??

On the drive the mister sat quietly in the back seat 

and after a bit said to me, "I just love spending quality time with you."

xoxo,

Softball girlie, wish you had been there.

Girlies first softball game (of her life.) I was holding my breath all spring as she went to practice each week. Her throwing looked promising. The batting, not bad. She can catch a ball and after a couple of practices her coaches decided first or third base was the best position for her... 

Heading to the field in her uniform after dressing in the car.

 Late Saturday afternoon after traveling north for her oldest brothers lacrosse game and then having to leave just a few minutes into the second game to make it to her game on time (brother dressed varsity for the first time.) we hurried home to get on a make shift outfit as coach had texted the day before saying the uniforms weren't in on time. We headed to the fields just minutes away and as we pulled up the girls on the field were dressed much different than girlie. I asked if she wanted to go home for an outfit change and she agreed only after realizing she wouldn't be late. I had our middle son run down to his room to grab a white short sleeved under armour shirt as I went to grab a pair of bright green under armour shorts I had just bought for her youngest brother. Girlie was satisfied with her look and we hurried back to the fields only to be met with her coach handing her a uniform for the game with instructions to go change into it. (the uniforms came in time after all.) Girlie was excited and as she entered the playing field coach yelled, "what's your number?" She looked at me and I yelled back, "seven." I sent her off with a, "have a good game and went to the bleachers as I watched for Nana to come and the two youngest boys played soccer in the grass behind the field.

Heading to the car with soccer loving brother after the game.

Hubs and I were texting the entire game as he wasn't able to leave our oldest sons game until just about the end of girlies: [she] scored. Hit a nice one to third...She's playing third catching balls right and left getting people out! Three up three down! She struck out. Swung at everything... I even sent him a video of her last time up to bat. She hit it to third base with the pitchers helper stepping out of the pitchers box to stop it and then the ball was over thrown to first. Girlie was safe and grinned. She has a lot of energy out on the field; something I wasn't really expecting to see.

They won. 14-13 and the first thing she asked her daddy when he came in the garage door, "why weren't you at my game?!?" They talked about it and girlie watched the short videos I had taken. She can't wait for her next game and said, "I'm playing softball again next year!"

xoxo,

Crystal Cove, Laguna Beach

It's Thursday and time for a little instagram tradition #tbt (throw back Thursday) for the blog. I'm only going back three weeks to when we were in California for spring break. We had a beach day because really you can't go to California and not go to the beach! Before we left I had in my mind what I had remembered the CA beaches to be like from my time in San Diego when I was 19.  I couldn't wait to show the kids how different the beaches are from the ones they have been to on the East Coast, in the gulf or in Florida. I researched the beaches that weren't too far from our resort at Disneyland and decided on the state park; Crystal Cove.

Our beach day fell in the middle of the week. We slept in a bit as we had been up late the night before and were ready to head out close to lunch time. We drove the long (scenic) way around to the beach first to stop and eat lunch at a little seafood restaurant. (my favorite place we ate all week!)

[As we entered the little restaurant to put our name in I was holding the mister. He held his head close to my neck and didn't really look around much. I could tell he was uncomfortable. As we went back outside to wait on our table the mister placed himself on the bench furthest from the entrance and stated, "We're NOT eating here... it smells like fish."While he pouted I went across the street to get a picture of the adorable beach town restaurant.]

Hello my family...why do you look at me like I'm a crazy tourist taking your picture?!?

We didn't have to wait long at all and really any length of time would have been fine as the food was delicious!! To start we all ordered a bowl of clam chowder. The waitress tried to talk a few of us into sharing because it's a lot of soup. Hubs and I looked at each other and then I assured her we would do fine with 6 bowls; we love clam chowder. It's a red broth she went on to say. That didn't scare us. ;) We practically licked the bowls clean...ha.

After lunch we walked across the street and to the end of the pier to see a little bit of surfing at Newport Beach.

 We saw the surfer get up once as we watched for awhile. The beach was really crowded and the kids were eager to play. I assured them they would enjoy the beach we were heading to. We walked back to the car and off we drove  about 12 minutes to Crystal Cove State Park where we practically had the beach to ourselves. It was/is so beautiful!! We hiked down to the ocean:

 Can you believe how beautiful this is?? I asked our oldest as we walked. Hubs and our littlest were in the lead walking at a fast pace to get to the ocean. The trails were a bit winding and then once we got to the last cliff there were about 50 or so dirt/rock steps to walk down.

 Then we were at the ocean. The little ones were the 2 that braved the cold water the most slowly walking in to about their knees as we walked. We walked about a 1/2 a mile or so until we found 'our spot.' Sand castles were made, rocks found and skipped across the ocean, we watched dolphins jumping and boats going by. We stayed until just before sun down. The kids had so much fun and wished we had made more time for the beach.

Spring Break :: Crystal Cove Beach 2013

xoxo,

Our week in review~

This week looking back at it through the eye of my cell phone and the moments captured~

 Friday evening we were quadruple booked; baseball practice for our 11 year old, 

softball for girlie, a full OR schedule for hubs and a lacrosse game a little over 2 hours away 

for our oldest.... It was one of the evenings I wasn't sure how everything would work out.

 (and Nana/Papaw were out of town.) In the end as it was a super cold/rainy eve 

practice was cancelled for our middle two, hubs got done early and we were all able

 to take a little road trip to cheer on our oldest to a lacrosse victory. 

(girlie is concerned the entire lacrosse games for her brothers safety; 

she doesn't like the checking at ALL.)

 We came home Friday night just after midnight and then had to head back 

north again for game number 2 for lacrosse early Saturday morning.

 After his win and while we waited on him to finish watching 

the varsity play we ate Five Guys. Yum!!

 Sunday picture of my sweeties before church~

Tuesday morning the kitchen and garage hall needed a good wash after the dust/dirt

 was tracked in from baseball/softball the night before.

Wednesday eve was the swim team call out meeting. This will be our middle son and girlies third year to swim. The mister says he wants to swim too. He makes the cut off for his age however, he has to be able to swim the length of the pool by May 20th... He has a lot of work to do!

5th grade class picture before the jogging began~

Thursday was spent going around and around the track at school for the all school Jog-a-Thon.
 (pre-k through 8th grade)
The littlest mister and I went to the track and walked/jogged with each class; 1st and 5th.
For the last 2 hours of the school day I took the mister to the Children's Museum
before we had to do the after school pick up.

 Freckled nosed sweeties on a super windy day at the track!

 And today it's cold wet and rainy. Again.

Happy Spring;

Happy Friday!!

xoxo,