Grandma, Mom & Boys Special Day

Last weekend, Luke went on the men's retreat with our church.

Luke had 2 days of hard core fishing and I had two hard core days with boys. We wanted to go golfing at the country club but they had some "Jayhawk" fundraiser and the golf course was closed. Therefore, we had to "settle" for miniature golfing with grandma. We went golfing after we had lunch with Auntie Al at Buffalo Wild Wings for lunch-YUM!

The boys and grandma played 18 holes of golf in less than one hour.

Really.......the boys were having fun, contrary to their expressions in this picture.

Ben and Grandma

After golfing we went to Freddy's for some frozen custard.

We had a good time. Thanks Grandma Sue for hanging out with us!

1st Grade Zoo Field Trip

Ben had a field trip to the zoo the Monday after his birthday. All of us were so TIRED that following Monday after the football game. Ben and myself actually fell asleep on the bus ride to the zoo. Here is a picture of my angel, you can almost see the halo! LOL I must say the April 26th was the coldest day we have had in weeks. It was windy (what do you expect in Kansas) and COLD but we survived.
I only had one boy in my group. He was a great kid.

This must have been the end of the day because they actually sat down for more than 10 seconds!

The grizzly bear was funny. He straddled that rock and it was "bed."

The kids had a "mini workshop" at the windiest point at the zoo.

This picture cracks me up.....The boys were so "grossed-out" because it looked like the chimp was eating poop. I tried to explain they were treats but they didn't believe me!

We ended the day at the petting zoo. Here are some other kiddos from Ben's class.

Monday's are the day to go to the zoo because it wasn't busy at all.

Next Friday I go with Jacobs class and am gearing up for the PURE craziness! Can the school assign leashes!?!

jacob's on two wheels & more

Monday night Jacob learned to ride his bike without the training wheels. I wasn't home to see this huge accomplishment. Therefore, Tuesday morning at 5:00 AM Jacob came into our room. He crawled in bed but couldn't go back to sleep. He kept telling me he had to show me how he could ride a bike before he went to school. I told him I would watch him while we were waiting for the bus.

Finally, the busy little guy, who kept tossing and turning and stealing the covers asked if he could get up. I must have said yes because he was dressed, had his shoes on, teeth brushed, hair combed and bed made by 5:30 AM. He watched cartoons and then came into the bedroom holding a piece of paper with the numbers 551. Jacob said "MOM, we're going to be late, here are the numbers on the clock." Yes, you guessed it, 5:51 AM. I gave up sleeping and got dressed. By 6:15 AM we were out front.......he was riding his bike and I was running next to him. I was so proud of him!

Here is Jacob heading to the driveway.

Jacob strutting his new skill!

He has caught on really quickly.

Now, I wish we lived in a culdisac without a ton of traffic and teenage drivers!

Ben's 7th Birthday

Saturday was Ben's 7th Birthday!

Rather than a friend birthday party he chose to watch the K-State spring football game in

Manhappiness AKA Manhattan!

Grandma and Grandpa McVay and Autie Al went with us!Our 2010 Family Portrait
Ben invited his friend Trev. Here are the three of them in smiles!

Playing football in the parking lot before it got crowded.

Jake blowing up a capri sun pouch so he could put it on the ground and stomp it!

Ben and Trev

Ben with his cake...Nothing says first grader like missing front teeth!

It was only appropriate to have a wildcat cake for his birthday.

The basketball players were signing autographs at 4:30.

This was the boys "patiently" waiting...AKA BORED!
We never got autographs even after standing in line for 1.5 hours.

But, we did get our picture with Willie Wildcat!

We didn't get autographs but I did get some pictures.

Above is Jacob Pullen.

As mom and I gave up waiting in line because they were "closing the line" in 5 minutes and were 15 feet back, we saw Coach Frank Martin. I did his autograph for the boys. My mom was so "giddy" she forgot to take our picture....

It is ok mom I forgive you for not taking my picture, he was pretty handsome!

I would have lost concentration too-ha, ha!

Above is Josh Freeman (Tampa Bay), Jordy Nelson (Green Bay Packers) and other miscellaneous players. They dedicated the spring game to a Dylan Meier who passed away last week from a hiking incident. Numerous players wore his jersey in memory of him.

It was very touching.
The boys saw Jordy Nelson and went NUTS.....They kept yelling his name until he looked up and waved at us! The boys were on FIRE after that!

Ben, Trev and Jacob looking at the band and NOT the cheerleaders.

I am glad to know the hormones haven't kicked in and that girls are still YUCKY!

At half time they allowed the kids on the field for a "shoe run." They put all the shoes in a bag and whoever found their shoes, put them on and ran back first won an autographed football from Bill Snyder.

There were two age groups, 5 and under and 6 and older.

Ben and Trev waiting for their age group to go.

The bad thing was I had just tightened Ben's shoes (laces) and he was the very LAST one to come back in his age group. He was on the big screen with the help of Willie and some others cheering him on! That was 2nd time Ben was on the big screen but of course he made a silly face not realizing it was playing on the big monitors. Can I say ALL BOY!?!

Josh Freeman signing autographs.

We left early and started packing up. About that time a car drove by with some of the football players with Meier's jerseys. The windows were tinted in the back so I couldn't see who was in the back seat. Regardless, they handed us 9 of the purple bracelets that is shown above. I thanked them and Luke realized in the back seat was Ian Campbell. I yelled WAIT and they stopped. I asked Ian if he would mind posing in a picture with Ben since it was his birthday. He got out and was very gracious. I offered all of them in the car birthday cake but they declined. I don't think cake goes with beer, but still they were very polite.

The kid driving the car didn't tell us his name but I saw his picture in the paper the next day and it was Russ Vanover. He went to school in our town a few years ago. I don't think we lived here when he went to school here. Not 100% sure.

Otherwise, it was a great day. Lots of fun and memories!

Ben's In Love.....

This spring we had beautiful blooms in the front of our house....It was gorgeous. But little did we know there was Momma Rabbit and her babies living in the foliage below the purple tree.

Under all of those beautiful lilac colored flowers there were 6 or 7 babies growing, tucked in underneath all of that foliage.

Some up close pictures, too hard not to post.

All of this leads to Ben's new love.......Not a girl of course because they are still "yucky." But this cute little bunny has Ben's heart.....The bunnies are growing more and more each day and getting harder to catch.

Please note the foliage doesn't look this good anymore as two little boys have destroyed while on "bunny hunts."

Jacob with some candy ring in his mouth......nice..........but still he got to hold a bunny!

This picture shows how little they still are compared to Luke's hand.

What sweet little bunnies......I think I like bunnies better than snakes and other insects the boys like to keep.

Luke's Garden

It has been 7 YEARS since Luke has had a garden. Finally, this year we decided the boys were old enough that we could devote some time to gardening.

Our soil is like clay so Luke has been doing a lot of prep work getting the soil ready.

He has cut the cable tv/internet a few times (I think the boys moved the flags....imagine) but thank goodness he is very "handy" and knows how to "splice" things back together.

Luke is an AWESOME gardener...He really is a "country boy" at heart and I am super excited that he is able to start his hobby again. Luke planted sweet corn and he is standing by his newly planted row of corn seeds.

Our family will also enjoy the benefits of fresh veggies as we are trying to eat healthier.

I think it is a win-win situation!

Calling it a day

I just posted my "Easter" post, or so I thought............I went to "view blog" and it wasn't there. Then I panicked and wondered if Luke was signed in on the computer. If that was the case my post was on his "Team Liberia 2010" blog.

Oh yes, sure enough, there it was on Team Liberia's Blog. I quickly hit delete and 30 minutes of work vanished into cyber space. So, I think I will call it day and go spend some time with Luke. :)

Isabel

We had a special visit today......

Jacqie, Danny and ISABEL came to see us for lunch....

Grandpa was GLOWING!

Isabel cleaning the table (aka squirting water) on the table.

Jumping on the trampoline with Jacob

More jumping with Jacob

my favorite

We had fun! Thanks for coming to visit!

Consistency

Blogging....I started a blog in order to keep track of the things my kids did that I didn't want to forget when they were older & me too for that matter! It was easy in the beginning, kind of like journaling in some cyber-space way. But really, where does the time go? I can't believe I haven't blogged in a month!

We had a speaker at church this week that said "time fly's when you aren't paying attention." WOW! She is right. It made me think I need to be more mindful of my time and how I spend it. Blogging isn't a high priority but I will try to be more consistent over the next few months, even if I only post once a week.

I must confess I have been out of the facebook-blog loop for a few weeks now... I did it for a few different reasons but I needed a break. Sometimes you see other blogs that demonstrate how creative they are, how motivated they are to exercise, cook, fix good food for their families, read books, their funny, etc., etc. It started getting me down and rather than a sense of joy of catching up with my friends (thru cyber-space) I was getting jealous (coveting-yes) and then started being super critical of myself and negative about my circumstances. But a recent Bible study on friendship addressed the very thing I was feeling. No one is perfect and I am not either. I was reminded I needed to be gentle with myself as I am a child of God.

Somehow I took great comfort in that as I lay in the rocking chair, with an icepack over my face and a nose 2 times bigger than it should have been and a plastic "nose splint" sutchered in my nose! My nose/sinuses feel a lot better now and I am happy to say I feel better than I have a few weeks. My body reminds me if I have done too much or haven't gotten enough sleep. I am taking some good supplements and hope they help in the long run.

According to Paul Harvey, "You now have the whole story." (or something like that)....

Jacob's Happy Plate

Tonight during dinner Jacob didn't want to eat what we were having. This is a very common occurrence from Jacob. It drives me CRAZY because I can't relate to picky eaters for a number of reasons. What is even more frustrating is he will eat the same dinner one day and not the next.

Here was what happened at our dinner table;

Jacob: cry, cry, scream, scream, "I don't want that."
Luke: Did silly things to get him to eat.
Ben: Had two plates full and was done before Jacob had eaten 4 bites.
Me: "Jacob you're going to get hungry because there won't be a snack if you don't eat."
Jacob: cry, cry, scream, scream and offered some excuse why he couldn't take responsibility for his actions.
Me: Frustration building over food and blaming someone else for him not liking supper (another petpieve-spelling?).
Luke: Figured out how to get Jacob to eat among the complaining.
Jacob: "Look mom! A happy plate."
Me: "Good job Jacob"
Jacob: "My plate may be happy but I'm not!"

He can be so cranky and turn around and say the cutest things. It is hard to stay mad too long.

More Spring Break

Yes, Spring Break was about a month ago, but here are some more pictures!

We got to visit the boys' old babysitter, Diane, for a few hours on Wednesday. Avery LOVES Ben and Jacob and the boys think she is pretty special too. They even watched Dora the Explorer because that is what she wanted to watch before nap time!

Here they are looking like "angels!" Ha! Thursday (I think), we met Auntie Al in Wichita for some fun! We started off at Red Beans Bayou Grill with a side of fried pickles! Jacob didn't know what he was missing out on!

Auntie Al and Ben

Me and Auntie Al! I love having a step-sister! It is even better that she loves my boys!

Next stop was All Sports for some miniature golfing!
Jacob played all 18 holes and I was impressed. I thought I would have to play for him by the 9th hole.

Auntie Al, Jacob and Ben "patiently" waiting for the people in front of us! NOT!

After All Sports we went to Freddy's Frozen Custard for some good treats! Then on the way home this is what I saw in the rear-view mirror.

Ben asleep

Jake Asleep